WAR goes Cash Shop

[Morreion]

New Account Entitlements come to WAR! (WAR official site)

* Specialized Training Pack – $9.99 USD, all characters on an account will recieve one War Tract that will allow them to immediately advance one full level when used
* Herald Pet Pack – $9.99 USD, all characters on an account will be granted adoption papers to the Snotling Herald vanity pet. This pet will follow you around and give you a boost!

Waging WAR: Warhammer's new online store (Massively)

"What all of this comes down to for me is my position on RMT in general. And generally speaking, I'm opposed to it when it comes to games that also offer a subscription payment model. As I scan over some of the items that will eventually be offered for WAR, I'm not particularly offended by any of the items except for the possible precedent being set by the War Tract item and the must-have nature of the Herald Pet."

WAR’s Purchase Packs are the Heralds of F2P (Game By Night)

"Someone needs to tell Mythic — or better yet, the money-strapped EA, since I’d bet this is where this is coming from — that pretty much everything about their progression packs is a bad idea. Go ahead, sell fluff, that’s optional. It seems clear that the point of this progression content is that it’s NOT optional for anyone who cares enough to level out anyways. Telling your core playerbase that their monthly subscription isn’t good enough, these players who have kept you afloat, is boneheaded and short sighted. Then again, I’d have to wonder how many of their total players are actually leveling outside of free Tier 1 anyways.

Which leads me to this: WAR is preparing to go free. "

[Regolyth]

If WAR goes free, I'm picking it back up.

It sounds to me like WAR is going the WoW route (which is similar to other MMOs) in offering these "packs." Blizzard said they would never sell items in-game through a store (like pets and stuff), but they started doing this earlier this year. I remember the pre-built characters you could buy in UO. You could start out with extra stat and skill points for like $20.00. I bought one for my thief (hey, stealing is hard to level!).

I am weary about these packs for Warhammer though. As long as the packs don't offer an RvR advantage, I'm all for it. But as soon as it gives even the slightest edge in RvR... BOOOOO!

[Morreion]

I remember those pre-built UO characters! One of the first 'cash shop type' of MMO sales if I remember right.

UO had a HUGE resale market. People were selling characters, houses, items...couldn't blame the company for getting involved in a chunk of that action, really.

Leveling For Dollars (Ardwulf's Lair)