World of Warcraft is getting Trading Posts starting today, a battle pass-style system that allows players to complete challenges to earn tokens that can be exchanged for cosmetic items collected in rotation.
It will be free too! All players who play World of Warcraft now have a whole new kind of content to participate in, in addition to raids, dungeons, PvP, and legacy content. Hopefully with this some typical dailies and weeklies can be eliminated.
Those with Horde or Alliance characters can find Trading Posts in Stormwind and Orgrimmar respectively, which will display a selection of vendors and current rewards for interested parties. Log in every month to get 500 tender, at which point you can earn an additional 500 through monthly challenges.
For PvP and different challenges for PvP content, the idea is that any player can earn maximum currency every month, regardless of playstyle. All in all, it’s a nice addition to World of Warcraft, one of the last vestiges of the legacy subscription model that until recently was a haven for modern live-service practices. Adapt or die is the game, and World of Warcraft has been playing it for a long time.
So how did this feature get accepted? Well, on the first day there were some bugs and other issues with a part of the players. Looking at Reddit, there are claims of losing bid tokens, as well as lost progress when logging back in. However, the feature has proven very popular with players flocking to the new trading post in the capital city.
If you needed more proof that the live service model is king, the fomo-driven approach to player retention we’ve been seeing in free-to-play games, then World of Warcraft jumping ship is perhaps the clearest sign of the times. And weekly-based games, through prestige grinding and rare mount farms, access to the battle pass.
However, with the subscription model already in place, Trading Post might actually be one of the best value additions to the battle pass we’ve seen in a while. With these things, there is the option of a pass that includes fomo for maximum retention, or a healthy player-driven system that is tolerant of the community.
WoW already does a great job of keeping people around so they can loosen their grip on your time and wallet and add perks to the system that you don’t often find elsewhere. All cosmetics will eventually return again, so there’s no rush to use up each Monthly Pass, and higher-cost rewards like mounts will remain available for up to three months. Things like this make the whole deal feel better.
Ultimately, time will tell if the Battle Pass will keep those who aren’t hooked on WoW still having fun. Dragonflight is probably the best expansion the game has seen in years, so now is the time to try out a system where people would give up on some unpleasant grind or sub-par endgames.
If you’re looking for some Dragonflight content, we’ve got all the Dragonflight glyph locations right here, as well as World of Warcraft players who like the new Dragonflight system can fly around the map!
