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Gold Capped: Staying ahead of inflation
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Gold Capped, in which Fox Van Allen and Basil "Euripides" Berntsen aim to show you how to make money on the auction house. Feed Fox's ego by emailing him or tweeting him at @foxvanallen. Do you remember the moment you hit 1 gold for the first time? I do. I was killing mobs in Ashenvale, vendoring Light Feathers and other various trash drops. It was an epic moment. That first piece of gold felt like so much money. It wasn't a lot of money, of course -- it just felt like it. But still, it was worth a heck of a lot more than one piece of gold is worth today. The reason: Azeroth suffers from a constant state of hyperinflation. The purchasing power of 1g is always falling, and it's falling quickly. Thankfully, though, you don't have to stand by and be a victim.
PAX East 2011: Will World of Warcraft ever go free-to-play?
It seems that every new MMORPG wants to bill itself as a "WoW killer." From Lord of the Rings Online to Age of Conan to (most recently) RIFT, everyone wants a piece of the most popular subscription-based MMORPG of all time. To date, World of Warcraft has weathered the competition. Its subscriber numbers have reached an all-time high (now over 12 million), with its latest Cataclysm expansion selling nearly 5 million copies in the first month alone. The game should remain popular and successful for years to come. Still, even Blizzard admits: It can't stay on top forever. So what happens when the game starts losing a significant amount of its subscriber base? If what happened to Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online is any clue, World of Warcraft might move to a free-to-play model. Since switching to free-to-play, both of Turbine's games added subscribers and increased revenues. This past weekend, I sat in on the free-to-play MMO panel held at the PAX East 2011 conference in Boston. Afterward, I caught up with Robert Ferrari, VP of Publishing and Business Development for Sanrio Digital (Hello Kitty Online), to discuss WoW. We discussed the free-to-play industry and whether or not World of Warcraft could eventually find a place in it. "WoW has to be looking at a free-to-play model currently," Ferrari theorized.
Cryptozoic announces release date for WoW TCG Worldbreaker
As Azeroth trembles under Deathwing's might, so too does Worldbreaker, the newest content pack for the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game from Cryptozoic. Featuring Cataclysm content like goblin and worgen heroes and allies as well as new common, uncommon and rare in-game loot cards, Worldbreaker hits stores on Dec. 14, 2010. Everyone loves loot cards, and this set features a marked move away from the old loot card system, with the common loot card being an in-game pet -- Landro's Lil' XT. The best part is that the common loot card will be a pet from now on, not just items with finite uses. The uncommon card in the set is a super-scary version of the Basic Campfire called the Grim Campfire, and the rare card is the flying Mottled Drake mount. In addition to the Worldbreaker date, Cryptozoic announced that the Darkmoon Faire Los Angeles show will be happening on Dec. 4-5 and will feature a first look at the Worldbreaker set. And if our BlizzCon party was any indication, Cryptozoic will have tons of stuff on hand to show you.
