A new currency has been found in World of Warcraft. The player base is already in an uproar: Because much looks like real money currency.
The data miners from wowhead have found some new graphics in the game data of the Alpha of Midnight, which quickly caused a lot of excitement. The graphics remind of numerous mobile games – it is a currency that will be called “Hearthsteel”.
The problematic aspect that worries many: The graphics strongly resemble typical “shop offers”, where you can buy different bundles of a currency for real money, as known from many other games.
Why are real money currencies frowned upon? In most games, real money currencies have an extremely bad reputation. This is due to several reasons.
- On one hand, such currencies are usually associated with rewards that cannot be obtained by simply playing. Only those who pay get special content.
- On the other hand, currencies like “diamonds” or “gems” obscure the real price of an item. When you first have to exchange euros for a certain amount of a fantasy currency and then trade this for items, you would have to awkwardly calculate the exact purchase price. It also strongly encourages impulse purchases.
Hearthsteel – The terrible premium currency or not so bad?
Community is outraged without knowing the exact currency: Although it is not yet known how “Heartsteel” will be used in World of Warcraft or whether it is even a real money currency, many players are already upset. The vast majority assume that it will be a currency for housing items. Especially in the comments of wowhead, but also in the WoW subreddit, there are many voices hoping that resistance will arise:
- “I knew they would sell housing items, but that they would introduce a secondary currency instead of simply using Battle.net credits is obviously a bit dirty. I expect housing items to cost 510 currency, but the currency will be sold in bundles of 500 etc.” – Periwinkleditor on reddit
- “A game that costs 130 euros (not counting expansions) just to be able to play it, should not have a premium currency.” – VolksDK on reddit
- “Is this a late April Fool’s joke? In the meantime, I wish Bobby Kotick was back and [Microsoft] gone again.” – andrusza on wowhead
- “I thought it was okay for there to be stuff in the shop, but can we not introduce these fake currencies to deceive people and entice them to spend more money? That is so dirty and simply has no place in a subscription game like WoW.” – saiadar on wowhead
Nothing confirmed, but a lot of concern
However, to be fair, it must be said that data mining does not necessarily mean that there will really be a new premium currency in “our” version of World of Warcraft. Even if it seems plausible with the introduction of housing, the currency could be something that is only offered in China, for example. In the Asian market, such premium currencies are much more widespread and accepted than in the West.
At the same time, it could also be the case that the icons are used for game content, such as the various NPC vendors that you can encounter in the neighborhoods of housing in World of Warcraft. The icons could then simply represent different unlocks, like at different glory levels.
A mild skepticism may well be warranted, but before Blizzard makes an official announcement here, perhaps one should hold back the anger a bit. Because we still do not know for sure where and how this currency will be used and whether we will ever see it here.
A lack of players should not be the reason for the introduction of a potentially problematic currency – because WoW probably has more players than ever before.
