In what is sure to be a very controversial decision Blizzard launched the sale of in-game items for World of Warcraft in their Blizzard Store online for real world cash; also known as micro-transactions.
Blizzard hinted at playing around with a revenue model that included micro-transactions for World of Warcraft, but this is the first the community has seen of it actually being deployed. The first two items for sale for World of Warcraft are two exclusive in-game non-combat pets: the Pandaren Monk and ‘Lil K.T.’, each with their own unique nuances.
What makes this so controversial is that a lot of the WoW community feel that anything you have in the game should be obtainable only within the game as well, to correlate directly with your accomplishments or time spent within the game. Many feel that this is a way to dumb things down for the masses, and it allows anyone with a credit card to obtain something that is seen as exclusive, versus putting in hard work in the game to obtain something of equal value.
Read more of my thoughts after the jump.
Now, there are a few different ways to look at this. On one side — to be blunt — Blizzard needs to make money for WoW to continue to run. Yes, they do make their money from monthly dues to play the game, sales of the core product, and sales of the expansion. However, while they have a massive subscriber base, it is a source of revenue that eventually can only go down. For one reason or another as time elapses there will be less and less people both playing WoW, and buying future expansions of the game. One could see this as a way for Blizzard to not only to try and secure profits now to ensure that the game continues to run for many more years, but also a way for them to maybe eventually migrate to a solely micro-transaction based model for revenue in the future as it relates to WoW, and do away with the monthly subscriber fees (at least partially). While that may seem far fetched we all know that any industry impacted by technology (practically all of them now) can change very rapidly, so you never know what will develop in the coming years.
On the other hand, this can also be something dangerous to employ on Blizzard’s part. Depending on what Blizzard chooses to sell in their Blizzard Store for use in-game it could wind up watering down any other achievements that are in the game, that involve obtaining a ‘material possession’ that can be shown off to other players. Some novelty items may be OK, but if taken too far this may alienate a good portion of the more serious or hard core WoW subscriber base, which may ultimately have an opposite effect instead of what Blizzard desires with implementing micro-transactions. Some people have spent years and years building up their characters and possessions, and the thought of having someone obtain something ‘nice’ with just a few clicks in real life within a few minutes can be offensive to some.
Now some people might argue that there might not really be a difference here in obtaining items for real life cash. For example, if someone obtains an item in-game it’s because they spent time to obtain said item or perk. On the other side of the coin someone might argue that if they spend money it’s also time they spent to get the money in real life, and they happen to be obtaining the same thing using an investment of their time, but in a different way. How ever you spin it, this is a very polarizing issue and everyone is bound to have a strong and specific opinion.
My take on this personally is it boils down to how Blizzard decides to implement this moving forward. It’s too early to see this either changing Blizzard’s revenue model for World of Warcraft, or not. For the immediate future if Blizzard keeps this to more novelty items (non-combat pets or the like), and nothing too ‘serious’ like fast (310%) epic mounts or what not then it shouldn’t be an issue. One great thing I think Blizzard did with one of the pets — the Pandaren Monk specifically — is that half of the profits from the sale of that pet will go to the Make A Wish foundation until 12/31/09. I think that is an absolutely fantastic use of this revenue model to both help out a charity, and give the players a little bonus for doing so with little resource usage on Blizzard’s end. Something like this can be incredibly powerful, if used correctly.
Ultimately for right now I don’t think someone should get offended if they see some trinket someone bought in real life because ultimately it shouldn’t really matter to them, and they can just easily turn the other way and not pay attention. If Blizzard can effective use this to make some money on the side and even help out a charity or two to boot then it’s a win-win situation for all involved. In my opinion the main way this would get out of control is if Blizzard started to sell items that affected game play, such as a mount described above (let alone gear). I doubt it would ever come to that, but one never knows what the future holds. I for one actually purchased the Pandaren Monk because it helped out Make A Wish, and I am satisfied with that usage of my hard earned cash as a result because of it. Hopefully this can continue in a positive manner moving forward with Blizzard and the subscriber base not blowing this idea out of proportion.
