What new paid-for features we will get in the first year of WoD?

[Actarius]

I see a lot of cosmetic things being added. Maybe titles, tabards, transmog items. I could also see adding toys in there as well. Exp boost potions, but kind of pointless if they're doing bought level 90s.

I don't see them embracing a pay to win mentality in the near future. I could see them selling time saving items as well. Maybe a portal from draenor to stormwind or something along those lines.

Beyond that, I doubt we'll see anything to help out at max level, especially anything like gear/bonus rolls.

[Aquamonkey]

Maybe, but it didn't and doesn't. And honestly, as far as the guardian cub goes (especially NOW) you only ever need ONE of them. So you aren't going to be grabbing servers by the cojones because you've got something that everyone needs. Most people that would want one would probably buy them with real money first. People that have a lot of gold might spend 2k gold on it. MOST people wouldn't care enough to buy them. Not exactly a "bankable commodity."

According to the slippery slope people, the cash shop should be flooded with BoE mounts and pets by now.

[Kaleredar]

I see a lot of cosmetic things being added. Maybe titles, tabards, transmog items. I could also see adding toys in there as well. Exp boost potions, but kind of pointless if they're doing bought level 90s.

I can't really see a buyable title being... worth much. Maybe the ability to make your OWN title would be something worth buying (but would be abused to hell,) but... titles are usually supposed to carry some level of prestige or meaning on how you earned them. Buying them just kind of defeats that... I mean... what would you buy? "The awesome?" "The 1337?" To me, at least, any "awesomeness" the title would hold in its name would be pretty squarely deflated by the knowledge that the person just went out and bought it, but...

According to the slippery slope people, the game should be flooded with BoE mounts and pets by now.

Remember, NOT buying a pet or mount or gear just isn't an option. It's not like there are any other alternatives in game, with more and more of them being introduced in-game with each patch, or some magical, fantastical option like that.

Oh, if only...

[Pickynerd]

All of the above, eventually...

[Roadblock]

EDIT: Has Blizzard added any more BoE items to the cash shop since then? Shouldn't there be a flood of such items according to the slippery slope guys?

They don't need to.
All they need to do is add selling in-game currency for $ and let the new BMAH do the rest.

Gold for cash should be the first option in the poll btw.
"Just a time saver, you can still earn gold in-game all the traditional ways so it's not P2W".

[Kaleredar]

They don't need to.
All they need to do is add selling in-game currency for $ and let the new BMAH do the rest.

Gold for cash should be the first option in the poll btw.
"Just a time saver, you can still earn gold in-game all the traditional ways so it's not P2W".

Yeah that was two years ago and I've yet to see it spin off into gold selling.

So I guess you're wrong.

Also, heroic items don't exactly "flood" the black market. You might see a set of heroic bracers once or twice a week.

[Ryme]

Huh, you mean you weren't mocking "Blizzard and Blizzard apologist logic"?

Tell you what. YOU explain what you meant with your original post, and how I misinterpreted it. Seems to me you are simply trying to deflect this discussion away from you actually wrote.

Sure, I said an opinion and put in a piece of mockery with it. You've misinterpreted that as an argument and tried to debunk it. Follow?

[Raelbo]

Sure, I said an opinion and put in a piece of mockery with it. You've misinterpreted that as an argument and tried to debunk it. Follow?

I guess so. Sadly your mockery turned out to have some validity once Aquamonkey started advocating Paid VP boost :/

But what it does demonstrate is that people aren't always motivated in their arguments by simply being "Blizzard apologists". The fact that people who are supposedly supporting paid level 90 are divided over the issue of paid VP boosts would indicate that our thought processes aren't limited to "we think this way because Blizzard says it is so".

[Ryme]

I guess so. Sadly your mockery turned out to have some validity once Aquamonkey started advocating Paid VP boost :/

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure I heard somewhere that paid valor or justice boosts already exist in east? I know their game is quite a different beast to ours, especially now, but if it's true shows that the system can and does work and, seemingly, could be transferred to the west.

[Roadblock]

Yeah that was two years ago and I've yet to see it spin off into gold selling.

So I guess you're wrong.

Also, heroic items don't exactly "flood" the black market. You might see a set of heroic bracers once or twice a week.

Let me guess, you're among the guys that believe WoD is coming April 2014 too right?
I'm starting to understand how some people think, no concept of time or magnitude if it's not happening tomorrow it's not happening at all.
If they go down that road they'll prepare first, that means changes to other subsystems as well, AH, BMAH, professions.

Blizzard is god in their game they get to play the perfect monopoly: Create the need and consensus for something then supply it at a price.
Sometimes fortuitous "accidents" happen that you can exploit as well. Servers die? What a nice business opportunity for paid transfers.
Faction imbalance? What a nice business opportunity for paid faction changes.

I could go on but I don't like walls of text, go back in Blizzard history you'll find tens of examples of them flip-flopping on past principles as soon as they can make a sell.

[Raelbo]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure I heard somewhere that paid valor or justice boosts already exist in east? I know their game is quite a different beast to ours, especially now, but if it's true shows that the system can and does work and, seemingly, could be transferred to the west.

I think I remember hearing about the possibility of Justice Boosts. Not sure if it ever became reality. And yes, the east has a very different setup to us there. They pay according to how much time they spend playing - when they buy game time, they buy a number of hours which get used up as they are played. The subscription model of the West means we can play as much as we like within a specific time boundary.

In a way you could argue that the East is already pay to win. The more you pay, the more you can play, the more you win. It makes sense therefore to sell items that save you playing time for a cost very similar to what it would have cost to spend on game time to accomplish the same thing.

I must admit though, I don't think I would enjoy such a model. I am happy to pay my $13 every month and then not have to worry about constraining my play time according to how much gametime I have left.

- - - Updated - - -

Blizzard is god in their game they get to play the perfect monopoly: Create the need and consensus for something then supply it at a price. Sometimes fortuitous "accidents" happen that you can exploit as well. Servers die? What a nice business opportunity for paid transfers. Faction imbalance? What a nice business opportunity for paid faction changes.

That being said, things like Free Server Migration, Connected Realms, CRZ, cross realm grouping all contradict your theory because they are examples of how Blizzard added things to rectify problems without taking the opportunity to gouge their customers. Even with the level 90 boost, they are giving away 1 to each customer at no extra cost.

Blizzard are definitely looking at ways to make extra revenue from their game. It is a perfectly rational thing to want to do. But there is plenty of evidence to suggest that they remain, first and foremost, committed to provide a quality gaming experience. Which is also a perfectly rational thing to want to do, because, in the long run, a happy customer is going to end up giving you a lot more money than a disgruntled one.

[Deleted]

Well, the main reason they created Garrisons is for microtransactions. I bet all my money and my wife on that.

[Donald Hellscream]

I honestly don't think they will go any further than they've gone already.

[Kaleredar]

Let me guess, you're among the guys that believe WoD is coming April 2014 too right?

What a pointless statement to make

I'm starting to understand how some people think, no concept of time or magnitude if it's not happening tomorrow it's not happening at all.
If they go down that road they'll prepare first, that means changes to other subsystems as well, AH, BMAH, professions.

The statement "well it COULD happen, and therefore we should be outraged" is really quite hollow. I mean, I could claim with the exact same authority that the game is going to become a first-person shooter as prefaced by that quest in Uldum where you play first-person tail gunner and shoot attacking airplanes.

I could go on but I don't like walls of text, go back in Blizzard history you'll find tens of examples of them flip-flopping on past principles as soon as they can make a sell.

Like what? Are people still butthurt about realm transfers?