How one WoW player’s eye for fashion made a million gold in 45 days
I hate the quandary between stats versus looks in MMOs. That’s why I love transmogrification; it lets you copy the appearance of one magical item onto another. In practice that means you can take two items: one powerful, one dapper and combine them to make a pretty thing with great stats.
The concept is nothing new, but it wasn’t introduced to World of Warcraft until last November’s patch 4.3. One man – appropriately known as The Mogfather – saw potential for extreme virtual wealth.
The Mogfather’s goal was to prove how profitable the transmogrification could be. Players aren’t able to sell any products created by the process, but that didn’t deter the entrepreneur. He started buying up auctions for cheap armour that looked cool: “When I looked at those armor sets that were primarily made up of lower-level items from The Burning Crusade and vanilla, my design eye kicked in,” the Mogfather told Joystiq. And he did all this before patch 4.3 landed.
Then, once the new feature hit, he relisted his designer items at a higher price based purely on their aesthetic appeal. “I took the pricing spread of fashion and brought it to my markets.”
Diablo III’s Battle.net Balance goes live
In a flurry of alliteration, Blizzard’s Battle.net Balance has finally been unleashed. The service allows gamers to add funds to their account using online transaction services such as PayPal, and it’s being tested in the Diablo III beta. The account also gives gamers somewhere to store hard-earned cash accumulated in Diablo III’s auction house.
The big question is whether or not gamers will be able to withdraw funds from their Battle.net Balances into the real world. According to Blizzard’s FAQ, this will be allowed “in certain regions”, but a fee will be charged. It’s also optional in Diablo III’s auction house, so you can still purchase items via traditional methods like PayPay and credit cards. Blizzard states that standard auction house fees will be applied to transactions regardless of where they’ve come from.
Opinion: Why World of Warcraft’s new talent system doesn’t go far enough
I don’t envy the World of Warcraft development team. They’ve got a population of 10+ million players to please, a relentless stream of expansion packs and patches to deliver, and a vast array of content to refresh and balance. It’s a hard job. Right now – they’re taking on one of the hardest jobs possible: introducing fundamental change to the core mechanics of the game – the talent system – in an attempt to improve it.
The new talent system let you assign points into a tree of abilities every level or so. Instead, you’re given a menu of abilities that unlock at pre-defined intervals, and at those intervals you’ll pick one from three. It feels, immediately, less RPG-y that by not assigning points every level (or in Cata, every other level) you’re making less choices. But, I do agree with Ghostcrawler who pointed out in his blog that “you will have more choices that *matter*.”
World of Warcraft is seven, free stuff for all players
If World of Warcraft were an Indian child, it would have just reached the age of criminal responsibility. This is a round-about way of saying that World of Warcraft is seven years old. To celebrate the game being legally responsible for its actions – if it were an Indian child – developers and publishers Blizzard are giving away a “Celebration Package” item, according to their official blog and reported by our chums at CVG.
The item consists of a few fireworks, a “feat of strength” added to your achievements, a visual only tabard and a 7% bonus to experience and reputation gains while active. To get the package, you’ll need to log in between now and 3 December. “It’s been a truly incredible seven years, and we’d like to thank you all for joining us for yet another fantastic year,” say Blizzard, adding a request that players “please observe all goblin and gnome fire hazard warnings and celebrate responsibly.”
Got a Blizzcon ticket and cash to spare? Buy some limited edition tat
I’m a sucker for official merchandise. Not so much t-shirts and hoodies but classy stuff like plushies and figurines. That’s why the official post-Blizzcon sale has got me interested. These products might be overpriced (and some might qualify as girl-repellent) but they’re official and limited in number.
The special merchandise is available from now until November 18 at 10 a.m. PT. To gain access to the items, sign into the site with your Blizzcon 2011 ticket, virtual ticket or Blizzcon 2011 Pay Per View pass. Then enter your credit card details and bankrupt yourself!
Let us know what’s in your basket/wishlist in the comments. I want the Diablo 3 t-shirt featured in the thumbnail image, lots. Whoops! I just contradicted the first line of this post. Sorry.
Panda-ing to the hardcore: Blizzard’s Greg Street on Mists of Pandaria’s difficulty levels
In World of Warcraft, balance is king. With such a huge userbase, it’s essential to ensure noobs are able to play the game without feeling frustrated. At the same time hardcore players need a tooth-grindingly tough experience.
We caught up with World of Warcraft’s lead systems designer, Greg Street at Blizzcon. He admits that most recent expansion Cataclysm got it a bit wrong. “In Wrath of the Lich King we heard from our players that the PvE content was too easy,” says Street. “So we were like okay, clearly what we need to do is make the PvE content harder, which we did for Cataclysm and then players told us ‘it’s too hard, I can’t handle it!’”
PC cleans up at the Golden Joystick Awards
Whoa. When did PC gaming become so damn… award-winning?
PC has cleaned up at the Golden Joystick awards with a wealth of exclusives. And the non PC exclusive games that took an award? We get to play most of those too, only more anti aliased, and in a better resolution.
The best bit? Gamers voted for these. Real-life gamers with strong opinons. A record-breaking 2.06 million of them in fact. Well done PC gaming community – you rose to the challenge and pwned.
Click through for the full results. Don’t agree with some of the winners? It’s time for a furious debate. See you in the comments.
Firefall’s Mark Kern: “There are horrible ways to implement free to play”
A few weeks ago we introduced Mark Kern’s “Circle of Suck.” But we also talked to the Red 5 dev about the difficulties of creating a free to play MMO. Turns out it’s pretty damn difficult.
“I think there are horrible ways to implement free-to-play” said Mark.
“You’ve got to understand that for a lot of these large publishers, it’s very hard for them to comprehend how free-to-play would work and to take the risk of doing free-to-play with an AAA game.”
The Red 5 developer says that too much greed can break the model: “They’re under the mentality that everybody must pay; no-one gets a free ride. And so you get these warped models like, ‘buy the box, pay a subscription, we’ll give you in-game advertising and you have to buy microtransactions or sell power all at the same time.’ That doesn’t really work.”
How Blizzard’s Guardian Cub pet could change World of Warcraft’s economy forever
The official World of Warcraft blog has has just spilled the info on World of Warcraft’s new Guardian Cub tradeable pet.
Cute pets in WoW? That’s nothing new.
But pets that can be bought for real-life cash and then traded in the in-game Auction House? That sounds like a currency to me. A proxy currency that might provide WoW with the missing link between real-world money and your Azeroth gold. Is WoW going a bit Diablo 3?
Bioware: “There will always be a place for premium content at a premium price”
We’ve already reported on John Smedley’s take on subscription-based MMOs. The Sony Online Entertainment president told gamesindustry.biz that they’re on the way out: “In my opinion [Star Wars: The Old Republic] is going to be the last large scale MMO to use the traditional subscription business model. Why do I think that? Simply put, the world is moving on from this model and over time people aren’t going to accept this method.”
Now the Bioware doctors have had a chance to respond. Their upcoming MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic, will require subscription costs identical to the already-established World of Warcraft. That’s $14.99/£8.99/€12.99 per month.
World of Warcraft 4.3 patch is a loregasm. Plus: why 4.3 can’t be the end for Cataclysm
Deathwing skewered on the perch of Wyrmrest Temple. The tortured ghosts of Sylvanas, Jaina and Tyrande. Mannaroth! Again! Last night, Blizzard released details of the new dungeons and raids coming to World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. I’ve got some bad news.
They sound amazing. Prepare for a loregasm.
There are three five-mans and one raid coming to 4.3. The five-mans tell the story of heroes charging through time and space to retrieve the Dragon Soul, an ancient weapon that Thrall and the remaining sane Dragon Aspects reckon could defeat Deathwing. The raid is the run up to, and the final Deathwing fight – running up Wyrmrest Temple before being plunged into the Maelstrom.
So: first to the end of the World. Of Warcraft. In End Times.
Blizzard music store now open, World of Warcraft, StarCraft 2 and Diablo 3 music for sale
Ever wanted to stride down to the local store while listening to World of Warcraft soundtrack, turning your sortie for sundries into a grandiose quest to obtain milk because you suspect the milk you have has gone off and you’re not sure but screw it you can never have enough milk anyway? Well then you’ll be delighted to discover that Blizzard have opened up a music store, selling soundtracks to World of Warcraft, StarCraft 2, Diablo 2 and even a bit of music from Diablo 3.
Each individual track costs $0.99 and albums cost $9.99. Stick the StarCraft 2 music on in the background while preparing dinner this evening, and use your skyrocketing actions per minute ratio to make a feast fit for a Zerg brood.
World of Warcraft subscription decline “makes sense” says lead dev. PC is “re-emerging”
Tom Chilton, lead developer on life-altering MMO, World of Warcraft, has been speaking to us about the recent dip in World of Warcraft’s playerbase and the value of PC as a gaming platform.
Tom says that PCs are on the up, and that the “big spike” and “bigger dip” in player numbers post-Cataclysm is not a cause for concern. This is good news for everyone.
World of Warcraft patch 4.3 to add Deathwing raid, Transmogrifier and Void Storage. Real ID party system now live
World of Warcraft lead developer Tom Chilton has been talking to Gamona.de about the contents of WoW’s next big patch. MMO Champion spotted the article, which confirms that patch 4.3 will add the long awaited Deathwing raid, as well as a couple of intriguing new NPC vendors.
World of Warcraft Real ID Party beta lets friends on different Realms play together
On Battle.net, Blizzard announce that a new World of Warcraft Real ID Party system has gone into public beta. The system will let players on different Realms unite to take on 5-layer normal or heroic dungeons as long as they’re from the same faction. If you can’t form a five man party, the remaining slots can be filled using Dungeon Finder. Blizzard haven’t said how long the beta will last, or whether it will eventually be available exclusively to subscribers, but they have posted more information in the form of a FAQ.
