WoW - Wrath of the Lich King - Paid Character Customisation

[woges]

More news creeping in from Blizzcon via Eurogamer & Warcry.

Blizzard has revealed that World of Warcraft will offer some sort of paid character customisation in the future.
Production director J. Allen Brack confirmed the news during a small press conference at BlizzCon 2008, according to WarCry. Details, however, are still being figured out.

More information.

 

[Greymane]

Paid character customisation??

Oh man, I hate seeing Blizzard go down this road. Greed is not an endearing quality Blizzard. Please think before you try the 'pay a subscription' and 'pay a fee' road.

So sad, the more they make the greedier they get, huh?

 

[Maylander]

It must be some sort of sex or race change? In Wrath of the Lich King, you already get the option to change your looks for in-game money only, so it can't be cosmetic changes.

There has been a lot of speculation regarding this new feature on sites like mmo-champion.com and worldofraids.com, but noone knows exactly what it is. So far, it's only rumors.

 

[Lucky Day]

I'll say. Captailism sucks! If it weren't for capitalism I could be out foraging for berries or standing in a bread line right now.

 

[Greymane]

Gouging your customers is greed, not capitalism.
Much of World of Warcraft's popularity is due to it's replayability. I think Blizzard has done a poor job of improving their initial game. And since we already pay for expansions, I see no reason that some of our millions of dollars can't go to improving their really poor character customisation, without charging a per character charge.
I'm sorry that you feel inadequate in providing for yourself, but greed is greed.

 

[woges]

Sex &/or race sounds a good bet to me what with the £15 character transfer already in place.

 

[Maylander]

Like I said, there will be free character customization (barbershops for in-game gold, just like respeccing talents), so we actually don't know what this new feature is. Plastic surgery? Sex change?

To me, it sounds odd to change anything other than hair style. When you create an avatar in some game, you're usually stuck with it. We have more than enough plastic surgery in Hollywood, hehe. Can't think of a single game where I could add anything other than hair styles, tattoos and various rings etc. to change appearance, nor do I see any reason to.

 

[Greymane]

I suppose if it requires extra intervention by Blizzard staff, I could more readily accept a modest charge, such as changing your sex or race and the more than likely name change required to go with it. I mean you don't want to be a guy named Sally.

 

[elikal]

Another victim of the banking crash, ja ne? Or maby it's just the feaver of the flu.

 

[Zloth]

Can't think of a single game where I could add anything other than hair styles, tattoos and various rings etc. to change appearance, nor do I see any reason to.

City of Heroes. You can have up to five costumes (so far) per character. When making a new costume, you can change anything on the main costume screen. You can't change model (male, female, huge male) and you can't change height but everything else can be altered.

Why do that? Well, why do you wear different clothes every day? Because variety is fun! (Especially with Halloween coming soon!)

 

[Maylander]

Aye, but that's a costume I assume, not the actual facial features? I'm talking about pulling a Michael Jackson over night here, and that sort of variety is certainly not fun, hehe.

 

[Zloth]

Aye, but that's a costume I assume, not the actual facial features? I'm talking about pulling a Michael Jackson over night here, and that sort of variety is certainly not fun, hehe.

Yep, facial features as well, if you want to change them. Skin color, too. Heck, you can swap between mild mannered reporter and an evil demon complete with wings and a flaming aura if you want. The two 'outfits' just have to be the same height and base model.