The Battle.net Shop, WoW Token, and You: How to Fix The Micro-Transaction Problem

The Battle.net Shop

Over the past few years, Blizzard has offered in-game items through their Battle.net Shop. In World of Warcraft, you can purchase several services for your account using this shop, including pets, mounts, cosmetic armor, and appearance changes. There are many more, but for the sake of this discussion, these are the only aspects which we will give focus.

Generally speaking, the in-game items on the Battle.net Shop are viewed somewhat negatively by the WoW community. WoW is a game that is built using a monthly subscription model, so adding in-game content via a micro-transaction feels as a sort of betrayal to the game's player base. If we are to pay a subscription, why should we then be gouged with these additional fees for content? In particular, mounts being added to the shop have become a major source of disdain from the community since many mounts in the game are acquired via in-game accomplishments. To illustrate this point further, you need only check the comments and dislikes of their most recently released shop mount. Personally, I think features being exclusive to the in-game shop is an unsavory model which makes players feel more like customers instead of players.

However, there may be a way for Blizzard to keep the shop without it diminishing the Warcraft experience.

Enter the WoW Token.

The WoW Token

In early 2015, Blizzard introduced their WoW token. The WoW token is something that a player can buy from the shop for $20, which is $5 more than a month of WoW game time. Next, the buyer of the token can then post it on the auction house for an amount of gold determined by Blizzard (At the time of this writing, the amount has fluctuated between 20-30k gold). After the token is posted, any player in the game can buy the token from the in-game auction house for the posted amount of gold; that player can then use that token for one month of WoW game time. In short, this gives a players a way to buy gold with real money, and other players a way to buy game time with game currency.

The Fix

So, how do the WoW token and Battle.net shop relate? The WoW token gives Blizzard the opportunity to make more money with their Battle.net shop without pressuring their player base into micro-transactions.

The WoW token is primarily used to allow Blizzard to make an extra $5 in game time services by allowing players to purchase gold. From that, it would make sense that Blizzard should make in-game items that would cost large sums of gold. Additionally, players who do not possess or desire to spend the funds for game time are given the ability to play "for free" by spending their gold buying WoW tokens. 

The major drawback to this type of system is that Blizzard must continue to produce content that is worthy of demanding large gold costs. Obviously, an apparent solution is for Blizzard to allow the services mentioned at the beginning to be purchased in-game for large sums of gold. This would give even more players access to this content while still encouraging the real money purchasing of the WoW token for players who want quick purchases.

But what about the player who doesn't want to buy gold? These players should still have the opportunity to acquire these items by playing the game (novel idea, I know). These items could be rewards for a lengthy quest/reputation line or challenging achievement which requires players to devote time to this cause. At the end of these achievements, the item could then be purchased at a significantly reduced amount of gold. Another possibility is the items could be loyalty rewards for people who maintain an active account over long period of time. For example, if you stay active for 1 year, you can pick an item off the shop for free. These are just a few examples, but I imagine there are limitless ideas that could work.

Additionally, players who are working towards achieving this goal will face the decision of buying the WoW token over saving their gold, which could result in more sub buys. Over time, these players could experience the same amount of content as a player who wishes to pay for a shortcut.

The basic plan can be summarized as follows:

1. Place Battle.net Shop items in the game for large gold prices.
2. Allow players who want to buy on the shop for cash to continue to do so.
3. People who want to buy gold to buy these items will be able to do so.
4. Players who do not wish to buy WoW Tokens must commit large sums of gold and/or complete lengthy/challenging content to mitigate the cost.
5. Blizzard continues to make money off the shop and tokens.

For Blizzard, I think this would just add value to the WoW token. Additionally, more people would experience the content from the shop, and the community may embrace the concept more in the future. For the player, this gives us all an opportunity to make the choice in how we spend our money and enjoy content.