How Much Is Wow?

World of Warcraft by Blizzard Entertainment (released November 23, 2004), one of the most popular fantasy MMORPG's ever known, can be played in either a limited free-to-play mode called the "Starter Edition", or in an unlimited subscription based mode for a monthly fee. Both modes require that the user have an internet connection of some sort, which may have costs not covered here, omg that would be a task to have that information! I just want to address what it will actually cost if you want to play to level 85, which most due after playing to level 20. I did, because it's very good, and very addicting. I have been playing continuously since April 2005. So what does it take to be able to play in the world of World of Warcraft? Let us start from the bare minimum, which most do.

How much is World of Warcraft? The Starter Edition of WoW is free to download and free to play, but has many limitations, and once you start playing and reach the level cap of 20 you will have suffered one of them. You can only acquire a small amount of in-game money or gold, and cannot participate in the auction house, send mail, join guilds, or even whisper to someone unless someone whispers to you first. This drastically limits the game content available to you. As you can see, there are many restrictions. One good thing to know, is that the Starter Edition characters you make are kept when the player purchases a subscription and those characters can then rise to levels higher than twenty and participate in all normal in-game activities. What level cap you will be able to achieve is dependent on what games you purchase. There are expansions to the original game, and each has a level cap. The world of World of Warcraft is immense.

The core WoW content available in the Starter Edition does not require an initial purchase to access, but the expansions to the basic WoW content do. The games "World of Warcraft" and "The Burning Crusade" (released January 16, 2007) are sold together in a kit they have dubbed The Battlechest, and that sells for $19.99 USD. The next and second expansion "Wrath of the Lich King" (November 13, 2008) is available for $29.99, and Cataclysm (December 7, 2010) which is the third expansion, sells for $39.99. There is a fourth expansion called Mists of Pandaria which was announced on 10-21-11 and it is said to be due for release at the end of 2012. This will also sell for $39.99.

Once initial access to the content is paid for by purchasing the software; the additional cost of further subscriptions to WoW is based on the length of time paid for in a single purchase. A 30-day subscription is $14.99 USD per month, while a 90-day subscription is $41.97, which saves three dollars total compared to the cost of paying for each month individually. A 180-day subscription is $77.94, saving twelve dollars compared to paying for each month. These subscriptions can be paid for using credit cards, with online or phone payment services like PayPal or PaymentOne, or by purchasing prepaid game cards at retail stores. These are $29.99 and are good for a 60-day period. This is the only prepaid game card available, so you cannot purchase monthly or bi-yearly game card.

PaymentOne is a little known way of paying for your World of Warcraft subscription. It is a method of billing a single World of Warcraft account on your U.S. residential broadband/phone landline bill. This enables gamers to buy their 30, 90, or 180-day online game time ongoing subscription straight from their broadband/phone bill in the event that their provider is actually billable with the PaymentOne billing services.

A user can also subscribe to a yearly pass, which provider’s special features to the player like unique in-game items, access to game beta testing, or access to other Blizzard Entertainment games. A yearly pass does not save the player any money, since it represents a player's commitment to remain subscribed to the game for a year, using whatever method of purchase they prefer. As long as the subscription is not canceled, the player can continue to pay for game time in 30, 90, or 180-day blocks, or use the 60-day prepaid cards. These options must be paid for using approved payment methods.

So before you start playing the Starter Edition for WoW, proceeding to level 20 as maybe a beautiful Nightelf; be sure you understand that it’s going to cost. So, how much is WoW? It is going to cost upwards of $90 for all the games (currently to Cataclysm) before taxes, and that doesn’t even include the $15 subscription fee per month if you intend to play to the heroic level 85. This is what Blizzard Entertainment offers its 10.3 million subscribers.