The Cash Shop is about to get more crowded

[Beefhammer]

Not sure if anyone really grasped what just happened in the last few months.

First they implement a new RAF system that rewards you with a full xmog set, a set that's extremely unique. Then they just used a full xmog set as an upsell with the new expansion. Another extremely unique set. These are just the beginning of many many more xmog sets. Possibly weapon enchants, skins...

Remember how the mounts and pets worked. Celestial Steed appeared. Then a long while until the next. Now there's a new mount added every few months. It was a long onramp to get the playerbase acclimated over time.

If you look at other MMOs, a loaded cash shop with cosmetics and boosts isn't anything new, however WoW is a subscription MMO, so that has to be taken into consideration.

Will be interesting to see where this all leads in a few years, personally I wouldn't even be surprised if we eventually see races.

Slippery slope , blah, blah, blah. Been hearing this since 2008. Still waiting. Refer-a-friend stuff is limited to the referral, doubt we will see it on the shop. Same with the preorder bonus.

Even still, there has hardly been this overwhelming increase over the 11 years the shop has been active. But go on, keep screaming the sky is falling or that there is a wolf, whichever you like best.

[Evangeliste]

You’re welcome,
Activision

You are grossly misinformed if you think it's Activision's influence, they are separate companies and separate teams. They only share 1 thing. The CEO. They do overlap but its under business, mutual agreements in both.

Does it not seem odd that Blizzard is only on the opening of World of Warcraft cinematics when it's meant to be a dual effort you claim?
Or that on Call of Duty, it only has Activision stated when you're also claiming that dual effort?
Goes either way. To publicly claim credit for Intellectual Property you do not contribute on is illegal. Despite the merger - which I'll explain what it really is, the DOTA 2 naming scandal only had Blizzard in the court case to sue them. If the merger did magically bind them, it would have been Activision Blizzard but... It doesn't.

There's also blue, public posts that are under the same legal legislation as others where it stated their company individuality. Which wouldn't be allowed to be made under false pretences as publicly misleading, deceptive conduct, etc is against the law.

To help you, a merger is the dissolution of two stocks for shareholders and renewed as a new one under the merged company name. Doesn't legally bind them to share or in fact contribute to existing commodities or, in this case the continuing efforts of intellectual property. Only one person cares about them and influences them all. The top-dog, the CEO who is earning $33 million a year.

Fact is, Blizzard as Vivendi were having purchases similar to this LONG before Activision. It was called a Trading Card Game. Back in 2005.
Spectral Tiger being one of the most infamous loot cards going. I guess you forgot.

Blizzard are capable of adding more revenue to their profits with meaningless products like store additions, they don't need another hand in it to magically cause a corporate failure, changes, reworks, restructure and other things.

[Lolites]

I'd rather have cool stuff in the actual game. Don't we already pay a monthly fee and and have to buy a full-priced expansion every two years?

if only the shop wasnt the only place to get interesting mounts, pets and toys, right?
they aded aprox 100 mounts in BFA, 4 on store, so over 90 ingame, some recolors, but a lot of them with new and unique models, so you DO have cool stuff ingame...
how is it different than lets say mount from collectors edition of MoP?

[Beefhammer]

what most of you minions don't seem to understand is that those items that should be in game or the resources that are used to create those cosmetics could be used elsewhere.

Maybe if you used your brain and paid attention to anything said in the past about the shop items is that they are made in down time. Sort of like a pet project for artists. They are ot taking away resources to make these things.

[Maljinwo]

"It's just cosmetic" it's a poor excuse in an MMO where the power fantasy of one's own character is also conveyed through appearances as the transmog system proves

[Lolites]

Wow, the token is actually a very strong argument, I have never looked at this case that way. Hmm... I'm free of confirmation biases as much as I can, so it would appear people can learn everyday nevertheless, as I acknowledge the fact that these store items are purely cosmetic, I just wonder how far Blizzard can go with that. I'm somewhat suspicious of Blizzard actions, and it always feel to me like they are checking the ground, and when there's no much fire in there, they propose something new - now is the time for transmogs. That's my fear, how far can they go with that. You say that auction house mount on store would be an issue for you - same for me. But be aware, that there are THOUSANDS of people who will still say, it's absolutely fine, as it's "optional".

But yeah, WoW Token argument is quite a game-changer here

well some people would be ok if you could buy mythic raid gear for money, but those are imbeciles
for me, if they add something with impact on gameplay, (dunno, auction mount, or special sockets or whatnot) that would be line for me, and i think for a LOT of people

[Nerovar]

if only the shop wasnt the only place to get interesting mounts, pets and toys, right?
they aded aprox 100 mounts in BFA, 4 on store, so over 90 ingame, some recolors, but a lot of them with new and unique models, so you DO have cool stuff ingame...
how is it different than lets say mount from collectors edition of MoP?

I'm against that as well. Just put that stuff in the game so people can play the game to earn it. We pay more than enough money for this game. Them pushing MTX on top of that is just greed.

[Sosua]

First they implement a new RAF system that rewards you with a full xmog set, a set that's extremely unique. Then they just used a full xmog set as an upsell with the new expansion.

How "unique" is something, that millions of people can have???

[Lolites]

what most of you minions don't seem to understand is that those items that should be in game or the resources that are used to create those cosmetics could be used elsewhere.

what YOU obviously dont understand is the mounts and other shop items were made with PURPOSE of puting them on shop, and if there wasnt the shop, we wouldnt get them ingame, we just wouldnt get them at all, bcs they wouldnt put resources on them...
and its not like there isnt plenty of amazing mount ingame, just a goddamn mechagon give us 3 unique mount models...

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I'm against that as well. Just put that stuff in the game so people can play the game to earn it. We pay more than enough money for this game. Them pushing MTX on top of that is just greed.

well fucking surpries, they arent charity...
i have over 400 mounts earned ingame, does it really bother me that someone else have more bcs he paid for them? not at all...
not having shop mount doesnt make the game harder or less enjoyable, only way how someone else having a mount you dont want to pay for can impact you is envy (or jealousy? always mistake those two)

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"It's just cosmetic" it's a poor excuse in an MMO where the power fantasy of one's own character is also conveyed through appearances as the transmog system proves

but thats only thing bcs of value we put to it, so its not disturbed by shop, unless they start selling transmog from current mythic raid, and that value also changes, for example, in vanila if you seen paladin in judgement you knew he had to earn it, today people wont even look at that, cause its easy to get...

[Gorgodeus]

Again, why buy something that should be in the game you're already paying for?... The problem with your "opinion", is that creates incentive for these companies to continue releasing unfinished games at full price and charge people for the filler that would have been in there originally. The fact Blizzard has put more store mounts on the cash store than they've put playable content patches out for BFA, only exists because of people like you feeding into this bullshit MTX scam...

Enough with the fake outrage. Blizz's cash shop in no way means the game is "unfinished". The items in the cash shop would have never been created otherwise.

[kamuimac]

Not sure if anyone really grasped what just happened in the last few months.

First they implement a new RAF system that rewards you with a full xmog set, a set that's extremely unique. Then they just used a full xmog set as an upsell with the new expansion. Another extremely unique set. These are just the beginning of many many more xmog sets. Possibly weapon enchants, skins...

Remember how the mounts and pets worked. Celestial Steed appeared. Then a long while until the next. Now there's a new mount added every few months. It was a long onramp to get the playerbase acclimated over time.

If you look at other MMOs, a loaded cash shop with cosmetics and boosts isn't anything new, however WoW is a subscription MMO, so that has to be taken into consideration.

Will be interesting to see where this all leads in a few years, personally I wouldn't even be surprised if we eventually see races.

good if it happend.

they should have just put RAf bonuses as 70-80 euro bundle in shop so people dint have to pretend they are buying subs on alternative accounts.

for a very long time i encourage much more cosmetics in game shop - especially armour/weapon shiny cool transmogs.

it works amazing in other mmorpgs should have been in wow years ago as it gives somethign to spend in game gold on .

atm we are in situation where people are laying on milions of gold because they cba to spend 500 k on forgs recolours.

if it was armour / weapons im sure ton of people would farm gold to buy them via gold->in game balance

[Rendark]

Box price, monthly sub and a cash shop. Seeing so many people cool with that is so gross.

[keldarepewpew]

oh boy, i sure hope i can buy some diamonds in the shop soon that let me gather artifact power faster.

[Madkat124]

The amount of people okay with this is disheartening.

[Sencha]

People buying cosmetic stuff in games is beyond me.

[bloodwulf]

"It's just cosmetic" it's a poor excuse in an MMO where the power fantasy of one's own character is also conveyed through appearances as the transmog system proves

My female dwarf rocks a red dress and ruby glasses and a pimp cane, while i stand next to a kultiran warrior who looks like a pro wrestler.....so much power fantasy......

This is great, cosmetic cash shop options infuse a lot of extra money into a game....

INB4 "ITS A SUB GAME REEEE", so is FFXIV and their cash shop (literal swimsuits) is pervasive yet they are praised as leading the way on modern mmos.......

The helms that were sold previously never hurt me, or my "power fantasy", so if they want to throw wings at us, or glowy armor sets, ill happily buy what i like, ignore what i dont.

good if it happend.

they should have just put RAf bonuses as 70-80 euro bundle in shop so people dint have to pretend they are buying subs on alternative accounts.

for a very long time i encourage much more cosmetics in game shop - especially armour/weapon shiny cool transmogs.

it works amazing in other mmorpgs should have been in wow years ago as it gives somethign to spend in game gold on .

atm we are in situation where people are laying on milions of gold because they cba to spend 500 k on forgs recolours.

if it was armour / weapons im sure ton of people would farm gold to buy them via gold->in game balance

I did not even think of that aspect. Being able to flip gold to bnet balance to by a xmog set is great. Will bleed gold from the economy, which is really needed. Farming gold is so easy now, that if there was something on the shop i wanted, it really wouldn't take much effort to buy it with gold instead of cash.

[Darknessvamp]

I guess it's possible. They did do the Helmets as transmogs sold on the store before but it seems like they didn't sell enough suggesting selling transmog piecemeal was not an attractive prospect (which is good). Their removal could have been Blizzard's attempt at resetting the player base's perception on premium transmog sales via the new RAF and expansion pre-orders and in the form of whole gear sets before going full on exclusive store sets. Would explain why they've started severely limiting designs of gear sets in this current and the next expansion as well.

[Florida Man]

I don’t think some of you understand something. The cash shop is keeping this game running.

A wow subscription is the same price today as it was at launch. Yet, the cost of living is much higher today than it was 15 years ago. Not as many people play today as they did at the game’s peak. So how the hell do you think they can afford running the servers, paying employees their annual raises, etc?

People bitch and complain about a cosmetic cash shop without realizing those funds are the only reason we can still play WoW. So stfu and don’t buy anything but be grateful there are morons like me who buy everything in it just because it’s there and I can’t help it.

[Nerovar]

well fucking surpries, they arent charity...
i have over 400 mounts earned ingame, does it really bother me that someone else have more bcs he paid for them? not at all...
not having shop mount doesnt make the game harder or less enjoyable, only way how someone else having a mount you dont want to pay for can impact you is envy (or jealousy? always mistake those two)

What a big brain argument. I don't care what mounts other people have in the game. I only use 2-3 of them anyways. However, I care about scummy business practices like MTX (combined with the fact that they play heavily with the fear of missing out on all the mounts with limited availability like the ones tied to Blizzcon virtual tickets etc.). This kind of monetization is absolutely unacceptable in a subscription based game. It also disincentivizes them putting effort into the actual content of the game because it's much easier (and cheaper) to shit out a few store mounts and milk the playerbase dry.

well some people would be ok if you could buy mythic raid gear for money, but those are imbeciles

You are aware that you actually can buy mythic raid gear with real money right now? Just buy tokens and spend the gold you got on the AH. It's not different to any "premium currency" in F2P games.

[Jetstream]

Not sure if anyone really grasped what just happened in the last few months.

First they implement a new RAF system that rewards you with a full xmog set, a set that's extremely unique. Then they just used a full xmog set as an upsell with the new expansion. Another extremely unique set. These are just the beginning of many many more xmog sets. Possibly weapon enchants, skins...

Remember how the mounts and pets worked. Celestial Steed appeared. Then a long while until the next. Now there's a new mount added every few months. It was a long onramp to get the playerbase acclimated over time.

If you look at other MMOs, a loaded cash shop with cosmetics and boosts isn't anything new, however WoW is a subscription MMO, so that has to be taken into consideration.

Will be interesting to see where this all leads in a few years, personally I wouldn't even be surprised if we eventually see races.

What's your point?

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Amazed at the amount of corporate bootlickers saying 'yes daddy Blizzard, this is a great idea" you seriously are the corporate capitalist supporter big companies need right now, the moment it's normalised we accept it. My god some of you people make me ill. Just consume and never ask questions... Disgusting.

What questions ought we be asking? We know why those items are in the shop. You seem to think it's a problem for some reason.

I don't. If something is available for purchase and I don't want to pay for it... I don't. This is very simple.