If WoW had Loot boxes would you..

[cuafpr]

don't care esp if he helps keep the sub price low

[Raelbo]

Blizzard selling tokens is the exact definition of Pay 2 Win.

While you're free to define P2W however you want, that's a very poor definition by any reasonable standard.

A far more meaningful definition is that Pay to win means that money gives you access to a competitive advantage in the game that people who aren't paying cannot overcome without paying. Essentially:

• If you want to win you have to pay
• If you don't pay, you won't win

You can pay a guild to carry you through Mythic raids for a mount that less than 5% of the playerbase owns.

Firstly, this isn't "winning" by any objective measure. "Winning" would mean you are the one in the position to carry the "losers" of the game.
Secondly, buying a token is hardly a mandatory part of the process.

A prestigious mount that you didn't earn through gameplay.

If you're paying for a carry run, odds are that you actually made the gold ingame. That is still earned. I also know of people who are able to get friends to carry them through this stuff for free. Because WoW is a social game, being sufficiently social to get people to help you like that is also earned.

I am not going to disagree with you that just forking out like 100€ to buy the gold to do this is circumventing earning the in-game reward. But that doesn't make it P2W. It still fails the P2W test on two fronts:

1) You're not buying your way to winning. You're buying a reward.
2) The ability to buy the reward is not tied to having to pay real money. It's totally viable for anyone to earn the gold in-game

You can also pay to get the best gear in the game too which gives you an advantage over other players in PvE and PvP.

You do realise that when you pay for a mythic carry, the people carrying you already have that gear. The gear you're getting isn't to give you an advantage over anyone, it's about catching up to everyone else's level.

And this still fails the P2W test because nothing compels people to buy the gold with tokens in order to achieve this.

Remember, in a P2W game, the people with the best gear are those who pay real money for it. In WoW the people with the best gear are the people who earned it through being dedicated raiders.

Prestige is gone.

Perhaps. But if so, this isn't because "tokens are P2W".

Firstly, paid carries aren't responsible for this alleged loss of prestige. When it comes to a mythic end boss mount, prestige is linked to rarity. Which means that the prestige attached to owning one is about how early in the raid tier it is. The more guilds start to clear the raid, and start farming for weekly mounts, the less rare the mount becomes.

Paid carries are not going to affect how many of those mounts are running around while they still hold prestige, because each group capable of farming the mount is only able to farm 1 per week.

If guilds are starting to sell paid carries, it probably means that the mounts have already lost most of their prestige anyway. And if some guild ends up selling mount runs early on in the tier, it means that they're sacrificing giving one to one of their raiders, and odds are that is going to make the carry very expensive - and by extension exclusive - thus having a minimal (if any) impact on the prestige factor.


Lastly, if anything, the real link between tokens and paid carries has almost nothing to do with people selling tokens to get gold to buy a carry (because most people who buy carries are AH goblins), and everything to do with the guilds selling the carries in order to buy tokens.

[Unholyground]

I think there should be more loot boxes in-game from older factions that you can champion to earn stuff from those expansion eras.

[thilicen]

If it's only cosmetics and they can be earned ingame i'd be "fine" with it. Not good but not bad enough to make me quit.

[Accendor]

If Blizzard would have introduced paid loot boxes in WoW, would you think it’s a new low and stopped playing the game overall?

Oh course, instant account cancellation.

[Denizly]

People like you are so blind and naive and it is very sad you can't see the bigger picture and why the gaming industry is going downhill.

And people like you only take off their tin foil hat when they gotta leave the basement for food. to each their own.

Don't like the stuff on the store, don't buy them. Don't like the store itself enough to cause you to not play the game, quit.
It's not going anywhere. the sooner you realize this the less dumb you'll sound on gaming forums. It's existence is a sad reality, but it is real.

Why do people always think that cosmetic stuff would be no problem?
Not everyone plays the game just for loot.

Because to some of us cosmetics aren't relevant as much.

I do end game raiding, i would be mad af if they sold gear on it.
Someone does pvp, they'd be mad if they sold ranks / rating boosts on the store.
You like to collect stuff and prefer the cosmetics, you don't like that they are sold on the store. And you are right to be angry / not ok with it.

People hate it or like it or don't care about it. Each person has their own reason, and each reason is justified for them. My opinion of the game and what I want from the game let's me determine do i mind the store, your opinion allows u to determine that for yourself.
Both of us are right, even if our opinions are opposite. The OP asked for our opinions on the matter, not is it right or wrong.

[Accendor]

Honestly with the current level of boosting available in WoW, is pay2win even a valid concern? The game already is pay2win.

Thats why the token needs to go and I am saying that as somebody who has bought multiple years of subscription with it.

[Soimu]

And people like you only take off their tin foil hat when they gotta leave the basement for food. to each their own.

Don't like the stuff on the store, don't buy them. Don't like the store itself enough to cause you to not play the game, quit.
It's not going anywhere. the sooner you realize this the less dumb you'll sound on gaming forums. It's existence is a sad reality, but it is real.

And if people like you bend over every time and not fight back of course it will not go away.

[Soon-TM]

If Blizzard would have introduced paid loot boxes in WoW, would you think it’s a new low and stopped playing the game overall?

If their history is any hint, they will start selling paid lootboxes when they are no longer a thing, and about to be replaced by some other monetisation scheme

[endersblade]

Remember the outlash when they introduced the helm transmogs?

Pepperridge Farms remembers.

[Kuja]

I love buying loot boxes if they have random cool cosmetics. So yes, I would welcome them.

[Orby]

Don't they kind of already have lootboxes... You get them from island expeditions for random loot as well as the BMAH you can purchase a box too.

Wouldn;t be surpriuzed if Blizzard are testing the waters to implement some 'cosmetic' transmog lootboxes in the future and thats fine as long as you can get them in game, but if there is even the option to use real money, I am out, the game token has already ruined the WoW economy enough as it is.

[Pony Soldier]

My opinion on lootboxes of any kind is that it's cancer for a game but if that's what they wanna do then fine. As long as it doesn't affect the way the game is played or prevents me from progressing. In other words cosmetics only.

[Katchii]

If it only had cosmetics, I wouldn't care. If it had gear in it that added to player power at max level I'd have issue with it. I doubt it would make me stop playing completely though.

[crusadernero]

I guess they always weight how much the outrage on forums / streamers affects the entire playerbase. Also...if they do it, I would want it to be available through in game quests in this special case.

On a cynical side, I guess making a mount and selling it for 20 (or give as a reward fora 6 month sub) is less work than making a transmog. Then again...apparently for SL, there is a transmog quest that gives you an appearance of the Eternal Traveler

that tmog set can be looked as a test and I think it worked out perfect for Blizzard. I dont think enough people really cared about it. Expect more of it in new ways.

[Yarathir]

Why do people always think that cosmetic stuff would be no problem?
Not everyone plays the game just for loot.

This. It's an MMORPG: cosmetic and aesthetic progression is also a form of character progression. Why do people think transmog exists and is as popular as it is? Or why people flock to new mounts each and every patch?

[froschhure]

my personal opnion is lootboxes for money is a greedy and lazy way to play a game.

AND there are lootboxes allready ingame, but not for money, but for gold. @ Blackmarket auction house, unclaimed container.

[Yarathir]

I just had a look again at the shop - and..yeah...I give you a point here that they are "unique"...but "really cool"? I actually find some of our class mounts from Legion much cooler (and also unique). I like the rat and fox from Legion (?) a lot more...shame they can't fly (nah..not really a shame) - and for the longest time a truly helpful mount (waterstrider) was only available in game.

The Junkyard Drifter and the Crab mount from Naz are awesome....so...I would dispute that the truly unique and cool mounts are mostly in the shop - but ofc that also is down to taste.

After the outrage over the disparity between ingame obtainable mounts in WoD and in the shop, I feel like Blizzard did a good job in Legion to earn back the trust of their players. Legion introduced a lot of cool and unique mounts.

8.2 did fairly well, too.

8.3 however.. I'm not sure about. I hope Shadowlands doesn't follow 8.3's pattern. (see: two cloud serpents, two quilen, one wind drake barely different from the others, cloud serpent skeleton reuse that they didn't even bother to remove the idle scratch animation from)

[Muffin the Manslayer]

We pretty much have paid loot boxes already... Black market auction house boxes contain TCG items which can easily fetch millions, It's not too much of a reach to say people buy wow tokens for the gold to purchase these boxes.

[Yarathir]

This. I play the game to make my characters look good and that feeling of accomplishment, not to only become strong to beat some numbers game.
If all the cool stuff can only be acquired through cash and lootboxes my whole reason to play is gone.

Wonder how all these "ugh dont care about cosmetics" guys would feel if raid environments and bosses became checkered cubes. I'm sure that apathy would soon fade.