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On Mar 27, 2006 MAKE published an article about the future of credit cards and virtual worlds, one year later World of WarCraft and VISA teamed up and just launched the WoW/VISA rewards card, I guess they read MAKE :)
Funny thing is that just a couple weeks ago someone from VISA asked that I remove the VISA logo and any mention of VISA in the article, I removed the logo because I really didn't care (and put a silly logo in) but we refused to edit the article... now I know why.
the-inbetween.com has the scoop...
A little over a year ago, Phillip Torrone of Make Magazine wrote The Future of Credit Cards - Earning virtual currency for spending in the real world & other world bridging. He predicted:Very soon, credit card companies and game makers will reward their customers who spend money in the real world using private label "rewards" credit cards. They will use gifts of virtual currency such as Blizzard's World of Warcraft gold and Second Life's Linden dollars.
The future is now. Further proof of how big of a cultural force World of Warcraft has become. It's the biggest, hugest, money-making game of the decade... and I don't have a single shred of interest in it. I find the cultural and media impact that it makes far more fascinating than sitting at my desk grinding levels for hours on end.
Here's the World of Warcraft / VISA site - Link.
Related:
The Future of Credit Cards - Earning virtual currency for spending in the real world & other world bridging - Link.
Want to know what else is coming? Check our News from the Future section.
I don't think Visa was involved at all. This is almost certainly an affinity card issued by someone like Chase.
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i wonder why visa wanted via removed from the article, surely they needed to approve rewards credits for a credit card?
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maybe an IP issue. maybe their lawyers don't want any prior art laying around.
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maybe, but it's pretty clear where it appeared first (here)... i wish they were more honest about why they wanted the logos and *all* mentions of visa gone instead of saying something different. perhaps it wasn't related, but i dunno seems like something a giant credit card company would do.
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This is just a general comment and not targeted at anyone at all, but don't you think that when our adversaries, and world partners look at us as a people and see what we're doing they must think we are absolutely nuts. Earning real dollars for things we do in our day dreams, or fantasy worlds. When you think of how many people there are in The Real World that need help, right now from the people that can easily afford to pitch in and make a difference, we're farting around issuing credit cards and establishing rewards programs for the games we play. It really saddens me, and makes me think we've gone off the path a little bit.
peace.
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@gear_head - i'd love for everyone to work on problems like disease, hunger, water purification - but a lot of people are more interested in things like WoW. that's ok, to each his/her own.
i suppose each culture has challenges like this - i lived in japan and most nights people gambled away tons of money there too.
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1% of purchases go towards your WoW subscription! Just dandy. That means $1500 for a month of game time. Maybe its because I'm still young, but I don't put nearly that much on my credit card. Not to mention its for qualifying purchases only, so I'm sure they have plenty of exclusions. So the above poster mentioned helping the needy. I kinda like the idea, but if thats not your cup of tea, why not get a card with cash back or college savings for your kids? I'm sure this is great for some players. I dunno. Just my 1.5 cents.
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