In a world of free-to-play Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, Blizzard Entertainment's "World of Warcraft" has maintained its subscription service. With more than 10 million players at the release of their latest expansion, it's hard to say that the game is having problems maintaining a paying playerbase. However, Blizzard has decided to add an in-game option that would let players play Warcraft without paying for a subscription.
Blizzard announced the WoW Token on Monday. This small device is a token that players can purchase for real money and sell via an "Auction House" for whatever price they like. Players can redeem them for 30 days of game time.
Technically, this isn't "World of Warcraft" going free-to-play. But it does provide an outlet for players with a lot of gold to keep playing without spending real money. Other games have used similar methods to keep players in-game.
How will the Token affect the WoW community? Some people think it will help slow down the inevitable decline of players. Every time Blizzard releases a new WoW expansion, an influx of players returns to the game, making it look like the next best thing. However, many of those players end up leaving the game after six months. Creating an option where players can pay with in-game currency could keep a significant portion of those players in-game.
The WoW token could also play a part in getting old players back into the game. According to an interview with Venturebeat, players who have old avatars with enough gold could reactivate their character account without spending money.
However, here's a big question: How will this affect the in-game currency? Blizzard has never let players buy in-game gold with real money. However, players have always had the option of purchasing farmed gold from third-party services. By adding the WoW Token into the game, Blizzard is indirectly answering the question of how much the in-game gold actually costs, which could affect the current rate gold goes for on the black market (currently 10,000 gold for $10). Blizzard plans on setting the in-game price at first but will let the process of supply and demand determine the going rates on each server.
Blizzard plans to introduce the WoW Token into World of Warcraft in an upcoming patch.
