The monetization of World of Warcraft has evolved significantly since I played during Burning Crusade over 10 years ago. Back then, the model was straightforward - you bought the expansion and paid a subscription fee. That was all you needed to access 100% of the game’s content.
Today, I’m noticing through my friends’ Discord group that the purchasing model has become much more complex. Beyond the base expansion packs and subscriptions, there are now early access passes, limited-time mounts (like a $90 dinosaur mount), and promotional tie-ins with products like Mountain Dew and Doritos that offer exclusive cosmetic items. Some players are even buying these promotional codes in bulk to resell online.
Example above, someone paid over $200 just to get some of the mountain dew codes… This shift in monetization strategy raises interesting questions about the direction of the game and MMOs in general. While additional cosmetic options can add variety and personal expression to the game, I wonder about the impact on the player experience and community. Does having these exclusive items create a divide between players who can afford them and those who can’t? Or is it simply offering more choices for those who want them?
I’m particularly curious about the psychological aspect of limited-time offers. The “fear of missing out” seems to be a powerful motivator, especially with items that are advertised as never being available again. But is this enhancing the game experience or just creating artificial scarcity?
Looking forward to hearing different perspectives on this, especially from others who’ve witnessed this evolution firsthand. What do you think about the current monetization approach compared to the simpler model of the past? Has it affected how you engage with the game?
TLDR: WoW’s monetization has changed dramatically from the simple expansion + subscription model of the past to include various limited-time purchases and promotions. People today are scalping and reselling thousand of dollars of mountain dew for in game codes
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If you feel like an user may be a bot, please report it to a mod so we can put said user under observation in order to access its behavior.
Your comment seem well documented, but that’s something that should be sent to the mods via PM, not posted on the open.
If you were wrong, and he was legit, you’d have triggered an harassment campaign against him by encouraging others to just conclude he must be a bot because someone said so with a lengthy comment they don’t have the time to fully check.Edit: clarifying why this shouldn’t be done that way, as my previous take was kinda harsh (I was a bit tired)
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Thanks for contributing in unneccessary witch hunting. You’ve shown that Lemmy can be just as petulant and inhospitable as reddit. Nothing I have ever written is AI generated, such a weird criticism and hilarious to lob that at someone considering that even million dollar tech companies who have made “ai detectors” have failed spectacularly with false positives. But you dislike what I say so you’re 100% correct, right? yea that makes sense dude sure.
It’s amusing to me how you felt the need to write this incredibly long “shame on you” rant, like you were really that bothered by some words you saw that you had to write up a long witch hunt and try to harass me.
The amount you complain about WoW you should probably just quit the game, if you’re even playing it. Also why do you keep making topics and then deleting them? You complained about subscriptions, and now you’re complaining about optional additional cosmetic content.
Like 99% of the community likely doesn’t care about promotional stuff. You can just pay the game and subscription and get access to all gameplay features just fine. If someone spends hundreds of bucks to get some useless promotional item, then let them. It doesn’t affect my gameplay.
Yeah, you can buy a mount from the store that saves you like a 2 minute walk or flight to your closest auction house, ironically I’ve never ever seen anyone even use these mounts outside of the cities that have actual auction houses, they’re usually just next to a mailbox or bank across the street of the auction house.
The fact that these things sell is probably one reason why subscriptions in the past 20 years haven’t rising in the first place.
While additional cosmetic options can add variety and personal expression to the game
I guess if bragging about spending extra money to advertise for some company is personal expression, sure.
