World of Warcraft adds $90 mount to in game store
I thought this was a joke but it seems like it's actually legit. WoW, which has a subscription and paid expansions, just added a $90 item to their store. This is Korean MMO levels of absurdity. What do you think of this?
Imagine a parallel world where no one brought the horse armour
God dammit Todd…
The Wizard Tower was so cool too…
to me this is the wrong way of looking at it, it's like saying "imagine a world where plutocrats just didn't do pollution, imagine a world where plantation owners didn't use slave labor, imagine a world where industrialists didn't employ children"
it was always going to happen, just society has to force capitalists not to be cunts. Only way, always was, always will be, still is.
Yes but no. Imagine before the horse armour, parents both showed love to their children and also disciplined them for doing stupid shit and also taught them the worth of a dollar. No horse armour in that world.
I think it's an eventuality. If not the horse armor it would have been something else. Humans are easily exploitable
Imagine a parallel world where no one brought the horse armour
Redditors said the same thing
It's actually more insidious. Blizzard facilitates gold buying by being a middle man. 30 days of wow subscription is $15. Blizzard sells a $20 wow token. Buyers of the token automatically sell it in game to players for gold. Players who sell their In game gold can redeem the token for game time or $15 Blizzard bucks, which can buy any virtual item in the Blizzard store. Games, expansions, and mounts such as this.
If you don't want to spend $90 in real life, you can sell your gold for 6 tokens for $90 Blizzard bucks and get the mount.
The token has been hovering around $170k all month and now it spiked to almost $360k (token price tracker). So now cash buyers can get way more gold for their bucks, and the 6 tokens exchanged for gold (to buy the mount) will net Blizzard $120.
I’ve known about the gold tokens system, it has made sense as a way to invalidate black market gold sellers, equalizing WoW gold against the US Dollar. Still don’t quite understand why the token would now sell for 170k though…? Unless you didn’t mean to use the dollar symbol.
They probably meant 170k gold in-game
Also what they haven't said is that the price is set by players of the game,. When someone buys a WoW token and exchanges it for gold, that's because a player has paid them with gold they earned for the token. These tokens can be then used to pay for your monthly subscription.
Those amounts aren't USD yeah, probably habit when writing down money. The 170k and 360k figures are the WoW virtual currency aka "gold".
There is a floor to WoW token's gold value from what I recall (it's been years since I interacted with Blizzard and WoW) but no ceiling.
Dunno how hard it curbed bots/unsanctioned gold sellers/fascist scum grassroots campaigns (no, really, look into Stephen Bannon and WoW gold it's so fucking stupid) but!
Blizzard absolutely realized and then moved to take all the money that was being left on the table from 3rd party virtual currency sales, and they apply every measure and analytical tool to maximize that profit because of course.
This mount's release is literally them inflating the price of the virtual currency ahead of real life earnings calls, because it absolutely will sell and give them the revenue infusion that the WoW token's rise in value is meant to provide for as long as they want until it's time to pump the numbers again with another mount/high sought store item.
A very similar variant in form and function to this mount was once available in-game and trade able with a rarity tuned that it ended up being sold for the WoW Token equivalent of ~$500 at the prices at the time, as there was no store version or similar option elsewhere.
It's no accident that when the price of the WoW Token is at its lowest, here comes a slightly updated and dolled up version of that same highly sought mount version.
WoW is where real economics, car ownership culture, hoarding, and dopamine treadmills collide and Blizzard doesn't just know this but have it charted on 5 year plans.
At least it's not Star Citizen prices:
What the fuck? Do people actually pay that for virtual bullshit? That's like the price of a used Honda!
There's also a pack containing every ship they've sold which you can only see/purchase if you've spent one thousand dollars in their ship store. I'll spoiler the price so you can try and guess how much it is first: ::: spoiler spoiler $48,000, not counting the $1000 you have to spend to be able to see it. :::
Edit: I should include the source for that price since (as mentioned) you can't even see the pack until you've dropped $1k
More like Scam Citizen.
I saw people being mad not because they are selling a 90$ mount, but because now everyone can just have it instead of grinding 5 million gold lol.
Showing off is an important part of social MMOs. If anyone can have the really cool looking thing for some cash then what's the point of grinding? For a hardcore player, what do they have to show off their prestige?
It's pretty important for an MMO to respect its most active players. Not to mention, what do new players have to look up to? To think, what do I have to get that? If the answer is "oh I just have to fork out some dough". That's kinda disappointing
They'll keep doing this because dipshits keep paying for it. Blame the whales.
Ok so I cackled when I saw the price on this thing but the more I thought about it, the less shitty it is. FWIW I am not a WoW lifer or Blizzard apologist. I got talked into Classic for a year then played a month or two of each expansion since before quitting but I know the background of the story. It looks way worse from an outsider perspective.
You could buy the original auction house mount for 5 million gold back in the day. It stopped being available regularly and now it's available occasionally in the "black market auction house" and it always sells for the maximum bid.
To combat Chinese gold farmers, Blizzard started selling gold in a bit of a roundabout way. For $20, you can buy a WoW token to sell on the auction house. This token can be purchased by a player and traded for 1 month of game time. Some players dont pay a dime to play - gold is not hard to acquire.
When this new mount came out, WoW tokens were worth about 200k gold. You'd need to exchange them for 5 tokens to get this mount. 1/5 of the original price.
Now tokens are worth 330k. 1.65m golf. STILL significantly cheaper than it was originally.
Tokens will need to rise to triple in price to match the original cost which will still be a tiny fraction of what it cost a month ago.
By far the shittiest thing about this - and I think the only real reason to complain - is that the rising value of the token hurts players who pay for the subscription purely with gold as it adds a few hours to their "working" time in game. For context, watching TV and semi-afk farming will get you like 50k/hour. You can earn way, way more if you've leveled up a profession.
The other (not so bad) thing I don't like about it is that....I hate those mounts. They're HUGE and people just AFK on them blocking NPCs I want to talk to.
The other (not so bad) thing I don't like about it is that....I hate those mounts. They're HUGE and people just AFK on them blocking NPCs I want to talk to.
TFW the year is 2024 AD and blizzard still has not properly addressed this
It hurts to do this, because you've obviously thought out your comment and you obviously like the game and want to believe the devs are doing their best. But I think your entire premise is wrong
To combat Chinese gold farmers, Blizzard started selling gold in a bit of a roundabout way
Why do you think this? Why do you grant a greedy game dev the benefit of the doubt? They're cashing in on Chinese gold farmers in all possible ways, man:
They are triple dipping, and you choose to believe they are doing it because they're a good game dev.
A good game dev would ban accounts guilty of real money trading. A good game dev would fix the in-game economy with in-game methods. A good game dev wouldn't have micro transactions in a subscription game. You want to believe Blizzard is doing this because of those evil Chinese farmers - I'm here to tell you they're profiting from this and don't have the morals to make it right.
Did you maybe consider that they did....both? Gold in the cash shop comes with a very minor downside to players and a big upside.
To combat Chinese gold farmers, Blizzard started selling gold in a bit of a roundabout way. For $20, you can buy a WoW token to sell on the auction house. This token can be purchased by a player and traded for 1 month of game time. Some players dont pay a dime to play - gold is not hard to acquire.
Eve Online has been doing that since 2008.
The price of the tokens crashed by the way. Is now 258k
Crazy how I just detailed this exact thing in a different comment and got downvoted for it.
People are just looking for a reason to be mad
This is truly lowest of the low type of scum behavior. Take something that was somewhat earnable in-game, remove it, then put the same thing up for an egregious amount of money
It is literally earnable in game lol
You can sell gold straight to Blizzard. Even at 360k per token, this is WAY CHEAPER than it was when it was originally introduced for 5 million gold
You can not sell gold to Blizzard
Edit: I stand corrected, you can purchase tokens and turn them into game time, but I didn't know they could be turned into $15 battle net balance. This mount does, indeed, cost less gold than the original Brutosaur (or did before token prices skyrocketed)
This is truly lowest of the low type of scum behavior.
I get being upset about it. But, ffs, get some perspective.
Right? Lest we forget about the rapes?
I'm more surprised that this game is still running. I haven't heard of anyone playing it in years.
There's a few at work who have admitted to still playing. Blizzard owes a lot to the very concrete social structures built around the game.
I quit after they fraudulently charged me a 6 month subscription renewal and then refused to refund it for months because no customer service reps anymore, and then the next expansion had paid early access for a huge paywall. It's a total scam now
I had jumped back in when tbc classic was released. I wound up on a dead server. It made end game content essentially impossible. I was hoping to move right into wotlk classic at release as that was my jam back in the day. Except they weren't going to include the dungeon finder or cross realm groups meaning it would still be a dead server with no chance at end game content. I was done with pointlessly dumb leadership. Unsubbed and found a private server that hits all the right buttons.
It's one of those games I've always been interested in trying, but the idea of paying a subscription for a videogame makes me uncomfortable for some reason.
It's not the same amount as its heyday, but it's still the most popular MMO. Hell i picked it up last expansion after not playing it for ten years and still have a good time, for now.
I will never buy this mount though. I refuse to pay more for a game that costs money to buy and a sub to play. What's unfortunate is you can really tell blizzards priorities now. Content is severely lacking, every patch has quite a few bugs, and it really feels like they have a skeleton crew working on the game while milking the remaining population. And so many people are totally okay with that. If there was at least another decent MMO out there I'd drop wow and play it. But the MMORPG space is sorely lacking.
TIL world of Warcraft still exists
It should have been a flying whale.
Like the lunar whale from FFXIV? What a waste of 40.
It's going to sell like crazy. It's not just that it's a Mount, but it also has an auction house and mailbox that you can use anywhere at any time. The only other mount that has the AH is no longer attainable regularly, only on rare occasions for gold cap.
I am going to get it, but I'm going to use my gold in game to convert to bnet balance.
I was going to say who cares if they're selling a mount skin, but if on-the-go access to the auction house and mailbox isn't normally accessible, this seems shitty.
The thing is, they won't be able to sell a Mount like this again in the future. This is kind of a "break glass" type of situation.
It's one of the most overhyped things in the game. I can more than afford it (both through $$ and in-game currency) but I just do not care. There's easy to get mailboxes and the auction house is in every main city now.
Not to mention the amount of people who have the original auction house mount and the influx of people with this one - it is barely a convenience.
I think it’s a terrible decision because of this. The whole point of hubs is to get players together and interacting. Putting AH and mail around hubs requires many players together. Giving folks a mount means the hubs stop being hubs and contributes to the continued decay of the multiplayer aspect.
Take this with a grain of salt. When I last played hubs still mattered. If that isn’t currently the case this is just old fart complaints.
People will buy it. And then they will wonder why content quality declines and more and more micro transactions appear in a game they bought and pay subscription for.
The capitalism will always look for the easy route to even more money, and monkey brains with need for status symbols will follow.
On the up side, it's now very, VERY easy to tell who is an idiot in the main hub cities within 10 seconds of the auction house.
I'm a former player, but played continuously from release for 11 years. This is undoubtedly ridiculously expensive, but the convenience of having your mail and auction house anywhere in the world - the value to certain players is immense. I think if I played still today, it would probably be a struggle deciding whether this limited time offering was worth jumping on - I certainly don't need it even a little bit, but when I want it, this thing would be incredibly convenient to have. Maybe that would just be the addiction talking. But when you spend all your free time with one game, you do feel a sense of good value relative to things like drinks at the bar or a movie or buying 1 or 2 full priced games a month.
But truly, the utility this provides for you and your guild is immense and impossible to replicate. They definitely shouldn't be selling mounts on the shop for $90. That's fucked. But compared to some of the video game devs selling weapon or character skins for as much or more, there IS at least a unique value proposition to the player. I guarantee there will be people with it the second it releases, for better or worse.
I think I don't have battle.net installed so they can't hurt me anymore.
In line with the recent 60$ Ragnaros skin for Hearthstone. The Faker Ahri skin set a precedent and now every company wants a slice of the cake
That's a cool as fuck mount...
And it's not worth what I could spend to get one AAA game and two decent quality Indie Games
Costs 3 factorio dlc
What did you expect to happen after Diablo 4? lol
What did you expect to happen after Diablo
4immortal?
After Diablo Immortal I knew not to purchase Diablo 4 in the first month. After how profitable Diablo Immortal was of course this was going to be the way Blizzard continued to go.
This is why I'm more and more playing Indie games. The game has to be made by someone who wanted to make a fun game, as anyone with a profit incentive is just going to make Candy Crush and for some reason people will pay for it.
Blizzard is scum
Unfortunately this seems to be a rising trend for AAA studios/games: Riot Said The Quiet Part Out Loud.
I remember when this privilege was reserved for free games since it was how they made their money, but like Sterling says: they can't just make money, they can't make enough money, they gotta make all of the money.
There's also the fact that people will pay for it. Would you take a million dollars to let your favorite game put a skin of you in it holding a sign saying "I care more about the money I made from this skin than the quality of this game"?
I hate the practice, but I despise the fact that it always turns out to be so damn profitable.
That's totally wild
it's selling well too though it's actually 78$. They put Mailbox and Auction House on it which AFAIK the only mount that has both which is incredibly valuable.
If not the fuction I wouldn't mind but because the function is so valuable it's really poor form by Blizzard. I even love the mount and buy it as cosmetic but I'm not supporting this at the state it is currently.
There was a green mount similar to this one they added in BFA for a large sum of gold. But they claimed to dislike how it encouraged so many people to play the market and removed it.
They did not remove it, people still use them all the time and it's available on the "black market" (an NPC that sells normally unavailable things) every so often. The mount was just an enormous gold sink for people with a ton of money.
They put Mailbox and Auction House on it which AFAIK the only mount that has both which is incredibly valuable.
Create the problem, sell the solution.
the cybertruck of mounts.
I'm thinking I made the right choice to quit a few years ago.
Yes, we get it, your dad has a good job.
0 chance this revenue gets reinvested back into the game lmao
Gee, for the same money... a digital brontosaurus for Orc Game that you need to pay a recurring subscription to actually use, can be taken away from you at any time, or one day the servers may simply be turned off erasing not only your "investments" but also your years of "work." Or, I don't know, a CIVIVI Hyperpulse with a groovy pattern welded blade that also happens to be a physical object you can actually hold in your hands and keep forever. Just to pick something out of a hat.
What a tough choice!
Not even a new trend in WoW either.
Can't even blame Blizzard, it's the people who keep buying this shit that are actually the problem.
If these wouldn't sell in the store they could've been items to obtain through in-game activities (which don't require eternal grind).
Can't even blame Blizzard, it's the people who keep buying this shit that are actually the problem.
Por que no dos?
I have room in my heart to hate both groups.
Can’t even blame Blizzard, it’s the people who keep buying this shit that are actually the problem.
Blizzard is the problem because they are implementing the macrotransaction. The people who buy it are enablers but not the real problem.
they are starting to employ the star citizen model it seems with how cultlike wow sometimes felt im surprised it took that long
It wouldn't bother me if you were still able to earn the mount in-game.
People that buy it deserved to get scam
WHALE HO!
This is equally as infuriating to me as the rising cost of stamps. 😐
If you are going to pretend to have scruples then at least pretend to have standards, or dignity for that matter. 😂 If you are so involved (even in the most modest terms) in the ecosystem of predatory games like World of Warcraft, to the point that you are even tenuously aware of news relating to them then you deserve all of it.
5 million gold costs about 220 bucks right now. If I'm not mistaken that was the price of the AH mount back in BFA, no?
90 bucks for this mount is actually at a massive bargain, we're talking 40% of what it's actually worth. Like I get it, you think it's scummy but... idk, if I still played WoW I would probably buy it - and I doubt I would regret it. That being said, I do not play anymore and will not come back for the mount lol.
Like, technically speaking they could charge double what they're asking and it would still be cheaper than the BFA AH mount.
Edit: Mad because bad at math.