Virtual Worlds, Real Profits

When it comes to Warcraft gold, not all servers are created equal. In a detailed study of pricing trends on World of Warcraft servers, GamerPrice.com found a huge differential between the price of gold on game servers in the United States and those in Europe. The study, which was compiled by GamerPrice staff and students from the University of Sheffield, showed the gold on servers in Europe costs just 12% of an equivalent amount on American servers. In its analysis, gamer price suggested that the results “indicate a phenomenal bias on behalf of blizzard towards their American clients.”

The average price for 1,000 gold on US realms was $255, while the same 1,000 gold pieces could be had for about $32 in European realms. GamerPrice examines several possible reasons for this huge discrepancy, including the likelihood that US servers experience greater demand for gold and U.S. gamers have more disposable income. While these factors could certainly explain some of the price differential, GamerPrice believes that they don’t address the huge difference found in the study:

The cost involved in producing (farming) gold on Europe must simply be lower than the cost involved in producing the same gold on World of Warcraft USA. What this means is that Blizzard is policing its American realms far, far more rigorously than it is policing its European realms. The figures are so very different, that they suggest an extreme imbalance, even extreme negligence on behalf of Blizzard Europe. This suggests that in America, it’s actually harder for a farmer to produce gold than it naturally would be, because of an active and ongoing purge of these accounts, and indicating rigid standards, and good policing.

GamerPrice conducted its survey in “early 2007,” and provides server-by-server comparisons of the US and European realms. It’s one of a growing number of providers tracking trends in the game gold market. See the MMO RMT directory for a listing of services providing WoW gold pricing information.