You may have heard about World of Warcraft's recent drop in subscribers. Once known as the world's most ubiquitous massively multiplayer online role-playing game (hell, it still pretty much is), the game has lost a decent number of players in the last fiscal year or so, though there are still something like 10 million of them currently active.
Unsurprisingly, Blizzard is not interested in having players leave WoW. Instead, the publisher is exclusively interested in making those players who have dropped out come back. And they're removing quite a few barriers to entry in order to make it happen.
Today the publisher announced the new Scroll of Resurrection, a deeply nefarious device existing players can unleash on so-called "friends" who have abandoned the battle for Azeroth like Daniel Plainview abandoned his child. Should the wayward player happen to accept the aforementioned scroll, they'll be able to jump back into the game with the following perks:
That's all well and good for the former turncoat who saw the error of their ways and came crawling back because they got a bunch of free stuff, but what of the loyal player who sent the scroll? What reward awaits them for their distribution of email fliers to their former guildmates? They will be getting free mounts. Provided the newly scrolled friend renews and pays for at least 30 days of play, Alliance players will receive a free Spectral Gryphon, while Horde characters get a free Spectral Wind Rider.
All of this does, of course, hinge on former players having friends who still play World of Warcraft. Blizzard isn't just sending these things out all willy-nilly. Also, this is a limited time offer, so if you are planning on sending out a scroll, head over on to Blizzard's official page for this whole promotion and get crackin'.