Nasty player cartels rule in World of Warcraft. Those who do not stick to the prices will be banned. What’s behind it?
Blizzard has delivered on many promises with World of Warcraft Dragonflight. One of them was that crafting professions should finally be really useful and important again. That’s exactly what happened, as trade is thriving and many of the best pieces of gear can be crafted by artisans as long as you can source the materials.
But the system also has its downsides. Because where on the one hand the interaction between the players is promoted, others try to make as much profit as possible from the system and eliminate competition with unfair methods.
The Elemental Loop Cartel eliminates competition
While there are a number of useful crafted items, none are as coveted as the Elemental Lariat. This necklace is basically desired by all classes and specializations because it has a very powerful additional effect and the values can be freely determined. It couldn’t be easier to get hold of a strong necklace.
At least in theory. However, the recipe for the Elemental Loop is a very rare drop from some strong, rare enemies from the Elemental Storms. It may take dozens of kills of these enemies to get your hands on the recipe. This in turn means that only a few jewelcrafters per realm are even able to do it.
One of these examples is Schlay from the server Thrall, which we reported on a few days ago. He had opposed the “cartel” on his realm and offered the elemental loop for free or for a self-chosen tip and advertised his services again and again. Although there were many grateful customers and a lot of encouragement, Schlay was first “silenced” – so he could no longer write in the chat. This happens when messages are reported by many others, such as “spam” or “insults.”
The obvious guess: the jewelcrafters, wanting to keep their price of 20,000 gold for production stable, jointly reported Schlay to silence him.
After his sentence expired, Schlay resumed his services and satisfied numerous customers, again promoting his craft. But just a few days later, the account was completely blocked – for a whopping 10 days.
Players report threats and pressure: Schlay is not an isolated case and such cartel structures seem to have formed on most large servers. Many jewelcrafters are in contact with each other and seem to want to keep their prices stable – by any means necessary.
Many report in various posts on the World of Warcraft subreddit that they are being contacted by jewelcrafters after searching the trade channel for an elemental loop maker. When they then state that they have found a cheaper supplier, the “cartel members” are keen to find out the name, and are even prone to threats and insults when the buyers refuse to reveal the name.
For example, Fast-Like-A-Snail tells:
There is a cartel on my EU realm that sets prices for various crafting jobs and if you don’t comply they will warn you and then report you. If you are not part of the cartel then you will be silenced and banned and not allowed to offer things cheaper.
I guess that’s how it is on a lot of realms and that’s something Blizzard should look into. These cartels are no better than the boosting communities they banned.
Account penalties are given too easily: Although Blizzard has repeatedly emphasized in the past that every account penalty is checked by an employee beforehand, there are serious doubts about this statement. Many report that they know exactly how many reports it takes for a chat message to immediately impose a “mild” sanction on that player, such as a ban on speaking in the chat for a few hours.
Others speculate that if an account is blocked, an employee may actually make the final decision, but that it is basically just a few clicks, with allegations not being checked at all. That might not be ill will at all, but simply the pressure of having to deal with a certain number of incidents per hour.
How exactly Blizzard proceeds with the penalties and exams is not known. In recent years, however, there have been repeated complaints about unjustified penalties, which were subsequently withdrawn.
However, it is clear that Blizzard has to change something about this system. The fact that real cartels are formed for crafting professions that “banish” everyone who offers a cheaper price cannot be healthy for the game.
How do you feel about this topic? What should change and how can Blizzard and the players counteract this realistically?