Regarding their increasing item selling bussiness, I just believe it is normal. Every big IP has its own merchandising. Why shouldn’t WoW have its own? Some could say “It’s not the same buying a Star Wars tee-shirt and a in-game pet”. I feel this is quite similar, though. Because of the nature of a film, you cannot wear your tee-shirt inside the movie, but WoW is a game. Why should the merchandising be limited to out-game use?

In their last Blizzcon, they had an online streaming TV channel. If you subscribed (something near 25€ here in Europe, I remember) you could follow the event through that channel… and you would be given a cool pet (a murloc dressed as a Starcraft marine). My girlfriend bought immediately the subscription and she never connected to that TV channel. She only wanted the pet.

There is an obvious strong demand for in-game items in WoW, and as far as I understand, people do not want them to obtain gameplay advantages. Possibly, that would be seen as a kind of cheating (something like power-levelling?): you are better than me because you paid money, not because of your skill. That would be bad for the people and bad for the game, I think, and I do not believe Blizzard is going that way, they know very well their bussiness.

What do people want, then? I think people simply crave for cool way to customize their PCs. There are more and more high level players. Most of the people I play with have 3 to 5 level 80 PCs. They have no more game to play. These players are clearly in Nick Yee’s casual stage. All is about social features for them now, until a new expansion is released (that is, until more new and exciting gameplay is available).

What’s the conclusion? Blizzard always have listened to their players, so, once more, I feel that they might be just giving them what they are asking for. In Cataclysm, their new expansion, they are modifying a lot of the basic stats of the characters (spell power, attack power, etc). I have heard many bad prognostications about that: “They are going to regret that” and so.

Regarding that, I only can say: “Maybe you are right. But you didn’t know what a MMORPG was a couple of years ago, and you only know today because of Blizzard. Are you going to tell them how to run their bussiness?”

Let’s wait and see. I’d love being surprised again by those guys.

Also, even if they state that half the money goes to charity. With 7.5€ i can buy a lot of food and donate it directly to charity.

If we saw a new MMO come out the doors with microtransactions and a standard subscription fee in the western market, they’d never make it unless they, too, had an awful lot of goodwill built up (hello, Bioware). Blizzard and SOE could release the exact same game with the exact same microtransactions and subscription fee and the Blizzard game would do twice as well, if not more.

That’s the always-underestimated power of goodwill.

Vald

I think if anyone can get away with charging a subscription and having an item shop, it’s Blizzard. WoW is getting long in the tooth, it’s not growing, so time to milk the game for all its worth on its decline. For people working at Bioware/EA, it’s time to do the happy dance.

Pass.

Maybe if these pets offered something more (like the Squire can) or if there was a tamigochi-type game play added for having one, I might consider it for my son (if he asked). With the addition of mini-games for a pet, I’d view it more like new content that just something trailing you…

Meh.