Tag Archives: world of warcraft

Warcrack

I walked into the room and heard the video on my wife’s computer.

“They announced another expansion,” she told me. “I’m watching the description of what’s coming next.”

My first reaction was “Of course they did. This surprises no one.” Then I listened to a few snippets, then I found myself watching with mounting excitement.

Stupid WoW. When will it end?! (Probably not while people are still paying and playing.)

I’m interested about the artifacts… partly because I liked the idea of levelling weapons in LOTRO, and partly because these are cool, lore-related items in most cases to which players have begged to gain access. But most of all, they keep talking about how “You’ve seen Doomhammer wielded by Thrall, or Ashbringer carried into battle by Tirion Fordring. Now you’ll go recover the artifacts from the events of the beginning of the expansion, and you’ll found a new class-specific order by virtue of carrying this artifact from them on.”

So where’s Thrall? Where’s Tirion? I’m looking forward to a shake-up and a lot of death in the list of main NPCs. Muahaha!

WoW, srsly?

So I took a moment to lie to myself errr… justify my monthly payment to Blizzard for the privilege of logging into World of Warcraft.

The launcher opened up, and to my surprise, there’s an add for Cosmetic Head Gear that you can BUY NOW!

No, you’ve got to be kidding me, I think. Curiosity wins, and I click the link.

Put a hat on your toon for the price you pay to play the game for a whole month! WHAT A BARGAIN!
Put a hat on your toon for the price you pay to play the game for a whole month! WHAT A BARGAIN!

Yes.

Hats for your character.

Fifteen bucks each.

I know the Free-to-Play slash Free-to-Pay model is sweeping the medium, but Blizz, here’s a bit of advice. The trick with that model is the term microtransactions. Charge $1.99 for an app, or 99 cents for something cool, and people will pay without thinking too much.

I suppose they have some reason to go this route. They’ve sold unique mounts like celestial steeds, and special pets like mini versions of big bad bosses in the game. Those have ranged from $10 to $25.

But a $15 hat?

Nope, that’s way over my head.