Yay bag, questionable RP, interesting Blizz.

[thistlechaser]

I finally, finally, finally found a good bag for my iPad. If you'll recall, I spent way too much money on assorted bags after I got it, but none of them were right and I ended up lugging it around in a backpack. I've only had it a day, but this bag seems perfect. It's as tall and long as an iPad, just wider, which is exactly what I wanted (if you look at the additional views on the image at that link, you'll see the pad in the bag). There's a safe, secure place for the iPad, plus room for extra things, like a notebook, wallet, camera, all that good stuff.

While wandering Silvermoon, I saw something that I have never seen there before. Oh, rapes happen all the time in SMC, but I've never before encountered girl-on-girl rape. Thistle didn't ICly see it, but I was in hearing range of the posts (yes, this was all out loud on public channels, /say and /emote). Alliance attacked in the middle of things, and while I'd usually just let them do what they like, for some reason today I felt like getting involved, so I rode off to defend the city. By the time I was done and back in the Row, things were wrapping up between the two. To their credit, at least they didn't end with cuddling and words of love, as so often happens with WoW IC rapes... (Edit: On checking the log, I see it did in fact end with cuddling/words of love. Blah.)


And the last thing is the really interesting thing that Blizzard is doing: Official RMT. (Real Money Trading, pay RL money for in-game money.) At the moment, they're going about it indirectly: buy an in-game pet for $10 and you can sell it on the in game auction house for in game money. However, this is just one step in things. (This post started out with the title 'how to boil a frog' and I was going to use that folklore example about boiling frogs, then I realized how disturbing that was, even as just an example.) The point of that folklore tale is that people accept things in small steps. In-game pets with a RL plushie for RL money. Only in in-game pet for RL money. Now an in-game pet that you can sell, bought with RL money.

I'm not in any way, shape, or form saying this is a bad thing. Blizzard is a company. Though this idea boggles most official forum users, Blizzard's goal is to make money. This step, as well as the eventual direct offering gold for RL money, should not surprise people.

I find it very, very interesting. All the gold-making blogs are atwitter about it. I would never ever ever buy one to sell to make in-game money, I would never buy in-game money myself. The very idea boggles me -- it's so easy to make money in game, why would I? Though I know others have a hard time of it, and so the option is there for them.

I do wonder what effect this will have on the economy. I find it really, really interesting. I almost hope they'll start selling gold directly soon, just so I can watch what will happen to the markets.

I was going to wait to post this until Terra Nova ended, but I find that even though I have nothing else to do, I'm paying no attention to it.

Comments

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

I think the boiling frogs is a good example. I look at it like this:

WoW is an old game. In terms of the type of people who are the "lowest common denominator" it's amazing that they still play it considering how old it is (this is thanks to graphics which stood up pretty well to the test of time and cata rebooting most of the zones).

The big thing in MMOs now adays is the Freemium model. Which basically takes advantage of RMT type activities as well as offers a subscription (or premium) service if you are willing to pay for it. Usually what happens is the premium players pay the standard $15/month and get access to some of the content without having to buy it. They also tend to get extra points every month that can be spent at the RMT store. Where as the Free players don't get access to some of the content unless they are willing to buy it for real life cash.

Most MMOs I know that have made the switch to FTP have seen increases in revenue. Now, those obviously were never as popular as WoW so it's hard to say if the numbers will scale the same all the way up to 10+ million subs (or whatever). If it does translate, I don't see how Activision wouldn't take advantage of it.

It's an interesting system and it's definitely something I can see happening to WoW in the future. The issue comes in that often the Free players are looked down upon and treated as a "disease that's killing the game" (you know, as opposed to the current subscription players who are...wait a minute...). I'm pretty sure a Freemium model is going to be on the way for WoW in the next year or so. You'll be able to tell it's close when the "Play WoW for free" system starts to get increases to it's level cap.

Regardless I don't think WoW will ever be able to get rid of the gold sellers (at least not while the servers are still running) since they will probably be willing to offer lower prices then Blizz would and there will always be people willing to save that extra $0.50. But they can certainly cut into the RMT's bottom line and probably make some nice coin themselves in the process.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I think you're right on all of this. And happily, since mostly all I do is RP, the free level of things would likely be just fine for me. (It would be annoying if you had to pay for a higher level cap, but I don't really need to be higher level...)