Twitch's top MMORPG streamer, Asmongold, has long been a candid voice of criticism and praise when it came to the games he played on stream, and for the longest time in his career, that game was World of Warcraft. Last night, the Twitch streamer voiced his disgust at the addition of a cosmetic item set to the online cash store, as well as pondered what this meant to the future of the game.
Though his dissatisfaction with the direction that World of Warcraft undertook in recent years turned his attention elsewhere (to Final Fantasy 14 and New World), he has still kept himself appraised of the goings-on at Activision Blizzard and its games, offering up his unfiltered opinions on each topic as they came – and even applying for Blizzard's Community Council (as well as being subsequently declined).
In his latest stream, Asmongold offered up his thoughts on the recently datamined content for World of Warcraft's Patch 9.2 titled "Eternity's End" among which is a new, online store exclusive cosmetic outfit priced at $20. Taken within a vacuum, Asmongold has claimed that he was still not okay with the existence of cosmetics paid with real money in any subscription based MMO, but given the tumultous state World of Warcraft finds itself in, he explained that the decision of Blizzard Entertainment to include the outfit was in extremely poor taste.
The Twitch streamer went on to compare the addition of this cosmetic outfit to the newly returning tier sets, stating that while some people might prefer them to the store exclusive set, it was objectively apparent that more care and development resources were put into content that players had to spend their real money on as opposed to earning them through playing the game.
Asmongold claimed that, while this decision makes sense from a purely monetary standpoint, that it would prove to be unhealthy for the game longterm – with the end result being uninspired, cheap sets tied to game content, and glamorous sets tied to the online store. This eventuality was apparently something that he warned the playerbase about as far back as Legion.
In addition to the outfit, Blizzard Entertainment has implemented yet another 6-months subscription incentive to World of Warcraft, with the reward being a cute baby murloc, recently hatched from their egg, that a character could carry on their back. It was datamined that players could also purchase the murloc separately through the game store for $15.
Though Asmongold positively responded to the idea of the item, he was, unsurprisingly, critical about the way through which World of Warcraft players could obtain it. The streamer also wondered if the murloc was initially planned to be a digital ticket reward from the cancelled BlizzCon online event, which was supposed to be held in February next year.
Ultimately, Asmongold decried the general state of the game and was bewildered that Blizzard would choose to implement new monetization to World of Warcraft at a time where their public opinion and relationship with their playerbase was at an all time low.
World of Warcraft is available on PC.