What Zarhym said

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I love how you completely tippy toe around like your on thin ice with this one. Why cant you simply say "no this is NEVER going to happen"? Because several things you guys have promised in the past would never happen have happened? which means of course then, that this idea has been discussed and is possibly still on the table?

Not that one voice in a pool of 13 million+ matters, but i personally would quit if wow ever came to that. I think alot of others would as well. The term "Mass Exodus" comes to mind...

I said exactly what I felt was necessary in the context of the thread from which you've extracted quotes: our core philosophy has not changed. If you need more reassurance than that, and prefer absolute statements which cannot fluctuate in an ever-evolving world, you'll find yourself disappointed frequently in life.

The reality is that when I respond to a thread such as this one, my words are taken as the official stance of Blizzard Entertainment and will potentially be read by hundreds of thousands of people. The large majority of my responses to threads are not proofread or checked by anyone other than me either. Each individual will read the words -- emotionless as they are in plain text -- and place them in the context of their own lives. Some will extrapolate whatever they want to support their own thoughts and feelings on a given subject... and so on and so forth. I think you know where I'm going with this. I'm turning 29 tomorrow and don't feel like delving further into my view of the nature of community work right now.

Let me live out the final weeks of my 20's in peace, will you?!

Moral of the story: it's the real world. When you're a single person communicating company ideals and goals to hundreds of thousands of people, all of whom are waiting for you to slip up, you tend to stick with what you know. In fact, you could say any text in blue on these forums is probably carved out of thin ice. The very fact that you created this thread today to pick apart exactly how I chose to formulate one single response to a poster a couple of days ago is proof of this. The community is absolutely unforgiving; therefore, so am I when it comes to how I choose my words.

So what do I know about micro item transactions? Our core philosophy has not changed.

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Greed has a way of altering core philosophies.

Professional ideals and a good business sense have ways of keeping core philosophies in place too.

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After 5 80s, and countless toons between 1 and the cap, you realize the game doesn't start until 80, and even then, you can't do anything until you have gear. The less painful it is to get to that point, the happier I would be.

I say boo on that. One of our goals with Cataclysm is to remind players that the game doesn't start once you stop gaining experience. The overwhelming majority of this game's content exists between level 1 and the cap. A pretty healthy majority of people who have ever played this game have never experienced the endgame, and I'm not just referring to people who quit during the leveling process.

The entire game is supposed to be fun, therefore it starts when you log into a brand new character. As I said before, I hope Cataclysm reminds you of this. I can't wait to level some new characters in a re-visualized, evolved Azeroth. I'm excited to take on random quests and wear green items. When it comes to entertainment, these features are just as valuable to me as the most prestigious epic items in the game, if not more valuable. The leveling experience is where you learn how to play your class, learn about the virtual world in which you find yourself, and discover what is fun about continuing on.

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Except, Activision doesn't own Blizzard. ;) Activision Blizzard is a publishing company and the holding company of both Activision and Blizzard. They're technically sister subsidiaries and not above one or the other. The parent company for Activision Blizzard is Vivendi. If you want to get into specifics, Bobby Kotick is the former CEO of Activision and the current CEO of Activision Blizzard. Both Activision and Blizzard retain their own corporate leaderships and are autonomous as subsidiaries are by nature.

As a publishing company, Activision Blizzard is responsible for the PR and publishing of any products that Blizzard Entertainment and Activision produce. Typically, subsidiaries do work toward keeping their holding company happy, but Activision Blizzard is far from being involved in the daily runnings of either one of their subsidiaries. In fact, the removal of Blizzard's or Actvision's CEO can only be done by a board ruling. Since Blizzard's CEO has a proven track record, I highly doubt that will happen. A little while back, Activision's CEO actually resigned and is serving out the remainder of his contract as Vice Chairman of the Board.

Corporate structures, especially when it comes to subsidiaries, can be quite confusing at times. I just wanted to clear that up a little bit.

But his response was so clear cut and to the point. The point was reinforced by nothing, presented through trolling, and clearly misguided... but he has the guts to make bold statements!

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I don't want to be Mr. Conspiracy Theory, but how could "No. We will never sell in-game gold for real world currency." come back to haunt you?

Everything in the game, even long standing bedrocks, can change. I get that. But, even gold for real money can't be carved into stone and absolutely ruled out?

I'm not going to jump forward and purport to know exactly what the business model will look like for WoW in the indefinite future as we continue to release expansions and other games. If this sounds like tip-toeing around the question, I apologize. It's an honest answer.

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I'm turning 32 tomorrow! Happy Birthday!

NO U!