This week we have a look-see at how the WoW Token is doing so far and I offer my opinion on the first two wings of the Blackrock Mountain Adventure.
WoW Token
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Last Tuesday the WoW Token went live on US realms allowing players to convert game time and gold between each other. For those unfamiliar, the Token can be purchased for $20 from the in-game shop and sold on the auction house for gold. The gold value of the token is determined dynamically based on the current supply and demand of the token - sellers cannot set the buyout price. Once a player purchases the token it can be converted into 30 days of game time. The idea behind the token is to let players pay for game time with gold or spend real money for in-game gold.
Blizzard set the starting gold price of the token at thirty thousand gold and would let supply and demand dictate the price going forward. Hours after going live the price steadily climbed as high as 31,215 as demand for the token began to exceed supply. It would appear that many players cashed in some of their gold for tokens. This isn’t surprising as many of us who have been playing for a long time have potentially amassed tons of gold.
By the launch day evening the price had peaked and began to decline. In about 5 hours’ time the price dropped by just over 6,000 bringing it to roughly 25,024 per token. This indicates that more people were buying the token for real money than buying them with gold - supply began to exceed demand. The price continued a steady decline and just under 24 hours later bottomed out at 20,370. This is the lowest price the token has sold for as of this writing. Then the price once again turned around and started to increase to 25,867 over the next 24 hours.
It’s not surprising that the price has been fluctuating as it has in these early days of the WoW Token being available. Many people have been testing it out and flooding the system on one end or another. As time passes we’ll see the prices be less volatile especially between content patches and expansions. It’s important to remember that when you purchase a WoW Token from the auction house you can redeem it whenever you want. You can buy when it’s cheap and just hang on to it for use at a later time if need be. Same, of course, is true for those buying them with real money. You can buy it and wait for the gold value to increase before putting it up on the auction house.
Blackrock Mountain So Far
The latest Hearthstone Adventure, Blackrock Mountain, is available and I have worked my way through the first two wings that are currently unlocked. The first two wings each have three bosses and two class challenges. The structure of this adventure is nearly identical to the Curse of Naxxramas adventure. Defeating a boss earns you two copies of a new card while class challenges unlock class specific cards. Defeating an entire wing unlocks a new legendary card.
I really love these single player Adventures especially when ladder anxiety sets in or when you have a horrible run of losses. They offer a lot of challenges and require interesting deck builds you wouldn’t otherwise use in Arena or ranked play. The bosses you fight are interesting and often use clever cards which are not available to players. Some of them are downright punishing. I love how you earn new cards from achieving something, not by opening blind packs. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun to open packs but I’d much rather earn them.
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The bosses on normal difficulty offer a moderate level of challenge that’s fun to make decks for and play against. The bosses can be defeated in just a few attempts once you learn what they’re all about and how they play. The heroic versions are a different story. Here the difficulty is cranked up to near Battletoads-speeder bike stage levels. Not only do you need to build and refine a great deck for each boss, you also need a good dose of luck. Often times you’re relying on specific card draws to make plays that get you ahead. Not only that but the bosses receive a substantial boost in power with a stronger ability, sometimes more health or armor, slightly different cards or mechanics, and more aggressive behavior.
The class challenges are just straight up fun. The challenge level for these is “fun.” They’re not too difficult and there’s no stress in terms of making a good deck because you can only use a pre-made deck specific for each challenge. The mage class challenge stands out as one of my favorites so far. The entire deck is made up of Unstable Portals. These cards cost 2 mana and when played add a random minion to your hand that then costs 3 less to play! You can even get minions that are specific to other classes.
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I can’t wait to explore rest of the adventure in the coming weeks as new wings unlock. I have yet to dive into the Arena or ranked play since the release but I’m really looking forward to seeing what new decks players come up with and how the meta shift.
Have you bought or sold a WoW Token? What are your thoughts on Blackrock Mountain? Let us know what your experience was in the comments below!
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