Starting in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, Blizzard will no longer charge players to change their gender.

[Finaj]

MODS: Can you please change "character" to "charge" please. Oops.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...op-the-fee-for-changing-gender-in-shadowlands

This is not only significant in terms of less monetization/more choice for players, but also in terms of diversity and inclusion.

Blizzard is introducing a lot more LGBTQA+ elements in Shadowlands including:

Spoiler

The first Night Warrior, a character who is a focus in the Ardenweald zone, is gay and a character named Pelagos in Bastion, who is a character who lived their life as a woman and chose to become male when entering the afterlife.

 

[Villein]

so this becomes another thing we can change at the barber or where ever?

 

[Deleted member 33319]

Was about to come in here swinging.
What an unfortunate typo.

 

[Finaj]

so this becomes another thing we can change at the barber or where ever?

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Yes. You can change it at the barbershop.

 

[Azerth]

Ahh you no longer have to pay to change. I read the title like blizzard was getting rid of it all together

 

[Tawpgun]

Damn OP almost cancelled WoW

Good move on them. I wonder if more games will do so. Sea of Thieves offered a one time free pirate appearance change potion but you have to pay to do it now.

 

[Weebos]

so this becomes another thing we can change at the barber or where ever?

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Yes, barbers in Azeroth have an impressive skill set.

 

[ned_ballad]

Wow that typo changed the whole meaning of the title! I thought this was awful, until I actually read what it was

This is actually great

 

[Noppie]

That's cool.

 

[aerie]

MODS: Can you please change "character" to "charge" please. Oops.

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We got cha ;).

The fastest way to get our attention is to report your OP for changes like this.

 

[Razmos]

This is great news, I hope other MMO's follow suit

 

[Finaj]

Yes, barbers in Azeroth have an impressive skill set.

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They can even fix your posture! (If you're an Orc).

 

[Berordn]

This is great news, I hope other MMO's follow suit

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i'm always letdown by how limited the aesthetician in XIV is compared to WoW's barbershop

but i guess that fantasia money is too good to pass up

 

[ClearMetal]

Nice. Should've been in Monster Hunter World as well.

Hell, all games with a character creator should allow you to change your character's look whenever you want.

 

[Villein]

more freedom for players to express themselves in wow is always cool

 

[Deleted member 4262]

Cool. I've wasted a lot of money on stuff like this.

 

[Razmos]

i'm always letdown by how limited the aesthetician in XIV is compared to WoW's barbershop

but i guess that fantasia money is too good to pass up

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Yep I was specifically thinking about FFXIV.
Changing race is one thing but gender should be more easily changeable. Granted they do give you a free Fantasia (or at least they did when I played)

 

[JahIthBer]

Pretty cool change, plus less importantly there is more hairstyles in the barbershop finally.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

Ahh you no longer have to pay to change. I read the title like blizzard was getting rid of it all together

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I got the same impression. Glad I was wrong. Cool move on Blizz's part, even if I'm definitely not getting back into WoW when I'm like three expansions behind and my primary WoW buddy died two years ago.

 

[Ryuelli]

Neat.

I want them to dump the fees to transfer realms next, the character I've played since 2007 is stuck on one that's pretty much dead (Dragonblight), and I don't want to pony up the money to move him. Now that they've had a cash shop for awhile now with stuff like mounts and the occasional transmog gear, charging for services just feels a bit much.

 

[Jag]

Great not having to be locked into a gender. Paid once for a gender change.

 

[jxN3]

I no longer need to pay? That's actually pretty huge... nice job Blizz.

 

[Coyote Starrk]

Just now saw this news. This is awesome. Though I do hope they have the foresight to still charge for name changes for obvious reasons.

 

[Doc Kelso]

This is a great move on Blizzard. Stuff like this should always be free.

Incoming people bitching about SJWs while simultaneously playing a female character because "hurr hurr if i'm gonna look at a pixel ass all day i want it to be a girl".

Yep I was specifically thinking about FFXIV.
Changing race is one thing but gender should be more easily changeable. Granted they do give you a free Fantasia (or at least they did when I played)

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Yeah, there's not much excuse for FFXIV charging for gender changes these days. Modders and mod tools have shown that it's not nearly as complex as people are led to believe a lot of the time.

 

[Deleted member 46948]

This is a good step.

It doesn't take Blizzard off my blacklist, but it's a good thing they're doing.

 

[MadLaughter]

Cool. Something I hadn't considered, but a good call.

 

[HarryDemeanor]

Now if only they can decrease the price for the rest of the services.

 

[Coyote Starrk]

Neat.

I want them to dump the fees to transfer realms next, the character I've played since 2007 is stuck on one that's pretty much dead (Dragonblight), and I don't want to pony up the money to move him. Now that they've had a cash shop for awhile now with stuff like mounts and the occasional transmog gear, charging for services just feels a bit much.

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Nah I don't see them ever doing that. But I wouldn't be against it so long as they put some kind of huge timer on the privilege.


Like yeah you can transfer to another realm, but you won't be able to switch that character again for 6 months. Or something like that.

 

[Berordn]

Yeah, there's not much excuse for FFXIV charging for gender changes these days. Modders and mod tools have shown that it's not nearly as complex as people are led to believe a lot of the time.

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paid services in MMOs are always a racket, it's never been logical that it should somehow cost money to change a few bits on a database when you're always able to spin up another character for free, which should cost them more

like i'll still end up paying because i'm that kind of sucker, but it's always just companies squeezing more money out of players

 

[Previously on Lost]

Yeah I honestly never thought of this as an issue, but it is the right call to change this now.

I always accepted charging extra fees for gender/name/race/faction/realm changes as a way to keep players from overusing those features. (IIRC early on some of those services were not automatic processes and required some manual work behind the scenes, along with being unable to play the character for a several hours while the work happened).

Though this opinion was formed pre-BC, long before other in game "micro transactions" were offered.

 

[HustleBun]

This is a good step.

It doesn't take Blizzard off my blacklist, but it's a good thing they're doing.

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Pretty much this.

It's a good thing but the company is still complicit in some things that will keep them on my blacklist.

 

[loob]

Good on them.

 

[Cort]

Now if only they can decrease the price for the rest of the services.

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I have a gut feeling that, with the removal of XP bonuses to heirlooms, they're going to go ahead and start selling XP pots...

 

[JahIthBer]

I have a gut feeling that, with the removal of XP bonuses to heirlooms, they're going to go ahead and start selling XP pots...

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heirlooms should just be removed entirely, awful concept honestly, not only are they overpowered, they take away the fun of equipping upgrades while levelling up, it's why people say levelling feels like a chore in retail without really understanding why.

 

[Berordn]

heirlooms should just be removed entirely, awful concept honestly, not only are they overpowered, they take away the fun of equipping upgrades while levelling up, it's why people say levelling feels like a chore in retail without really understanding why.

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They actually reduced their power significantly in the last stat squish, and that really just made them feel worse.