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

  • Aielman15@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    4 days ago

    But there are other examples as well! 16th of August:

    Another game that I have really come to enjoy lately is Genshin impact from Hoyo. This is a gacha game, But it’s still relatively fun to play with no monetary investment at all because of how generous they are with being able to obtain the in-game currency, the entire storyline basically is available without any paywall. Cannot say this for a lot of games.

    And 15th of September:

    It’s funny that you mentioned Genshin because it’s probably one of the most predatory of all. Star rail isn’t really that bad, has much more generous pity. The new game that Hoyo just put out, however, zenless, is fucking terrifyingly predatory.

    There’s also the fact that you “accidentally” used AI to slip in wrong misinformation in your posts, such as Monthly subscription costs are no longer affordable (deleted, but can still be seen in your profile history)

    Thanks for pointing that out. My math was horribly off here. That’s what I get for using Google sheets to try and work this out myself :( I corrected it. I was accidentally multiplying by something without realizing it.

    Was it Google Sheets or Google’s Gemini shit? Oh, wait, it was not Gemini. It was Claude.

    Are you sure about that? This is a huge amount of information. I put all the facts into Claude and asked it who was correct, you or me. It told me I’m correct based on the facts provided to it. So even a multi million dollar language learning model came to the same conclusion I did.

    It honestly seems to me that you are either trolling, or using an AI to generate catchy rage-bait posts. To what purpose, I don’t know, but you certainly are not engaging in good faith with the community.

    • Buttflapper@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      3 days ago

      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.