In what could be an opinion changer for the entire online gaming industry, it now seems as though we might see microtransactions showing up in Blizzards runaway success: World of Warcraft.  Die hards of the ‘subscription or die’ model have long held WoW as the bastion of last hope in a market increasingly turning towards alternate revenue models.

WarCry has been providing excellent coverage of the Blizzcon and released juicy details about Blizzard’s implementation of microtransactions.  When WoW Production director J. Allen Brack was asked about a button found in the Wrath of the Lich King’s beta files entitled “Paid Character Customization” he initially hesitated with answering the question.  Several questions and answers later, Brack took the bull by the horns and answered the question, confirming that Wrath of the Lich King would eventually have some form of paid character customization, but that they details had not yet been worked out.

It’s also been reported that Blizzard has been investigating opportunities to monetize it’s popular Battle.net gaming service, but Diablo 3 Lead Designer Jay Wilson answered that the company has not yet decided how to approach the matter.  He did however rule out that charging for multiplayer action within Diablo 3 was out of the question.

As stated in the opening paragraph, World of Warcraft has been a flame of hope for all microtransaction neigh sayers since the business model started making waves in the Asian market years ago.  If Blizzard is now finally starting to show cracks in it’s ‘subscription only’ armor, they very well may be in the position to sway the general opinion in the ‘microtransactions are the devil’ camps.  Wow’s new patch 3.0.2 includes a number of Wrath of the Lich King prep updates including a Barber Shop in Stormwind, Ironforge, Undercity, Orgrimmar, and Area 52.  This barber shop allows for character customizations, I’m assuming much in the way that ‘Paid Character Customization’ would, with just the difference of real world money vs. in game money.  This is a brilliant move on Blizzards part to get parties interested in the entire idea of re-shaping the looks of their character.  Once Wrath of the Lich King arrives on November 13th, audiences are already familiar with the process, and the conversion from in-game money haircuts, to real-world money purple and black leather, ultra sweet looking, you don’t have one outfits for their rogue should be smooth sailing.

All said and done, let’s remember that Mr. Brack’s comment was only “World of Warcraft would eventually have some form of paid character customization”.  It’s far too early to even speculate on what Blizzard may or may not do with this option, but the game just got far more interesting to us here at fatfoogoo with this option on the table.

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