Geek Culture Happy
The MMO Market in
The Rawrcast Show
Geek Culture Happy
Resubbed to WoW: APower Word: Swag
August 29, 2009 :: Posted by - Stompalina :: Category - Other
Over on the Official World of Warcraft forums, Doombert of the Agamaggon server brought up a topic that has seemed to be getting much more attention as of late from long-time WoW players about the pet that players are getting for the fifth birthday of the game. I can’t help but read a lot of these responses in some sort of crusty old man “back in my day” voice, and how they should be honored in some way for sticking around so long. Usually to these old people I tell them to screw off, but Doombert is actually making a good point here.
Being online for the 5th year anniversary and getting a pet is…”meh” to say the best. It honestly doesn’t really mean anything since just about anyone with an active account can easily log in for a day to check their auctions and receive it…
Mr. Bert goes on to discuss other options that long-time WoW players can get for their commitment to a game that we all love so much, his ideas and the responses in the thread draw out some interesting ideas and would-be fun rewards to long-time players of WoW.
Before we jump the gun faster than Jason Biggs in American Pie and claim that this must be done, let’s take a look at what we can expect from Blizz in the next couple months and try to answer this question with a little more conviction.
Give Me an Early Christmas, Mike Morhaime!
The reasons for this seem pretty obvious. I mean, if you’ve been playing this game for five years, Lord knows Blizz should give you something that no one else has. Blizzard employees get a full-sized sword after five years of employment, so it’s not completely ludicrous to hope for some unique pixelated swag. With this in mind, why else would the developers green-light a program to provide their long-running customers with rewards?
The first reason is a simple gesture of thanks for making the game what it is today. World of Warcraft has well over 11.5 million subscribers now, but when it was first launched, it did not have nearly that many. Without those original pioneers into the virtual world of Azeroth, the game could not have flourished and become what it is today. Blizzard should take the time to reward these players if not for the simple reason that without them, this game would not be what it is today.
Similarly, by rewarding these long-time customers, it will set a precedent for other subscribers to stay, so these cool rewards will be theirs as well. By setting up some sort of tier system and giving people 2/3/4/5 year gifts, Blizzard will not only retain more players (because surely even something as simple as a cool title will make players stick around a few months later than they would otherwise just to get it) but possibly gain old ones and maybe even new ones.
Lap-Dances are Out of the Question… Maybe.
For the sake of argument, we’re now going to say that my reasoning completely blew the powers-that-be out of the water and now their totally all gung-ho about this idea. Well, now that they are thinking about it, what kind of system should they implement? Here’s some ideas populated from the thread, and two of my own… the list is not exhaustive Blizzard, feel free to add:
- Tiered Item Rewards. This was Doombert’s baby over on the forums, so I wanted to make sure to give him proper credit right off the bat. His idea was simple enough in theory and it continuously upped the ante and encouraged people to play the game longer. By providing people a reward for two years of play and onward, it is acknowledgement from Blizzard towards their most faithful of customers and also helps these players stand out more. His idea for a tiered system went tabard/pet/title/mount. (years 2-5, respectively) The problem I immediately saw with this plan is that where do you go after a mount? You really can’t. So while I’m a big fan of this tiered system essentially because it is a mirror of what they would do in Irvine with their employees, the loot system would have to be stretched out more.
- Experience Multipliers. This idea was also presented in the thread, but I saw immediate problems with the implementation of the proposed plan. Here, they postulated that every month of play, the player should gain experience 10% faster, that’s difficult to imagine Blizzard doing. (with Cataclysm coming out, Blizzard doesn’t want people racing that fast through content) Something a little more manageable, say 25% faster after each year (just spit balling a number) would provide a meaningful upgrade while still keeping players from leveling too quickly. Similarly, another idea that spawned from this one is a Kenny D original: after the first two or three years, simply give people the opportunity to start all their characters at 55! I know this idea has been brought up before and with Cataclysm I’m sure they don’t want to do this, but thinking about the game in another two to three years, this may be the perfect way to go for players that have given seven years of their MMO time to WoW.
- Free game time! A lot of the posts centered around the idea that they should be awarded with lifetime accounts after five years of play… I think that’s a little contrived especially since Blizzard is a money-making venture, and they have been providing a service for those five years. But still, some free time within Azeroth on the eve of your sixtieth month(five years people, keep up) would be, if nothing else, a casual reminder that Blizzard knows who you are and what you have meant to the company.
- Special Trinkets! I don’t know about you, but nothing would keep me battling the many forces of evil that descend on Azeroth as much as the promise that I would be able to receive a trinket that turned me into the rock star himself: Christ Metzen. Let’s say you’re cruisin’ around Stormwind or Ogrimmar in your chopper with your broski sitting in the side-cart, soaking in the sun and essentially just enjoying the shit out of life. Your friend looks over at you and goes “what could possibly make this any better?” You look at your friend, he thinks you’re going to look away, but you don’t. “What are you loo-” THIS! A flash of smoke overtakes your visage as a soft glow irradiates from inside the impenetrable magical fog, and slowly as if revealing the answer to life eternal, a bearded chin emerges; followed by a pair of horn-rimmed, square hipster glasses and hair so slicked back, they actually used it as flooring to a bowling alley. YOU ARE METZEN. “Oh, for GOD’S SAKE,” your friend screams; but you can’t hear him, you’re having enough trouble trying to fend off the throngs of people trying to touch your nouveau-chinstrap beard and begging for information on the new MMO. Your day just got infinitely better.
- Lapdances. Just kidding! I mean, unless you’re down…
It’s a Win-Win!
Why wouldn’t they do something like this? Heck, why haven’t they already? Sure you can say that their reward was being able to experience the game, but that’s so lame. It was stated that there were many one-time items that have been released during the life of the game, and their reward for playing the game was receiving these items; but does that not seem like a cop-out to you? These are the pioneers, the trail-blazers for this game that we all love! They‘re ancient and more than likely out of touch with the rest of the WoW community! At least make them feel important again, or give them something on-par with the Hallmark channel so they can revel in their oldness together.
.jpg)
