World of Warcraft players are beginning to hit the game’s cap on gold, according to WoW Insider. The cap of 214,748 gold, 36 silver, 48 copper is a result of the game code. Blizzard has not commented so far.

In terms of story and character development, massively multiplayer online games are different beasts entirely, but it’s nonetheless interesting to consider how they function. Level caps exist in most games even outside this genre, preventing things from getting to easy and overbalanced. If you could get to level 9,000, somebody would, and it would end up being just like that episode of South Park.

But to have a ceiling on every quantifiable aspect of your character means that there’s a point of stasis and perfection, a point where you literally cannot develop anymore. At some point, after years of playing, you’ll be the max level with the best items and the most gold and there’s nothing for you to do but stand around Ironforge and gloat.

Is your WoW avatar a character, or a bucket you’re trying to fill to the brim for Internet prestige?

(Note: I’m grasping for news. Slow week in the story department.)