GDC 2010: Ngmoco justifies the freemium model tuaw.com (blog) There’s a whole black market that exists in World of Warcraft where you can buy a level 80 character for hundreds of dollars. There’s this market where ..

So a few days ago, word was released that Blizzard is working on a new feature for the ever-changing armory …they’re going to add auction house access without being in-game! Now, I don’t know about you, but I find that all kinds of awesome. I love playing the auction house (it’s oddly satisfying…don’t ask), and have many times in the past simply logged on to check my auctions to see how they were doing. Personally, I find this to be an amazingly convenient ability for the armory.

Now, I ain’t saying that a few of us might be cheating a little on WoW . Nope. I’m not saying that at all.

Filed under: World of Warcraft , Fantasy , Business models , Game mechanics , News items , Browser , Free Realms GDC Austin has announced that SOE president John Smedley will be providing the keynote for the event, which takes place next month. Entitled: “From Daggers and Dragons to Kart Racing, Cooking and Concerts … It’s a Whole New World”, the keynote — which takes place on Wednesday 16 September — is an obvious allusion to SOE’s very own Free Realms , which has been one of the most hyped freemium PC MMOs of the year and will eventually see a PS3 release.

Filed under: World of Warcraft , Fantasy , Sci-fi , City of Heroes , EVE Online , Perfect World , Opinion , Free-to-play , Runes of Magic The MMO industry is split between games where you pay and those that are free. Some are pay to play, with subscriptions and the cost of the game while others are free to play but you still have to buy a license key. Some are freemium where the game is free to buy and play but you enhance it with micro-transactions using cold, hard cash