in-game-store
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Parental controls to restrict in-game purchases
In-game stores in Hearthstone and World of Warcraft have left Blizzard's parental controls with some catching up to do in order to keep youngsters from accidentally racking up credit card bills. As of now, parental controls will prevent in-game purchases in Diablo, Hearthstone, and WoW by default. If you don't use parental controls, but want to start, just log on to your Battle.net account and go to Settings > Parental Controls to be walked through the setup. If you use parental controls but don't want to block in-game purchases, you can turn them on by following these steps: Log in to Battle.net and visit the Retrieve Parental Controls page. Enter your Parental Controls email address. Click the Send Parental Controls Email button. Check your Parental Controls email for a message from Blizzard Entertainment. Click the link under the account user's name. This will take you to the Parental Controls setup page. Under the Purchase Settings section, check Allow in-game purchases, and click the Save Settings button. For more details on parental controls, check out the parental controls FAQ.
In-game store and web store inconsistent in currency for some users
There is some strange inconsistency cropping up between currencies in the in-game store and the Battle.net web shop. The above is an overlay of the same pets from the in-game store, and the web shop, accessed via the same account. The eagle-eyed reader will note that the in-game store is in £, pounds sterling, English currency. The web shop's images are in US Dollars. To reiterate, the same account is used for both, it is a US WoW account, and I am currently in the USA. You can see the in-game store, and web store in full, again both from the same account. This is the same for friends in Europe, who, when using US accounts, have the in-game store in Euro, the local currency, while the web store is in US Dollars, and for friends on US accounts in Australia (which are the only ones available to Australian players), who have the in-game store in Australian Dollars, but the web store in US Dollars. Why is it a problem? Well, these things are a lot more expensive in Euro or £ pricing than in US$. If you can read the currencies on the in-game store and the web store, if I used the in-game store I'd pay $7.40 for a discounted pet as opposed to $5. The Alterac Brew Pup costs me $13 on the in-game store, or $10 on the web store. The Fey Dragon costs me $36 on the in-game store, or $25 on the web store. The moral of the story is that, until Blizzard fixes the in-game store to match the game region, use the web store for your US-region purchases!
World of Warcraft in-game store goes live
World of Warcraft has made it even easier to part with your money, as Blizzard has launched an in-game store for the popular MMO. The Battle.net Shop (as it's being called) is primarily focused on selling mounts and pets. The store can be accessed via either browser or an in-game interface, and it ships items directly into your characters' inventories. Purchases can also be gifted to other players. To celebrate the shop's launch, Blizzard is selling eight pets and five mounts for half-off the full price through January 1st, 2014.
Patch 5.4.2: In-game store is now live, mounts and pets discounted by 50%
The in-game store is now live with patch 5.4.2. Most of the existing pets and mounts are available for purchase (sorry, no Iron Skyreaver yet) but there is no sign of the transmogrification helmets yet. As a bonus, almost everything there is 50% off with the exception of the Alterac Brew Pup, Blossoming Ancient, and Enchanted Fey Dragon. You can find the in-game store right beside the dungeon journal and game menu buttons. I tested out the purchasing process myself and it was extremely easy (almost too easy -- my poor wallet). When I clicked to buy something a confirmation prompt appeared and let me know that it would be charged to the credit card I have on file with Blizzard. After confirming I wanted to buy, I had to enter my password to confirm, and not 5 seconds later the Cinder Kitten was sitting in my bags. The only pets not available in the in-game store are the Guardian Cub and Moonkin Hatchling. This may have something to do with the unique nature of these pets (the Guardian Cub being BoE, and the Moonkin having different Horde and Alliance versions). This 50% off sale is also available on the web store and will end on January 1, 2014.
Patch 5.4.2 PTR: Mounts, pets and more added to the in-game store
Our friends over at Adriacraft have been at it again, digging out the changes on the PTR, and making them into videos. You can see above that the in-game store has undergone yet more changes since we last updated you on the PTR, and the categories which Adriacraft mentioned are now live in-game. You can see from the video that the categories are Featured, Pets, Mounts and Consumables. Each contains just what you'd expect, the items off the battle.net store. And there's also several neat features in there, including little marks to indicate pets that you already own, and a pop-out to zoom in on the animated pets and mounts. The consumables category is fairly empty right now, just showing off the +XP elixirs in sets of one and five. What they don't seem to have any more is the Lesser Charms, maybe the reaction to those coming to an in-game store was too strong. This achieves Blizzard's goal of making the store accessible without leaving the game. However, the previous Adriacraft post talked about other, hidden categories in the files, like armor and weapons. Let's see whether they appear.
Patch 5.4.2 PTR: In-game store UI updated
Our friends over at Adriacraft have been busy digging through the PTR files to bring you yet more tantalizing peeks at what might be coming up, and the latest find is this updated in-game store UI. It looks way smoother and neater than the old one, as well as offering the potential to put way more items on the in-game store. And that's not all Adriacraft has discovered. There's also a new set of currencies alongside the XTC test currency: US Dollars, British pounds, Australian Dollars and Euro. He's also discovered an element potentially related to the store that is named Auth_Challenge, implying that you would have to log in with an Authenticator to use the store. This makes perfect sense as a security measure. Lastly, there's a set of icons that appear to be associated with the in-game store, which could, Adriacraft tells us, be categories. They're in the "Store" section of the structure. Among them are things like armor, toys, scrolls, food, hot, new, featured, weapons, and more. You can mouseover all the icons on Adriacraft's page and see what they are titled on the tooltip. And Adriacraft has confirmed that, within the UI's code itself, the current categories are services, mounts, pets and consumables. Within "services" Adriacraft has found race change and faction change sections, implying that those will be among the available items in-game. As ever, this is datamining, so treat it accordingly.
Patch 5.4 PTR: Latency and FPS info moved to a new home
With the appearance of the Blizzard In-game Store icon in the menu, something had to go. And the icon that took the hit was the little computer monitor picture that had previously held information about latency, framerate, bandwidth, download information, and allowed players to open up the in-game menu with a single click. Now, first and foremost, it's worth bearing in mind that Blizzard representatives have suggested pretty strongly that the in-game store will launch, initially at least, on Asian servers only. So, it's possible that this might not be a problem for US and EU servers. It might never be a problem, or at least, not for a while. Nonetheless, Blizzard's devs have thought of this. While you can't click on it to open the menu any more -- you can just hit Escape instead -- the tooltip showing this useful information on mouseover has been rehomed, and now lives on the red question mark -- the customer support icon. Don't look at my numbers, though. I know it's bad.
Video: 6 things you need to know about patch 5.4
In this Geek Week special, there's so much going on in World of Warcraft Patch 5.4 that we thought we would put together a brief summary of all the new features we know about so far. We've got the in-game store, virtual realms, the timeless isle, cross-realm arenas, flexible raiding and the proving grounds... and we haven't even talked about the new raid! If you want more information on any of the content discussed in the video, WoW Insider has a ton of material for you to peruse, just check out the links below: In-Game Store Virtual Realms Timeless Isle Cross-realm Arenas Flexible Raiding Proving Grounds
Blizzard in-game store goes live on the PTR
The Blizzard In-Game Store is live on the patch 5.4 PTR. There's a few hoops to jump through to get it to work, but thanks to our friends over at Adriacraft, we have gained access. Adriacraft has also put together a video which shows the store in action, which you will be able to see after the break. There's nothing too surprising about the interface itself, it has the typical Blizzard look, and there's nothing too flashy or showy about the store itself. We posted yesterday about the button, saying pretty much the same thing, that it wasn't likely that Blizzard would have bells and whistles and fireworks and huge arrows pointing at the store. And indeed, they don't. The currency is a test currency, so should not be considered any representation of the actual cost of the items. As you can see, you can buy either one or five, they're currently on sale, and there's not a huge amount more to say. As far as the Elixir itself goes, it is BoA, so postable from character to character, and gives a 1-hour 100% buff to experience gained that persists through death. It's single-use, so an hour per elixir. Hit the break for Adriacraft's video!
That store button is back, and it wants you to touch it
Guess who's back, back again on the patch 5.4 PTR... yes, it's that sneaky Store button. And yes, yes I did click it. I must have clicked it a hundred times, just in case this one was the time that it would work. I will log back in in a moment just to try again. Just in case. It still didn't work. This was the very best I got it to generate for me, and that was only on a fresh reload of my UI. The button itself, as much as you can discuss the quality of a button, isn't too obnoxious. Let's be realistic, Blizzard was never going to have a singing dancing button with big flashing arrows pointing at it, constantly in the player's face. But this little, subtle thing in the micro-menu is just fine. While we wait for more information, and for the store itself to appear on the PTR, rather than just that teasing button and this rather trolly UI error, WoW Insider has the things to keep you all Store-y. The WoW Insider Round Table waxed lyrical on how they'd happily pay for just about anything, the Community Blog Topic discussed what should and shouldn't be available, and we wondered whether Battle Coins could be a new in-game currency for the store. Is any of it serving to soothe your worries about the store?
Could Battle Coins be an earnable currency for the in-game store?
Over at MMO-Champion recently, some new strings were discovered in the client that have begun to cause some discussion. They point to something called Battle Coins being used on the in-game store in China and Korea at least, as part of the in-game store. These are alongside what's called a "Test Currency", which indicates that they might not be the only payment method available. Now, as we say a lot round here at WoW Insider, this is datamining, and should be taken as such. Don't consider it fact, consider it a possibility. The notion of a second game-specific currency being part of the store opens up an interesting option: could this currency be obtained in-game somehow? Of course, it would likely be bought with real money and then spent, just like Riot Points. But, if it were the case that it could be earned in-game, what method would Blizzard use? Maybe it'd work like the Riot RP versus IP system, where you can use real-world currency or in-game earned currency to purchase things from the in-game store. Maybe you could use gold to buy battle coins, on the BMAH or in another in-game avenue. It seems less likely that there would be a way to grind them out, like farming Lesser Charms, or similar, but you never know. If this is the case, and to be abundantly clear we don't know for sure that it is, would this change your opinion of the in-game store? Would you feel happier knowing you could convert gold into Battle Coins to spend? Or would you only be happy if it was another more grindable currency, such as JP or Lesser Charms?
Breakfast Topic: Do you buy in-game items?
I admit it: I've spent real money to buy in-game mounts and pets. After all, who could resist the adorableness of Lil' Ragnaros or the Cinder Kitten? Sure, it can be silly to spend real dollars on items that are purely virtual in nature, but with as much time as we all spend in World of Warcraft, why not? The new cosmetic helms in the Blizzard store -- more expensive than pets, less expensive than mounts -- have recently brought the question of buying cosmetic items into conversation once more. So do you or have you bought in-game items in the past? And are you planning on picking up a shiny new helm? Let us know! %Poll-83555%
Community Blog Topic Results: The in-game store
Our latest Community Blog Topic is about the in-game store. What would you buy from it? As expected, many people said they wouldn't buy anything, but there were also plenty of people with nifty shopping ideas. Ideas for the store Tyledres at Frost and Claws would like to see shapechanging items. I love being able to change what my toon looks like temporary. Dartol's Rod of Transformation,Iron-boot flask, the orb of the Sin'dorei, love them all. If there was an item that was from the Blizzard store only but would affect what a character looked like for say half an hour and had an hour cooldown or something I would want it. I'm not sure what it would turn you into. I don't have a specific item in mind. I just like to occasionally look different.
Community Blog Topic: What would you buy from the in-game store?
It's official: Blizzard is testing an in-game store for implementation in Asia and then possibly other regions. Included in this store will be a 100% experience buff, Lesser Charms of Good Fortune, as well as mounts and pets. The reactions have ranged from cautious optimism to "The sky is falling!" The question for this week's Community Blog Topic isn't about whether or not you like the idea of the store -- let's just assume we're getting one. What we want to know is, what would you buy from the store, if anything? I've bought pets and mounts before, so I think having those in an in-game store just makes sense and I'd like to see more of them. And I have no problem with the other items -- though I doubt I would ever buy any. But there are a couple other things I'd like to see available.
WoW Insider Round Table: On the In-Game Store (for 99c)
The WoW Insider Round Table returns with a somewhat longer discussion of the hottest news of the moment: the In-Game Store. This was recently datamined, and latterly confirmed by Blizzard. We start off by getting a clarification from Matticus on just how Asian servers work, and why their different structure came about, then move into why this store is relevant for those regions. Then we chat about the in-game XP boost, and whether that is a good or a bad thing to sell on the store, before moving into uncharted waters and talking about the other items that have been both confirmed and rumored to be appearing. The panel are all very positive about the idea of an in-game store, and would encourage more and more items to be sold on it, or at least would buy them themselves, but also see the downsides and the risks of such a move by Blizzard. Overall, the end of the world is not nigh just yet. The panel this week was Dawn Moore, Matt "Matticus" Low, Sarah Pine and Olivia Grace.
Patch 5.4: In-game store announced
We've been speculating about it since the experience potion was datamined, and now we have an announcement. Yes, Virginia, there will be an in-game store. Bashiok gives us the details on what the current plan for the feature is, including a way to get lesser charms of good fortune, and the big news is that the feature will be rolled out first on Asian realms. Bashiok - 5.4 In Game Store 100% XP buff? First, we'll be testing the in-game store with some new kinds of items we're looking into introducing (in Asian regions, at the outset) based on player feedback: specifically, an experience buff to assist with the leveling process, as well as an alternate way to acquire Lesser Charms of Good Fortune. We've had a lot of requests from players in different regions for convenience-oriented items such as these, and as with other new ideas we've introduced as WoW has evolved-including Pet Store pets, mounts, and more-your feedback plays a hugely important part in determining what we add to the game. source So as we speculated before, the experience buff is going to be region specific, rolling out in Asian realms first. No word on when/if these features will make their way to Europe or North America. It's a move that I have to admit makes sense considering that most of the recent subscriber drop was reported to be in Asia. Asian realms use a different business model where you pay by the hour, and new players are not willing to play hourly in order to catch up with existing players. Whether or not a version of the store with the various mounts and pets available on the website will debut at the same time as the convenience items like lesser charms and the new XP buff is yet to be determined.
Blizzard 'exploring' microtransactions in World of Warcraft
Microtransactions are nothing new for World of Warcraft, but the game has never had an actual in-game store. You've had pets and mounts that toe the line, but the line still existed. Then a bit of datamining turned up an experience boosting item that looked as if it might be tied to an in-game store. But datamining isn't the same as actual confirmation, and thus much nervous hand-wringing ensued... until community representative Zarhym confirmed that yep, this is a thing that is happening. Zarhym's posts specifically state that Blizzard is "exploring the possibility" rather than definitely adding a microtransaction store, but it seems the most likely outcome. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but sooner rather than later. No word on what this means for the future of the game's business model or how much will change from the game's current system with an online storefront, but it's certainly surprising to see one of the last games without an in-game store taking steps toward adding one.
Patch 5.4 PTR Datamine: 100% XP Buff via Microtransaction
Datamining should always, always be taken with a pinch of salt. But, when Perculia of Wowhead dropped WoW Insider a line with one particular object from the latest PTR build, we had to let you all know about it. Enduring Elixir of Wisdom is an elixir that increases experience gained from killing monsters and completing quests by 100%. Wow, that's quite the buff, right? But not really stop the presses news? Wait until you hear the rest. It's currently listed as coming from the "5.4 In-Game Store". Yes, that's right, at the moment all signs point to this being purchased via a microtransaction. Now, we didn't even know about the in-game store. Maybe they mean the battle.net shop, maybe they don't, but this is a controversial step by Blizzard if the datamining turns out to be accurate. Of course, leveling isn't exactly an onerous task, but nonetheless, exchanging what might be real money for faster leveling would add considerable convenience. Do remember that this is datamining. It might not be accurate, it might be a placeholder, it might come to nothing at all.
Additional Guild Wars 2 store items revealed
With Guild Wars 2's headstart on Saturday, players with some extra spending money may be planning their initial purchases in the game. Meticulous scouring of Guild Wars 2's online gem store has revealed five new options for future players, including one nice freebie. Three of the recently added items are armor skins costing 500 gems each. These come in Primevil, Krytan, and Profane varieties. There's also a nifty Guild Wars 2 logo hat, which is currently marked at zero gems, meaning that it's a potential free item for players. Finally, for 2000 gems, one has the option to upgrade the standard edition of the game to the digital deluxe version.
Trion selling End of Nations CE for $70, with special subscription and perks
Trion has revealed Collector's Edition details for its upcoming free-to-play MMORTS End of Nations. For $70 you'll essentially get a head start in the game, including a Black Dragons company with special units for your army, the chance to start out two commanders at level 5, two extra commander slots, and a 50% boost on in-game cash for five days.You'll also get a three-month VIP membership, with perks like an in-game store discount, extra in-game credits, and a 90 game XP boost. If you don't want to take the plunge on the CE, Trion's also offering a Founder's Edition, with different skins and fewer perks, for $30, which you can upgrade later if you so choose.Or, because the game is free-to-play, you could, you know, just wait until it comes out and see what you think for without cracking your wallet. Trion is having another closed beta event this weekend, and rolling towards an open release later on this year.
