Blizzard has been against micro-transactions for a while now, sticking with the monthly sub model. Unfortunately that only generated 500 million last year, so like any struggling company they had to go to desperate measures and accept the RMT model. Being Blizzard they of course put their own ‘polish’ on it, and instead did away with that silly ‘micro’ part of the model. Why charge a few bucks for something when you can just wrap it all together and charge one price, right?
Blizzard also changed the name of RMT, it’s call e-sports. For only $20 (plus WoW, TBC and the normal monthly fee) Blizzard will power level a character for you, give you unlimited access to all the best epics, and free respecs so you can avoid the pointless grinding. They will also place you on a special RMT… err e-sport server along with the rest of the suckers… err e-sport fans. As a side bonus, you can enter the arena and officially get curb stomped by some E-sport pro group you yourself helped sponsor with your $20 RMT fee. Congrats!
Up next, Blizzard plans to open up a ‘god mode’ server. For only $25, you can get all the e-sport bonuses, plus god mode. Finally you can visit all those pesky ‘group only’ instances and raids and see all the content, without the need to talk or interact with anyone else. All that for only $25! Buy now, supplies are running out!
Hardcore Casual 
No, no, no! You’ll never make it over that shark, don’t do it!
I hope they put them all on an RMT only server.
Don’t be a hater!
In a year, WoW players will sneer at MMOs that don’t let you just pay $20 and get a max level, epiced out character in five minutes.
We’re the suckers here.
Count on it.
Looking at WoW, can you honestly say the game wasn’t always moving in this direction?
To be honest, no. They ignored PvP for so long, focusing on it now is a total 180.
WoW is not build on a super solid PvP arena model anyway. It’s the handholding that made WoW famous, not the PvP afterthought.
IMO, this is just part of their overall plan to counter the WAR hype. RMT server, the ‘PvP only’ area in WotLK. Who knows what else they will pull to try and stem the tide of WAR. If nothing else, it just makes WAR look that much better. Blizzard trying to be Mythic should be entertaining though.
I can’t wait for the massive backlash when this whole RMT server explodes. It will be the RYL controversy all over again, only it will affect millions instead of hundreds.
Oh and Tipa, I think I have another comment in your filter.
Sigh. Right you were, Syncaine. Akismet marked your post as spam. It’s not me marking you that way, but some Akismet user is marking you as spam and since it shares data between its instances to improve its hit rate, it’s poisoning mine as well.
Oh I know it was not you directly. Just wanted to point it out. Swift was being marked as spam here for a while too. Now I make it habit to check the spam filter at least once a day, but it is annoying. For some reason I get filtered as well on all wordpress blogs. TAGN and Potshot need to check their filters as well :)
If they open up a tourist server, I will no longer have issues buying an expansion which invalidates raid content I won’t yet have seen.
Nice comparison, first time I see it. They do give that 250k price though.
But I find the whole thing ridiculous, e-sports has to be one of the worst things I can imagine in (fantasy) MMO’s. It was often somehow ‘popular’ in fps’s like Counter-Strike and I’ve experienced the “community” around it. Kids playing games overly serious to get “sponsored”. Brr…
Funny. Because basically WoW is copying Guild Wars’ PvP character idea. But GW’s system has been around since late 2004 (has evolved over time) before the game even released.
Linkback
It doesn’t happen all that often, but I agree with you, syncaine. :)
Sometimes even a PvP player and a hardcore raider (that would be you now, Mr. I have 3 70s and raid SSC) can agree.
I’m actually a bit surprised you are not condemning Blizzard from moving away from what made WoW work (solo questing and such) and going more towards PvP. You have long argued that WAR will remain niche if it over-focuses on PvP, yet that is exactly what WoW is becoming. Hopefully you will do a post about that soon, very interested on your thoughts on the subject.
Yeah, I’m a bit surprised also. From the point of view that WoW does what it does and does it really well, why would they want to do a 180 and lose focus right when WAR is set to launch. Looks to me like they are panicing and making mistakes. As I said before, this could be the “jump the shark” moment for WoW if they aren’t carefull.
Akismet only takes about 2 weeks of e-mails back and forth with customer service before they get you off the spam list. :(
The question is, will you quit WoW when this server goes live?
Vivendi is publicly traded, and they have to increase shareholder value. They can actually get sued if they don’t. So some beancounter on the board realizes “Hey! We have a captive market of 10 million players, who we can sell a $20 product that costs us essentially nothing…omfg!”.
Now you as a designer, might HATE the idea. But you have only one possible comeback: “If we do this, sub numbers will drop”. So, will they?
If not, then Blizz is legally obligated to do this, and the plethora of RMT-like transactions to come. 10 million players means you can offer almost anything, and a profitable fraction will respond. Therefore, since they CAN make money, they MUST.
Sucks when your favorite pastime becomes big $$$.
It’s not like WoW is stopping all its great PvE content.
I don’t know if you’ve played around on the PTR, but Magister’s Terrace (and the whole Isle) is great fun, and very well done. It also features the first cut scene in WoW since the racial cutscenes when one creates a character, something that I thought was ultra-cool.
WoW will continue to do both PvE and PvP, and do both better than any other game on the market.
— 3 70s, on top 25 in BG 5v5 team, 5/5 MH 6/9 BT
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