Four things

1. Champions Online developers posted something about game balance design. It's a little confusing, but it's a great look at the first-pass on balance that game designers make. These notes are generic for any MMO, nothing specific about Champions' unique mix-and-match power framework.
2. Blizzard is now out-right selling in-game content for Warcraft. Two vanity pets available for pure cash payments, no need to buy a trading card code off eBay. I hesitate to call it "micropayments" since the price is $10 or €10, significantly more than "micro". Also, cynically, the first launch includes a charity payment to make the medicine go down a bit smoother.
3. There's an interesting discussion in the comments of this blog post about Magic: The Gathering Tactics. Lots of details of trading card games compared to microtransaction models for MMOs. The comments from "Nelson" are me. Bottom line: TCGs are a lot like microtransactions, except they're really expensive.
4. Borderlands is really growing on me. The game starts slow: levels 1-10 are boring and a bit annoying as you constantly run out of ammo for your underpowered guns. But I had a great time playing all afternoon online with a friend and now that I'm level 20+ I'm enjoying the pleasure of getting more powerful and mowing through the bad guys with my sniper rifle that sets things on fire and my shotgun that shoots acid. I've resolved not to open my copy of Dragon Age until I finish a full Borderlands playthrough.

Comments

[Adlib]

My favorite thing is how people kibitz about the paying for in-game pets, but these same people will totally buy them. When I got home yesterday after reading about them on MMO Champion, a couple people in my guild have them. People will definitely buy them. How can they complain about this when I see people constantly switching races, factions, recustomizing, etc? (Those services are more expensive than these pets anyway.) It's simple economics. Blizzard will probably do whatever people want or will pay for. (I heard that people were asking for a "pet store" anyway.) If I could pay to get my dragonhawk mount this way, I totally would.

[Flyv]

I have no doubt people will buy the pets. Back when I was playing WoW I bought pet biscuits via trading cards on eBay, about $5. I considered buying a pet too (the Ethereal) but at $50+ it was too expensive.

I don't even know that selling vanity pets is a bad thing. I think there's value in providing multiple price points for different levels of entertainment expense. And I think Blizzard is being smart in (so far) not selling things you can also obtain in-game. If you see someone with a Dragonhawk Mount, you know they didn't buy it.

Still, it makes me uncomfortable. I'm particularly surprised at how expensive they are. OTOH, it's the perfect Christmas gift, no?