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Will a Veteran's Edition join WoW's free to play ranks? UPDATED
Update: We've gotten an official announcement from Blizzard saying that Veteran Edition is coming with patch 6.1 as a way for players who have ever had a subscription to log on, chat (with restrictions) and play (also with restrictions) even after their subscription has lapsed. This version of the game will have all of the restrictions the Starter Edition has, but let you check in with the game (and your friends) without paying for subscription time. Original post: Since the patch 6.1 files well and thoroughly datamined, another rumor about free to play WoW has started making the rounds. Hidden in the patch data is a new account type called Veteran Edition which is set up to have similar restrictions to the Starter Edition, in which you can play for free up to level 20. However, just what those restrictions are aren't yet defined: all we know now is that there are new strings in the patch file that refer to a Veteran Edition. Though there are plenty of military personal who play and love World of Warcraft, we really can't say what this Veteran Edition is -- but if it gave military or veterans a chance to revisit WoW that only seems like a good thing. However, it might yet turn out to be nothing at all... or just an idea that wound up in the patch files that may vanish by the next PTR release. Though Blizzard has expanded the game's microtransactions, sparking rumors that WoW itself would be going free to play, Blizzard has said before that there are no plans to make the game free to play. So even if we do get a Veteran Edition, it's probably not a segue towards a free to play game -- but we're definitely curious as to where this is headed. [Via Cnet]
Breakfast Topic: Would you play free-to-play WoW?
Tom Chilton's recent comments about how WoW could one day be free to play have us wondering: would WoW players still want to play in a free-to-play, microtransaction-supported version of their favorite game? Free-to-play WoW might not look so different from the WoW we play right now, in which you can already play for free up to level 20. And the game already has its own not-so-micro transactions with pay-for for pets, mounts, and cosmetic items -- though free-to-play would only see this sort of item store expanding, perhaps drastically. So tell us, readers: would you play a free to play version of World of Warcraft? %Poll-84192%
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.
