WoW Goes Free-To-Play... Sort Of

Blizzard has changed the way it offers World of Warcraft to noobs... Instead of a 14-day free trial, you can now play free up to 20th Level. Now, while I happen to like the significance of the 20th Level mark (no, they didn't pick that because of me, I'm pretty sure), there are some problems with the way Blizzard has implemented this. Trade skills are capped at 100, you're limited to 10 gold, you can't do any trading in the Auction House or elsewhere, and you can't join Guilds, use voice chat, invite players to a party, or join a party with characters over Level 20.

Besides which, if you're playing much at all you can hit 20th Level within the former 14-day trial period. So I see this as a step backwards... Yes, it's free to play, but the game experience is seriously nerfed (as my son would no doubt say). Is this really going to persuade new players to stick around? Perhaps this is a response to the loss of 600K players, but I don't think it's going to work they way they hope. I think they need to offer free-to-play with fewer restrictions. I can see the level cap, and keeping people from trading items, but not allowing them to get into a party or join a guild seems to leave out some of the key aspects of WoW.

Blizzard will need to see if this brings in new players as well as the 14-day free trial offer did; I have no doubt that if this doesn't work as well they will make some changes. Eventually, I think they will end up as free-to-play as their basic business model, but they will have to make many changes to get there. Keeping their player base happy while undergoing fundamental game design changes is going to be a tricky balancing act. If they don't attempt it, though, they may have to reconcile themselves to a player base that's not growing, but at best holding steady. Which is no doubt why they are looking at introducing a new MMORPG...

Prison Labor For World of Warcraft

This is gold farming outside of a prison... this would look like heaven to Chinese prisoners, no doubt.

If you've stooped to buying gold from a gold farmer to pad your World of Warcraft account, you may have felt that you were just a casual lawbreaker... not really hurting anyone. Well, think again. This article in the UK's Guardian newspaper reveals that some Chinese prisoners are forced to sit in front a computer 12 hours a day and fight dragons in WoW. If they don't meet their gold quota, they are beaten by the guards. The operation would bring in thousands of dollars for the prison administration.

Aside from the beatings, being forced to play WoW all day sounds like my son's ideal existence.

Hey, maybe this is the solution to California's prison problem... don't just release the 30,000 prisoners the Supreme Court has ordered you to let go, send them home to work off the rest of their sentence farming gold to help fill California's budget gap.

More seriously, though, it's appalling that this is what passes for government in China. It makes you wonder if they'll ever go legitimate... seems like it's just like Michael Corleone promising Kay the family will be completely legitimate in five years. Sure, and the Chinese government will really crack down on copyright, trademark and patent infringement real soon now. Uh huh.

It does raise issues of exportation of goods produced by forced labor... and now it's apparent it's virtual goods, too, that can be produced by forced labor. One more item to add to trade talks, I suppose. I do wonder how much the unlevel playing field in China benefits the fast-growing Chinese game companies, which are now beginning to purchase Western game companies. Funny how Western companies seem to have a lot more difficulty buying Chinese companies... and non-Chinese game consoles are banned.

Top Spin Fails To Clear The Net

Nice try, thanks for playing. Activision's CEO attempts to spin the fact that 70% of Activision's operating profit comes from World of Warcraft as proof that their "online strategy" is working. I think it's more than a bit of a stretch to call one game a "strategy", especially when you've never been able to duplicate it. And you acquired it rather than built it. And you've never even tried to duplicate its success in any way.

Gee, perhaps it might be a good idea to have more of those sorts of things... now having a plan to do that would actually be a strategy.

The lesson here is that you shouldn't try to spin everything, because you end up looking stupid. And making the customers think you're stupid. And possibly alienating potential business partners who might think you're stupid.

Bobby Kotick just shouldn't talk to the press. He's not good at it, and it doesn't help his company or their stock price.