Which game-impacting paid service will be introduced next?

[Deficineiron]

I know I'm wasting my time saying this, due to the level of intellect here, but it's worth repeating.

Pay to win is not a literal phrase. It is figurative. Too many people are using the term "win" literally.

Pay to Win = Gaining an advantage in game with real money, over those who do not pay. It's pretty simple folks. Google the words literal and figurative for definitions if you don't understand.

I don't think you would have gotten disagreement over this some years ago, before blizzard actually started encroaching on the pay-for-ingame-benefit territory. The goalposts keep going back now to keep blizzard's behavior outside of the definition. I think it is foolish to think the trend is going anywhere but forward, so instead I concentrate on wondering where they go next.

however pay to win at this point has painted itself into this very limited corner which, for pve, seems to mean nothing counts but current tier raid gear. pvp gear hasn't entered into this as far as I can tell yet.

[Deleted]

Apart from server transfers and 90 boosts? I was always hoping for a real money auction house, that couldn't go wrong, could it? Paying for gold would be a good bet and depending on the rate, would eliminate gold sellers.

[Mormolyce]

I dunno, boxes of tissues on the pet store to soak up all that QQ?

[Wilian]

Probably crafting. And with same excuse as they gave for leveling.

[Deficineiron]

Hey Def! Let me repeat some suggestions:

Pay for preferential treatment in queues (login qeues, LFD/R queues, BG queues).

I gotta think they brainstormed it but would piss off 95% of the playerbase (many of whom have limited time to play anyway). I would think the backlash on this one would transcend traditional factions on game direction.

Pay to ransom back banned characters.

banned accounts? It would certainly formalize the botting system. Hard to get banned without botting or gold selling or exploiting. who is this targeted at?

blizzard is probably happy enough with the current botting/promotional rates/battlechest/etc. system in terms of reliable revenue.

Pay for preferential bandwidth/lower latency to/from the servers. This could be coupled with internet latency reduction services, for example from Akamai.

they would probably need to let the third party do the branding and just say used by blizzard etc. this way it isn't blizzard itself segregating quality of bandwidth to customers. (same as instant90's not really be max levels because its for wod). keep 2 steps of separation.

Pay for higher priority servicing of processes on the servers themselves and their databases. Is the server lagging? Not if you paid for the Premium Server benefits package.

I see same problem as queue priority cut, but less inflamatory reaction. maybe let this come later after the bandwidth idea.

Pay to have your name appear on an NPC in the game. These could be sold on a per-server basis, with highly visible NPCs more expensive than ones in low traffic areas.

Hell, why not? one time fee? would think they wouldn't stick in high -profile locations, though. cannot have your general store guy turn into Xxgrendalkillu.

[Mormolyce]

Apart from server transfers and 90 boosts? I was always hoping for a real money auction house, that couldn't go wrong, could it? Paying for gold would be a good bet and depending on the rate, would eliminate gold sellers.

I would honestly love an RMAH on WoW. It'd pay for my sub and then some...

- - - Updated - - -

Probably crafting. And with same excuse as they gave for leveling.

I would be very happy to pay $20 or so to max out crafting. That has even less impact than leveling.

^ I have 22 characters, all but 1 I leveled the old fashioned way, most of which have maxed professions. And I have no problem with this.

[Wilian]

At this point I wouldn't even care whatever they did. It's not an MMO I take any way seriously anymore with far too differing design choices to what I'd prefer or even consider MMO to be.

It's just occassional fun with raiding or something.

[Thorqin]

Tier sets for sale.

[Deleted]

how does reaching max-level impact the game ? mountain out of a mole-hill comes to mind.

[Deleted]

Only a fool would consider hitting 90 winning..... what are you winning exactly? The chance to start fearing for end game content? That's not winning thats barely the halfway point

Anyway ignoring the waffle from your post and getting on topic they'd never get away with selling gear (that is paying to win) because the community would go ape shit meaning the only thing left is gold or a new secondary currency that can be bought

[Wilian]

Only a fool would consider hitting 90 winning..... what are you winning exactly? The chance to start fearing for end game content? That's not winning thats barely the halfway point

Anyway ignoring the waffle from your post and getting on topic they'd never get away with selling gear (that is paying to win) because the community would go ape shit meaning the only thing left is gold or a new secondary currency that can be bought

Just like your excuse for leveling, of course it wouldn't be winning if it was just blues... Or just older tier epics as long as they don't give out last ones.

[Deleted]

honestly i think a profession boost for 15$ could happen at some point.

either that or tier sets from 2 or 3 expansions back for transmog purposes.
I think their transmog helms were a huge failure so not really sure about that.

[Graeham]

how does reaching max-level impact the game ? mountain out of a mole-hill comes to mind.

Being able to skip a huge part of the game's content for the sake of convenience is a pretty major advantage. It also contributes to the growing number of players who don't really know how to play their class correctly. I recall there being a number of threads highlighting this around the same time that the dungeon and raid finder was bloated with boosted characters.

[Relimash]

Garrisons are money bags. Dressed up in pixels.

[Deleted]

Oooh I like these! I'll add:

Wheel of Warcraft. Give Blizzard $1 and roll away! You can win TCG items, transmog gear, and mounts that cost us a raid tier!

Pay to auction. Give the goblins a little under the table and you can no longer be undercut by one measly copper!

I'm aware your suggestion is tongue-in-cheek, but this would be illegal in most of Europe without a casino licence and an 18+ age rating.

[Racthoh]

justice and honor points boosts... probably.

or just straight up a set of pre-raid/honor gears.

i guess that isn't really game impacting though.

[Defengar]

profession boosts almost certainly. Especially for first aid/cooking. However the won't let them be boosted all the way to max level, just so they can keep the guise up of it "not affecting max level gameplay".

I also predict buy to own heirlooms at some point. The same excuses will be used as well.

[Deleted]

Gold buying, instant max professions, buying gear from the previous patch, perhaps.

People can piss their money away on skipping game content for the price of a new game if they want I guess, I just don't share the desire. I know some explain they have "done it already" so can't be bothered to do it again, but really, you've also done the max level stuff too, so is levelling so bad in comparison that it's worth the cost to avoid? Well, yes, for some it appears.

[rda]

The very next paid thing will probably be leveling professions, because that's already being offered as part of the character boost. (Character boost will be extended to level 100 as well, that's a given, not sure if that would count as a new service though.)

But the biggest next paid thing will likely be paid valor / conquest caps, paid bonus rolls, paid items that increase the speed of leveling / getting reps / getting currency, and the likes. We are going to get something that would technically be obtainable by everyone without paying money, money will just save time. Yep, that's a road to hell, but we've been traveling it already for some time.

[wych]

Obviously figurative, understandeable.

Where does paying for a cosmetic armour give you an advantage over somebody who doesn't buy it
Where does paying for a pet or mount give you an advantage over somebody who doesn't?
Where does you paying to transfer a server give you an advantage over somebody who doesn't ?
Where does paying to level your toon to 90 give you and advantage over me who already has 11 lv 90 toons in ilvs 496 - 550 accross the board?

Do you think players should be able to buy valor and honour to the cap every week too then?