Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Beggars in WoW

If you have ever played WoW, you know that there are beggars. They send you whispers, yell near the bank, and generally just cause annoyance.

Begging comes in many forms, but the most common ones are money and boosting. "Can I haz a gold plx? :)" and "Can u run me threw SFK pls thx?" are probably familiar to anyone who has played this game for any amount of time.

There are usually two specific kinds of beggars.

1) The True Noob: This is the player who is actually new to the game. They have joined a game that has gone on for several years and perhaps they dont have any friends to help or give them advice. These players just don't know how to get what they need and may resort to begging. The saying "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will never be hungry again" comes to mind here. You can give them gold if you want, but I think it is better to teach them a way to make money. I could be telling them to pick up mining or herbalism. Both of those can make you a nice chunk of change while they are still making money and XP from quests.

Perhaps you tell them about Auctioneer. Some new players are not even aware of the auction house. Giving them a little bit of knowledge can go a long way towards not letting them slip into the second group of people which is......

2) Professional Con Artists: This is what they do for money. They beg on a low level alt and may even have a nice story as to why they need the gold. You are not helping anybody but them by giving them money. Helping the Noob will make the community a better place. Helping the Con Artist will make him think that begging is a good idea. He or she will continue to beg until it doesnt work anymore. They are usually the ones seen hanging out around the bank or auction house in each major city yelling for gold or a boost. Do yourself a favor and ignore them. If you offer to teach them, they may respond rudely.

I was sitting in the AH yesterday posting Glyphs and someone was begging for the strangest thing. They were asking for someone to buy them a Mechanopeep. A Mechanopeep is a pet from the Argent Tournament that sells for 800 gold or so these days. Beggars have balls, you have to give them that.

How do you deal with beggars? Do you tell them to eat a bowl of dicks or do you help them out?

13 comments:

Leiandra said...

I generally just ignore them in general chat. If they ask me directly, then I usually just say "no" and move on. While it's fun to make fun of them, there's also a chance that it's a new player. I generally don't care enough to make the distinction.

Arioch said...

I can haz gold plz?

I generally tell people that I only hand out cash or boosts to people that I know - and actually like - in real life.

Most conversations don't get too far after that.

River said...

Beggar: Can I have sume goldz puhleeze?

Me: Haven't you heard about the great way to make money!!!

Beggar: No??!?! Howz??

Me: You leave the city, you find a mob, you kill it, and you get loot, and money. It's totally free....get to it.

Ooke said...

I don't even respond to their tells. Why feed them attention when you know it could bite you in the ass?

what kills me is the time they spend begging could be better spent doing just about anything. From questing to farming it doesn't matter. The ROI for begging cannot be that good. But maybe that's just me as I couldn't see myself wasting that much time.

Shamrockgirl said...

I once had a beggar that came right up to me and started asking for gold in a whisper. after just simply telling her no, she continued to beg and beg and then started insulting me. that was the last time i ever even responded to one. i put her on my ignore list and went on with my day.

Rainmyst said...

Generally I ignore or just say no, but I am liking the bowl of dicks thing & I think I'll give it a try. :)

Anonymous said...

when i was 70 this lvl 17 asked me for a gold and i told him i didn't have any gold to give him. so he open up trade and gave me 70s and said sorry thats all he has lol. so i ran him through stocks to get him a few gold :)

Laika said...

I was chatting with a friend in IF once, and a level 1 whispered me for "One gold, pls".

I responded "DIAF" and went back to my main convo. The level one jumped onto a brazier, and did indeed die, at which point he asked me again for a gold.

I actually laughed, and gave him two gold, and felt I got some entertainment value out of it.

I pretty much never respond to beggars though. Even the nice noobs will put you on their friends list and pester you forever.

Darth Solo said...

I just ignore them. Once I decided to help this noob that was begging for money, by teaching him how to make some money himself.

I told him that I won't be giving him any gold but I will teach him how to make lots of it. So I taught him a lot of stuff, how to level quickly and efficiently, how to get some gathering professions for quick gold, how to use the AH etc.

Oh well, my kindness turned against me. The dude was indeed a noob but he was also a 13-yr old kid who kept pestering me for months to help him with this and that. I even ran him through Scarlet Monastery once and even though he behaved, it's simply too much of a time investment for little return, that it's not worth doing. Yeah, forget the fuzzy feeling. I'm not feeling it.

So these days my new motto is "No good deed goes unpunished".

Ruhtra said...

When I first started playing WoW I would try to explain that I would speak with them but not offer anything to them. We are talking like the first week or so, but not I just simply ignore them. Go on about my business and leave as quickly as I can.

One way I have been able to avoid this is by moving my auctioneers to Silvermoon City. Not a lot of folks go there and I have not encountered any beggars there. You may consider doing that. Pretty much only time I am in any other Horde capital is if I need to exchange honor/tokens for some PVP gear or if there is a raid on the city since I still need a few more kills to finish off that achievement.

Action Bars said...

If they can't type proper sentences or are rude, they get a "no" and the matter is closed. Ignored if they pursue.

I tend to end up running into a lot of truly new people, however, and try to offer them advice, even telling them to Friend me in case of future questions. They need to show a willingness to learn and try things on their own, and not to depend on me. (I get my fair share of people who take no responsibility and expect me to drop everything for them.)

Those few who truly shine and show growth, skill, and independence I may send the rare piece of blue gear as a reward for their hard work.

Saiyuri said...

I know its as bad and annoying as the beggers but i like following them around telling people not to give them gold (i only do it when im bored and have gold to kill)

It often puts me in the mood to type stuff like 'can i haz gold plx' and 'haz to raid want epix' in guild chat though...

Anonymous said...

I had the following exchange a week ago:

RandomGuy: cn i hav 50g plz
RandomGuy: plz i need 50g

(/who RandomGuy shows that he's a lvl 8 gnome mage)

Me: What do you need it for?
RandomGuy: for training plz
RandomGuy: plz
Me: You don't need 50g for level 8 spells. Do some quests :P
RandomGuy: i need armor
Me: What armor?
RandomGuy: [links green robe]
RandomGuy: plz need to by it

(/inspect RandomGuy shows that he's linked the robe he's already wearing)

Me: You already have that.
RandomGuy: no i need weapon
RandomGuy: come on please
Me: What weapon?

(pause)

RandomGuy: [links green 2H sword of the Monkey]
Me: You can't equip 2H swords, and 'of the Monkey' is not good for mages.
RandomGuy: wats ur problem! fag!