I think it’s a bit of a stretch to say that MMOs are dying, but big traditional ones are certainly in a rough spot. Approximately seven-hundred quadrillion of them have responded by fishing a finger into free-to-play’s jangling pockets, but one titan’s managed to stick with subscriptions. I’m talking, of course, about World of Warcraft, ruler of the MMO realm since time immemorial (2004 was how many years ago? No seriously, I forgot). But things change, and even the most negligent of subscribers’ credit cards eventually expire. WoW can’t hold out forever, so Blizzard’s dabbling in the darkest gold-producing alchemy of them all: in-game microtransactions.

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