Microsoft and the return of MicroTransactions

[Khaza-R]

I agree with the OP. There's barely any mircotransactions or greed in WoW. Once you ignore the rampant token sales, boosts to 60, boosts on Classic, $80 "pre-order" bonuses for expansions that are 14 years old...its like they're not even there at all.


/s

[czarek]

What about getting more dungeons and raids?
Why, again, do we need 1 raid instance per season? Why do we only get 8+2 dungeons for an exp that lasts 2 years?

I cannot imagine WHY they cannot shower us with instances.
Make a season consist of 3 raid instances with 7-8 bosses EACH.
Put up 3 dungeon instances every season with 3-4 bosses EACH.

I cannot imagine why is it so hard to put in instances in this game. Hell, even with this absolutely "glorious" QA they put bugs everywhere, then why the F not?

Imo we dont need expansions anymore. We do need big patches every 6-8 months with a least 2 dungeons and 1 raid. And like game changer patch every 2y (OK let it be expansions)

[Coldkil]

You can literally buy gold for real money and pay boosts to get gear and clear raids/m+. It's literally pay2win. I don't think it can really go worse than this

[Halliax]

Lol, the hate wow receives here is ridiculous. You can buy almost everything with money, sure. But you dont need to spend a single dollar to compete with the best players.

I cant see how a game is p2w when you will spend to get carried, while the entire server(or Raiders/pvpers) will know you were carried weeks later. A p2w game will let you spend your money to get a king of player power impossible to get inside the game(without money).

I could care less If X or Y paid to buy a mount or a transmog or even gear, when the competition is already over...

[Sucralose]

well compared to other mmos like FF or gw2 that are basicaly a dressup barby sim...yeah,its on the lighter side

I would disagree at least with FF. WoW sells power and that takes it a level far beyond cosmetics.

[Stormxraven]

Dont mounts, pets, servers xfers and etc count as microtransactions?

[Archy]

Lol, the hate wow receives here is ridiculous. You can buy almost everything with money, sure. But you dont need to spend a single dollar to compete with the best players.

I cant see how a game is p2w when you will spend to get carried, while the entire server(or Raiders/pvpers) will know you were carried weeks later. A p2w game will let you spend your money to get a king of player power impossible to get inside the game(without money).

I could care less If X or Y paid to buy a mount or a transmog or even gear, when the competition is already over...

Thank you!
It's just "cool" to hate on the game I'm guessing.

Also it's not up to Blizzard. Should they ban boosts for in game gold? Let people make their own decisions.
The whole gold buying thing was always an issue. People just got gold from shady websites (see war on drugs).
Apart from that you don't benefit from it in any way. So you got gear? Now what? You won't get invited into any good guild because you don't have the skill. Gear isn't relevant. Only in PvP boosters destroy other people's enjoyment of the game.

For the mounts it's the same. It's not an accomplishment to pay 20 bucks. Nobody will care for the mount (until they start to retire them, that would be bad).
The only thing I'm angry about here is that I get a god damn recolour for my hard earned mount achievements and for 20 bucks you get a really nice mount with special effects. F that.

[Relapses]

Or maybe a couple legendaries? Or maybe a mythic SOD carry? Or maybe a glad boost?

You're the one delusional if you don't think wow is and has been p2w thanks to that dumb token.

It's adorable to see you still riding that "WoW is P2W" horse in every thread you can manage to bring it up. It isn't, and just because that is a particularly popular position held by the people who inhabit online forums doesn't make it true. It will never be true because WoW isn't P2W.

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I would disagree at least with FF. WoW sells power and that takes it a level far beyond cosmetics.

What power can you buy off of the store?

If you mean the token which gives you in-game currency wouldn't that mean that FF is also selling power on their store since the story skip comes with items which can be vendored for in-game currency?

[deenman]

I would disagree at least with FF. WoW sells power and that takes it a level far beyond cosmetics.

yeah no,gold isnt like selling power,you can get gold ingame far easier and a lot more of it than spending $ on a token

[Sucralose]

It's adorable to see you still riding that "WoW is P2W" horse in every thread you can manage to bring it up. It isn't, and just because that is a particularly popular position held by the people who inhabit online forums doesn't make it true. It will never be true because WoW isn't P2W.

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What power can you buy off of the store?

If you mean the token which gives you in-game currency wouldn't that mean that FF is also selling power on their store since the story skip comes with items which can be vendored for in-game currency?

Different degrees though you can make that argument. I would say leveling honestly doesn't matter as most players don't see it as difficult in anyway simply tedious and time consuming.

The token opens up mythic dungeons. glad*, and mythic raids for whales. It is quite the different story

* To buy glad you have to be able to hit a minimum of 2.1k rating and they try you out first. It is a different kind of carry compared to its pve counter parts.

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yeah no,gold isnt like selling power,you can get gold ingame far easier and a lot more of it than spending $ on a token

Maybe? I know I am fairly decent at playing the ah and can make a token's worth of gold in roughly three to four days depending when I start. That said I realize I am not anywhere near the majority of players.

[deenman]

Maybe? I know I am fairly decent at playing the ah and can make a token's worth of gold in roughly three to four days depending when I start. That said I realize I am not anywhere near the majority of players.

yeah you can make milions in a week by boosting raids or m+,even arena coaching etc,the ah is a joke gold wise unless you have some crazy monopoly scam going on

[Jujudrood]

Pretty sure MoP was when the store started with mounts and mog and such.
So microtransactions have been around since then.
But, with Microsoft money, I wouldn't be surprised if more mounts, pets, mog, and the cosmetic fare (like toys and such) get added to bolster it.
I highly doubt they will introduce any predatory types, like "pay 0.99 for an extra bonus roll!" type crap.

[Relapses]

Different degrees though you can make that argument. I would say leveling honestly doesn't matter as most players don't see it as difficult in anyway simply tedious and time consuming.

The token opens up mythic dungeons. glad*, and mythic raids for whales. It is quite the different story

* To buy glad you have to be able to hit a minimum of 2.1k rating and they try you out first. It is a different kind of carry compared to its pve counter parts.

You can get boosted in FF by in-game currency too. I know the proportion of in-game currency you get from the story skip isn't as much as the token, but couldn't a "whale" presumably buy enough boosts to achieve the same thing you're slamming the token for doing?

[Sucralose]

yeah you can make milions in a week by boosting raids or m+,even arena coaching etc,the ah is a joke gold wise unless you have some crazy monopoly scam going on

Right but saying because less then 1% of players are the middlemen to milking whales that there isn't p2w going on seems kinda hollow.

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You can get boosted in FF by in-game currency too. I know the proportion of in-game currency you get from the story skip isn't as much as the token, but couldn't a "whale" presumably buy enough boosts to achieve the same thing you're slamming the token for doing?

You also get actively banned for advertising it and they crack down on people running them. There will always be a "black market" in online games but there is a massive difference between it being forced into the shadows and having a cornerstone with the companies blessing.

Hell blizzard supports boosting so much the major sellers have an app to check your characters when you apply via battle.net

[Wavebossa]

WoW having microtransactions isnt up for debate... its a fact.

Whether or not you think that they are a big deal is your own opinion, but to say WoW is microtransaction free is just nonsense.

[Vorkreist]

Until now wow has been mostly microtransaction free. Yeah a lot of people buy gold and the occassional mount but that isn't that game breaking just an economy issue. However there has been ample opportunity for micro transactions to be implemented and cut out the middle man of players that make a side hustle with it. Here is what I expect to really see from the buyout

10 extra loot rolls for 5$
<Insert farmable resource here> 1$ a stack
Experience buffs 1$
etc etc

Bill Gates will put 5G inside microtransactions stealing your soul with every purchase.

[Relapses]

Right but saying because less then 1% of players are the middlemen to milking whales that there isn't p2w going on seems kinda hollow.

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You also get actively banned for advertising it and they crack down on people running them. There will always be a "black market" in online games but there is a massive difference between it being forced into the shadows and having a cornerstone with the companies blessing.

Hell blizzard supports boosting so much the major sellers have an app to check your characters when you apply via battle.net

Using Blizzard's APIs isn't an endorsement by Blizzard. That's absurd. It'd be like saying the wowhead and Raider.IO are endorsed by Blizzard because you can connect your B.Net account to them.

That said, I fail to see the difference between boosting in FF versus boosting in WoW. Boosting is allowed in both games; one game simply has more advertisements for it. The token isn't an endorsement of boosting any more than the story skip in FF is. Half a dozen of one, six of another.

[Sucralose]

Using Blizzard's APIs isn't an endorsement by Blizzard. That's absurd. It'd be like saying the wowhead and Raider.IO are endorsed by Blizzard because you can connect your B.Net account to them.

That said, I fail to see the difference between boosting in FF versus boosting in WoW. Boosting is allowed in both games; one game simply has more advertisements for it. The token isn't an endorsement of boosting any more than the story skip in FF is. Half a dozen of one, six of another.

i mean you can only not see a difference because you are being willfully ignorant that there is a difference. There really isn't anything more to say I am never going to convince you otherwise. It is ok to be ok with pay to win but you shouldn't bend yourself into a pretzel to try and normalize it in western games.

[Skylarking]

i mean you can only not see a difference because you are being willfully ignorant that there is a difference. There really isn't anything more to say I am never going to convince you otherwise. It is ok to be ok with pay to win but you shouldn't bend yourself into a pretzel to try and normalize it in western games.

What's this got to do with games from other regions? Is there some sort of difference from paying someone gold to boost you through the game?

[Relapses]

i mean you can only not see a difference because you are being willfully ignorant that there is a difference. There really isn't anything more to say I am never going to convince you otherwise. It is ok to be ok with pay to win but you shouldn't bend yourself into a pretzel to try and normalize it in western games.

I'm not "okay with P2W," I'm simply using the same back asswards logic that people who claim WoW to be P2W with to prove that it isn't.