Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
WoW adds Tokens to buy Game time with gold. Play free if you have enough gold.
Bascola
Member UncommonPosts: 425
World of Warcraft will soon sell WoW Tokens, a new in-game item that lets players exchange gold and game time between each other.
Similar to Eve Online's Plex, WoW Tokens will be sold from the in-game shop for real money. Players can then sell one on the Auction House for gold at the current market price.
When you buy a WoW Token from the Auction House for gold it becomes Soulbound. It can then be redeemed for 30 days of game time.
Comments
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/6598806/Column-World-of-Warcraft-Play-to-Play-for-Free.html#6598806
Check this thread too
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/428370/World-of-Warcraft-The-Daily-Quest-Will-You-Buy-or-Sell-WoW-Tokens.html
Point one, only subscribers can buy use the AH. Free trial accounts can't trade and are capped to 10g. Well below the cost of “Tokens” and out of reach. Point two, so to buy “Tokens” the player must buy a subscription. I suspect if they cancel the payment of said subscription, they will also cancel their purchase of “Tokens.”
I expect Tokens to cost $20. And they will sell for 30,000g on the AH. Because $20 == 26,667 to a good selling web site. The ones buying the tokens with gold will want token == 25,000. I think the token sellers will want the 30,000g.
The "Token" system will only be of value to paying customers.
Boy: Why can't I talk to Him?
Mom: We don't talk to Priests.
As if it could exist, without being payed for.
F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing.
Even telemarketers wouldn't think that.
It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
Tokens aren't intended to let someone who isn't paying play for free, which is very clear when you read the information about the system.
They are entirely intended to allow a currently paying customer to extend his/her subscription through ingame means, you pay and then can play for free from that point forward if you spend time just playing the game (obviously focusing your efforts on farming gold to buy tokens with).
The system was never meant to allow a trial player to gain access to a sub without paying, do you realize how absolutely absurd that would be? What incentives would there be for actual subscribers to continue paying if free trials could just farm gold and get a sub?
I fully understand that. I also realize that most people reading about Tokens will not. So I am trying to point this out before they start chanting WoW is F2P. I apologies if my post sounded like a gripe. I have no problem with this system, and I wish Blizzard and WoW continued success.
Boy: Why can't I talk to Him?
Mom: We don't talk to Priests.
As if it could exist, without being payed for.
F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing.
Even telemarketers wouldn't think that.
It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
That was exactly my estimation both for Shop & AH price of the Token.
All Time Favorites: EQ1, WoW, EvE, GW1
Playing Now: WoW, ESO, GW2
Boy: Why can't I talk to Him?
Mom: We don't talk to Priests.
As if it could exist, without being payed for.
F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing.
Even telemarketers wouldn't think that.
It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
When you think about the whole system for 5 minutes though, if someone enjoys playing WoW that much, then they should preferably have a job to pay for their subscription rather than having another "gold farmer" evening job in WoW.
Most people would easily make the WoW subscription price in 2 hours of work at a normal job, but I doubt the gold price of token will allow people to make the amount of gold required for a subscription in two hours.
It's good if you have spare gold you need to get rid off but other than that, for the average player it is probably better to focus on the fun parts of the game, even more so if you can make enough gold by just "playing" for fun (depends on token price, rate at which people can accumulate gold).
So WoW is now going to be pay to win i.e. buy your gold and buy your high level gear off the auction house with it.
Blizzard releasing less and less content with every new expansion and patch, but this is where their time is being spent, creating another way to make money. Sigh.
The incentive to actual subscribers is the same incentive to people who sell PLEX in EVE or w/e WS uses as well. Same for people who sell the AA credit items. Gold. That is all the incentive people need to buy something from a cash shop and sell it to other players who cannot/will not buy it themselves. They will buy the items and sell them for gold.
Personally, I think Blizzard added the clause that you have to already be a subscriber to use the tokens to not make it any easier on gold farm companies. This way, they still have to buy a subscription, instead of using their trillions of gold and playing the game 100% free.
The reason you must have an active subscription in order to buy a token is because it is only available through the in-game store or the AH. Starter edition accounts can't use the AH or mail. Thus you cannot activate a token without an active subscription because you can't acquire a token without an active subscription.
And gold sellers have active subscriptions... they've hacked into someone else's account... in some cases paid a subscription fee... to access the users contents. They also use stolen credit card information to pay for said accounts. They don't spend a penny getting the gold. They don't need to use tokens.
Is this what people will spend their gold on? It seems like gear is easy enough to come by in WoW if you use the group finder or raid finder. You would not get BIS with raid finder, but wouldn't the gear be pretty good still? And -- I haven't checked for a few years -- but can you even buy BIS gear in the AH?
Otherwise, I don't know what people will spend their gold on in WoW. Are there major gold sinks for level 100 players? If not, some may be added to stimulate the sale of WoW tokens.
buy 1 month of subscription, get tokens and play for free from that moment on, been playing EVE like that on all my accounts for many years...profit.
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"
Damn, do you love missing the point. The POINT is that they can do this and AVOID going F2P and avoid being called losers with all those other companies. Blizzard is brilliant to the end. Who doesn't want to pay for one month, or wait for a free trial and then sell a couple of bearded axes a month to continue playing for free?
I was able to buy game tokens for 21000 last night got 6 of them. prices droped 10k over night but dont expect this to last.
Best PvP gear cannot be bought, or even traded, it is soulbound and can only be gotten by participating in Arena matches. Even the second best Honor Gear gotten from running war grounds is better than anything a player can make or get from in game. So how is being able to sell Tokens for gold - pay to win?
Oh and best Raid gear is all soulbound and cannot be traded or sold. So the same follows for it as well. The only use Gold really has in WoW is for buying glitzy mounts or silly pokemon type battle pets.
Where is the pay-to-win?
By the way, just running dailies in World of Warcraft will net you nearly a 500 gold a day.
As for the Snarky remark about Blizzard releasing content. Other games wish they released as much content as Blizzard has for WoW.
Blizzards genius surprises me and ability to milk the maximum from their sheepish player base keeps amazing me.
Essentially what Blizzard has done is increased the subscription price from $15 to $20 a solid increase of 33% for the clueless people out there. Before you reply to this use your brain for a minute and realize that every token that get's bought will be used for a subscription. It's a fact, deal with it. Nothing else matters.
For those that will surely come and say that this is a counter measure for gold farmers, let me fill you in on a little secret: It's not! People will still buy from gold farmers if it's cheaper. Just that now people will buy gold if they get more for $20 than they get from the token on the AH. On the flip side they will buy gold if it's cheaper than the monthly subscription. Either way, the gold sellers can adjust prices as they see fit and even manipulate the market to their favor creating swings in either direction.
Well done Blizzard!
PS: This also has nothing to do with pay 2 win. That is complete nonsense.
The Point is, that this scheme doesn’t prevent Blizzard or WoW from being labeled F2P. And the having to pay for one month also gets them labeled P2W, because any cost for the P4F community is P2W. P2W is not about Winning, but all about Paying. This is why the new trend is to target buyers of “Vanity” items with harassment and abuse to force them to leave the game.
“Who doesn't want to pay?”, the P4F community that's who. Whales will set the price of Tokens, and they will set it in the 1,000,000g range quickly. And the P4F gamers won't like it, because it will be outside of their price range.
For edification, I never miss any points.Boy: Why can't I talk to Him?
Mom: We don't talk to Priests.
As if it could exist, without being payed for.
F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing.
Even telemarketers wouldn't think that.
It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
This post has everything to do with P2W, Tokens will not be in reach of P4F gamers.
Boy: Why can't I talk to Him?
Mom: We don't talk to Priests.
As if it could exist, without being payed for.
F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing.
Even telemarketers wouldn't think that.
It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.