Popular Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) "World of Warcraft" might be taking a step toward in-game purchases to help players level a character faster if they're willing to pay the extra price.
Rumors began circulating when, on the game's public test server, players discovered an item called the "Enduring Elixir of Wisdom." The item description says: "Experience gained from killing a monster and completing quests increased by 100%." What this means in non-MMORPG vernacular is if players are willing to spend real-world money they can receive this item and get a character to the end game level of 90 by doing less work. Offering in-game purchases for perk items that help players level faster or attain better items is a practice that a lot of MMORPGs that are free-to-play implement as a way of making money. "World of Warcraft" operates on a subscription based system, each user has to pay a monthly required payment before enjoying the game's activities.
Currently the game allows for a few micro transaction purchases on things like pets and mounts but those are largely aesthetic purchases and take place outside of the game.
Blizzard senior community manager Zarhym, a.k.a. Jonathan Brown, posted on the forums of battle.net Thursday to discuss the potential for more "pay-to-win" buttons within the game.
"We are currently exploring the possibility of adding a way for players in certain regions to make purchases directly within the game," Zarhym wrote. "As part of this process, elements related to this will be appearing on the [Public Test Realm]. We'll provide additional updates on our plans as development progresses."
"World of Warcraft" is the most successful MMORPG on the market but is regularly losing subscribers as the years go on and the expansion packs make it more and more difficult for new users to join the game. To date, there are four expansion packs on top of the original game. Many are starting to speculate that, in light of waning subscriptions and Blizzard putting most of its efforts elsewhere, if "World of Warcraft" is on its way to becoming free-to-play. However, nothing official has been confirmed by Blizzard.
