Plastic Packaging

Here is an item that is just totally over done in plastic and there is no alternative.

The story:

The product is basically a gift card. It is a pre-paid 60 day game card for the video game World of Warcraft. The game requires a monthly subscription to play. The game card is available at stores and instead of a gift card it come in a dvd case, a rather large dvd case, it is thicker than normal cases, not thicker plastic but it has a wider spine. So here is the breakdown of all the plastic for this little card. Shrink wrap, dvd case, and then the actual credit card sized card. A bit much, I don't see why they can't just sell cards that need to be activated like so many other services.

This game has a lot of things like this associated with it. When a new expansion come out if you want to be able to play the expansion right away you HAVE to buy a "real world product" full of multiple discs, play books, many inserts, a big dvd case, all wrapped in plastic of course. After the expansion has been out for a while you can just download the necessary files for the same price from the website. Also for each account you have to purchase separate expansion packs. Me and my husband play and we each have an account and we had to go to the store and buy two separate expansion packs. We contacted them about it and they said that there had to be a "real world product" blah blah blah.

Why the NEED for a "real world product" only though. The game would not be any less successful if us nerds who play got to sit down at our computer and NEVER have to get up or leave. When a new expansion is coming out so many people struggle with how to buy it, do I pre-order it online and possibly have to wait a week before I have the actual product arrive in the mail or do I go and stand in line all night so I get get the actual product and get home and play as soon as possible. If they could pre-order it online in digital format and have it at midnight believe me they would, so many of them would.

I'm not saying they need to get rid of the real world product because there would be those that want the booklets that come with the game and there would be those who would wander across the game at the store and purchase it there. But why do they really need a "real world product" only that is what I do not understand.