Blizzard Confirms In-Game World of Warcraft Store
by JR Cook - 11 years ago show comments
It’s happened. Blizzard has officially confirmed plans for a forthcoming in-game store for World of Warcraft. Community Manager Bashiok took to the forums late last night and explained what’s to come.
“For players who are already interested in the in-game items we offer, such as Pet Store pets and mounts, the benefits of an in-game store are pretty clear. We think everyone would appreciate the convenience of being able to make such purchases without having to leave the game, and ultimately that’s our long-term goal for the system, though there’s quite a bit of work involved in retrofitting those existing items into the new system.”“First, we’ll be testing the in-game store with some new kinds of items we’re looking into introducing (in Asian regions, at the outset) based on player feedback: specifically, an experience buff to assist with the leveling process, as well as an alternate way to acquire Lesser Charms of Good Fortune. We’ve had a lot of requests from players in different regions for convenience-oriented items such as these, and as with other new ideas we’ve introduced as WoW has evolved—including Pet Store pets, mounts, and more—your feedback plays a hugely important part in determining what we add to the game.
“Ultimately it’s still too early in the process to make any final determinations about our plans, but in the meantime, we hope you’ll check out the in-game store once it’s implemented on the PTR and let us know what you think.”
There’s been a strong amount of concern from the playerbase that an in-game shop could provide ‘pay to win’ style benefits, but thus far it does not appear to be the case. Blizzard has maintained the stance that any in-game shop will not foster the sort of environment where in players can simply dump money in order to have high level gear.
Lesser Charms of Good Fortune are presently available as quest rewards for Mists of Pandaria dailies. They also drop off various NPCs all over Pandaria, as well as off of enemy NPCs in the Darkspear Revolution areas in the Barrens. While selling them for real life currency would not be P2W, the idea does seem counter intuitive to the original idea of getting people out and about to experience the Mists of Pandaria content. It’ll be interesting to see just what happens moving forward. If Lesser Charms of Good Fortune do sell, what about Spirits of Harmony? Crafting materials? Where does the line get drawn?
There’s also the question of whether or not the release of an in-game shop heralds the coming of a free-to-play business model. Genre mainstays Lord of Rings Online, Rift, Tera, Star Wars: The Old Republic and Neverwinter, among others, feature in-game shops that allow players to spend real life currency in order to acquire cosmetic items, stat upgrades and XP boosts, along with a slew of other items and services. Most of the games have released information suggesting that their businesses have become more profitable since making the switch to F2P, and with World of Warcraft down millions of subscribers after the first quarter of 2013, could Blizzard be looking to make some moves to join the rest of the MMORPG genre?
Regardless, at the end of the day, it’s worth noting that the in-game store idea is being TESTED, and initially just in Asia. It stands to reason that if the playerbase is truly against it, it’ll either not happen or be changed dramatically.
BlizzPro wants to know what you think. Does the idea of an in-game shop rub you the wrong way? Do you believe it signals a transition to a potential free-to-play model? What sort of items would you like to see, assuming the in-game shop comes to fruition?
I think this could be great for WoW giving players the ability to make grinding faster in my opinion would be worth the money. It could signal they are going to F2P but it wont happen like that until players stop paying for both, which i dont think will happen but we can all dream
I see it as more targeting the Asian Market where the F2P model is king because of the way the play games over there (PC Bangs/cafes). They’ve been losing subscribers in Asia because of that shift over there and I think this is their reaction to it. The subscriber numbers in the West (Americas/Europe) are still doing ok. At least that’s what I’ve gathered from their past quarterly investor conference calls.
I hope Blizzard does this with care. I can understand why a lot of folks are wary of being squeezed for extra non-cosmetic perks in a game where you are already paying $14.99/month for a subscription. To be clear, I don’t think I have an issue with folks paying extra for an XP potion. Folks are already doing whatever they have to to get out of the leveling grind, up to and including using Recruit-A-Friend on themselves. I think a potion that increases the DROP RATE on Lesser Charms for, say, three hours is fine, as it still means that you have to play the game to get your mogu runes. A straight system like 50 mogu runes for $1, on the other hand, seems to counteract Blizzard’s desire to get players “out in the world”. And, naturally, I oppose any system of “pay-to-win” where real money can buy gear, extra raid lockouts, etc.