Micro-transaction model a possibility for WoW

Meh, it'll just fill the game with more and more people whose dumbasses, resulting in the need for more realms which need to be supported and I doubt they can do that with microtransactions.

Made me think of that video of the kid that flips out when his subscription got cancelled.

Ummm, i understood 3 words in that post!

They'll never lose the subscription model... there are millions of WoW players, multiply that by $15, they are bringing in a shit ton of money from subscriptions. The only way they'll allow a microtransaction model as an alternative to subscription is if it would end up being more expensive for regular players.

that would be retarded for them

I doubt they will ever full on transition, maybe let you play for free as well though and have limited abilities and stuff and at a certain point you will have to pay.

-Donuts

I'll probably reinstall it and play in a little but the chances are slim seeming they are greedy rich fucks.

The only time I found WOW interesting was on South Park.

Flame me if I'm the only one thinking this, but what exactly is a "micro-transaction model?"

Pay per play rather than pay per month? i.e. like X-box live arcade downloads?

That'd be interesting, and I'd probably play it again for a tiny bit just for the hell of it.

BUT!

I won't really care until it, or any other MMO, gets a god damned "Fun" patch.

That quote sounds more like they're planning to put in microtransactions alongside the standard subscription fee.

I could see them doing this for gold/levels for alts/badges.

It'll fuck the economy in the game yes, but it will probably put most of the farmers/account hackers out of business.

Microtransctions PLUS subscription fee's is terrible, I can't think of any way a game developer can screw over their customers anymore. But having microtransactions as an alternative is a great idea, I think.

But it needs to be handeld well, you should't simply be able to purchase high-end content right off the bat, you should only be paying for access to said content..

That's the way I'd like to see Old Republic work, I'm not fond of paying monthly for a game I'll only ocassionally play.. but paying for DLC, like extra packs that add in new planets, quests, items, etc would be great. I'm sure they'd make just as much money off it, but the players have the advantage of only paying if/when we want more content.

I quit WoW because I couldn't afford the monthly fee... if they come out with a free-to-play model, I will GLADLY return to the game. Go for it Blizzard.

They make a billion dollars a year from subscriptions alone, and are merged with Activision.

Not. Happening.

"What do you guys think? Would you support a transaction-based WoW?"

F**k No.

Cannot see them abandoning the monthly fee unless they did both. I could see this ending up being more expensive seeing has they have numerous other ways to take your money already that have nothing to do with the monthly fee. Blizzard trying an additional way to get more money on top of subscription and between expansions? I could see it happening.

They could do a two-tier model to let people dive in with micro-transactions.

It'd probably turn a lot of people on the micro transactions model onto the game without micro-transactions because WoW is just simply e-crack once you get addicted to it you'll be spending a lot more through micro transactions than you would with a one off payment.

With the amount of gameplay hours you can pour in a month into WoW the 15 dollar fee is not a rip off in any sense of the word compared to your average 10 hour 60 dollar romp but thats a barrier you have to cross to see and thats where a lot of hesitation exists.

With over 260 million online gamers on the PC WoW is far from at its peak.

I think Blizz understands that WoW will eventually die down, and in that case they'll be ready to shift it into f2p with micro transactions mode. They'll release their new mmo, most of the people will jump to either that or another shiney mmo, WoW's subscriber base will look like EQ1 and in a year or so after that Blizz will shift it to F2P since they'll have another subscription mmo they're developing for going full steam.

Micro-Transaction on WoW = Fail.

I will never support that, it can cause sooo much unnecessary shit.

No.

Would I play it if it had Micro-Transactions? No. That is all.

The inherent problem I could see here is the idea that this would benefit them more than the $15 a month deal.

Look at it like this: There is a reason we have so many people playing WoW and paying for it. The content seems to make the $15 a worthy investment. Honestly, there are games out there for $60 I'd get done with in 12 hours, when there's WoW where I can get a whole lot more content out of it for only $15 a month. It's a very nice investment when I think of it in those terms.

With micro-transactions, it can create some difficulty. $15 a month is one thing, but having to pay $10 to go to each new raid instance can be a bit hallowing. And even worse would be paying $15 for a complete tier set instead of working on it through the raid instance. Sure, it would net some revenue, but the best player isn't always the richest. It would create an air of unfair advantages.

And adding micro-transactions to the $15 a month fee? Ehh...already, they have $25 for server transfers, around the same amount for gender transfers, and now they're planning a faction switch service.

All I know is, if they do think about that model, I hope they really figure out what they'd do with it to make sure people aren't given unfair advantage or make it so the basic content is always given to people. I don't want to pay $10 extra dollars to go into Icecrown, and I don't want to fall behind while everyone else is rolling with T9 gear without even working for it.
A better idea for these micro-transactions would be a non-combat pet, or a special mount, or a vanity set. It would be fantastic if the only thing I'm missing would be a murloc graphic tabard.
....
A murloc graphic tabard?! *buys*

Blizzard does a lot of things that upset their playerbase, but i dont think they'd be stupid enough to make it for people to just buy raid gear.