The upcoming expansion Warlords of Draenor casts its shadow over World of Warcraft: Soon there will be only one auction house per server. Horde and Alliance will have access to the same pool of items, resources, and shenanigans.
End of Apartheid in Azeroth
The auction houses in World of Warcraft serve players as an anonymous marketplace for their goods; as a showcase during the evening stroll, showing what is available to buy; and as an indispensable self-service and second-hand exchange for twinks that could use a little more oomph. But until now, there has been a clear segregation, an apartheid, in Azeroth: the Alliance shops here, the Horde there. This is set to change: probably already in the pre-patch, there will be only one auction house per server.
Blizzard announced in a brief statement that this feature is coming. It is primarily intended to help underpopulated factions and ensure that they have access to items and crafting supplies.
Relief for Underpopulated Realms
Until now, it has been difficult to participate in trading on so-called “tilted” servers, where one faction dominated too strongly, or on “ghost” servers, which are overall sparsely populated. Crafting materials or resources that were deemed too “valuable” to discard piled up in the bank slots. On the other hand, it was not possible to equip oneself through the auction house, as many players prefer.
The previously “neutral” auction house, operated by a gang of goblins in remote outposts, has lost more and more significance in recent months and years. This change should make it completely unnecessary. It is quite possible that the change will already appear with the pre-patch, ahead of Warlords of Draenor.
