Recession, World of Warcraft, Worlds.com, and Hackzor!

Have you ever woke up one day and the world seemed like it wanted to trip you and take your lunch money? Just curious, I'll not go into my days of elementary school. That never happened to me. Seriously. Why won't you believe me?!

(Cough)


A very interesting post made by the divine like being Tobold(He has his own cult now, dont'cha know? I'm the Unofficial High Priest) got me thinking today. With the recent financial troubles, how will this affect us as MMO players? While a number of comments generated by his post are under the flag " We are not really concerned as it's just $15 " I'm beginning to more and more disagree with them. What about the people with multiple subscriptions due to...

A. Playing more than one game

B. Paying for Spouse

C. A+B

???

My god the subscriptions can add up people! If you're in a situation (like my own) where you have to pay bills, pay a mortgage, car payments and such, those extra dollars can help. While I DO agree an MMO game will usually give you more bang for your buck unlike buying a brand new console game for $60. Especially in today's market where all the games are under 10 hours in game play time. (Or so it seems, I will say I just finished Metal Gear Solid 4 and it was thankfully filled with length....that sounded wrong. Still, A fantastic game..I recommend it.) So what's the solution?

F2P and Micro-Transactions.

Now before you send me hate mail, flame comments, and start to chant my name while uttering words from the Dark Speech of Mordor, hear me out. These games don't cost anything to play monthly. $15+ (Or MUCH more if your THIS guy.) can help out more than most people realize. However if you DO happen to have some extra change, you can always buy some cosmetic fluff items.(No matter how much support I throw toward MT systems, I will never be a fan of spending real cash for actual "gear".)

However this particular comment I made over at Tobold's post got me thinking..

Something to note, though it is not LEGAL per say is there is some advantages to having an account to a popular MMORPG. I'm not approving this, nor advertising for it, but I have known people in my guild who have sold their accounts when times got really rough. While you do put in*usually* more money then you'll get out, it's interesting to see how some players will use their *as an example* World of Warcraft account as a quick fix in case something occurred to throw their financial stability out of whack.

Again, not legal by any means, but an interesting aspect to the whole recession business that I just realized. How many people will sell their accounts to help get some money for more important(no such thing!)matters?

Is this an option that players currently under rough times may be considering? It was several years ago that I was offered by my parental units(IE my folks, whatnot) to get a high school class ring for the SOLE purpose of reselling it to a pawn shop later in life in case times got rough. While I declined (Blast me to the Abyss!), character accounts to popular MMORPGs, such as World of Warcraft, are and probably have been used in the same manner. Would YOU sell your account if that meant the difference of getting an important bill paid or getting enough groceries to last you until you were more financially stable?

Selling accounts is highly illegal, and against so many Blizzard policies and other MMORPG developer's policies that it's not funny. Hypothetically speaking if you were in said scenario what would you do? Post a comment about your opinion in this matter as I'm curious about how people feel about what could potentially be a hot subject.

Maybe not "Hot like Lava", which is my battle cry as I TRY to cook dinner. I generally fail and you can probably guess where the use of my battle cry comes into effect. It hurts.

Some site updates - I've switched my visitor counter to SiteMeter. People using plugins with FireFox that prevents ads( I understand there are sites with ads that make the page look horrid, but mine don't..and that's how I make cash...turn em off..please ;_;...You're making Danshir cry) also messes with the site tracker, so I may be getting a ton of hits and not seeing that on my reports. I think SiteMeter doesn't have these evil problems.

Worlds.com has still yet to respond to the rest of the interview questions involving their lawsuit toward NCSoft. I'm beginning to get restless so I'm sure those who have been eager to read it are as well. The beatings shall continue until morale improves. Hopefully I'll get a response from Thom this weekend so we can have The MMO Experience's first exclusive. The title " Video game Journalist " sounds a lot cooler than CSR.(Customer Service Representative)

Tipa over at West Karana has convinced me to try out Wizard 101. I have no earthly idea how this game is played except from what I've read about on her website. I fully intend to make an evil incarnation of Danshir or perhaps a more sinister character of mine, Ceallac Dru'Riden.(Ceallac is both the name of my Rogue on World of Warcraft, and a character I made some years ago in Dungeons&Dragons. Yes I'm a nerd, get over it. I rolled a 1 on my..anti nerd check?)

Unless Worlds.com answers me tomorrow, I think tomorrow's post will be me ranting about World of Warcraft addictions, some of my favorite times in "Edge of Dawn"(The only guild ever to have a host of awesome people that put up with my stupidity...thanks guys.), and other World of Warcraft related topics. I may even link some of the more popular WoW "blogs", such as BigRedKitty, SkeletonJack, and Critical QQ.

Kick a gnome.

Here is my Night Elf Fury Warrior btw. I still don't have Wrath of the Lich King. Leave me alone about it ;_;. You can't really see it, but my off-hand is Mounting Vengeance. Yes I know it's not a GREAT fury weapon. Also my helm is the Helm of the Illidari Shatterer.