144 – The Instance: The Gold Business Is Booming!

One Million Chinese Gold Farmers Can’t Be Wrong
The Virtual Economy Research Network posted a groundbreaking report today, citing research into the business of gold farming and selling in China to show that at least 400,000 people are gainfully employed by the practice of gold farming and trading/selling, and that the number could be as high as 500,000 to one million. They estimated 60,000 unique brokers of gold in China – and we need to note that this includes brokers who are working on all MMOs, not just WoW – raking in an income in the billions of dollars. So that sounds a little shaky.

There’s A Party In My Convention Center, And Everybody’s Coming
Tickets to this year’s BlizzCon gaming convention, being held on August 21 and 22 in Anaheim, California, will go on sale worldwide on Saturday, May 16 for $125 each, with a second block of tickets going on sale Saturday, May 30. For those unable to attend, DIRECTV will once again be televising BlizzCon in high definition as a Pay Per View event, featuring coverage from the show floor, exclusive interviews, demos, and more. In addition, for the first time, players around the world will be able to watch the DIRECTV BlizzCon event as a Pay Per View Internet stream. Check out the press release for further details, and head over to the main Blizzcon website on May 16 or May 30 to buy your tickets.

That’s One Big Chicken!
As always, MMO Champion dug deeply into the PTR files for WoW for things that aren’t yet in the game, and believe that they have found the in-game rewards coming from Upper Deck in their next expansion, which is almost two months away! They appear to be:


 * Magic Rooster Egg – Summons and dismisses a rideable Magic Rooster. No, seriously. This is a very fast mount.
 * Ogre Pinata – Places a candy-filled Ogre Pinata.
 * Path of Cenarius – Right Click to leave flowers in your wake.

Town Cryer
JPeter M. writes: I have recently stopped playing WoW, and am really disapointed, I just got my first level 32, and I just stopped, I didn’t see the point of playing, and had run out of reasons to continue. I just need some reasons and encouragement, if WoW is the addictive game that people say it cant be extremely hard ><, but it is for me, I just cant get into it, I’ve lost my will to level

This Kid Is Freaking Me Out
When Children’s Week came so quickly on the heels of the expanded Noblegarden, we were like everyone else: groping around for a resource that would give us some help completing the achievements associated with the event. Did you know that Wowhead has achievements lists in their database? They do, and we’ve got the link right to the Children’s Week achievements, which allows you to click on each and read the comments that help you complete them quickly, and even join in the discussion.