welp they finally did it: WoW Token on Wrath Classic

[SinR]

https://www.wowhead.com/wotlk/news/w...classic-333137

*Grabs Popcorn*

[shimerra]

Funny. Not too far off from what I was paying when I had to source the people to buy game time from myself.

[Exkrementor]

I am 50/50 on this. This is 100% a Bobby solution. Instead of banning bots and fixing the game they introduce the token to stop gold sellers and make money themselves.

Everybody is buying gold anyways so this wont make any difference.

Edit: I just remembered that the token didnt even stop the bots in retail so this is kinda just a cashgrab.

[Biomega]

Gold buying was rampant anyway, now at least it's safer and better regulated.

That's preferrable to letting the service be handled by predatory websites and criminals.

People WANT to buy gold. That's just the reality.

[GabrielKnight]

Funny. Not too far off from what I was paying when I had to source the people to buy game time from myself.

For real, it's exactly the same amount I used to pay too. Amazing how economy works, even in a videogame.

[varren]

Holy shit this was one of the slimiest things ever. Hand out Joyous Journeys, Classic Era hotfixes, and then sneak in WoW Tokens. Unreal.

[God Save The King]

Gold buying was rampant anyway, now at least it's safer and better regulated.

That's preferrable to letting the service be handled by predatory websites and criminals.

People WANT to buy gold. That's just the reality.

Hard agree. Not sure why people want to, but it's rampant and the GDKPs make it clear people want to buy and trade gold.

[Exkrementor]

Hard agree. Not sure why people want to, but it's rampant and the GDKPs make it clear people want to buy and trade gold.

People want to buy gold so they can buy gear. Every single classic player is over 30 and probably has like 23 seconds per day to play. They dont have the time to farm gold.
In their defense though gold farming is not viable in Wotlk. You can farm like 600g/hr or you just buy 14k gold for 14$, which is pretty close to minimum wage in civilized countries. Tough choice lol.

[Kralljin]

People believe this may be some great equalizer, but it isn't.

Wotlk already throws at you a reasonable amount just by questing, even epic flying is easy in reach by just leveling to 80 and throwing your gold at random shit.
Nevermind that you barely need epic flying to begin with unless you're (big irony here), want to farm herbs and minerals.

Raid consumables are dirt cheap, even pots are at like 2-4g per pot, which is not terribly crazy.
Flasks are also very cheap and Fish Feast also exist.

The only thing left are BoE's, which too be fair can be quite expensive at an early stage but even there you can buy the Orbs yourself via emblems and the remaining materials aren't usually too expensive.

So what major goldsink is left?
Yep, GDKP's.

What which point you pretty quickly end up competing with your real wallet against the real wallets of other people and depending on your willingness to spend or outright ability to earn money, will determine whether you get an item or not.

Blizzard could have turned an eye towards the organizers of GDKP's, which basically live off hosting GDKP's (and thus are also massive supplier of RMT sites) and will continue to do so because the black market is more lucrative and has no cap (unlike the WoW Token).
So yeah, the WoW Token has not killed off Gold buying in Retail nor Botting - why should do it in Classic?

Now you can throw your real money legally at some items and still be outbid by someone who bought it via RMT at a cheaper rate - or is just plainly more willing spending real money on an virtual item than you.
The only winner here is Blizzard, because longterm, those willing to engage in RMT will still come out ahead.

[garicasha]

I don't really think this is gonna change that much with how many people were already buying gold.

I don't know if they couldn't or wouldn't fix the bot problem but it definitely never got fixed so we haven't really changed ships, we just painted a new name on the ship we're on.

[threads]

if you think gold buying wasn't already massive in classic you are delusional

[Laerrus]

It's better the money people spend on gold now goes to Blizz instead of to the Chinese.

[Kralljin]

It's better the money people spend on gold now goes to Blizz instead of to the Chinese.

I somehow doubt that money will flow into development of any Blizzard games, let alone Classic.

[Nak88]

Great, good way to counter boosting and botting.

[Khaza-R]

It's better the money people spend on gold now goes to Blizz instead of to the Chinese.

Idk. On a morality scale its kind of hard to go lower than Bobby on an individual level...

[Coffeh]

"Bots are out of control. What do we do?"
"I know, let's legalize gold selling and take a cut of the action!"
"Brilliant!"

[Powerogue]

I honestly thought they had put this in when Classic was released. It took this long?

[khazmodan]

I somehow doubt that money will flow into development of any Blizzard games, let alone Classic.

Exactly right, a much higher likelihood is Blizzard changing Classic to make it more attractive for players to buy WoW tokens.

[Kralljin]

Exactly right, a much higher likelihood is Blizzard changing Classic to make it more attractive for players to buy WoW tokens.

I doubt it, because that would require to put them more active effort into it.

If you want to spitball ideas however, now i wouldn't put it past them to release lowres versions of store mounts in Classic.

[Gimlix]

People need to get their 2004 view of MMORPGS out their arses and understand this stuff is normal for almost all games...
Also WOTLK is most likely the least played WoW client played atm so who cares really?