Slope, Meet Canola Oil
Blizzard looks in on the RMT party, likes what it sees.
While the recent EA announcement got the lions share of the flamage, (and counterpoint) Blizzard seems to have quetly implemented phase 2 of their plan to take over the world. And although it's not really news that Blizzard have intended to do an end-run around traditional RMT via their World of Warcraft Collectible Card Game, I think most players were surprised at the ferocity of the mugging.
From GWN:
A pack of cards, containing 100 points, sells for $5.00, while an entire box, containing 24 packs or 2400 points, costs around $100.00. UDE lists the in-game fireworks trinket at 20,000 points and the ogre trinket at a whopping 50,000 points. The talbard, which sells for a "reasonable" 2,500 points, actually requires an account of points worth 25,000, placing it in the same price bracket as the other trinkets.
This means that in order to get these trinkets, one would have to purchase 9 BOXES of cards for the fireworks and 21 BOXES of cards for the ogre. What does this mean? Want a fireworks trinket? Sure, it is only going to cost you $900.00. Want an Ogre trinket? No problem, it is only going to cost you $2,100.00. Bear in mind that these items are purely for show off purposes and give no in-game advantage to players.
One argument I'm starting to hear more and more for these types of macro-payment schemes is that games are becoming more and more expensive to create and, in the case of MMOs, support. The argument you hear from the industry is that these types of schemes help continue the state of the art. So that, you know, they can perpetuate the next generation of machinations to even more efficiently loosen up the slots that are the player-base.
Yeah. Cry me a revenue stream.
November 16th, 2006 at 10:46 am
Hmmm if there are no real in-game advantages to having bought the card game, I’m not sure I can call foul. I remember buying a box of Magic the Gathering cards for each expansion just so I would be able to play a wide range of oddball decks. Still that was about $400-$500 per year and considered relatively high spending at the local gaming store. At that rate, an avid WoW card playing fiend would take five years to get the cheapest charm. Seems to me like they will soak a very few people with a great deal of money, but their average player will either play the card game on it’s merits, or not. The buy-in cost for in-game status is too rich for most people even if the card game is good.
November 16th, 2006 at 11:27 am
Well, if it gives no in-game advantage, and people are willing to buy it, Blizzard can go ahead. The problem with actual RMT is the way it distorts the game economy (also the way it leads to irritating Chinese farmers crowding the servers), but this won’t do that.
While there is no way I’d spend hundreds, much less thousands, of dollars for trinkets, I have no problem with Blizzard taking the money of rich idiots. Whether there are enough rich idiots to support the scheme is another question.
November 16th, 2006 at 11:54 am
I should clarify that I’m not complaining that the card game thing is RMT. Only that, as my oh-so-clever title implies, it seems a short hop away.
November 16th, 2006 at 1:21 pm
RMT always is, but your favorite pastime (c’mon, admit it, you never bought some uber paper pants from Yantis?) won’t happen in WoW for many years, the orange magic 8-ball said so.
November 16th, 2006 at 1:43 pm
Thank you for clarifying the title. I was invisioning something else with the oil (and the go-go boots). Didn’t realize we weren’t talking about your film debut anymore. :/
I still don’t really get what real reason anyone has to be against RMT. All I ever hear is that it “ruins the economy”. Right, like all the catassers aren’t already “ruining the economy”. And who is it that gets to determine at what point an economy is “ruined”?
November 16th, 2006 at 1:52 pm
RAWR!!!!1!1!
for great justice
November 16th, 2006 at 2:55 pm
The oil and go-go boots extended scenes will be available for unlocking by purchasing Amber Night: The Collectible Card Game decks. Purchase $800 worth of cards and you get the unrated “Bloggers Gone Wild” DVD.
@Krones:
I don’t have to buy, it’s complimentary. And please remember in the future that Amber Night is a proud sponsor of IGE. We do not speak of the Y-word on these premises.
@BugHunter:
All shall be revealed in the vid.
November 17th, 2006 at 1:40 am
I really wish Blizzard would let go of the ‘there needs to be some people better than all the rest’ idea. People with more money = better trinkets than the rest. People with more time = better loot than the rest.
I think Mount Blizzard met Canola Oil a loong time ago. Only instead of a friendly chat, some dinner, some slow romance to test the waters, and ultimately a messy, “it’s not you” break up… Blizzard decided to grease itself up like Hasselhof in heat and rub itself all over the shiny.
Er, moving on from that eery mental image…
@Amber:
Sometimes I have to worry about myself: There’s a sentence with ‘unrated, oil, go-go-boots, Amber, and gone wild’ in it, and i’m still seeing “Amber Night: The Collectible Card Game” as the most exciting thing! ;oS
November 17th, 2006 at 10:25 am
This idea isn’t exclusive to Blizzard this is simple economies of scale. Everywhere you turn people with more money have the shiny and people with more time invested generally realize a greater return. You can’t lay this at the feet of Blizzard and ask them to create the catasser’s paradise where all players are equal.
November 17th, 2006 at 12:13 pm
They don’t have to get it right. It would just be nice of them, well anyone, to try. I only chose Blizzard in this instance because of the topic. Really, they have gone and made an elitist system again with the Trading Card System. They could just have easily made the point requirements for trinkets smaller and added several other ‘fun’ trinkets. This would of resulted in a much nicer, more accessible system.
There’s nothing damaging in the trinket’s so why elitise them.
And this is all ignoring the fact that $900 investment for an in game reward is silly. They may just change it though after someone points it out.
I am an idealist in these things sometimes.
November 17th, 2006 at 1:41 pm
Congratulations!! You are the top site in the google search for ‘unrated amber go-go boots’. Now you have to deliver on the promise.
November 17th, 2006 at 4:56 pm
Are you ready boots? Start walkin’!
November 18th, 2006 at 1:24 pm
Nice write-up. Realistically though, where does the line get drawn in a competitive MMO with company sponsored RMT? I might suggest a few ways it could be pushed even further:
Expansions serve a similar purpose to RMT, buy the shiny new box, your character will progress and become better (sometimes very quickly) than people who don’t buy the shiny box.
How about second, third, and fourth accounts? There are a number of game mechanics that can be worked around in most MMO’s by simply picking up a 2nd or 3rd account. Sometimes its the ability to “solo”, to fight better fights on your own terms, sometimes its to get around crafting or harvesting restrictions (SWG leaps to the forefront here), and yet there’s also a pool of folks who do this for the intrinsic challenge of playing multiple characters at the same time.
Behavior rewards are another potential link. Be subscribed for X amount of time, get an award that will make you better automatically than someone who hasn’t been subscribed as long. Buy the box in a retail outlet, get a reward that isn’t available to the digital downloaders. Sometimes the rewards are harmless fun, some are high value rewards that might allow you to sell back an expensive item you have already paid for, others are actual combat and xp gain advantages.
(as an aside, I know some of these comments are an affront to anyone in the gaming industry, since most are comped on the number of shiny new boxes that get sold, but I do think its important to point out that this behavior already happens, in just about every game.)
Given that its already happening in a variety of ways, it really shouldn’t be surprising that a “mini-game” would start to provide some rewards back to the main MMO. In fact, that should be part of the allure of the associated mini game.
The problem is, its still a dangerous concept.
December 12th, 2006 at 2:11 pm
Only 7 1/2 boxes worth of points to go and you, my sweet, sweet Ogre Trinket will be mine!
Don’t mind the divorce papers I need to sign.