Comments on: Animal Farm http://timhowgego.com/animal-farm.html Thoughts, Ideas, Analysis Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:16:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: A Strange Game - Tim Howgego http://timhowgego.com/animal-farm.html#comment-1266 A Strange Game - Tim Howgego Mon, 10 May 2010 10:06:06 +0000 http://timhowgego.com/?p=230#comment-1266 [...] adverts for Real Money Trading, not because I personally disagree with it (I’m actually far more concerned about the social implications of non-transferable virtual goods, which Blizzard enthusiastically sell without a hint of hypocrisy), but out of respect for their [...] [...] adverts for Real Money Trading, not because I personally disagree with it (I’m actually far more concerned about the social implications of non-transferable virtual goods, which Blizzard enthusiastically sell without a hint of hypocrisy), but out of respect for their [...]

]]> By: Tim Howgego http://timhowgego.com/animal-farm.html#comment-1226 Tim Howgego Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:30:58 +0000 http://timhowgego.com/?p=230#comment-1226 As a postscript, today sees the announcement of the first flying mount to be sold for via the official store (<a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/news-2/celestial-steed-and-lil'xt-to-be-sold-in-the-blizzard-store/" rel="nofollow">source</a>). Based on IRC, the US store queue was over 20,000 people long at the point when it crashed. People are mostly interested in the mount, which would be around $0.5 million revenue just in the line at the checkout, an hour-or-so after the mount became available. This really is a license to print money. And now people are starting to worry that it isn't "unique" - after seeing a dozen of them in Dalaran. Te he. And then cognitive dissonance sets in: "I bought it because it is useful to alts." Meaning it saves a handful of (in-game) gold and a key binding (one ground-and-flight mount instead of 2). Not the best justification for $25. The US queue reached 35,000 at one stage, which possibly makes this the fastest selling virtual good in history? Fairly confident it added at least $1 million to Blizzard's wallet in under 2 hours. As a postscript, today sees the announcement of the first flying mount to be sold for via the official store (source).

Based on IRC, the US store queue was over 20,000 people long at the point when it crashed. People are mostly interested in the mount, which would be around $0.5 million revenue just in the line at the checkout, an hour-or-so after the mount became available. This really is a license to print money.

And now people are starting to worry that it isn’t “unique” – after seeing a dozen of them in Dalaran. Te he.

And then cognitive dissonance sets in: “I bought it because it is useful to alts.” Meaning it saves a handful of (in-game) gold and a key binding (one ground-and-flight mount instead of 2). Not the best justification for $25.

The US queue reached 35,000 at one stage, which possibly makes this the fastest selling virtual good in history? Fairly confident it added at least $1 million to Blizzard’s wallet in under 2 hours.

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