Posted by iTZKooPA on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 - 13 Comments
Tags: blizzard store, lil kt, microtransactions, nerd rage, pandaren monk, the instance podcast, tom chilton, wow tcg
That's Him Right? Love The New Look
I know I had a little nerd rage in me yesterday during our polite discussion about the Pandaren Monk. It turns out that Blizzard wasn’t trying to be an evil corporation. Just that somewhere along the lines Blizzard made a simple mistake when populating a database field, causing the item to sell out when it wasn’t possible. It took the situation a few hours to be rectified, but I’ll give the web team a little leeway since I blew my lid while they were still counting sheep.
After a guildmate saw me fly off the handle he pointed me in the direction of The Instance. The long-running podcast managed to corner Tom Chilton for an interview, which went live as part of the latest episode. In a case of near-perfect timing, the host pinged Chilton on the topic of the moment, Blizzard’s non-combat pet microtransactions.
According to Chilton, the inclusion of the pets in the Blizzard store are a result of the WoW TCG. Initially conceived as a bonus to players of the TCG and WoW, the loot cards became a way for players to raise their pet or mount count directly. The decision was made to offer these incentives directly, removing the randomness from the practice.
It’d be naive of us to not think of the monetary/safety factor though. Purchasing the pets and mounts required obscene amounts of money. Money that Blizzard, nor Upper Deck, saw any part of. By selling the items directly Blizzard not only gets its hand in the pie, but it can also police the transactions. This lowers the amount of customer service calls from people who were scammed or hacked as a result of third party purchasing.
How did the company arrive at the $10 slice of pie, you ask? Chilton covers that as well. The $10 price is no accident. Not only is a Hamilton a president that Blizzard feels the market can bear, but the company needed to justify the efforts of the artists and animators that were involved in the project. I’m sure we’ve all noticed just how complex and detailed Lil’ KT and the Pandaren Monk are compared to the stable of vanity pets we already have.
Chilton even offers a glimpse at the future of the project, one that he calls a “side project.” For starters, there is definitely going to be more items placed in the store, but none were detailed. He did mention that there’d be “pet and plushie” sales. These would offer a physical and virtual item of a stuffed mob. We assume that the price point would be lower than purchasing them separate. Chilton ensured listeners that normal WoW content development has not, and would not, be effected by the store. He stated that new developers would be hired to produce its content, should the store continue to grow.
There, now no one can call me anything but ‘fair and balanced.’
P.S. Kinda sucks for the Europeans out there that pay €10, which is ~$15. Even worse is what UK players pay, £9, which turns out to be more than their subscription rate. Not much more, but North Americans only pay two-thirds of our rate for a pet.
Related Posts: One More Content Patch In The Works?, Speculating About Blizzard’s Next MMO, Blizzard Sells Out Of Non-Combat Pet, WoW’s 5th Anniversary: Video Feature, Arenas: Biggest Design Mistake of WoW,
By Asher on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
First and the the instance is a GREAT podcast
By Rogue4Life on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
ah well, now isn’t that better. things are back to how they should be. although it would have been interesting if it had been true and there was a limited number that would be purchased. ah the joys of our technology.
so, when can we expect Blizz to offer gold from the store? with how many pets have been purchased, I would venture to guess that they would make a killing if they sold gold themselves.
By Johnes on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Lol, the guy on the picture is not even Tom, i belive that this is Tom - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Chilton_%28game_developer%29 ;-D
By Juggynaut on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
technically that is tom chilton, just not the one mentioned in the article
By amanda on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Some how I’ve never heard of this podcast…. Slightly in the dark I know, so I’ll have to check it out.
I’m still rather unnerved at the idea of micro-transaction for a mmo that you all ready pay monthly for. Yes I know its for the extra stuff, and most MMOs do, do that. Unless your maple-story and have timers on your items. (or so they did that a while ago, again in the dark. Ha I am starting to see the light… oh wait no sorry that was a bug light.)
And yes I know that’s where this idea called choice comes in :P.
By Kyndranigar on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
$10 is way fair compared to trying to get TCG Loot cards. Even just buying a booster pack and crossing your fingers is a $3.95 gamble. Loot cards have a rarity greater than 1 in 3, so even buying $10 worth of cards is by no means a guaranteed pet/mount/shiny thing.
By Lockless on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Yet more proof of citizens of the United Kingdom paying more for the same thing than anyone else.
By PatrickD on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
You know what would be awesome? …if Project Lore had a podcast.
*snicker*
By Crosis The Pally on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
Who ever he is he’s cute. oh and um 9th lol.
By Pegraath on Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
I was going to mention: How does the UK price qualify as “micro”?
In fact, how do any of the prices qualify as micro? I always thought a microtransaction was where you paid less than a dollar/pound/euro. Perhaps you bought points that worked out as 100 per dollar (to make it credit card friendly), and items would cost a few points. That would be my definition of a microtransaction. Paying more for one item than 444 of the games on Steam, and Steam doesn’t call those microtransactions. Not that I’m against the sale of pets online, just qualifying them as “microtransactions”.
By Phanttas on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 9:02 am
I also don’t see why UK/EU has to pay more. Did their currency converter break? Do they not realize things over the internet do not need post and packaging?
I’m gonna hold my judgment because, to be honest, I expect the answer is that maybe they had to pay money to the UK to sell them here or something else that is a legal matter. Either way I don’t plan on buying a pet (especially at the price of 1 months subscription) I’m just curious as to why.
By not on Sunday, November 15th, 2009 at 7:13 am
lmao , that’s british touring car champion tom chilton -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Chilton ……one word comes to mind : fail.
By twong on Sunday, November 15th, 2009 at 10:53 am
LOL at all the people not getting the joke.