In the fantasy MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online, players can now purchase the vampire curse and werewolf bite for real money. Players accuse Zenimax of fleecing beginners. After all, these transformations are available for free at every corner of Tamriel.
We reported on this about four months ago, when dataminers found icons for the werewolf bite and the vampire curse in the database. Back then, people were already uneasy: But who knew if this would ever make it into the game.
Now we know. It’s here.
Pay to bite – the purchasable rendezvous with a vampire
For 1500 crowns, you can become a werewolf or a vampire in the crown store via an item. Normally, this requires the help of another player (or a rather rare NPC) and you have to go on a quest. The vampire or werewolf state grants new skill opportunities, there were even phases when vampires were extremely strong.
There are two ways to trigger this transformation: Either you get infected by a player who already has it and start a quest line. Or you receive the curse from NPCs and then start with the quest journey.
Related to the topic: The Elder Scrolls Online Guide: How to become a vampire – Spawn points and quests
At release and later at the console launch, there was a booming player market surrounding the two transformations with everything that goes with it: The spawn points for vampire NPCs were besieged so that no one could be bitten “for free” by NPCs; player bites, on the other hand, were traded at top prices.
Of course, there was fraud: “Give me money, and I’ll bite you. (…) Thank you for the money, but I won’t bite you, I’m a nasty vampire and I tricked you. Mohahaha! Please turn around now and imagine I transformed into a bat and flew away while I’m actually just logging out.”
Nowadays, you can find a vampire bite at every corner of The Elder Scrolls Online
But after a few weeks and months, as more and more players became vampires or werewolves in The Elder Scrolls Online, this usually settled down – because every “infected” person can pass on the curse once a week. The supply exceeded the demand.
In the forum, a discussion unfolds about the topic of the purchasable bite. Players say: You’re fleecing beginners with this. They buy this bite for 13 euros, perhaps not even knowing that it can be easily acquired for free in the game.
At The Elder Scrolls Online, the response is: This is purely a matter of convenience. Those who buy the item in the shop save themselves the quest. It’s like everything else in the shop, nothing “game-changing”, but serves only for “convenience”.
Players don’t see the sale of the bite as “Pay2Win”, but wonder why anyone should spend 1500 crowns (13 euros) for something that is offered for free at every corner.
