First of all, it needs to be mentioned that the Asian market for World of Warcraft is very different. Instead of paying monthly, players have to go to a cyber cafe and pay for time played as they go. In some countries (Like China) not only are they limited by that constraint, but the government adds other constraints on how long people can play. So, unlike us, they don't pay a monthly fee and call it good. They pay for every moment they are online. Which means, while we spend time when we are bored running circles around Stormwind/Ogrimmar, they have to maximize their game play and be productive every moment if they are going to raid, or participate in any type of content.
The question becomes will Blizzard implement something like that over here if it's successful. With 8 million players, we are still a long way from being at a point where Blizzard drops the subscription model, however with the pet store being a success they would be crazy not to be looking at additional types of micro-transactions. So far everything you buy is cosmetic, from vanity pets to the transmog helms they just teased are coming. You can pay for shiny things but none of them give you any type of advantage for end game content.
But what happens if they start selling stuff like the potion for 100% xp increase. You can already kill a rare mob for a potion like this, but paying for it? Does that cross a line? What if Blizzard decided you could pay to buy a max level character? Would you consider that? We already can get a character level boosted through recruit a friend, or scroll of resurrection. Does it make a difference if you could plunk down say $25 dollars to pick and choose a max level character on your account? What if they put in a requirement of already having a character at max level? At what point do these services break the game and start giving unfair advantages to people who are willing to plunk down some extra cash? What if Blizzard where to decide to let people buy gold? People could use that to buy gear to get into raiding more quickly with the advantage of higher gear....
There is a precedent too, with Diablo's Auction house they let people buy gold, sell items for money and in game gold etc... However I think we can all agree that it was a minimal success at best and a crap storm of negative media at worse. When Diablo 3 hits consoles here soon, it's not a surprise that the live Auction house is not going to be a big part of that. Blizzard has hopefully learned their lessons from Diablo 3.
Now, I think we will see more and more stuff coming to our Blizzard store. I can't say I haven't benefited from it either. I have my sparkle pony that was a father's day present. (My BE's love the mount) I bought my wife the cennarian hyppogryph mini pet for her birthday, though to be fair part of the justification for that was that all the profits from blizzard where going to help out Japan after it's Tsunami. The big part of the Blizzard store though is that NO ONE is making you pay extra money for the in game mounts, pets, etc... it is all completely optional. I think Blizzard is smart to do this and establish the in game store now, because some day in a far off future they are going to have to go free to play. I don't think that day is anytime soon, but the game is 8 years old, and it is hard to imagine they are going to gain more subscribers then they lose from this point on. If they have a well established store before then, it will help them with that transition.
How do you feel though, do you want Blizzard to offer additional services as long as they aren't game breaking? What if they border on game breaking and sell some beginning raiding gear, or even boss kill experiences? I guess the big question is where would you draw the line? I know I am good as long as they don't cross that line where people get an unfair advantage at the end game content. I could care less about leveling boosts etc....
So let me know where you stand.
Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye
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