An absolutely evil development for anyone who’s been struggling over whether or not to spend $US5-$US10 on a Cinder Kitten, the latest World of Warcraft update added an inescapable in-game store, capable of striking when the urge is strongest.
Previously players had to alt-tab out of World of Warcraft to spend real money on virtual items that will one day not exist. This gave those players time to realise the truth I carefully hid in that previous sentence.
But now it’s like, “Oh my god, she has a Cinder Kitten! I want a Cinder Kitten! Oh god I bought a Cinder Kitten.”
More importantly than being completely mean to the impulse-driven, the opening of the in-game store for World of Warcraft means that the infrastructure is in place should Blizzard ever decide to make this little puppy (or kitty) free-to-play.
Comments
4 responses to “Oh Good, Now We Can Buy Virtual Pets Inside Of World Of Warcraft”
Anything that lets my beloved WoW continue long into the future is good for me. We can all argue till we are blue in the face about “pay-to-win””free-to-play” and “ageing subscription models”. But I JUST WANNA PLAY ME SOME OF TEH WOW’s
wow starting to get sick of these in game purchases
It always made me laugh how if you complained about a lack of content in the game such as them reusing armour sets they would say “Even though we have such a profitable game we cant simply hire more people to create extra content, they need to be the right fit for the team” and if you complain about them charging money for new armour models they will say “This person wouldn’t have normally been working on the game if not for creating these helmets we will sell you for only 20 dollars”
People that were going to buy them were going to buy them regardless. They’ve been around for years on the web store, adding them in game is just a convenience.
I must say I’m the convenience/impulse buy type. I’m often suckered into cool things inside in game stores that I otherwise would never bother to look for/at otherwise. So this change would make me more likely to buy them :(. Good thing I don’t play many games that have stores like this.
This is for the impulse-buyers; and also for convenience. The more convenient something is, the easier you are to part with your money.
The longer it takes and the more hurdles towards buying something – the longer you have to rethink your purchase decision.
Look at your local Supermarket. They have discounted products placed in prominent locations, and cheap snacks/mags right in front of the counter that you can so conveniently pick up whilst you wait in line.
WOW i am so bored of wow, i want to get back in but the sub model so ill stick to guild wars 2, the secret world and the old republic for now, even neverwinter/ rift the decent free mmorpgs