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Zarhym talks premium WoW services
A WoW forum-goer recently asked why Blizzard was charging for premium services like character server transfers, re-customizations, and the other multitude of options and services Blizzard provides players. Blizzard Community Manager Zarhym hit the thread to discuss the nature of Blizzard's premium services for players and let players know that really, premium services are for people who want them and feel they are worth the cost. Zarhym first makes the point that these features and premium services are in no way made to be needed to play the game. In fact, I'd take things a step forward and say that so far, Blizzard has been exceptionally good at providing only cosmetic and quality-of-life premium services, where other games could have already cashed in on a playerbase like WoW's. These optional services can improve your own personal quality of life, be it race-changing to an obviously superior blood elf or transferring servers to be with a new guild, but they are not tied to the core gameplay experience. Zarhym's full statement, after the break.
Breakfast Topic: Race Change, your personal retcon
Just about every wall has been broken down now. The only thing left is the ability to change one's class, which probably won't happen anytime... soon®. Yesterday, the highly anticipated Race Change service went live, and I'm sure a lot of players rushed to get their makeover. Take Gregg, for example, who went on and changed his Level 70 Tauren Hunter into a weed-loving Troll. I mean, he's wanted to do that for a while. I know I've been hankering for race change myself, but now that the service is here, I haven't exactly jumped the gun. Why? I said I wanted to turn my Blood Elf Death Knight -- I'm quite happy with just one Sin'dorei -- into an Orc, but now I'm kind of wondering. I still want to change my character's race, I'm just not quite settled on which one to switch to. Race change is kind of like a retcon in the World of Warcraft, more so than name changes or customization of appearance. It's right up there with gender changes. Faction changes are different because it kind of take away your character's entire continuity, and I'm sure a lot of RP'ers made completely different back-stories for faction-changed characters. Race change allows you to have essentially the same character but with a major difference. We asked what race you'd switch to about a month back, but now that the service is here, we're going to ask who's up and done the change? What race did you switch from and what race did you switch to? Tell us why! Personally, I'm just kind of bored with another Blood Elf, and I want one of each race (I know, I should've thought of that to begin with). Lame, right? On the other hand, I'm holding out for that Undead Hunter I've always wanted. Now that World of Warcraft's personal retcon is a paid service, have you taken advantage of it? Have you changed anything else besides your race such as gender or name?
Faction change cooldown reduced
On the heels of the race change being implemented, the faction change cooldown has been reduced to three days. This brings it in line with the cooldown time of the race change and server transfers (both at three days). It's interesting to note the effect all this has: you can now more or less freely move around servers and factions without any major consequences. Three days off of raiding isn't a big deal, however two months off if you land in a bad guild after faction transfering your main is quite an issue. There hasn't been any blue post about this yet, but the information is present on the screens when you undertake a race change, as pictured above.
