World of Warcraft isn't going true free-to-play any time soon, of course. The subscription model works for WoW in a fairly unique way. The number of global subscriptions for WoW make up such a huge, defined income that removing that income from the table in favor of the "5-percenters," the people who presumably pay for items in-game, would be almost criminal in terms of corporate mismanagement -- unless, of course, you could make more money on those 5-percenters than you do on 11.4 million monthly subscriptions, which seems like a hefty move to make.
There is no denying that Blizzard is dipping its toes into the microtransaction waters with the Blizzard Pet Store, selling virtual goods to players, including companion pets and mounts. Blizzard has sort of bucked its own trend when selling these virtual goods, creating its own unique understanding of selling pets and mounts: When you purchase a pet or a mount on the pet store, it attaches to your account rather than your character. In the past, and still going forward, Blizzard's other quasi-microtransaction avenue for pets and mounts, the WoW Gold TCG from Cryptozoic, attaches pets and mounts to the character and arguably end up being much more expensive on a free market than Blizzard's own pets and mounts.
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Adding licenses to your account from the pet store creates a new incentive for your account to stay with you in perpetuity, since your account grows with each thing you add to it. Presumably, you are going to want to hang on to your account forever, adding game licenses like Diablo 3, as well as pet and mount licenses for all of your games included.
The account enhancement model is not exactly new, but it definitely works for Blizzard's setup and the type of microtransactions that it provides. The complaint that I hear all the time with regard to Blizzard's microtransaction model is that these virtual goods cost too much and create incentives (like the coolest-looking mounts) for players to fork over more cash than their monthly subscription.
My response usually goes one of two ways. The first is a solemn reminder that microtransactions are here to stay and that no one expects you to purchase what you don't want (since you don't have a gun to your head, so to speak, when you see someone riding around on a Winged Guardian mount in Orgrimmar). The second response usually goes a little like this: Have you seen the microtransaction market outside of World of Warcraft? Because let me tell you, friend, WoW is holding back on the model more than you could ever imagine.
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So what can Blizzard learn from something like this? What can Blizzard steer clear of when moving forward with micro-transaction models, without falling into the public relations nightmare of a $70 monocle (ignoring the already huge and old controversy of a $25 sparkle horse, of course)? The EVE problem was that there was an element of the playerbase that set some of the cost of in-game items. Blizzard would be wise to never let players play with the economy of virtual goods that can be purchased with real money. Players scream for these items to be available in game as well as in the store, so that everything is available to everyone, no matter how much money you have or time you have to commit. To this, I say that this does not have to be the case, at least not with cosmetic and customization items and goods. It would be nice, sure, but Blizzard already has to deal with the incredibly destructive nature of gray-market gold selling, and you aren't likely to purchase wow gold from Blizzard any time soon.
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