In-game purchases? In World of Warcraft? Could happen, says one of Blizzard’s community managers.
A few days ago, World of Warcraft players discovered an item called the Enduring Elixir of Wisdom on the game’s public test servers. The item’s description: “Experience gained from killing monsters and completing quests increased by 100%.”
In other words, grinding only takes half as long. This isn’t one of those typical items you buy from a merchant with in-game money: it’s a real-money, pay-to-win feature that represents much of what people love about microtransactions in online games. Hate playing. While you can already spend real money on virtual pets and mounts in World of Warcraft, these are primarily aesthetic purchases – and you have to buy them outside of the actual game.
The thought of pay-to-win buttons freaked out many WoW forum users, and Blizzard Community Manager Zarhym didn’t exactly try to allay those fears when he posted on battle.net yesterday.
“We are currently exploring the possibility of adding a way for players in certain regions to make purchases directly within the game,” wrote Zarhym. “As part of this process, elements related to this will be appearing on the (Public Test Realm). We’ll provide additional updates on our plans as development progresses.”
World of Warcraft still has a huge player base, even if it is constantly losing subscribers. Is Blizzard now desperately trying to squeeze more money out of its most successful game to date before it has to be buried? Will the next step be a switch to the ubiquitous free-to-play model?
Blizzard: “There will be microtransactions in World of Warcraft”
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