WoW Token Launches Tomorrow - 30,000 Gold For 30 Days Game Time
- Thread starter Steven Bogos
- Start date
No. This can act as a gold sink if token prices are rising - because if prices go up, you are paying more gold than the other guy is receiving - but if the token price goes down, it's actually adding gold to the economy. If the price stays stable, it is neither adding nor removing gold, just transferring it from one player to another.MonsterCrit said:
I'll be curious to know how much of an impact, if any, it has on gold sellers in the game. Out of interest, how much is 30k gold in WoW these days? I haven't played since WotLK back when it was fairly substantial.
Lets just say that I spent 8K on heirlooms when that came out a couple weeks ago and recovered in less than 2 weeks. Old Raid a huge source of gold without having to spend much time, plus you get all the achievements and stuff for companion pets and mounts and everything from Cataclysm down is soloable at level 100. 30K is quite easy if you have the time play a while in a month.KingsGambit said:
Sounds like this will substantially impact their bottom line.
I guess they are banking on this idea bringing in new players to make up for the lost revenue by the hardcore playerbase. Sounds extremely risky for a game that's as old as WoW.
Awesome change for any active players though.
I guess they are banking on this idea bringing in new players to make up for the lost revenue by the hardcore playerbase. Sounds extremely risky for a game that's as old as WoW.
Awesome change for any active players though.
Initially the cost is going to go way up, because it's new and many people have a ton of gold stored. Not many people are going to spend $20 for a token though, so I predict the cost will skyrocket till the amount of gold you get is easily worth $20. This will basically allow low level characters to get tons of gold for a bit more then a months subscription. What is more, the smart players will buy a token or 2 now (once the price jumps a ton), and sell them...then hold on to alot of that gold to buy tokens with later once the price drops drastically.
And the price will eventually drop after the initially flurry. The huge amount of gold out there, will create a large demand early on, but over a few months that price will start to drop again.....probably to the point where you could buy 2 tokens for the same cost as one earlier on. Blizzard meanwhile isn't taking a cut out of the gold...but instead is just making a profit on the front end (when the initial token is being bought) since they make at least 25% more then a normal subscription ($15) would cost (and more for longer subs). What keeps you from making a real profit here is the inability to sell tokens for real money to other players (since Blizzard wants to get the profit themselves). If you can't gift or trade tokens in game, there is no real way to make a direct profit from selling them. You can still send money though, so it's possible more players will end up selling gold (which can then be used to buy tokens in game). Blizzard is naturally protected from this by the initial additional cost of tokens though, so no matter what happens, they make a profit. Even if gold farmers sell gold which is used to buy tokens, the initial token cost is a profit for blizzard and they win. It basically cuts out gold farmers all together or at least makes it so blizzard gets a cut of any profits they make.
Sadly, I believe this system will basically cause the rich (or those willing to spend extra money on WoW each month) to basically enslave the poor (those who don't want to pay a subscription fee), taking their profits over a long period of time (probably 40+ hours) and giving them only $15 worth of value (Even though it costs 20...they could get the same value for $15). Seriously, you could do better collecting cans and bottles and trading them in, but then you would have to go .....outside!!
And the price will eventually drop after the initially flurry. The huge amount of gold out there, will create a large demand early on, but over a few months that price will start to drop again.....probably to the point where you could buy 2 tokens for the same cost as one earlier on. Blizzard meanwhile isn't taking a cut out of the gold...but instead is just making a profit on the front end (when the initial token is being bought) since they make at least 25% more then a normal subscription ($15) would cost (and more for longer subs). What keeps you from making a real profit here is the inability to sell tokens for real money to other players (since Blizzard wants to get the profit themselves). If you can't gift or trade tokens in game, there is no real way to make a direct profit from selling them. You can still send money though, so it's possible more players will end up selling gold (which can then be used to buy tokens in game). Blizzard is naturally protected from this by the initial additional cost of tokens though, so no matter what happens, they make a profit. Even if gold farmers sell gold which is used to buy tokens, the initial token cost is a profit for blizzard and they win. It basically cuts out gold farmers all together or at least makes it so blizzard gets a cut of any profits they make.
Sadly, I believe this system will basically cause the rich (or those willing to spend extra money on WoW each month) to basically enslave the poor (those who don't want to pay a subscription fee), taking their profits over a long period of time (probably 40+ hours) and giving them only $15 worth of value (Even though it costs 20...they could get the same value for $15). Seriously, you could do better collecting cans and bottles and trading them in, but then you would have to go .....outside!!
There is no way for them to make less money. Every token is bought from them, at a profit (at least $5 more then a months sub), even if players buy those tokens with gold in game, they still make a profit. Someone pays for the months sub in cash....it's just a way for players to pay gold for sub fees....increasing the player base a bit, and allowing those who want to pay more money to get a advantage in the game.babinro said:
I think long term it'll end up changing the price of gold, but right now it's something close to $25 for 30k gold or so. So if the tokens stayed at 30k for $20..it would undercut the current gold sellers. The amount will go up though and that will undercut them more (I predict it'll hit 40k +KingsGambit said:
And you honestly think Blizzard isn't going to be noodling with the pricing to achieve that effect. Man, when did people get so trusting. No wonder so many people considered Gamergate a 'thing' for a while.Grumman said:
So far myself and a couple of other guildies have bought 12 months worth of tokens and it's only been 30k (30 603 to be exact) each time. It'll be interesting to see how much this fluctuates in, say, a week's time then a month.
It can't be a conspiracy if there is a very high probability. They do have the means, the motive and the opportunity. Or is it wrong to thing that a COmpany that has an entire game which is based off of psychological gambling and addiction tricks would also try to find something to squeeze a few extra dollars out of their consumers.WhiteTigerShiro said:
Face it, WoW is a skinner Box, a well designed skinner Box but a skinner box none the ess which means everything in it is designed to use your own psychological ticks agains you, to condition a pattern of behaviour. Given that's how the game is designed.... do you really think the people who would design such a game would have any qualms about using it to squeeze a few extra dollars from you?
seeing this work in other games this is great. if you allow for natural price fluctuation to follow token prices it will pretty much destroy all illegal gametime sales and create a safe environment for what once was underground business full of scammers.
Also you can actually choke Plex economy. there is a limited number of total plexes available. each time one is used one extra is avaible for real money. the total number of plexes in economy cannot increase. this keeps the price high without letting gold farmers profit.
and heres the entire point of this out of the window......Grumman said:
i could afford 6 years of gametime in Eve Online if i were to spend all my ISK. but i already played it for 6 years and its time to move on to other games.Denamic said:
People selling game time for ingame gold are going to happen whether you like it or not. the only difference is whether you use a safe official system like tokens or you use underground websites full of scammers.Silentpony said:
which is exactly why the price of the token needs to be based on market price and not set by blizzard.NickBrahz said:
i disagree. the plex resale economy was quite a thing. and it didnt harm the concept at all. also fun when somone udocked with 30 plexes and got blown up.Zontar said:
Also you can actually choke Plex economy. there is a limited number of total plexes available. each time one is used one extra is avaible for real money. the total number of plexes in economy cannot increase. this keeps the price high without letting gold farmers profit.
This does not remove gold from exconomy. when you buy a gold token you are buying from anotyher player, and he recieves the gold. the gold he will go on to spend on items, ect. so the total number of gold in economy will not go down and gold will not get scarce. this is not a goldsink.MonsterCrit said:
There is no lost revenue. Any game time anyone buys with gold will still have to be paid by someone else. in fact they gain revenue because the token cost more than regular 30 days.babinro said:
It's funny when some idiot undocks with Plex and learns the hard way why you never, ever transport Plex, but the Plex trade economy artificially increases the price of the item and is the reason why the price has more then doubled over the past year. Plus, Ples is not finite, one being destroyed doesn't have any measurable value on the EvE economy because it isn't built by resources being used or blueprints being copies/consumed, it's made by someone buying it off of Steam or CCP's store, and then the company programming a copy into their hanger bay. It comes out of nowhere, and supply is based purely on how many people are willing to pay real money for in game currency.Strazdas said:
*sigh* So trusting. You're right technically it doesn't act as a direct Goldsink.. so long as the person who put it up is a valid player account and not say an Account created by Blizzard. You see that's the problem. Folks are far too trusting.. I mean the RMAH in D3, did anyon really, really think all those items were put up by other players? Really. Nope. I'd bet dollars that more than a few of them items were put up by blizzard. There very own version of the Mann Co. Store. Now see, there's no real way of knowing yeah or nay for sure but from the shennanigans that Blizzard has pulled in the past and thevery way they designed their game... I find it very hard to believe in their beneficence. SorryStrazdas said:
I would say that while functionally they're very much the same, PLEX occupies a different place in the economy of Eve than the token may for WoW. The "PLEX economy" existed long before there was even a PLEX, in the form of GTC trades, but really took off after PLEX was introduced as an in-game item. Point is, the increase in the price of PLEX isn't because it's something new like the WoW Token that allow people with excess capital to funnel towards, since it's always existed(I started playing Eve during RMR, which is more than 9 years ago).Zontar said:
The main difference is that GTC/PLEX price has always served as a general inflation index for the Eve economy, a sort of "gold standard" if you will that pegs the relative worth of ISK. When PLEX prices go up, it's not because it's suddenly more desirable, but rather indicative of an increasing availability of ISK in game. The cost of 30 day GTC/PLEX have slowly appreciated over the years as the Eve economy and inflation grew, but it's only after the introduction of Incursion that the price began its explosive growth, because of how much extra ISK is being dumped into the hands of players.
Technically it's possible. Although the Token is much more controlled than PLEX is, even CCP have stated that when the prices of PLEX goes out of control, they may step in and control the price via releasing their own supply of PLEX on the market. However, this is to specifically combat PLEX prices that are too high, not as a gold-sink, because there are far more effective ways to do so that doesn't hurt the company's bottom line.MonsterCrit said:
What you say is not only unlikely, but also utterly pointless and bizarre when you look at it from Blizzard's point of view. Intentionally creating deflation in the game's economy is not beneficial to Blizzard in any way shape or form, why would they do it? Not to mention they'd be doing it with a DIRECT and REAL NEGATIVE LOSS to their revenue - They may general PLEX/Token out of thin air, but each one still represent a real financial obligation/liability to the company. Every PLEX/Token is in essence an advance on future earnings, as they will replace an actual real money transaction to the company when redeemed.
CCP has a real financial interest in preventing PLEX prices from getting out of hand - they don't want to lose subscriber bases that would be driven out by those prices, what would Blizzard gain here? Absolutely nothing that I can see, for what you say to be true, Blizzard would literally need to have this conversation:
"Dude, let's throw money away for like, no reason man!"
"....HELLZ YES, YOU'RE A GENIUS DUDE!!!"
It is not built by ingame economy, but that does not mean its not finite. As i explained before, there is a finite number of plexes TOTAL that can exist. you cannot buy more if the total is reached. and i mean you cannot buy for real money. Of course its been pretty useless in last few years since the wall isnt being hit due to large tunrover, but it is finite.Zontar said:
Plex trade is not the reason prices inflated. ISK faucets are. Mainly - incusions spawning ISK as payment thus swelling ISK economy as well as the agent changes. The ISK swelling was quite clear to me as a ore/mineral trader just by looking at mineral prices alone. there is way too much ISK in the economy and its way too easy to get isk into economy that isnt from other players.
The Plex price increase started with PI though. See, PI, namely POS fuel used to be huge ISK sink. however since players now extract and make those, there is no more ISK paid to NPCs but rather just to other players. this mean there were a lot of extra ISK in the economy.
It would be quite stupid for Blizzard to use this as a goldsink when they could easily have other gold sinks made that does not actually cost them profits. if Blizz used this as a gold sink it means they gone completely alergic to money. and i think youll agree thats not the case. Selling items as gold sink is one thing, selling game time is another. selling items does not cost blizzard anything. selling these tokens means lost revenue.MonsterCrit said:
Sure, there is no way of knowing for sure, but unless blizzard decided to go bacrupt for some reason we can come to a reasonable conclusion.
I see it as a good move. They effectively control inflation, funnel money away from the game world, and keep hardcore players happy, while making the game more accesible for casual audiences who have a hard time getting good stuff early on due to high prices at the AH. All while still making a profit.