Update: Added some additional information from an interview

Introducing the WoW Token
GamesBeat has an interview with Ion Hazzikostas that has some additional details:

  • The tokens are coming in Patch 6.1.2, coming to the PTR soon.
  • You can buy the token without logging in to your character if your account has lapsed. (Watcher)
  • Some BoE raid loot and Black Market Auction House changes may come as a result of all this.
  • The price isn't set yet, but it won't be less than the regular subscription price.
  • Blizzard will set the initial price and then let supply and demand take over.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Coming soon to an Azeroth near you: the WoW Token, a new in-game item that allows players to simply and securely exchange gold and game time between each other.

Players will be able to purchase a WoW Token through the in-game Shop for real money, and then sell it on the Auction House for gold at the current market price. When a player buys a WoW Token from the Auction House for gold, the Token becomes Soulbound, and the player can then redeem it for 30 days of game time.


Want to buy a WoW Token for gold? Head to the new Game Time tab in the Auction House, and purchase one immediately for the current gold buyout price—there’s no bidding involved.

When you put a WoW Token up for sale, you’ll be quoted the amount of gold you’ll receive once someone buys it—you’re guaranteed to get that amount no matter how the market moves.

The WoW Token was created to give players with lots of extra gold the option to use it to help cover their subscription cost, and give those who want to purchase gold a way to do so from fellow players through a secure, easy-to-use system. The Token will be making its debut in an upcoming patch—in the meantime, check out the FAQ below for details on how it works.

The Basics
Q: How do I buy a WoW Token for real money?
A: WoW Tokens will be available for purchase for real money through the World of Warcraft in-game Shop. You can access the Shop through the row of feature buttons next to your character’s bags.

Q: I need gold! How do I sell a WoW Token to another player?
A: You’ll be able to sell WoW Tokens through a dedicated Token exchange in the Auction House, located in a new Game Time section. WoW Tokens cannot be traded or sold any other way.

Q: How much gold will I receive when I sell a WoW Token?
A: The gold value of a Token will be determined dynamically based on supply and demand. When you put a Token up for sale, you’ll be quoted the amount of gold you’ll receive upon a successful sale. If you then decide to place the Token up for sale, that amount is locked in, and the gold will be sent to your mailbox after another player purchases your Token.

Q: I need game time! How do I buy a WoW Token from the Auction House?
A: When you visit the Auction House, you’ll be presented with the current market price for a WoW Token in your game region—there’s no bidding involved, and all Tokens in a game region are priced the same at any given moment. If you decide to purchase one, you’ll receive it in your mailbox, and can then immediately redeem it for game time.

Q: How much game time do I get by redeeming a WoW Token?
A: You’ll receive 30 days of game time when you redeem a WoW Token.

Q: Can I resell a WoW Token after I’ve purchased it for gold?
A: No, each WoW Token can only be sold once. After you purchase a Token for gold, it becomes Soulbound. At that point, it can only be redeemed for game time.

The Details
Q: How much will a WoW Token cost on the Shop?
A: Pricing details will be announced at a later date.

Q: Why are you introducing the WoW Token feature?
A: We’ve heard feedback from players that they’d be interested in a secure, legitimate way to acquire gold that doesn’t involve the use of unauthorized third-party gold-selling services—one of the primary sources of account compromises. We also know players who’ve amassed large amounts of gold through regular play would be interested in the ability to trade some to other players in exchange for game time, helping cover their subscription costs.

The WoW Token feature gives players on both sides of the equation a secure and straightforward way to make that exchange. It opens up a new kind of payment option for World of Warcraft players, and we hope that it will also help lead to fewer account compromises and a better game experience overall.

Q: How is acquiring gold by selling a WoW Token different from buying gold from third-party services?
A: Buying gold from third-party services negatively impacts the game experience for everyone. The overwhelming majority of the gold these services provide comes from stolen player accounts, halting the victims’ ability to play the game and contribute to their guilds. On top of this, gold selling companies often farm resources using hack programs, sell fake product codes as a scam, and spam entire realms with ads to buy gold, disrupting the game in very real ways.

The WoW Token allows players to exchange real money for gold in a secure and sanctioned way—together with the ongoing efforts of our developers, support staff, and anti-hack teams to stop the exploits these companies use and help players who have become victims of their operations, we hope the Token can help make World of Warcraft a safer and more enjoyable game for all of our players.

Q: Why can’t players set their own prices for the WoW Token?
A: The WoW Token feature is designed to facilitate the exchange of gold and game time between players in as secure, convenient, and fair a way as possible, and without making players feel like they’re playing a game with their hard-earned money. Having a set current market price and a straightforward exchange system is the best way to achieve that—you don’t need to worry about whether your Token will sell or not due to being undercut or the market shifting, and everyone receives exactly the amount of gold they were quoted.

Q: What happens if the price quoted to me is different from what the Token actually sells for?
A: You will always receive the gold amount quoted to you at the time you place a Token up for sale, regardless of what the current price is when the item actually sells.

Q: How long should I expect to receive my gold after putting a Token up for sale? How does the game determine whose Token to sell?
A: The amount of time it takes to receive your gold after putting a Token up for sale depends on a variety of factors, including the current supply and demand. When you list a Token, you’ll be quoted an estimated time based on the current Token supply and the rate of recent transactions, but the actual amount of time it takes to sell is likely to vary (note that Tokens do not expire). In most cases, Tokens are sold in the order in which they were put up for sale; however, there are some exceptions to this, such as when a Token purchase is undergoing verification.

Q: If I buy a WoW Token from the Auction House, how long does it take to receive the Token?
A: Just like a standard Auction House purchase, it will normally arrive in your mailbox nearly instantaneously.

Q: If I’m buying a WoW Token for real money from the in-game Shop, how long does it take to receive it?
A: Once you successfully complete a purchase, your Token should arrive in your inventory (or mailbox, if your inventory is full) almost immediately.

Q: Do Tokens expire? What happens if I accidentally delete one?
A: No, Tokens do not expire. They also can’t be deleted, so no need to fear accidentally trashing them.

Q: Can I stop my auction or receive a refund after it was purchased (for gold or real money)?
A: All transactions are considered final and auctions cannot be cancelled, so make sure you’re certain you want to proceed before listing or buying a Token. To help prevent unintentional transactions, you will be prompted to confirm your purchase or sale before it’s finalized.

Q: Is there a deposit? Does the Auction House take a cut of the Token seller’s gold?
A: There’s no deposit, and the Auction House does not take a cut of the gold for WoW Token sales. The standard deposit is designed to dissuade players from spamming the auction house with items that aren’t selling, and the standard cut is designed to dissuade players from buying and reselling items for minuscule markups. These issues don’t apply to the WoW Token, so there’s no need for a deposit or cut.

Q: Will each game region have its own WoW Token exchange? Will everyone in a game region have access to it?
A: Each game region—Americas (including ANZ realms), Europe, Taiwan, Korea, and China—will have its own shared WoW Token exchange. We’ll share additional details at a later date.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Introducing the WoW Token started by chaud View original post
Comments 465 Comments
  1. Shudder's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Jamie71 View Post
    Well now you have, I was permanently banned 4years ago for buying gold or a blizzard put it exploiting the in game economy
    Too bad you're not in Method or Paragons.
  1. Marema's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by PaladinBash View Post
    All you little peasants running around saying it's the end of the world and how this will destroy the game...I know for a fact every single one of you is broke and useless in WoW and just being butthurt that WoW isn't going to be free to play for you from now on. That's the only logical explanation. WoW is becoming free to play if you're not shit at it. There is no downside to this. Oh so some kids are gonna buy lots of gold with it? Who cares? It's fucking gold. I have millions. Everyone that doesn't suck has millions. Dirty little LFR peasants like most of you do not. You are the people that will buy gold with this not get free WoW time. You are the very people you complain about.
    One of the most spot on posts I've read on here in a long time.

    Game tokens won't do jack shit to the game or the economy or have any other effect on the gaming experience but I know the peasants will rise up with their pitch forks and torches and piss and moan just because they're too ignorant to look past their own noses.
  1. thedingleberry's Avatar
    Jesus, why does blizzard waste dev resources on stuff like this or selfies and tweeting in a game instead of actually providing content for the game itself so there is something new to play....
  1. Prokne's Avatar
    The real question is - how will they price the tokens on each server? The post said it will be based on the economy, so I'm assuming "more gold on the realm" means higher priced tokens. If this is the case, low pop realms with less liquid gold will have cheaper tokens and I can just transfer a character over with 1 million gold (which will affect the price a little) and pay much less for a subscription than I would on a high pop realm. Then since its easier to make gold on a high pop realm, all I have to do is keep making gold and transfer over a lvl 10 toon with a guild bank every time I run out of funds on the low pop. This all depends on if the difference in the price of gold makes up for the $35 transfer fee which is really just 3 more tokens over however many you can get with a million gold on each realm.
  1. tratra's Avatar
    well their game is getting worse and worse, better extract whatever they can till it becomes another legacy game which i think it is already but ok many people would argue that there are still a lot of subscribers... fact is how many of those subs are new... how many of those subs sub for more than 1 month and how many people have 3-4 accounts.
  1. Alcsaar's Avatar
    Blizzard, you're one month too early for April Fool's Day
  1. papajohn4's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Marema View Post
    One of the most spot on posts I've read on here in a long time.

    Game tokens won't do jack shit to the game or the economy or have any other effect on the gaming experience but I know the peasants will rise up with their pitch forks and torches and piss and moan just because they're too ignorant to look past their own noses.
    Peasants are the people like you, who took the game to serious and play professional (probably because there is nothing professional or a job in real life) and "working" like peasants in-game day and night and created millions of gold, being proud of their achievements on their virtual life.

    If some people lack the intellectual capacity to understand how this will affect the game, does not give them the right to call others "peasants" and other cosmetics..

    In-game from now on everything will be calculated with real money. If the token costs 10k, then buying an in-game item that costs 5k will be like wasting half a month of playtime..everybody but the whales, will save gold for the token.. every single item, from a stack of materials or a bag, to a raid loot, will be valued in days of playtime rather than gold..
  1. mmoceeceb76e25's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by PaladinBash View Post
    All you little peasants running around saying it's the end of the world and how this will destroy the game...I know for a fact every single one of you is broke and useless in WoW and just being butthurt that WoW isn't going to be free to play for you from now on. That's the only logical explanation. WoW is becoming free to play if you're not shit at it. There is no downside to this. Oh so some kids are gonna buy lots of gold with it? Who cares? It's fucking gold. I have millions. Everyone that doesn't suck has millions. Dirty little LFR peasants like most of you do not. You are the people that will buy gold with this not get free WoW time. You are the very people you complain about.

    Rofl how mad is this guy. Seriously dude you want to get out more and get yourself a job, playing WoW 24/7 ain't good for ya. What a loser.
  1. Gadzooks's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Marema View Post
    One of the most spot on posts I've read on here in a long time.

    Game tokens won't do jack shit to the game or the economy or have any other effect on the gaming experience but I know the peasants will rise up with their pitch forks and torches and piss and moan just because they're too ignorant to look past their own noses.
    The people I see complaining about this the most are the ones who think it "defiles" their raid level gear, and the whole "P2W" nonsense, not crying from poor players.

    But, Elitists gonna Elitist.
  1. subanark's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by PaladinBash View Post
    ... It's fucking gold. I have millions. Everyone that doesn't suck has millions ...
    Having lots of gold doesn't mean you are skilled. It means:
    A. You have lots of time to farm up lots of gold or
    B. You spend lots of time playing the AH.

    Doing the hard stuff, like raids doesn't really earn you gold outside of random drops from trash, which may not even cover repair bills if your in a hardcore enough group to do hundreds of attempts per mythic level boss. If your a pvp person, you don't get much in repair bills, but you also don't get much you can sell on the AH.

    However, this won't have any major impact on being able to progress in the game. Spending over $100 so you can gear up with 3 crafted pieces won't go that far. Spending $500 on BMAH won't help enough either.

    If you want to beat mythic you need either:
    A. Epic level skill that the best of the very best have, and lots of wipes learning the fights.
    B. A ton of gear, above average skill, and a moderate amount of wipes learning the fights.

    "A ton of gear" - You have to farm previous bosses to get this. Crafted isn't enough.
  1. beanman12345's Avatar
    Finally something worth spending my near 2 mil gold on.
  1. mmoc219194fc4b's Avatar
    Trying to get an idea of how much a token will cost on a high pop server. 60k or something?
  1. Alexeht's Avatar
    If they will be controlling price in gold this will fail (since gold farmers can just low prices). I was hoping for same like with pet in blizzstore - I got one from AH for 500g! Some people have really heavy wallet so they probably will just drown in gold anyway because they can burn money, so you should give them 10k for 1month pp (10 dolla!) this would be just amazing.

    Quote Originally Posted by subanark View Post

    If you want to beat mythic you need either:
    A. Epic level skill that the best of the very best have, and lots of wipes learning the fights.
    B. A ton of gear, above average skill, and a moderate amount of wipes learning the fights.


    "A ton of gear" - You have to farm previous bosses to get this. Crafted isn't enough.
    C. Buy Mythic "boost" and mount for gold, or Gladiator title
  1. Bepples's Avatar
    ITT: Doomsaying even though other MMOs do exactly this (i.e. EVE).
  1. Chawan's Avatar
    Jeez people are fucking crying a lot. This is a great change and I welcome it, finally have something useful to spend my gold on.
  1. Aelric70's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Alexeht View Post
    If they will be controlling price in gold this will fail (since gold farmers can just low prices). I was hoping for same like with pet in blizzstore - I got one from AH for 500g! Some people have really heavy wallet so they probably will just drown in gold anyway because they can burn money, so you should give them 10k for 1month pp (10 dolla!) this would be just amazing.



    C. Buy Mythic "boost" and mount for gold, or Gladiator title
    The price to them is Arbitrary... It isnt for a gold farmer. Farmers can easily be undercut. Its even in Blizz best interest to undercut as much as possible
  1. Samfisher's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Tumaras View Post
    People defend Blizz pretty vehemently on here no matter what they do without thinking for themselves, but this is opening the door to P2W and F2P any way you cut it. If you can buy gold with real money, and you can buy items with that gold that are better than what most people have then who's to stop a rich kid from dropping $1000 on gold and then getting a set of heroic raid gear? That's pretty much the definition of p2w, just slightly indirect and not selling items directly off the Blizz store. But it's the same result, just an extra stop at the AH. The other downside of this is it is a huge incentive to Blizz to further increase gold sinks in the game (like heirlooms were cough cough) in order to drive their own wowtoken (gold) sales, as an indirect cash grab.

    That said, #1 I'm not sure how much gear matters anymore anyway when you can get heroic raid gear from a garrison mission without even stepping foot outside your garrison. And #2, I do understand the argument that people already *could* buy gold for years if they wanted to deal with the shady sellers. But this is a whole different ball of wax. The vast majority of players wouldn't risk dealing with shady third-party gold sellers. So this changes things significantly when 100% of the players can buy gold direct from Blizz legitimately. For those reasons I'm more worried about the items mentioned above in the previous paragraph, especially the last point on increasing gold sinks.
    The fuck are you on about buying raid gear?
  1. Tripax's Avatar
    Well better that some people pay blizz for their gold rather than some sleazy scamming group.

    Pay 2 win argument doesn't really work here, since gold buying has been around from the beginning.
  1. Leih's Avatar
    This system was inevitable. Plenty of other MMOs tested out and used this system fairly successfully. Wildstar did it with CREDD for example. It's pretty normal that if something is popular and working out well in another MMO, Blizzard will find a way to bring it to WoW.

    Overall it's a fine system. People already do this by trading each other gold and gametime cards in trade chat and online forums. Having a sanctioned ingame system to do it is much better because it avoids scamming.
  1. ringpriest's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Samfisher View Post
    The fuck are you on about buying raid gear?
    Buy tokens for $$$.
    Sell tokens for gold.
    Buy a raid carry with gold. (From a guild selling them.)
    Collect lootz.

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