InWorld of Warcraft, endgame raids have multiple levels of difficulty, with the higher Heroic and Mythic difficulty taking large amounts of coordination, practice, and commitment from multiple people, as well as time and gold for gear and consumable items. Some players lack the time, resources, or interest to put towards clearing these difficult challenges, but still want to experience the fights, see hidden stories, or collect rare items or gear that are only available in those difficulties.
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However, one thing complicates the matter even further, made even more murky by the involvement of a high-endWorld of Warcraftdeveloper like Ybarra: the WoW Token. Thetokens can be used to buy a month ofWorld of Warcraftsubscription timeor traded to other players for roughly 200,000 in-game gold, but they can also be purchased for $20 from the cash shop. This created a direct link between real and in-game currency, legalizing real money trading, a practice otherwise againstWorld of Warcraft’sTerms of Service.
It is not hard to see how people have taken poorly to this raid boosting revelation. After all, since Ybarra’s guild, Denial of Service, sells Heroic Sanctum of Domination runs for just under 400,000 gold, a player could purchase this service by handing Blizzard $40 only to then hand the gold right back to one of itshighest-rankingWorld of Warcraftdevelopers. Worse yet, by participating in raid boosting, Mike Ybarra has essentially endorsed the practice itself, which could encourage more people to participate on both ends of the controversial transaction.
However, some people are happy to see someone at Blizzard engaging in raid boosting inWorld of Warcraft. These players, mostly high-end raiders, take this as proof some Blizzard devs play their own game, and by immersing themselves in the struggles of endgame raiders, they may eventually see positive changes implemented for them in the future. Regardless of one’s viewpoint on the matter, one has to wonder why Mike Ybarro would draw this kind of attention whileBlizzard is mired in bad press from this summer’s lawsuits.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlandsis available on PC.
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