by JR Cook - 9 years ago     show comments

Months ago, after the 2015 preview post revealed the initial plans for the WoW Token, I posted my reactions to the idea, which at the time made a few assumptions that turned out to not be true. However, even with what Blizzard has stated about current plans for the token, it still sounds like an excellent idea, and let me tell you why.

The constraints upon the system are part of why I’m convinced this is going to work:

1. Buy tokens with real currency to sell for a market-determined price on the Auction House, OR
2. Buy tokens with gold after they’ve been posted by others on the purpose-built, region-wide section of the Auction House,

… and that’s IT. You can’t use a token bought with real currency for yourself, you can’t trade it freely with other players, and you can’t set the price on the token. Players have zero control over the gold price of the token, which is what enables Blizzard to specifically make the system about either getting a fixed amount of gold or time.

Even while some of my initial assertions were wrong, I realize now that Blizzard is 100% in the right with how they’re implementing this.

Players Can’t Be Trusted: If players have ANY ability to manipulate the gold price, they will, and it would ruin the system. Those players would have greater power to create and enforce a grey market, allowing certain players to enrich themselves, while the only advantage would be that Blizzard was getting the initial monetary investment. It feels a little odd to characterize it this way, but Blizzard’s distrust of players in this particular context is what will ensure the system works fairly.

Yes, It’s Really About Legalized Goldbuying: In contrast to my original assertions, Blizzard is very overtly making one side of this about getting gold for real currency, and quite frankly that suits the constraints of the system, since it makes very clear why players would plunk down real currency for a time token they can’t personally use. By making it that simple, Blizzard coaxes more players into having a very straightforward “I spent my $20 on this token and it’s going to get me 20-30k(*) gold in almost zero time” which in turn should encourage more players to make that transaction and populate the AH with tokens for players with the requisite gold to buy. If Blizzard wasn’t guaranteeing the gold return, fewer players would buy the tokens because fewer players are interested in the hassle of negotiating a price for a product. Yes, some people love haggling, but there’s not a lot of evidence to suggest that those people represent a majority, especially when players tend to prefer the path of least resistance, and haggling is by definition an action with resistance.

(* EDITOR’S NOTE: We have no idea how much gold the Token will go for. Number is theoretical and has no basis in fact.) 

Yes, Blizzard IS Setting The Price… At First: Ultimately, this is a minor detail, because Blizzard said that after setting the starting price in-game they’d let the supply-demand algorithm take over and determine the price-fixing, but it feeds into the idea that players, as a whole, can’t be trusted to run a fair market. Without that algorithm, even having the Token Exchange be region-wide would still make it susceptible to manipulation by a dedicated group of players, or (more realistically) a dedicated group of grey-marketeers looking to try and keep Blizzard’s gold prices higher than what the grey market is offering.

No, You Still Can’t Pay Your Rent Through Farming Gold: It should go without saying that there is not and should not be a way for gold or time to get converted back into real currency after entering this system. It wouldn’t be reasonable, it opens a lot of uncomfortable questions about taxable income, and it’s horrifically prone to abuse. That Blizzard didn’t even pay this idea any credence at all should help to drive home how simple they’re trying to make this system.

Ultimately, This Probably Won’t Kill The Grey Market: But boy howdy will it irritate the HELL out of them.

CRY GREY MARKETEER AS YOUR PATHETIC BUSINESS MODEL BETRAAAAAAAAAAAAYS YOU

There are also a few unanswered questions about this system: for example, I postulated earlier on the idea of being able to use gold to buy character services like faction transfers or character customization. This system, as announced, doesn’t seem to suggest that such actions would be possible, and while that’s got me a little sad-faced, it makes sense. Having this system be so tightly constrained makes it foolproof to use, and while that does mean that players with more gold than money won’t be able to access character services without real currency, they’ll at least have the ability to pay for the single most consistent real cost of the game using their in-game resources.

If that in turn enables them to save up and buy other character services, than that’s still a good by-product of this implementation without Blizzard having to cut into the profits that those services bring in.

Because make no mistake, this system is about enabling players to spend their resources (real or virtual) in more ways, but it’s also being done to ensure that Blizzard has another way to prop up their subscription numbers and boost profits to impress the shareholders. That’s a smart business model that benefits the players and still keeps the character service dollars flowing uninterrupted, with a new revenue stream from token sales.

And sometime in April/May, when Blizzard does their Q1 shareholder meeting, expect the opening weeks of success in selling the WoW Tokens to be one of the things CEO Mike Morhaime talks about.

I, for one, await this system with bated breath. Not because I’ll be dropping more money on the game myself, but because I’m incredibly interested in the impact on server economies, and consequently, whether or not the grey market is dramatically impacted.

What are you most looking forward to about the WoW Token?