Bitcoin Forum

Why, Blizzard, Why?   :(

http://cointelegraph.com/news/113620/blizzard-creates-own-digital-currency-for-world-of-warcraft-still-doesnt-accept-bitcoin

http://siliconangle.com/files/2012/02/10000gold-1btc.jpg

Makes no sense to me, especially for a game that has an auction house, sells so many accounts and in game currency on eBay for real money...this would be a perfect match to avoid scams and such if done properly.

Guess they have no way to apply regulation to it, but still.  Way to be non-progressive, Blizzard!   >:(

WoW gold predates Bitcoin. Are you talking about WoW tokens? They're new but they only allow the exchange of gold and game time. I don't think Bitcoin would be useful for that.

It's not a cryptocurrency right? It sounds like Amazon's coin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Coin

Maybe investors weren't very happy with the idea?  I don't know.  :-\

WoW Gold should be purchasable with Bitcoin.
I'm confident they will add that ability, sometime in the future.

A lot of people exchange WoW Gold for Bitcoin and vice versa. I bought a couple of mounts last year with bitcoin.

Let me add to my statement.

WoW Gold should be purchasable with Bitcoin, within the WoW game/payment system.
I'm confident they will add that ability, sometime in the future.

That would be nice but I don't think they'll do it because of all the legal hassles Bitcoin has had. If I was running the company I would stay away from Bitcoin like the plague. It's simply unnecessary for them.

The 'Gold' was introduced with the first release of World of Warcraft. I think that the AD just confused you.

Kingcolex, you are absolutely right.  It's selling game time:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/18141101/introducing-the-wow-token-3-2-2015

https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/content_entry_media/du/DUKMRUTRHLU31425064919799.jpg

Wish they allowed Bitcoin to purchase WoW Tokens or just integrated somehow into the game itself...

Blizzard is in the gaming industry for money, not to help promote bitcoin. If I am running the company, I would want to create my own currency I can sell and control, not adopt another currency "in the wild".

If I'm understanding well, this is an in-game currency, not run on a blockchain, right? If so, it makes total sense. Game studios have been doing it for years, tokens in exchange of certain levels, and people buy accounts with tokens...

Nothing new, and doesn't really have much to do with Bitcoin, in my opinion.

"WoW Gold" can be frozen, credited, deducted, transfered and destroyed on Blizzard's demands. On contrast, Bitcoin doesn't have this advantage. That's why creating an own currency is better for Blizzard.

No, but it would be nice if more game companies took Bitcoin.

Here's an example: Nexon has many games and they use NX as their currency to buy items or service time (such as a month of premium service), in their games. You can buy NX with cash, credit, etc. But now they allow you to buy it with Bitcoin or Dogecoin:

If you could fund WoW Tokens with a credit/debit card or WoW/Blizzard gift card, why couldn't you do it with Bitcoin?

Either that or Blizzard could make a custom Bitcoin wallet for in game transactions....it's not like they can't do it.  They're freaking Activision-Blizzard!  They have the resources and technical talent to do so.  

It's just that they choose not to, that gets on my nerves....

It makes all the sense for them not to use bitcoin and create their own currency, pretty sure they want to be in control of supply and pretty much all aspects regarding their currency.

lol that doesn't sound very trustworthy to me

Either way, we all know the reasons why Blizzard didn't do it.  Pretty much the obvious ones, regulate their own in game currency, change terms, credit/deduct, transfer, change value overnight, etc...have complete and utter control of it. 

We all know Bitcoin is unpredictable and volatile, decentralized, etc, but it'd be cool if a famous or known high profile game developer/publisher like a Blizzard, like an EA, like a Take 2 or someone anyone just stood out of their own comfort zone and be like.....we'll be the first one to innovate and step out of the box and integrate Bitcoin into either their payment system, their system for microtransactions like "horse armor", or their in game currency.

That would truly be mind blowing.  But for now, they all play it close to the vest and safe...

Pussies.

It is quite simple. Blizzard likes to be in control. Just that. When Blizzard has its own currency that will mean it can be manipulated in any way Blizzard wish, with bitcoin it is not so simple.

Pretty much this.

I mean who wouldn't want to print his/her own money?

Its not a problem that they have their tokens, the problem is if people give it too much attention, but i doubt it will happen.
Its also not surprising they made this move, since most of their customers are using paypal and are quite happy with that, not every non-adoption is a fail.

cheers

I remember this. I was ab avid Diablo 3 player back then. But that economy of Blizzard from D3 was not to amuse people or make life easier. Auction House in Diablo 3 was created for Blizzard to make more money. Every transaction was after all taxed by them. I imagine that will be a thing with their new project as well. Blizzard is a stock company, they need to make money. They do not care how they will earn them.

This shouldn't be any surprise, considering how DRM infested the Blizzard games have gotten ( I actually outright refuse to buy any of their new games or play them because of it ) it seems pretty normal to me that they'd completely detest the idea of linking their game to a currency they couldn't control either.

As usual Bitcoin proves to be a true litmus test as others have said for those who preach the free market and those who actually believe in it.

So basically marketing at it's finest, I guess :)


I agree with you on that... I'd love to see Steam accepting Bitcoin on the store

I would be surprised if any of the gaming companies would use such a volatile in game currency as BTC, especially when have zero influence over the price of it.
About one and a half year ago a Minecraft server operator complained about how using LTC as ingame currency killed the in-game market first later his gaming community and finally his server. (He utilized LTC when it worth something next to nothing and he ended up with a Minecraft world where almost anything was controlled by a few speculators.)

Bitcoin is volatile, that is a fact. So why so many big players, much bigger than some game companies already accepted bitcoin? Why Microsoft and Dell or online shops like Newegg are accepting bitcoin now? And your LTC example is a little off the road - in my opinion the ONLY cryptocurrency worth promoting is bitcoin. LTC or Doge not to mention some more coins like PayCoin are just not good at all.

Recently Blizzard worked on new kind of "token currency" and they did it! But look what potentially would happen when Blizzard (or any other gaming company) tries to create some sort of substitute altcoin (note: it is not real altcoin, and it's not based on blockchain or anything but just imagine what will happen if it would): http://www.pcgamer.com/world-of-warcrafts-new-token-currency-sheds-a-quarter-of-its-value-in-one-day/ (http://www.pcgamer.com/world-of-warcrafts-new-token-currency-sheds-a-quarter-of-its-value-in-one-day/)
They don't have any idea about economy...

That's pretty stupid

It's much easier for them to deal with. In case anything goes wrong, they still have control over the currency. Also, well, they're selling that currency to their customers. They want to make money :)

The game got super inflated. There's too much gold generated from old players, and little to none way of that gold being "sinked"(the auction house always cut 5%, but that's pretty low).
And you guys must remeber that gold is generated from nowhere, every second. Transactions on the game are instant except when trying to move things between servers. Tho se 2 things I believe that a blockchain solution won't be enough.

This.

If they don't integrate bitcoin to their system, people can still find other channels to acquire wow gold to pay using bitcoin. There are a lot of websites and marketplace that you can trade without using their system. So either way for them it's a loss of opportunity and imagine the amount of fees they could have collected if it was done through their system.

Ripple or Stellar could be useful for this.

That would be awesome if World of Warcraft accepted BTC payments! I hope they don't create their own crypto currency though. Hopefully they will accept BTC some time in the future :)

Hopefully...  But I wouldn't hold my breath.

I want to see this in some of their other games.... {StarCraft}  ;D

They should have a betting system built in with escrow, where spectators bet on the outcome of matches in tournaments. {Sport betting}

I watch these tournaments and would also like to Tip the players {in game} if it was a GG. It's a spectator sport, and we should be able to bet on the outcome of these games. {Pro levels}

Blizzard could take a percentage of the bets, for the escrow service being rendered. {They like to make money on everything}

So on top of the prize money, people can bet on these games and the incentive for the Pro players will be to play better to get more tips.  ;D

To add to your perceptive post, if Blizzard or eSports events could somehow award prize money in BTC, that'd be good for all parties involved.

We're already seeing BTC tipping thanks to Changetip and Twitch for gamers livestreaming:

http://www.coindesk.com/changetip-integrates-with-game-streaming-service-twitch-tv/

Also, Xapo and CEVO with their partnership:

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/19958/xapo-partners-online-gaming-company-cevo-holds-21000-giveaway/

Looks promising on the gaming/Bitcoin front, hopefully Blizzard follows suit soon.

If everyone in the world creates their own crypto currency, then there will be billions of different shitcoins around, and none of them will be having any value. BTW, I was thinking that Blizzard was intelligent. Seems that he was not.

there was already some events with bitcoin prize as reward, they were showmatch between famous players(i'm talking about starcraft 2), like naniway vs scarlett(14 btc)

i don't know about other game