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World of Warcraft: Take My Money!
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
After last week's blockbuster announcement that Diablo 3 would feature an in-game real world cash auction house, many players began to wonder whether or not something like this could end up in World of Warcraft. In today's WoW Factor, MMORPG.com's Joe Sanicky offers a few thoughts about the viability (or not) of a cash auction house in WoW. See what you think!
As I stood in front of the nameless Undercity Auctioneer looking for some cheap yet essential foliage to grind up for more potions, I wondered why the process of leveling my profession had to be so…gold intensive. After giving up on that endeavor I looked through the glyphs I still didn’t have and teleported back to the front lamenting my lack of gold. At times like these I often wonder if I’d be willing to throw down some cold, hard cash to alleviate my virtual woes. I’ve done it plenty in other games like Vindictus and League of Legends, why not in the biggest MMO of them all? Considering Blizzard’s next title Diablo 3 will have a cash auction house side by side with the gold auction house, I figure it isn’t too far of a stretch that we could see such a thing in the future of World of Warcraft… right?
Read more of Joe Sanicky's The WoW Factor: Take My Money!
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Comments
You sir, have given in.
Microtransactions, Freemium, and Company run RMT are the way the industry is headed. One way or another I expect every MMO to change their design or follow suit by building their MMO as such from the beginning within the next 3-5yrs. Surely we'll still see a handful of huge productions like WoW, SW:TOR & EQNext asking for a monthly subscription for a time. Then there'll be others like GW2 {and basically FFXIV atm} that are on a B2P plan with no fees, but I wouldn't be surprised to see some form of microtransations appear for them eventually.
I think it'll continue as is for the next few years, until Blizzard unleashes whatever Titan will be! {At which time I expect WoW to go entirely F2P} Thats when I see the whole of the MMO industry making the switch to follow whatever grand scheme and new MMO design that Blizzard has cooked up. I may not enjoy playing WoW anymore, but you gotta admit, without Blizzard's boldness into new territory, the MMO industry probably wouldn't be as grand as it is today. Blizzard radically changed the way MMOs were designed and played, and brought in tens-of-millions of new gamers the world around.
Granted it does get a bit mundane that everyone continues to copy Blizzard's Behemoth, and we probably won't see a radical new design in MMOs until Titan, but I've already decided to join the flow of changes to the industry, so whatever comes next I'm ready for. And everyone else that disagrees, you need to learn to adapt or quit gaming, cause no matter how much you dislike the changes, they're here to stay.
I was able to max out every profession in the game by Wotlk and again in Cataclysm. It's not gold intensive, just farm the mats yourself. If you're too lazy to get make gold or too lazy to farm mats. Then maybe MMOs aren't for you.
RMT is a plague that is only going to serve to turn every MMO into legalized virtual casinos for every one; including minors.
-Azure Prower
http://www.youtube.com/AzurePrower
Blizzard would need to do away with the BoP and BoE systems as all the good stuff is either/or - I don't see this change being added, maybe in a few years when WoW will inevitably go F2P.
GW2, by way of ArenaNet, has already stated they will have a fluff item cash shop, just like GW1 does. Just thought I'd let you know that.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
Sigh.
MMOs are slowy turning into fecal matter.
Who cares about WoW now ? Yesterdays game.
Slowly? Dude, they started as fecal matter. The only reason they EVER had a measure of success is because there was nothing else like them. Now the market is fully realized...but the genre remains stagnant.
It's so easy to make gold in this game anymore not sure why anyone would need to even consider an rmt for gold. Even for a new player. Especially if you bother to level up a harvesting profession.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
It concerns me that so many people are quite happy to throw even more money at a company that is obviously making quite enough thanks, I'd like to say 'each to their own' but encouraging more cash grabs has an eventual effect on all of us. I don't support greed and anything that encourages it, creating a healthy profit is all well and good but squeezing us for more will make me vote with my wallet and they wont get anything more from me no matter how good the game is. With the success of GW and the likely future success of GW2 relying purely on box sales, fluff and DLC there's no excuse to pay more, can't believe you're actually asking to do so? Guess that's lazyness for ya....
This.. I'll never understand how can ANYONE promote RMT in an MMO. It completely diminishes the point of online gaming.
Eat me!
This would turn all the huge raiding guilds into money making machines. They can just sell off all their excess,duplicate loot. I wonder if all the members of a guilt would benefit from this or would key members keep all the cash?In WoW, making gold and maxing out professions is easy if you're half-way competant at playing the game... hell running heroics and raids for gear isn't all that hard if you actually play the game and aren't terrible at it. The last thing the game needs is another way for Blizzard to try to suck more money out of lazy and oblivious people... but that's jsut my opinion.
The only way I see an RMT AH would be acceptable in the game would be if they dropped the subscription, or limited it to specific servers that you could not transfer between RMT and non-RMT servers.
Then again, it's probably coming down the pipe. Blizzard is slowly adding more and more RMT to their games to get people used to being gouged. Either way, I'm glad I've stopped playing WoW and no longer supporting them by purchasing any of their now poorly cobbled together games.
Well ya see, I don't support the overpriced crap that are in most Cash Shops nowadays. And I surely despise the amount of money that is going to the Asian RMTs. What I like about these changes to the industry in that most of the money being earned through legal RMT is being directed back at the developers.
Its gone on too long with companies like Gamestop reselling used games at overzealous prices that the original devs never see a cent of, and its the same with MMOs in regards to the illegal RMT that too many support and fund, that again the original devs never see a cent of.
There will never be an end to players buying gold or services or insta-epics. Not everyone likes to earn their way and would rather just buy to get into the action more swiftly. And who cares how Jack & Jill like to spend thier money or how they like to play. Most fo the times it doesn't interfere with anyone else, so it shouldn't ever be a concern. Its no different than someone like I that prefers to earn everything legit and the time consuming way, and I also don't like to raid or spend 12-16hrs a day PvPing to get better gear. So when I step into a PvP area in basic gear, there will always be players that are in much better gear that will steamroll me. It sucks but ya just gotta deal with it. Although I would love to see better means for the players such as I to get higher end gear outside raids and PvP. {Trion has heard my complaints and are doing such with solo dungeons, and crafted epics this fall}
Really, just think of how much larger a developer like Blizzard could become if every cent that has been paid to the RMTs for buying gold has gone into hiring more talent, and getting bigger and better content updates out faster as well as expansions. And this goes for even the smaller MMO devs that never had the funds to begin with like Blizzard does. If every dime of RMT was returned to them, they'd be much better off and able to become larger.
Its not entirely about supporting RMT activities, but rather supporting the developers, and making sure their talent is well paid for so that more content is rolled out faster and better to keep me coming back and well entertained!
<childish, provocative and highly speculative banner about your favorite game goes here>
For the love of all that is good and right in this world, I hope you're not right. The reason I pay $15 a month to sit in front of my computer and play is for the cheap entertainment. It's something I can do with my friends, and know that I'm only going to pay $15 (lower with sub I know, not the point) to have hours of entertainment. If I know that I'm going to have to spend my hard earned money (I'm currently working 14+ hr days, 7 days a week), just to buy some mats from the AH to level up my professions, you can keep it and I'll go back to playing consoles. The moment I'm calculating how much I've spent on mats and gear for a toon, instead of calculating how much DPS or HPS I'm putting out, there's something very wrong with the MMO community.
I, for one, will not participate. But I'm just one; for this bleak possibility to not become reality, it'll take the entire community. Especially considering the state of the U.S. economy and the 13 million unemployed (not trying to get on a political rant here, just stating facts), I highly doubt that I'm alone on this.
It's the consumers, not the developers, who determine what type of payment method is acceptable.
MMOs were so much better before they hit mainstream. While profit is clearly important, so was the player's experience.
These days? It's all profit. 100%.
The Escapist ~ Microtransactions
I saw this posted somewhere here a few days ago, and it hits the nail squarely on the head, exactly how the coming of microtransactions in MMOs really should be already...
Its like with the Borg, resistance is futile, the future of MMO gaming is that of microtransaction and legal RMT, but it needs to be in regards to that video, much cheaper and far more expansive. I've become assimilated because fighting the inevitable has gotten boring.
All-the-while though as FloggingJude posted, I do hope that at least some retain the $14.99 or even $19.99 monthly fee, where everything is accessible sans cash shop options. I noticed last night when I logged into LOTRO, and even though I had already bought everything up to Mirkwood, Turbine still wanted me to pay for the quest packs for content I already paid for years ago...now thats absurd.
You just need the brass balls that Captain Jean Luc Picard had!
By taking one for the team by being assimilated, then destroying the entire federation fleet while on-the-way to decimate earth!? Course if in doing so would earn you the sweet title of "Locutus of Borg" ....hrm
I'd like to say I'm actually for RMT, because it's making something legall that everyone does anyways. Yes, gold sellers are evil or w/e, but I don't know a damn person that hasn't given IGE money, so they can worry about the game and not the Auction House and this will make selling items for real money more accessible to the playerbase making the Big Name Gold Sellers have to work a little harder to compete with the actual gamer.
Another thing as gold devalues, so does the price of money devalues. The value of the dollar will shrink because everyone has access to make money in their favorite game, Diablo.
I don't see how Blizzard is greedy by making a RMT, infact it's the other way around Gold Sellers are forgoing the middle man, which is Blizzard and taking money at of their pockets. When it clearly goes against terms of service. When everyone has the ability to make money in Diablo 3 the value of gold will most likey stablize.
It's now legal!
A face made to be pinned to a dartboard.
"As grand as they are today...", what EXACTLY are you talking about? The industry is HORRIBLY disfigured today. You have A: WoW, B: Daoc (OLD as hell compared to WoW, but better), C: EvE, and
250+ clones of WoW
Seriously, the industry as a whole is SUFFERING, because all these ignorant publishers look @ WoW's success && think that copying them outright is a good idea. It amazes me at the kind of people that seem to enjoy where the industry is headed, because it's going to end up costing you more money to get the SAME things you're getting now for only $15/month.
Seriously, $15/month is chump change unless you don't have a job. What the hell is wrong with the MMO market?
The Theory of Conservative Conservation of Ignorant Stupidity:
Having a different opinion must mean you're a troll.
First of all shops like Gamestop,Blockbuster and other second hand game shops i think are right to Re-sell games.. ever heard the expression recycling pays ? . If developers where not over greedy in the first place at pricing a NEW game at say £39.99 or even £45 for probably 10 hours maybe 15 , then ppl like me wouldnt wait till second hand hit the shops. (although i have pre-ordered BF3) purely because of online content.
I dont think Blizzard will make AH use RMT surely they make enough money ? 11.4 ish million subscribers pretty much constant...Blizz will just keep churning out Ex packs, I personally dont agree with RMT at all it makes games highly unbalanced (unless ofcourse it purely cosmetic). How does someone put a price on a item that is made up of pixels.
MMORPG... "Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game" notice the GAME bit at the end ...most of todays MMORPGs are purely a way to make money with very little game at all!
Speaking of Star Trek, that was my first experience with a monthly fee + cash shop after playing WoW for years. I liked the game but couldn't stomach the cash shop, or at least the balance of items for gold vs for cash, and came back to WoW. After jumping around other games and seeing how many things Blizzard has done right I would personally give them a chance before judging. At least at present Blizzard's stuff in their cash store is not only cosmetic but there are a ton of other similar options available for in game gold (i.e. mounts).
The other factor is the current gold spammers and hackers. If a real cash auction house killed them, or at least re-routed the cash to something like a guild that actually played honestly, then that would definitely be a positive imho.