WoW - Character Re-customisation

woges

SasqWatch
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Blizzard are stating that character re-customisation is now available.
Ready for a new look in World of Warcraft, but the barbershop's just not cutting it? You can now change a character’s gender, face, skin color, and other cosmetic features (such as tauren horn styles or a night elf's facial markings) using the brand-new Character Re-Customization service. Available at the Account Management page for a flat fee of $15, Character Re-Customization covers all available cosmetic options for a single character and includes an optional name change to go with your new look. For more information, see the FAQ -- or log in to the Character Re-Customization page now to begin the process of reinventing the new you!
More information.
 
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The fee in this case is probably necessary to keep people from abusing this. It's already hard enough to find an acceptable name available when creating a character now.
Although, I would have a lot less issue with the charge if you could also change your class, or maybe race too. I'd turn my rogue into a druid in an instant. lol
 
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But the horn customization and face tattoo change should have been included in the barber shop for free. They are ripping people off.

And who requested to be transexual in that game?
 
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To keep it from being abused? Are you kidding me. They could simply limit this to X amount of times pr. account, character, month, or whatever limit they see fit to impose.

A symbolic amount of money is fine - say 5$ tops - but this is ridiculous.

It's 100% PURE greed and nothing more.
 
I can go with the idea that they could have added more to the barber shop, tattoos, horns..
I can't go with the idea it's simply an act of greed. One, this is not a necessary change for anyone in the game. Two, there is no guarantee that anyone will do it, or do it very often. Three, No one could ever have 'expected' Blizzard to allow these changes, this is a 'bonus' offer above customer expectations. And maybe a fourth, $15 isn't a lot of money for something the vast majority should not ever need or want to do. And trust me, I'm not into paying for in game goods or services all that much either.
 
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Coming from City of Heroes, that looks like an insane rip off. $5 to change your look plus you are forced to pay for a $10 name change whether you want it or not. Amazing. What's next? Charging $1 to train up a level?
 
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Oh no, I have nothing wrong with Microtransactions (I came from CoH, bought the Cyborg Booster), just that I think this stuff should have been included in the promised barber shop... They purposefully skimped on the barber shop just so they could do this.
 
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So you have to pay in WOW whats free in any other MMO? Everyone who actually supports that needs a spanking. Srly.
 
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I can't go with the idea it's simply an act of greed.
I don't know man. I'm one of WoW's stauncher apologists, and even I think this is straight up milking. I don't think your arguments explain why this costs any rl money at all, let alone $15. If you think ActiBlizz should charge for anything they can get away with, then I can't dispute that simple logic.

But if charging as much for extras as you can without actively chasing away your players doesn't count as greed, I'm not sure what does.
 
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It's basically just an extension of WoWs already existing paid namechange service. Now, when you pay the same money, you also get to completely change your character.

The paid namechange service has been active for quite a while.
 
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It's basically just an extension of WoWs already existing paid namechange service. Now, when you pay the same money, you also get to completely change your character.

The paid namechange service has been active for quite a while.

Yes, the greed part is nothing new.
 
I honestly don't think a company making 1.000.000.000$ a year will care about a few 15$ payments here and there. That makes no sense. What does make sense is the fact that a service like this can be used by cheaters/exploiters/bots/scammers/ninjas to avoid automatic security, by simply changing the appearance/name of a character, hence reducing the number of reports given that character back down below where the automatic security will react. Sure, you can still go to GMs and report people, but the GMs are not omnipresent, unlike the security system.

They'll probably put a number-of-times-per-month limit on this service just like they did the character transfer service (from one server to another), but that alone won't stop the reidiclous potential this has in terms of stealing other players property. I personally don't like this service at all, regardless of whether it's free or not. Players stealing everything a guild owns, which takes months to farm, and then migrating to another realm is already a big problem. Now they can just pop 15 bucks and change their character, stealing values of 1000$ or more in the process (yes, actual dollars).
 
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A company that earns a lot of money doesn't care about money? Now THAT doesn't make sense AT ALL.

Again, they could impose whatever limit without money being a factor - and it would prevent people from exploiting it. It's that simple.

They could have chosen a symbolic amount, like 5$ as I said, as that more than covers the absolutely minimal administrative effort involved.

I don't get how something this obvious can be argued.
 
What's wrong with it? If you don't like it the cost then don't do it. Next thing you know people will be demanding to play for free.
 
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What's wrong with it? If you don't like it the cost then don't do it. Next thing you know people will be demanding to play for free.

What's wrong with greed?

It's a part of human nature you can either like or dislike (or be indifferent) - and I dislike it.

I don't use the term wrong (or right) about anything.

No one is making demands. I'm stating my opinion, nothing more.

What's "wrong" about that?
 
Don't have a problem about this.

As Maylander said, its just an extension on the name change, so you actually get something more than what you did before. That is, if you also wants to change your name.

Don't see why suddenly 15$ is bad but 5$ in fine.
Wouldn't surprise me if they announced it was 5$, people would call that greed and would want it to be 2$ instead.

Personally, it might be something I could be interested in. Have a few times wished my male Night Elf rogue had been a female instead. But still not sure if I will do it.
 
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As Maylander said, its just an extension on the name change, so you actually get something more than what you did before. That is, if you also wants to change your name.
...which most people probably don't. This isn't an extension of the name change, it's stuff that people who AREN'T trying to scam might want to do to their character.

Anyway, I don't even play the game, so what do I care? But every step like this is a step towards a world where our MMOs consume massive cash in addition to massive time. And the time is really bad enough IMHO.
 
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