Entries in cost (2)
Prepare for Paid Race Change Service "Coming Soon"
pixiestixy on Monday, September 28, 2009 - 24 Comments Tags: aesthetics, appearance, blue post, bornakk, cost, faction, faction change, looks, nethaera, paid services, race, race change, racials, re-customization, speculation 
Only a few weeks ago, WoW's faction change service went live, and now it looks like race changes within the same faction are up next. Earlier this month, Blizzard added a button for Race Change ("Coming Soon") to its list of paid services under Account Management.
As you may recall back in July, when Blizzard blue poster Nethaera put up an FAQ on the faction change service, one of the questions was whether characters would be able to change their race within faction. The answer?
"No. Players will only be able to switch to a race of the opposite faction."But then earlier this month, after the button was added to the web site, Nethaera amended that, saying:
"Based on further community feedback, we have also decided to offer a race change service in the future. Players who choose to switch races will be able to change their race within their same faction and class. Additional details will be released at a future date."
Not surprisingly for Blizzard, it's a pretty non-committal response, in terms of how soon the service may be offered. But it looks like it may be coming up quickly. Thursday, Bornakk again addressed the upcoming service, saying that:
"More information will be provided on this upcoming service when we are closer to launching it. Hang tight, it's not far off."Just on pure speculation, it would indeed seem that the service probably isn't far off since the more complex issues involved with faction changes already have been addressed. Faction change service came quite a bit sooner than a lot of people had anticipated, so perhaps we really will see this new service roll out in the near future. Perhaps even the next patch? Then there's the question of cost. Well, character re-customization costs $15. And a faction change will run you $30. So I'd guess an in-faction race change will be somewhere in the middle, probably $20-$25. Once again, this has not been confirmed, but it seems logical that it may be within that range. Personally, I'm happy with my character's race, faction and general appearance. But I know a couple of my guildies are super-excited for the chance to change their race. Whether just for looks and aesthetic preferences or to gain a different set of racial skills and passives, I'm sure there are plenty of reasons to get a new look. Who else is looking forward to using the service once it's released?
Zarhym Says No Refunds for Mount Changes
pixiestixy on Friday, June 12, 2009 - 34 Comments Tags: 3:2, Mount, Patch, Zarhym, complaints, controversy, cost, forums, give me my money back, gold, gold refunds, new content, patch 3.2, price adjustment, qq, refund 
I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but it looks like one of the greatest points of contention regarding the recently announced mount changes for 3.2 will continue to upset players of WoW. In comments both on my post here at Project Lore and on the official WoW forums, posters have begrudged the major price dips for mounts because they had to pay so much more when they bought their mounts. Some have gone so far as to suggest (or demand, in some cases) that Blizzard refund their in-game gold.
Not surprisingly, blue poster Zarhym has responded to these requests in a couple of different places in the forums. After the complaints started rolling in Wednesday, he said:
"We have no plans of offering in-game gold refunds on item costs to compensate for this content change, as has always been our policy."Later on, in an individual thread asking for refunds, he expanded on that point:
"It's truly a great thing that online gaming has expanded to the point where a game can grow and evolve over time with new content. As a gaming company, we can look back with hind sight and make changes to update older content within the context of everything that has come since. Several times over this has led to price adjustments in a number of areas, and we do not reimburse items or money due to changes in content. There are simply too many variables and too many changes each content patch to attempt to compensate anyone who's been negatively affected by a change."Now this doesn't seem like a hugely unexpected revelation. As he said, I can't think of any other time that Blizzard has made any overarching gold refunds for in-game price adjustments. I'm also not sure that anything has ever decreased in price across-the-board this drastically before, but I can't say for sure. But still, this has been a major point that has players up in arms, and it probably will continue to be controversial. I predict that all the hoopla will die down once patch 3.2 comes out (whenever that is - it may still be awhile), and people start getting cheap-ass mounts for their level 20 alts. Plus, all those other changes that also are planned for 3.2! Personally, I can't wait. One thing I'm still undecided on - what's the verdict for all of you who are on the verge of buying your mount? Do you wait for the patch, however long that may be? Or do you shovel out the cash so you can get the benefit of faster travel now? And if you do, will you QQ about it?