Could you be trading real-world cash for World of Warcraft gear in the future? Never say never, says the designer of the wildly popular MMO.
Sometimes, when subscription-based MMO games have run their course, they turn to a free-to-play, microtransaction-centric business model. World of Warcraft is far from having run its course, but in a recent interview with Videogamer.com, game director Tom Chilton said that microtransactions aren't off the table.
"I certainly think it's possible that we could do some kind of micro-transaction stuff," he said in the interview.
"Whether we ever shift to a free-to-play model is really too hard to say at this point," he added. "Anything I say now could easily five years from now end up seeming like, oh my gosh, that was an incredibly dumb thing to say, how naive!"
However, it's not really a "dumb thing" to say or think, considering last October,* WoW* lead producer J. Allen Brack said that players would be able to pay real money to change their characters' appearances.
He explained this after savvy beta testers noticed a "Paid Character Customization" heading in WoW expansion Wrath of the Lich King.
Characters in Azeroth have been able to get haircuts with in-game currency since Patch 3.0, which was released before the expansion's launch in November. And in December, Blizzard offered the ability to change your WoW character's features, gender and name for $15.
Perhaps Blizzard is trying to decide what would work best for its nearly 12 million worldwide subscribers. Or maybe they're just trying to avoid yet another petition.
What would it take for you to fork over cash in micro-transactions in a game you already subscribe to? Do you want to see WoW go free-to-play one day?
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