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World of Warcraft Auction House App Detailed

And it has a...subscription fee?


 Yep.
 Yep. "Per 30 days." This is a subscription-based iPhone app.
Blizzard is currently letting World of Warcraft players test the new Auction House app for the PC, Mac, and iPhone. Revealed earlier this year, the Auction House app is a program, outside of the proper WoW game, which allows players to interact with the auction houses on their server.
 
The most interesting thing about the app (and by interesting, I mean completely crazy) is its payment structure. Using the free version of the Auction House app gives WoW subscribers basic functionality, including the ability to check the auction house outside of the game, browse their current and recent auction purchases and sales, and receive notices when their auctions have sold or expired. However, if you pay for the full app, you'll be able to buy and sell items on the auction house, as well as create auctions from items in your bag or bank account and collect gold from those purchases, all from your browser or Apple developed phone.  
 
And that full functionality can be yours for the low, low price of $3. A month. That's right: An additional $3 subscription on top of the $15 dollars you're already spending on WoW each month. 
 
Who on earth would purchase this? Who in the world would pay a monthly fee to access non-gameplay portions of a video game? How could Blizzard be crazy enough to ask consumers to pay more money so they can more effectively make and manage fake money?!
 
I can't deal with this. I'm leaving this news story. Let's all leave this news story together. Let's show Blizzard that we're not going to support this nonsense.
 
...Okay, I think they've gone. The non-WoW players have gone to another page. We're in the clear. We can talk freely now.
 
Oh MAN! Mobile Auction House! How awesome is that, WoW players? I mean, okay, not really useful for me right now, because they removed the cooldown for my tailoring and I don't really need to be spending so much time farming eternal fire like I used to (and why would you not be farming eternal fire? You specialized tailoring into not-spellfire? Good luck with that, chumps). But, heck, even if I can use my phone to pick up frost wyrm pots before my guild tries to take down heroic Saurfang, that alone would be totally worth it! $3? Done. Fine. Every month. No question. How else am I going to get enough change to buy a Tome of Cold Weather Flight for my alts?
 


 
But you don't need to take my word for it. Go check out the app on Blizzard's site, or check the armory app for the iPhone. The auction house service is currently free right now, but it is only accessible to users who have characters on a select number of realms. Get on it! It looks...oh shoot! The non-WoWers are coming back! We'll pick this up later. Meet me at ICC. I'll bring the fish feasts.  


 The differences between the free and paid versions of the Auction House app.
 The differences between the free and paid versions of the Auction House app.

111 Comments

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darkjester74

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Edited By darkjester74

To quote RDR:
 
"America, where a lying, cheating degenerate can prosper."

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beargirl1

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Edited By beargirl1
@Shinri said:
" @empire_man said:
" j "
wow nice man! nice input! "
i lol'd hard
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MeatSim

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Edited By MeatSim

Blizzard needs more money!

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nerosik

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Edited By nerosik

hello money

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LIquid1024

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Edited By LIquid1024

Great! Now i can hustle from the dentist's office if i so choose.

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the8bitNacho

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Edited By the8bitNacho

I don't see anything wrong with this myself.  It's not like they're forcing it down people's throats -- if you don't utilize it, it's not going to impact the way you're already playing the game.  The people that will pay for it probably play the auction house a lot.  Now they'll be able to enjoy their favorite aspect of the game without actually having to sit down at their computer to log onto the game.  It seems perfect for bathroom and lunch breaks at work, or even school.  I'm not going to raise a fuss until MMO-operating companies start forcing stuff like this on people.

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GoodKn1ght

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Edited By GoodKn1ght
@fwylo said:
" @carlthenimrod:  That's like 24 dollars less than XBL Gold...  That means WoW mobile AH is like %60 percent of the cost of XBL.  Aka not close. Unless they lowered the price and I didn't know about it?  I renewed like 2 weeks ago though so I doubt it. "
lol actually if you renew it before your year is up, Aka preorder i guess, its 40, it was on the one of the blade on the dash board this morning and i did it, no i have two years of xbl and it only was Ninety dollars!! I hate fees, i think paying for xbl is stupid but its something you gotta do to play, you don't need this auction house so i guess the price structure doesn't really matter but its still kind of alot on top of a 15 dollar fee and just the fact that its an i phone app, that you never stop paying for is kinda weird
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nanikore

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Edited By nanikore
@Jhriad: Which would only make sense.
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Jhriad

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Edited By Jhriad

Hrm... I think we've got some Activision in our Blizzard.

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taintmachine

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Edited By taintmachine

3 dollars is too much for something that does so little, but none of blizzard's extra services have been close to inexpensive, either.  blizzard is now running a mostly macro/microtransaction model for WoW, and their customers consistently prove that they are willing to buy just about anything and not in small numbers.

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Badfysh

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Edited By Badfysh

ugh more useless ways to waste money wtf is wrong with blizz, if they wana do stupid shit like this then they should atleast knock down the monthly fee because nearly $20 a month for a single game is fucking stupid, but doesnt affect me in any way cuz i got out o WoW a while ago and i think im much better for doing so

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Kyle

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Edited By Kyle

As much as i wanna be all "ra ra, down with this stupid app and its monthly fee," the truth is, that is an incredibly valuable app to have for a hardcore wow player, and if I had an iphone and was still actively playing wow, I would buy this as soon as possible, no questions asked whatsoever.

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TehJames

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Edited By TehJames

How is Matt..?

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Sooty

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Edited By Sooty

A lot of people will only want it to just check auctions so the free version is good enough, I don't know why anybody would take out the subscription plan for it. 
 
Being able to make auctions, bid on and buy stuff on the go is cool but really there's no point. Checking if your auctions have sold is by far the most useful and appropriate feature.

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Aarny91

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Edited By Aarny91

I lol'd.

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danimal_furry

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Edited By danimal_furry

WoW: Where they make money off of junkies forever, and ever, and ever... any way possible.

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MattiasHeisner

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Edited By MattiasHeisner

I play wow but not really interested in this, but i think ppl still gonna try it and pay for it.

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Tiwi

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Edited By Tiwi

disgusting

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FireSketch

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Edited By FireSketch

Well we all heard the list of domains Activision Blizzard registered the other day. I don't see how we can really be suprised by this.
It's sad, I want Blizzard to be free again :(

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arkasai

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Edited By arkasai

I'm sure there are a lot of people that play exclusively for the auction house and the thrills of an unregulated market.

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white

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Edited By white

Did this Matt guy became a staff member from a super-user-of-the-site?

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Dryker

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Edited By Dryker

Damn, Matt can write. Good voice (narratively). Good sense of moment. I just hope Vinny keeps masking his voice when he sees fit to pipe up.
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Tennmuerti

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Edited By Tennmuerti

I know a doctor who has a low level WoW toon that he hardly ever levels. He spends most of the time just playing the AH between patients. He might be interested in this :)
 
Edit: Oh and love your writing style Matt, it's entertaining to read :)

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Osiris

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Edited By Osiris

I love WoW and I generally like Blizzard. But this is a video game that already takes quite some time if you play it properly. So getting away from your pc is kinda nice because then you can focus on other important things. Why the fuck would you want to check your auctions 24/7 or check the AH every second. AND PAY FOR it, sorry Blizzard that is ridiculous yet a genius way of ripping more money from people, yet again. Kudos. :)

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AMonkey

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Edited By AMonkey

What a ridiculous waste of money. Theres no need to micro manage auctions so much and if you really need to then you can find the time on your computer. An app for addicts.

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Gruff182

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Edited By Gruff182

Welll... I guess Blizzard doesn't believe in good will to its customers.
 
Their doing PC wrong.

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tebbit

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Edited By tebbit

Your trick didn't work, I WAS HERE THE WHOLE TIME!!!

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Teaspoon83

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Edited By Teaspoon83

Well, glad that my wife doesn't play WoW anymore. She really got into playing the auction house, watching what sold, finding the crazy deals and making money. She would probably be on a computer every moment she could to play it to her advantage.  
  
With that being said, it is a shame that Blizzard is asking for more money to provide this feature. I could understand that there are additional server costs to allow connections to the game without the client but really, why not just eat the cost Blizzard. Sigh, atleast they still make great games.

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nmarchan

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Edited By nmarchan

I'm sure glad greedy old Activision isn't having any effect on Blizzard!  I was kinda worried when the companies came together, but Blizzard's totally kept its independence and isn't trying to squeeze every possible penny out of  its customers like Activision is!
 
Oh. 
 
Wait.

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Lethkhar

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Edited By Lethkhar

As much as I hate Blizzard and the iPhone, I gotta admit that this is pretty cool. 
 
Of course, the fact that you have to pay to use it just proves why I hate both Blizzard and the iPhone.

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FrankCanada97

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Edited By FrankCanada97
@SJSchmidt93 said:
" What did I miss? Who's Matt Kessler? "
Former User, turned Mod, turned Intern, MattBodega.
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jacksukeru

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Edited By jacksukeru

I like that there's news now. This was a good idea.

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Vengeful

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Edited By Vengeful
@Kallim said:
" but.... why would you pay for something that would take you 2 min to do with your wow client on your pc xD "
well some people might want to play the auction house for money while they have downtime at work and dont have access to a comp with wow on it. There are some fiends out there that will go crazy with this, they make insane amounts of gold buying and selling stuff.
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LiquidS

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Edited By LiquidS

Nice write up Matt, I don't play WoW but made me read it all anyways.
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sjschmidt93

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Edited By sjschmidt93

What did I miss? Who's Matt Kessler?

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TheHT

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Edited By TheHT

Crazy indeed. Don't be surprised though when crazy people buy it.

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Danterion

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Edited By Danterion

This is ridiculous. The fact that people would pay a monthly fee for this shows just how gullible most MMO fans can be. Not only do they have poor taste in games, they can't get out of a vicious cycle.

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DirtyEagles

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Edited By DirtyEagles

who are you kidding, people will buy this subscription shit up like hotcakes because its got WoW written on it. It's  a sorry state of affairs but that's the direction we are headed in. Don't really blame them though, I guess.

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darknaut

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Edited By darknaut

Don't think I'd be as iffy about this thing if it was $3 / two months, versus $3 per month. I'm still not totally grand on the idea, but at least it wouldn't seem as... bad. Either way, for the people that would get some hardcore use out of it, an extra $3 isn't going to kill them. At least those of us who don't pay it get some functionality from it too.

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jakob187

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Edited By jakob187

I know what you mean, Matt.  I know what you mean.  = D 
 
Oh wait...not anymore.  I quit playing a year ago!

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SatelliteOfLove

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Edited By SatelliteOfLove
@moush said:
" @SatelliteOfLove: I'm pretty sure Blizzard has been ripping off people with WoW forever. "
"Nov 08" is not forever.
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Radar

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Edited By Radar

Dumb move, should have made it a one time payment or free with ad support. With a monthly payment they're severely limiting it's use to only people who consistently play the game of stocks with the auction house.

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Coombs

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Edited By Coombs

 

Who on earth would purchase this? 

 If I still played WoW I would pay this.
And anyone who plays WoW and actually has a good amount of gold will know why
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CallMeRotten

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Edited By CallMeRotten

I don't think it should surprise anyone that WoW players would not hold back from spending money for additional perks.

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moush

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Edited By moush
@SatelliteOfLove: I'm pretty sure Blizzard has been ripping off people with WoW forever.
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ectoplasma

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Edited By ectoplasma

This newsitem was kinda long for its content.

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Milkman

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Edited By Milkman

Even if I still played World of Warcraft, I don't think I could stomach a monthly fee for a portable auction house. The free version seems perfectly fine and I was never much of an entrepreneur in my World of Warcraft days anyway.

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SatelliteOfLove

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Edited By SatelliteOfLove

Just when the act of putting forth effort for gold became worthless. Oh well, nickel and dime your payers...er, players away while you can.

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raiz265

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Edited By raiz265

Sounds quite useful for all those auction house farmers who buy up all the stuff and put it back in for higher prices... I always lacked the motivation for that :/