There are many sites and blogs about that talk about making money in WoW. There are even some that sell you the ““secrets” for doing that. Most, if not all, talk about reaching gold cap, somewhere around 214.000 gold pieces. That is an insane amount of money for WoW. Does anyone actually need that?

Quick answer is no. WoW has no big costs. A full raid where you die twice will result in a repair bill of about 30 to 50 gold. Daily wear will MAYBE cost you 5 to 10 gold in repair. Flasks, potions, food, maybe 200g for a raid lockout period, and that is if you buy most of it and are not simply making them yourself or having a friend craft them from mats you gather. I’ll even add a staple few gems and enchants needed for new gear you got from raiding, say 500 to 1.000 gold. That is a total cost of 765 to 1.320g per week for an active diligent raider.

Say that is even doubled and go for 3.000 gold, that means that a player must make 429g per day to break even. That is a totally achievable figure by anyone, since most of that will come from the dailies. Doing 20 of them will get you about 300-350 gold and the rest comes almost on its own by various daily activities; heroics, reputation farming, auctioning stuff you find while doing the previous. Most of my friends make a minimum of 1.000 gold per day and none of them has any problem making money, slowly but steadily. It all depends on goals.

Some want to make money to buy the big mounts like traveler’s mammoth or the mekgineer’s chopper. Most just want to get by, have a safe cushion for when they need gems, enchants and repairs. Some, admittedly few, never have enough gold, their gear is almost always missing some gems and/or enchants and they keep on whining about the high cost of repairs. All of them talk about the cold cap, all of them are in awe of people who reached it, but none of them are actively trying to boost their income by using the many information readily available. In the end, all of them have a good time playing and complaining about their gold is only a passing thought, a momentary hiccup in their enjoyment. None of them actually need the gold cap.

The gold cap is just a self imposed achievement, in that WoW doesn’t give you something for reaching it. It is just an ego booster, a goal one sets for himself, an announcement that you are good at your craft. I’m making about 15k a week, nowhere near the figure of a good auctioneer or harvester (or even a skinning bot), but I have reached all my goals, bought all the stuff I wanted and the gold just keeps climbing. Eventually I will reach the gold cap, simply because my income exceeds my expenses. Is that something worthy of admiration? Or is reaching the gold cap only admired when you actively pursuit it and reach it quick enough? What is the allure of the gold cap? Capitalism?