World of Warcraft and UDE Point System Fiasco

Richard Manley writes "A report on the card game trinket fiasco. When the UDE (Upper Deck Entertainment) point system finally went live, I would imagine most of the people that logged in felt the same fury I did. Blizzard knows the lengths that its fans will go to get trinkets (look at the price of Murloc cards on eBay), but their arrangement with Upper Deck simply takes advantage of the good will many fans have shown." From the article: "This means that in order to get these trinkets, one would have to purchase 9 BOXES of cards for the fireworks and 21 BOXES of cards for the ogre. What does this mean? Want a fireworks trinket? Sure, it is only going to cost you $900.00. Want an Ogre trinket? No problem, it is only going to cost you $2,100.00. Bear in mind that these items are purely for show off purposes and give no in-game advantage to players." Having been through the Magic: The Gathering addiction twice, I've decided staying away from this Collectible Card Game is a good idea.

Re:HELP!

[guy-in-corner]

Some points, its to be hoped, could be earned in ways that don't involve you having more money that sense.

How about a WoW-branded credit card? Instead of cashback, you get in-game points for real-world spending.

CCG first, bonus second?

[mmalove]

A couple counter points to the article -

First, I've known many many people who have spend over 1000 dollars on CCGs, most notably MTG. The extra tabard, the turtle mount, and whatever else is a bonus. It's not meant to be a grind, it's not meant to be the sole reason you spend 1000 dollars. The fact that people are willing to spend such an obscene amount of money for one, rather than leave it up to chance, is no more Blizzard's fault than it would be Sony's fault that people will buy playstations on Ebay for 3x the price just to get one 2 weeks early.

Second, everything I've seen as a bonus from this is inconsequential in the game. The turtle mount isn't even epic, meaning you would still need a regular in game mount or everyone (your guildies, your battleground comrades, or that night elf you were chasing down) will outpace you. Vanity in game pets don't fight in combat, and most shape altering trinkets (this UPC item I'm sure included) don't fool guards or most players.

Conclusion : The article's author confused a collectible card game with a lottery, and got teary when he didn't win. To quoth the WoW forums, "Cry more nub".

Re:What were people expecting?

[mblase]

I simply have to agree. The article starts with this comment:

I, like many people that purchased the World of Warcraft Collectable Card Game, have no interest in playing the game. What we are after is the brilliant in-game promotional items stuffed into random packages

So he's already admitted he's not buying the Collectible Card Game for the Game; he's only interested in the Collectible Cards.

Want an Ogre trinket? No problem, it is only going to cost you $2,100.00. Bear in mind that these items are purely for show off purposes and give no in-game advantage to players.

Well then, if they don't help you win the game and only offer you a bunch of "bling", why bother?

I'll grant you, $2100 is a lot of cash for some bling. But complaining that fashion costs too much is a waste of time from the very beginning.

Don' t leave home without it...

[Shipwack]

That's actually a pretty good idea, guy (not that I play WoW)... it'd be another revenue stream for Blizzard, and it'd give the players another way of getting points. IANAL, but I hope there is some way you could copyright (or whatever the proper legal phrase would be) that idea so you could get something if Blizzard ever does it.