So I've recently started up a new game; Runescape. Now don't be all like Mageshadow, WoW is better than Runescape because I know that. I'm simply playing this game to keep me entertained while Blizzard unlocks/unbans my account, It's something that's a "time passer" ( CoD: Black Ops as well ).
Anyways, Runescape also has an economy ( like every other MMO ) but it also has a thing called The Grand Exchange. This is basically the Auction House equivalent of Runescape, but there is one twisted trick: The company who owns the game controls the prices on items. Me being such a gold guru in World of Warcraft my first thought was " How do I make gold? ". I started looking up forums, threads, blogs and all and what I found of was very interesting.
The players live, eat and sleep by charts. What I mean by this is that the game company who makes Runescape also offers a web-based auction house market watch for free. It gathers information on every single item in-game and then spits out a graph on how the item is doing, if it's selling below cost or if the price for X item is rising. The players go by these charts to make gold, they check them every so often and buy items when they're cheap, and later resell them when their price rise, it's essentially flipping.
This got me thinking, why doesn't World of Warcraft have this? It does. It's called The Undermine Journal, and it's 20x better than what Jagex is running. Why? Not only does the site track the information for every single World of Warcraft item, but you can also track your competition, set up notifications if X item is below X price, it's surpasses what Runescape has ten-fold.
The Undermine Journal is an excellent auction house resource that is very, very under-used in my opinion. I wrote a post on how to set up notifications and other things back in December, the post is still very useful, I'll update it as well by the end of today. Sadly there is no EU Support, but according to the owner of the site, that might be coming soon enough.
Have you guys used The undermine Journal? If so do you like it?
P.S Don't worry about me playing Runescape.. I'm going back to WoW as soon as my account gets restored/unbanned.
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30 comments: on "Putting two and two together"
Anonymous said... February 15, 2011 at 8:33 AM
So, should we ask why you got temp banned?
Seems like this is a running hazard of being a high-end goblin. :(
Tiora said... February 15, 2011 at 8:35 AM
Did I miss a post, why did you get banned, were you hacked, Or were you just making to much gold?
The Lost Meeple said... February 15, 2011 at 8:43 AM
I got hacked and the hacker sold my gold, that got my account a permanent ban. I've got the account back but it's still banned :(
Anonymous said... February 15, 2011 at 8:50 AM
I love your posts Mageshadow but I don't think you know what "literally" means :)
Xsinthis said... February 15, 2011 at 9:16 AM
Wow who ever got to your account first with all the gold must have had a field day lol
Vayaz said... February 15, 2011 at 9:37 AM
Guess that poor hacker got a heart attack when he noticed how much gold there was.
Anonymous said... February 15, 2011 at 9:59 AM
"Hacked"? Really?
How can you be giving gold advice when you're not even doing something as simple as protecting your account with an authenticator?
The Lost Meeple said... February 15, 2011 at 10:04 AM
Getting hacked happens to everyone. I'm a careful person on what sites I visit, I have anti-virus, I have common sense on what I download and such. I ran 3 virus scans before I completely cleaned my hard drive and did a fresh windows 7 install, I still have no idea how they hacked me, I didn't have a virus or keylogger. I've ordered one (authenticator) but from what I've heard they take months for them to actually get to you...
What can I say? I guess one can never be too careful, but like I said I've ordered one, now just waiting for it to come.
Anonymous said... February 15, 2011 at 10:16 AM
I got my authenticator in a few days time for just a few bucks. For a self-proclaimed "gold" guru, it seems really suspicious that you couldn't take even this basic, most rudimentary step.
I would hazard to guess that you are a gold seller and that you got caught. Good luck with getting your account back...
The Lost Meeple said... February 15, 2011 at 10:43 AM
I do not sell gold, I never will and never have. I'm happy getting paid for something that I love doing, blogging, helping others and playing WoW.
I've been playing WoW for three years and I have too many vanity items ( El Pollo Grande, Multiple Achivements, Etc, Etc ) that the risk vs reward for selling gold is almost idiotic, losing everything that I've worked on/for three years for a couple measly bucks? No thank you
Gunmetal said... February 15, 2011 at 10:58 AM
It's EXTREMELY important to use unique passwords across all your internet accounts. It's quite possible that some other account was hacked...email, fb, forums...something with very little security and they used that password to hack your WOW account.
Harold said... February 15, 2011 at 11:09 AM
You guys need to lay off mageshadow. Geeze. He got hacked. It happens. He learned his lesson and is getting an authenticator. lol Everyone relax and continue to enjoy the gold tips.
On a more relevant note... I LOVE the undermine journal. I have notifications set up to let me know when rare items pop up on my server or when commodities drop below a certain price. That coupled with the mobile auction allows me to strike when the proverbial iron is hot!
Geargrinder said... February 15, 2011 at 11:20 AM
Mage, don't know where you live but I live in Canada. I ordered my authenticator on a Saturday (as soon as I retrieved my account after getting hacked) and it arrived via FedEx on Wednesday. If you live in the US you should have it almost instantly. If you're in Europe who knows but probably not months from now.
Gear
The Lost Meeple said... February 15, 2011 at 11:28 AM
That's awesome Gear, I ordered mine on Sat, maybe it'll be here today or tomorrow :D
Anonymous said... February 15, 2011 at 11:45 AM
TUJ is an absolutely amazing resource. IF you are at all serious about making gold, you need to use it. The team just came out with in-game addon as well, which is great. I did notice that the tooltips dont work if you are running TradeSkillMaster and I emailed the TUJ team to let them know. But yeah, I cant say enough good things about TUJ. Fantastic stuff.
PS Everyone needs to quit being a dick about Mage's account being hacked. I know several people who were extremely careful and got hacked. It happens.
Unknown said... February 15, 2011 at 12:12 PM
As a recent victim, (and multi-boxer) I can share how they got me.
One of the computers I use runs from a wireless net card (read: Sprint) and periodically Blizzard freaks because there's no static IP, and they lock my account. (you know the drill...get email-from Blizzard, click link in email, restore account)99 times out of 100, this fixes the problem. But that one time, Blizz-mail arrives at the same time as a Faux-mail, and crap happens.
When I started having this problem, you could by-pass the email system and go directly to Battle.net and fix the f-up. So, of course, they fixed it...now it requires the email link or you get a generic "account not found message" Grrr.
The hacker installed an authenticator, but Blizzard phone support helped me replace it with one powered by Android. And once I had it back, and virus scan finished running. I changed my log in to a brand-new-not-used-for-anything-but-Battle.net email address.
This was enough to safeguard my WoW, but I did get another scare during the process...before I changed my log in, I was receiving GM mails (on the original address notifying me that a restoration had occurred...42 of them (recall that I multi-box), but when I received the confirmation that my battle.net was changed (FROM the hacked @live.com to the virgin email @gmail.com) -- the hackers started deleting mail on my @live account! They also sent to Google for a listing of linked accounts, and that's how I found out that they actually had my @live password.
And that, my friends, is a whole other level of drama.
Markco they can undo such damage quickly when it suits them, and that they haven't is them yanking your chain. Good luck!
(I know I ramble...feel free to edit as needed for clarity.)
Kathroman said... February 15, 2011 at 12:44 PM
Another Canadian here - mine also came in about a week or so.
On topic - The undermine journal sometimes feels more exciting than WoW itself for me, so I'm extremely excited they are back up and running. The other great thing is that they have been added more and more features since the return, like twitter notifications, and an in-game addon that gives you a pricing tooltip.
Amazing resource - keep spreading the word and keep them in business!
Anonymous said... February 15, 2011 at 12:51 PM
iPhone ftw! free authenticator!!
Ambreya the mage said... February 15, 2011 at 2:10 PM
Mage, it sucks that you got hacked. However I'm thrilled to hear that you've ordered an authenticator. Besides the extra security of knowing your account is MUCH safer, you also get the cute Corehound pet! Win on both ends.
That being said, even with an authenticator, there is the slim chance you could still be hacked. Make sure, if you ever start getting d/ced a lot, after your auth is on, to go into battle.net and change ur pw. That's what i do, and after i change it, it seems the constant every 5 min d/cs for an hour, stop for a good 3-5 months before i have to change it again.
I wish you the best of luck with talking with blizzard and getting your account un-permanently banned. From A fellow mage, and avid reader.
*ps the authenticators take at most about a week to get to you*
Anonymous said... February 15, 2011 at 4:31 PM
I don't know why people get so hung up on authenticators. Having one does NOT mean that you won't get hacked. I've been playing WoW with no authenticator for five years, never had a problem. Yet I've known people WITH authenticators, that got hacked. Don't just automatically buy into marketing hype and act demeaning towards people that don't have them.
Unknown said... February 15, 2011 at 4:35 PM
have you made any money on runescape? lol
bags99 said... February 15, 2011 at 4:49 PM
No iPhone/iPod hey Magey. That sucks.
Must make listening to the JMTCcast a pain. Shame the boys too busy to get a CTA goin on, got a long trip today :(
When you started talking about Runescape thought this was just gonna be a joke post. You can still call 'Gotcha'.
Has anyone else noticed increase in email spam activity. I'm sometimes getting several "Battle.net Account Verification" emails a day.
I was gonna add an authenticator after Randy got hacked (considering my son also got hit - Internet café), but guess this might just do it for me.
Anonymous said... February 15, 2011 at 5:33 PM
Authenticators greatly reduce your chances of being hacked. I think poor Mageshadow's experience here should serve as a fair warning to any other big players who put themselves out there on the World Wide Web as a successful AH entrepreneur. It's like a big red bullseye for hackers.
Anonymous said... February 15, 2011 at 6:38 PM
Funny how someone always knows "someone with an authenticator" who has been hacked. Usually your roomate's cousin's brother's nephew. No hype to the authenticator, stop being a conspiracy theorist.
Yes you can have your account compromised with an authenticator, but the chances are extremely low due to the only way to accomplish it would be a "man in the middle" attack with a 30 second window to be online and ready to login at the exact same moment you are.
But, I do agree with the remark about being demeaning to those who don't have them. Some people choose not to and shouldn't be forced to have one if they don't want it.
Geckomayhem said... February 15, 2011 at 6:39 PM
I love the Undermine Journal. I only just discovered it the other day and started checking it out. I haven't looked into the notifications that it offers, but I will be sure to read your post, Mageshadow!
I've only just scratched the surface, but it is neat to see my own bank toon's name popping up as a top seller sometimes, haha (well, top poster for an item; not necessarily a top seller, *sadface*).
Bangkok Bill said... February 15, 2011 at 6:46 PM
Hey Mage,
Really sorry to hear that you still don't have access to your account. Hope you get it back ASAP and can put this all behind you.
As you know I got hacked yesterday and I decided to post my experience at my blog today. Could you read it and tell me what was different for you?
Anonymous said... February 15, 2011 at 11:36 PM
I guess it'll be off topic from all the other comments, but the pricing on runescape isn't totally controlled by jagex. The items change on supply and demand like all other games, however the players can't set exact prices.
This was how players started groups where they would buy up mass amounts of an item to create a false demand, which would increase prices so they could sell the item later.
Scallywwagg said... February 16, 2011 at 2:31 AM
I know they replace items, sometimes twice, but do the replace your missing gold once you get your account back?
Eli said... February 16, 2011 at 1:13 PM
In 6 years of playing WoW, I've NEVER had to change my password. Ever. Having an authenticator helps, but it's not the end all beat all to not get hacked. Surf/email smarter. Hope you get it all sorted out and back in action soon.
Anonymous said... February 17, 2011 at 8:14 PM
Mageshadow maybe it was Marco :D, perhaps you use the same login information for this forum as you do for warcraft lol. But seriously having operated guild forums before I know first hand it's very common for people to use the same password for multiple sites. Most people even have the same password for their email account making it all too easy to change the wow password and delete the notification emails.
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