Summary
After the extremely controversial Shadowlands expansion,World of Warcraftneeded to do everything it could to win the playerbase back. So, Blizzard launched the Dragonflight expansion, which brought the focus back to Azeroth, stripped away many aggravating mechanics, and breathed new life into the franchise. While all of that was great to see, one of the best additions toWorld of Warcraftmay have actually come in the form of the Trading Post.
The Trading Post was first introduced toWoWin patch 10.0.5. It was designed as a way to reward players with new or previously locked away cosmetics just by playing the game. This not only gave players a fun new mechanic to engage with, but it also provided the game with one of its first forms of evergreen content. Because of that, many fell in love with this new mechanic. While the feature is still a fantastic addition to the game, it has also gone through a few changes throughout the year that may not have been for the best.
World of Warcraft’s Trading Post Has Grown a Lot Throughout 2023
WoW’s Trading Post Rewards Have Evolved
The first edition ofWoW’s Trading Postwas pretty simple. Players would be rewarded Trader’s Tender for completing objectives that they could then spend on various cosmetics. They would earn 500 Tender just for logging in and could earn an additional 500 by playing the game. Once they earned that 500 Tender, they would also be rewarded with an additional mount or armor set for their collection. Each month, a new catalog would arrive along with new objectives and a new exclusive monthly item. While it still works like that, the actual rewards have changed drastically.
For starters, the way that players earn rewards has changed. There are still monthlyobjectives to complete in the Traveler’s Log,but these objectives have gotten far more varied, and there are now different levels of them. Instead of rewarding players for simply completing 50 quests, players are now rewarded for completing 10, 25, or 50. These different levels are not exclusive to quest completion either, as many other activities now feature multiple tiers. This gives players a bit more flexibility in how they earn their Trader’s Tender, which makes for a better system overall.
The Trading Post rewards themselves have also gone through a few changes. Ever since September 2023,Blizzard has been offering class tier setsvia this system. These sets have been a great way to further customize characters alongside the boatloads of other items. Additionally, there has just been more variety in the items on offer, which has made choosing what to buy a lot harder.
While these changes have been great, there have also been a few changes that have proven pretty controversial. A couple of months after it was released, players started to notice that prices had been increasing, which made it harder to buy everything players wanted. Along with that, leaked assets revealed that Trader’s Tender was going to beadded to theWoWcash shopeventually. And in August, that fear came true.
Blizzard bundled 200 extra Trader’s Tender into the Corsage Pack so that players would be more inclined to purchase it. Couple that with the fact that prices had already been rising, and it made theTrading Post feel a bit like another microtransaction front. Additionally, some cash shop items came with the notice that they would be added to the Trading Post at a future date. This meant that players could either spend real money now to save Trader’s Tender later, or just wait until the cosmetic is added to the Trading Post down the line.
Even with these controversial changes,WoW’s Trading Post has still been a breath of fresh air after years of aggravating systems. It will be interesting to see how this system further evolves as Dragonflight ends and The War Within begins. Hopefully, it still retains what made it special to begin with, but the microtransactions tied to it make that a bit worrying.
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World of Warcraft is an incredibly successful MMORPG that has been going strong for almost two decades. It’s one of the highest-grossing franchises in history and is widely considered the most popular MMORPG ever made.
