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World of Warcraft Gold Limit Reached, It's 2^31
Mitch writes "Blizzard apparently used signed integers for their World of Warcraft gold values as some people have recently hit the limit of 2^31. "Apparently that amount is 214,748 gold, 36 silver, 48 copper. After you reach that lofty sum, you'll no longer be able to receive money from any source in the game. While some responses to the original posts claim that this exact limit had previously been theorized to exist, there have been no reports of anyone in the game actually achieving this amount via legal means." I guess Blizzard didn't expect anyone to ever get close to that much gold in game."
2^31 should be enough for anyone...
Somehow I think only 'News for nerds' apply for this one.
On three level 70s and one level 61, I still have trouble breaking 3,000 gold between them. How does one get that much gold together in the first place?
It could have rolled over :)
if there's nothing to spend it on! That's the reason why the cap was hit, there's no large mansions, yachts, or expensive prostitutes.
Seriously though, since all the beset equipment is earned, not bought (and usually bind on pickup/equip), there's little point in money in WoW in the late game.
Since the money is fiat, i.e. not backed by a fixed standard in the game, have people seen monetary inflation causing price increases in the game, or has the population of players offset any growth in money?
I don't play WoW (played it a few times and have watched some addicts^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hfriends play it), so I'm not familiar with how pricing works.
I would assume, though, that if money growth exceeds population/player growth, prices would tend to rise. Is this the case?
Are there any online games that have a relatively fixed amount of money in the game?
At market value of 1000G for 31$ he can sell that amount for 6657.188$.
http://sparter.com/web/shop.jsp#market=WWU01A&quantity=500
Yahh, hiii haaaaa! -Major Kong, from Dr. Strangelove
To everyone saying "Get a Life": What have you done lately that's worth a shit? This doesn't apply to anyone who didn't say it, by the way. Only those who think they are so special that they can tell others to 'get a life'.
I'll give you a hint of things that aren't worth a shit: Playing video games, playing real life sports, drinking, partying, watching tv, watching sports, upgrading your car, buying new toys, buying a new car, hiking, camping, getting married, having a baby, buying a house, and much more..
In fact, anything that doesn't improve the life of the world in general, you can pretty much put in the 'not worth a shit' category.
That seems harsh at first, but playing WoW is how these people have fun, and everything listed above is how other people have fun. Unless you've donated significant money to charity, donated your time to charity, cured a disease, or otherwise improved the world in general, you have no business acting all high and mighty.
Do I claim to fit in the 'worth a shit' category? Not at all. But I don't go telling others how to have fun, either.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
Reminds me of when I was using a hex editor to "help myseslf" to some extra gold in Civilization I - I remember I could only up my gold to 3000 pieces, that was the Civ Is upper limit. Very off-putting, when you have to leave the game and start the hex editor just to replenish your reserves!
;o)
How short-sighted of Sid
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Programming error or intern. Maybe it's an internal flag that it's time to get the ball rolling on WOW II. But wait, with that much gold, and the current price of it, they could sell it, and actually move OUT of the mom's basement and get a place of their own. ...
Dude, I'm sure he didn't mean to hurt you. Take it easy.
At least it means there won't be a "Who wants to be a millionaire" in WOW.
A signed 32-bit integer can not store 2^31, but 2^31-1, which would be 214,748 gold, 36 silver, 47 copper.
c++;
This isn't the first time a signed integer has been used to store the amount of money a player has (and I suspect it won't be the last, either) - years ago when I played MicroProse's Railroad Tycoon, I found an interesting bug (feature) with the way cash was stored:
For the game, a negative cash made a small bit of sense (overdraft) and so a signed integer was used. If you just bought up >50% of the shares in your railroad company (to ensure that you couldn't be fired), and then ensured that you had lots of expenditure but no income every financial period, you would end each financial period with more negative cash until it eventually overflowed and became positive. Once positive, with lots of income, it refused to overflow back negative.
I found it interesting, that although a positive overflow was checked a negative one wasn't. The assumption must be that the programmer never really expected the limit condition to be met and so only put a cursory check in - checking for a positive overflow to prevent sudden negative cash (in both games) and the problems that could cause the program and game play, but in MicroProse's case, not bothering with the negative overflow as it was an extreme case not expected - the game play was possibly meant to prevent it and I found the 1 in a whatever chance to get it to happen (I was trying to see how negative a rating I could achieve without being "fired").
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet;
A chrysanthemum by any other name would be easier to spell
I am not great with signed integers, but wouldn't it make sense for blizzard to use a 32 bit integer, thus
2 ^ 32 = 4,294,967,296 / 2 = 2,147,483,648 - 1 = 2,147,483,647
It seems like the story and summary are wrong
Probably a programmer not really thinking about it, or didn't really expect the limit to be reached, used "int money;" as opposed to "unsigned int money;".
Thinking back over the code I've written, I've often used "int " (where int is 4 bytes, signed) when I should have really used an "unsigned int " - of the code which is still in use and for which that will be an issue, it'll be about 2037 before the problem really crops up and I'll be retired; as will, I suspect, the code (though the source is available to anyone who is running the code to fix it if they require).
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet;
A chrysanthemum by any other name would be easier to spell
Euh.... get a life?
It used to just annoy me until someone suggested I should actually go take a hike instead of playing games. Not like 'get lost, loser' but actually take a hike. Like that's somehow better for -anyone- if I do. That's when I realized that entertainment is entertainment, no matter what the form. (Assuming it doesn't actively hurt others, of course.) Why should some hiker feel special because he hikes instead of playing video games?
FWIW: I played D&D twice and found both groups to be complete morons. (I know there are non-moron D&D players out there, but I have yet to actually see them play.) I played WoW for about 2 months before I got bored of it. I'm a gamer, but I can't stand to sit in front of the same game for months at a time grinding. The game has to be interesting, not just a time-sink.
I'm just bloody sick of people getting all high and mighty because they don't play games, and then going and sitting in front of the TV and watching Friends or football.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
I'm not sure spending 2400 hours on any one activity can be referred to as "casual"...
Well said, you fat bastard!
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
If you think WoW is better than making babies then you clearly need to get out more.
This guy's the limit!
Warning: Geekish Post Ahead
If you put a lot of emphasis in controlling inflation in your game then you can keep a game going with the ability to bring new players in cold and they have a better chance of staying. Economics of a game needs to have more of a priority than just killing mobs, crafting new items and completing the quest. Here's why.
I've been an avid gamer for a long time and have always found that economics within the game are never up to par with any standard, let alone a true economic standard. While I understand that there would be too much work in maintaining a true economy in many cases, the fact that the developers of each game don't bother to put in enough money sinks to keep the flow of money in game vs. out of game in check is astounding, especially in the case of WoW with n million players.
One exception to this rule is CCP Games "EVE Online". The game is fundamentally an economics simulator in a space setting. While this sounds about as fun as counting grains of sand on a beach on a windy day, don't knock the premise until you try it. The whole game revolves around the flow of money into and out of wallets via new ships, replacement equipment, massive costs for new skills and upkeep costs for space stations etc. CCP even has an economist on staff to give reports on how the game economics is doing.
Again, this sounds like no fun at all, but EVE has been running for over 4 years, is still increasing in population (albeit slowly) and I still did not have trouble getting started in the game and buying new equipment without it being ungodly hard to make the money to buy it. Oh and it's a fun space simulator too.
Blizzard Exec #2: What kind of person would do this?
Blizzard Exec #1: Only one kind... Whoever this person is, he has played world of warcraft nearly ever hour, of every day, for the past year and a half. Gentlemen we are dealing with someone here who has absolutely no life.
What is the War of Worldcraft thing? I've seen it mentioned here a few times, but nobody actually explains what it does.
Is it a book?
In either case, here at Microsoft, we feel standards are important. And we have fun, too. Doug Mahugh, Microsoft
To sum your post up: "Life is only worth more than human excrement if you rather selflessly helped poor and needy people."
Come out of your ivory tower and then do something that is "not bad for most people". That's ususally enough to do your part on making the world a better place. You could also invent a new technology out of pure evil greed for money and still be extremely contributing to society, though.
"Private vices, public benefits" is the keyword here. It doesn't matter if you get filthy rich while really actually improving life for everyone. Filthy rich, greedy, grumpy old bastards can be better to society than the most philantrophic people, because we don't just need people to help people, but also money, knowledge and technology.
I'd rather fear those people that claim to do good for all. They usually end up *forcing* all others to do the same.
clearly you've never played a gnome...
At least they handled overflow right. I'm impressed. If it wrapped around to zero, or went negative, some small number of users would be screaming.
Back in the 1980s, the number of ticker symbols for stocks and funds passed 32767, and for a few days, no new companies could get on the exchanges.
As the good doctor never gets tired of pointing out, the problem with World of Warcraft currency is its artificial manipulation by the Federal Orlock reserve. This is why I support RP in his longshot bid for WoW sysadmin.
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
But...
Playing sports improves your physical endurance.
Working on a car improves your knowledge of mechanics, electronics, etc.
Hiking a new trail every week lets you see new things in the world.
Getting married and having a baby is procreation (do I need to explain how that is useful?).
Going to school and getting a degree means being smarter, richer, better of in all ways. (I know you didn't mention this one, but this is the #1 thing I see people screw over for MMORPGs)
Self-improvement is not worthless to one's self. Sure it's worthless to the world, but you have to balance civic "worth" vs. personal worth. WoW offers almost no chance for self-improvement. While you can argue the social aspect of the game gives you a way of meeting new people or interacting with old friends, it turns out that most people when offered an anonymous mask act like drama queens and morons, so even that aspect is quite limited.
But I'll agree with you that WoW has about the usefulness of watching TV.
----------
Just your ordinary BOFH
http://killertux.org
Ob: None of you guys are parents, are you? I have a 2-year old son, and yeah, kids are expensive, and you lose sleep. but I wouldn't trade him for anything in the world
I will not give in to the terrorists. I will not become fearful.
A. This is not the "first time" the limit has been reached. The article is inaccurate.
B. The reason it's a signed int is so that GMs/Developers can alter Gold amounts and either, not have to worry about setting or INTENTIONALLY set a player's Gold to a negative. If you have negative gold, you cannot gain any (gold effectively disappears, barring log analyzation). Simple logic there.
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
Trouble is, you have to keep the baby afterwards. If you think WOW= No Life, try living with a 3 month old :)
Puts a crimp in ya gaming, let me tell you that.
i know someone who will buy your baby for 214,748 gold
If I fully realized the impact of kids on my life, I would never have had him. I'd cut off my dick with rusty scissors first.
Not kidding, either.
Well yeah, it's illegal for a start...
weirdest thing I ever saw: scientology advertising on slashdot.
I remember the guy that rolled over Defender : Stargate......
That used to be the supreme badge of honor, turning a
coin-op over.
Steve was a total legend at the local 7-11 for being able
to turn games over. I think it had something to do with
his talent for "stringing" machines (tape fishing line to a quarter
and collect credits while someone distracted the clerk)...
Memories.....
music lover since 1969
Now, my precious little spawn, she's important...
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
The former high school football players working at Google. You can be smart, physically fit and well socialized. It just requires more work than the average "lazy jock" or "lazy geek" is willing to put in.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Disclaimer: I cannot stand playing any MMO, WoW included, for any period of time worth the initial investment.
I have a friend who plays WoW. He tends to be the group leader when he participates in raids and instances (no, I also don't know what either of those refer to in the context of WoW, I just know that they involve groups and he leads the groups). Talking to him, I find that he has learned a lot about leadership by playing WoW and, IMO, that knowledge is far more important than physical endurance or seeing new things in the world.
Remember, open source is free as in speech, not free as in bear.
In my day a signed int only went to 2^15, and 2^31 was a signed long.... and you better had a good excuse for using one of those.
46137
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
True, but 2^31-1 is so much cooler. It's prime after all.
It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.
Ah, so evolution is okay as long as it kills God and lets us give in to hedonism without consequences, but it's not okay if becomes the part of the basis of the replacement ethical system, since the whole point of the exercise is to justify epicurean pursuits. Got it.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
StoneCypher is Full of BS