Macrotransactions

Massively had a post yesterday which really caught my eye. It's a well written article about paying for Power Leveling but through Blizzard. You can read it here. I truly think everyone should look it over.

In summary, it gives an example that Blizzard could use to help people get to the new content and also not have to grind out 1-60 anymore. These next few exerts explain his points very clearly and are well thought out.

"Some of the best experiences WoW can give you are the ones where you and three or four friends play together in a static group. However, all of my friends (myself included) have played out the original content. We would only be interested in coming back to Azeroth in the event that we could start with a level 60 character and jump straight into the Burning Crusade content.

So why not offer separate servers for players interested in spending 20 or 30 bucks on a new level 60 character, as Mr. Zenke suggested?"
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"I can hear all the people who've spent tons of time playing World of Warcraft complaining about this. "What about all the players who've invested all this time in getting to max level?" are the kind of arguments I expect. Well, what about them? It's not as if potential players were going to grind up so they could come and raid or PvP with those characters. You're not losing out on us having our own sever to play on.

Sooner or later most people are going to stop playing WoW, so it's not as if time spent playing is any less meaningless in relative terms. What matters most is experiencing something fun with friends. Nobody is forcing anyone to pay 20 or 30 bucks to get a level 60 on a special server. Everyone can still grind up to level 60. There are just some who would prefer not to, which isn't all that different from how things are now."

And I could imagine that all the people he's talking about are the teenagers who pay their monthly fee via lunch money, chores, or pleading their parents (yeah, I said it - go ahead a rip me a new one). However, I still think that most of the complainers of paying real money for virtual goods are these teenagers. I don't see a 30 year old complaining that someone would want to throw down $20 or $30 to skip content on a server dedicated to that service. It would be the people who can't afford that (i.e. teenagers) who will come out in numbers against it.

It happens in real life too with another demographic: Senior citizens who cannot afford tax increases will go to the polls against a town budget which raises their taxes. And they come out in numbers! That one gets turned down. Then, once the Education / School Sports side of the budget is threated to be cut if the second budget is turned down, the mothers and fathers of school children go out and vote.

Getting back to the article, I believe Blizzard should throw up a few servers, one for PVP, PVE, RP and RP-PVP, that have payable resources. Not only will it be more money for Blizzard but also for those players who want to experience the new content. My father is still at L50 and really wants to get to Outland. However, whenever I call him up and ask if he wants to level his Hunter a bit, he tells me he started a new character. My father would be the perfect candidate to use the payable servers. He, such as myself, don't mind throwing money into something which we enjoy. Golfers pay $1000+ for a yearly course membership and another $700 for clubs, balls, and other accessories. Movie buffs spend $30+ a week on DVDs. People will spend their money on what they enjoy doing. And, if they enjoy trying out new classes at a high level, then so be it and let them do it.

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I just wanted to clarify that I'm not picking on teenage age group here. I'm sure there are adults who also feel that way (and vise versa). I just went for the majority of players in my example.