First off... LMAO @ that link. I still remember, to this day, hand sampling that iron. Good times.
Ok, now onto the "business." I agree. The resource business is going to be the best way to make cash. But, and this is a huge but, there are some fundamental problems/concerns that I can see.
First off, it is not going to be the same as in SWG. We are not going to be able to drop harvs, walk away, and come back in a week to millions of credits. Basically, it is going to be hand sampling the resources. I'm sure most of you allready realize this, I just wanted to point it out to those that have no experiance in WoW yet (DUH... Scudd allready said this, my bad). Here is where my "evil" side (aka my over annalytical, number crunching side) kicks in. I did like, and think it will be a good way to approach things in WoW, the fact that we had a front man, i.e. Scudd, and he set up all the orders and we all went out to gather the mats. Overall in SWG, we had a great system going.
There are 3 major gathering professions in WoW (as I see it): Mining, skinning, and herbalism. I think you can count fishing too, but I don't, as it doesn't count towards your 2 professions and I don't see it being highly in demand. So, here is one dilemma: Do we all pick the same thing and try to maximize our output of one resource? Or, do we diversify and try to gather all 3 types and sell to all types of buyers?
If we choose to concentrate on one type, I'd say that mining mats would be the most widely in demand resources. They are used in blacksmithing and in engineering. I think engineering would be the higher demand of the 2, as there are quite a few limited use items in engineering. So, if we do go out to find buyers, I say that engineers are top on the list. Also, it seems that many of the good mining spots are in caves, which tend to have little nasties running around in them. That would make having a mining group a huge plus. We would be able to help kill stuff very quickly as a group and then get back to our mining. So, will we be better off concentrating on mining, or are we ok if we split our man power and have a few people in the various 3 professions?
There seems to be a wide consensus on a few of the forums I've been reading that skinning will also be a huge money maker. This works very much in the same way as it did in SWG: Find some animal to kill that has the type of leather you want, then kill it and skin it.
I also think that herbalism MAY BE a high demand skill. From what I've heard, finding some of the high end herbs is very hard. I think herbalism will be a low supply/high demand skill, so the potential profit margin will be huge per unit sold, but will be be able to sell enough units to make it worth while?
As far as Laz... I like Laz. I think he's a very honest, inteligent, and over all cool guy. With that said, and after talking to him about WoW a couple times, here is the one problem i see as far as selling to him goes... Will he be in our guild? I have talked to him a couple times, and it seems clear that he will be playing with 6 or so of his friends in WoW. I tossed around the idea of him joining up with us, since we are pretty good friends allready, and he seemed open to the idea. I trust his judgement in friends, so I can also see his buddies joining up with us if they so choose (obviously after we get to know them and come to like them, but that's what I mean by the fact that I trust Laz's judgement... I think the type of guys he hangs out with will fit in with the way we play, etc.). Now, IF he does decide to hook up with us, and ends up being in our guild, what do we do then? Do we continue to sell to him as we did before, or does the "I can't sell to you, you're family" aspect of the game that we've always had come into play? I guess we'll crosss that bridge when we get there.
Ok, so now that I went through that entire thought process, I then thought of something that made it all a moot issue...
Do we REALLY need money in WoW?
In SWG, money was a huge part of the game. Everything that was good in the game was usually player made, and thus, we had to buy it. In WoW, player made items are "to fill the gap" until you get that great loot item, per the Dev's description. The biggest money sink I can see in the game is buying your spells, etc. The only other constant money sink I can think of is transportation, i.e. the tram, gryphon rides, etc. Other than that, I don't see a huge need for money in the game.
I think that if we have a good diverse group of crafters in the guild, and a diverse group of gatherers as well, we will be very well off as far as aquiring player made items. In the end, all the good armor, weapons, etc. are going to be loot items, most probably from the raid quests/dungeons. This will mean that the demand for player made items will be low, thus effecting the demand for mats. Also, there will be no "best weaponsmith/armorsmith on the server" type crafters either (i.e. Thoax, Cadain). So, as long as we have a leathercrafter that has leveled up to the top, for example, and we can gather the mats that he/she needs, then we can have them make the best possible leather armor that is player craftable.
I plan on making my 1st character a Warlock, with enchanting as one of my professions. The way I'm thinking now, I'd like to have the 2nd profession be a gathering type. This will fit in with my vission of gathering being more important early on that it will be later on in the game. I'll then make a warrior that is an engineer and probably a blacksmith. We'll see.
SOOOOOOOO... Wrapping everything up... I think that we should concentrate on gathering mats and selling them early on in the game to make money to get us through the levels up to 60. Later on in the game, gathering skills will not be as in demand, and thus will not produce as much money. That's ok, because I also think that later in the game, the need for huge ammounts of money will also be lower. I think that we should have at least one type of every profession in the guild by the time the whole gathering "fad" dies down, so that we can support ourselves effectively.
That's the way I see things as of now. I'm always open to other opinions, so my views may change by the time the game is released, but as for now I think that's the best way to go.
"Selling Bowcasters, $20k!" [COG]