Cross-Realm Dungeon Feature Coming Soon

Originally Posted by Fraza

What isn't optional in the game?

Say you like to PvP and complain about changes to your class or whatever. I don't PvP so I come in your thread and say "you aren't forced to PvP. if you don't like the changes, just don't PvP. After all, it's optional." This argument is ridiculous.

Playing with some friends across servers would be awesome. We had people leaving for other guilds on other realms, yet it would be a blast to play with them again. Realm transfer would mean leaving our guilds behind so that won't fly. Rolling another toon just to run some heroics together is ridiculous. So this is something I have been waiting for for a long time. Just because you find no use for it doesn't mean everyone else doesn't. But now that they're charging for it, hell no. So what, playing with my friends across realms somehow costs them more than playing with randoms?

This is crossing the line. Whereas before they have only charged for stuff that doesn't affect gameplay (sparkle ponies and kung fu pandas), this is a first that does. Because for me, being able to play with friends (and my gf, who happens to play on another realm, just the way I like it) is an important part of the gameplay. And while I wasn't able to play with them before either, should Blizz just stop developing new stuff for the game altogether except for the "premium" features? Like paying $15 a month isn't "premium" enough.

I guess I understand your argument. Also, I never said I don't find a use for it; I may in fact use it when it's released.

However, your argument seems to be that just because you will use it extensively, it's supposed to be free? Right. Just like the other people crying "it's optional, who cares." Just because it's something you've wanted this whole time doesn't mean it's SUPPOSED to be free. Obviously it'd be much better if it were free, but using your argument makes no sense.

What exactly is "crossing the line" in terms of what they can keep piling on whilst keeping subscrip fees the same. Oh, right, that's subjective, as you've pointed out because "its something I want" so it should be free... How do you know that you're not an extreme minority that wants this? It seems to me, as usual, it might seem many people are complaining, however, this is the WoW community, everything is complained about whether or not they will use it or understand it. If they suspect only a few people would use this I wouldn't blame them for charging a premium.

IMO Blizzard is taking WoW towards being a free-to-play MMO many years from now. Just my opinion, though.

Originally Posted by Matooth

Simple solution, don't pay for the premium element of this service if you don't want to.

The truth of it is the cost will be chump change which I have no problem paying for it it means easy grouping with my RL friends located on different servers.

Quote from Tubbilicous(Bloodfeather) @ eu.battle.net:

What you missed is that people feel as though they're entilted to this feature based off of the fact they already pay for it - through that subscription. The fact that it's a bit difficult to make doesn't really go that far, because we've had lots of things in the past for free, because we pay a subscription, that were also a bit difficult to create. Lots of those offer the same as what this does - convenience- and connectivity-oriented features. What's the difference that means we have to pay for this feature, but that we didn't for the others, like the dungeon finder?

Originally Posted by Cassidin

True, but as China hasnt got Cataclysm yet a lot of Chinese players are not currently playing so their numbers do not show up on the subscription numbers.

If those fans were really that loyal of customers and really cared they would still be playing wrath content or farming gold for 85 boe's and such. You really must be on Blizzard's dick or are blind as fuck to not see WoW is awful and Blizzard is falling down a hole.

Originally Posted by Hugglebug

The playerbase is declining. Get over it. It's ok, you can still play your game. It's a long, long way from being a problem for them. But pulling this sort of crap isn't going to get them any new subs, or re-subbers either.

I don't need to "get over it" as its just wishfull thinking from those wanting Blizzard to fail

Check your facts.

1. Large number of players in China
2. Large number of players stop playing before an expansion
3. China doesnt have Cataclysm
4. Large number of players in China stopped playing before Cataclysm
5. Large number of players in China not counted in the figures released.
6. Cataclysm will be launched in China

I do agree though that this isnt going to win them any favors.

Originally Posted by Cassidin

China hasnt got Cataclysm yet hence the 600k "lag" in players.

China players who still have WotLK are still registered as players, they weren't wiped at Cata launch. WoW lost 600k subscribers. Not "WoW has 600k less people with Cata expansion than with WotLK expansion". Don't know how to explain this better, but Cata not yet being released in China has nothing to do with this (ignoring the fact they have a completely different subscription system as EU/NA).

Back to topic: it's a money grabbing industry and Activison wants both pieces of the MMO cake... they want subscriptions AND they want the premium incomes usually part of F2P MMOs. It's beyond greedy, but was expected since they're already pushing out the bare minimum and saying there's no time or resources for other suggestions players have.

Best investment after Voice Chat were the dungeon maps. WoW needs those badly seeing that every dungeons is a one way corridor, right? Yawn, give GW2.

Originally Posted by Cassidin

True, but as China hasnt got Cataclysm yet a lot of Chinese players are not currently playing so their numbers do not show up on the subscription numbers.

You're so off base on this I don't even know how to respond. China is currently in the upswing of Lich King launch from last August and shouldn't peak for another 3-4 months.

---------- Post added 2011-05-18 at 09:08 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Cassidin

I don't need to "get over it" as its just wishfull thinking from those wanting Blizzard to fail

Check your facts.

1. Large number of players in China
2. Large number of players stop playing before an expansion
3. China doesnt have Cataclysm
4. Large number of players in China stopped playing before Cataclysm
5. Large number of players in China not counted in the figures released.
6. Cataclysm will be launched in China

I do agree though that this isnt going to win them any favors.

What part of "They just got Lich King 9 months ago" don't you understand? You're cherry picking a single piece of information and twisting it to suit your view.

Originally Posted by Kaeleena

The 600k lost players aren't from Asia. They're from the US and the EU.

Even if this is true - they STILL have China to come back online and make those numbers back up again. All I'm saying is people regularly talk about how Blizzard is failing and the game is dying, and its just not happening.

Are they making their player base "annoyed"? DAMN right they are, is it currently affecting their profits? Nope!

God how much is Blizzard paying you to suck their cock? And yes it is affecting their profits because it will result in a loss of subscribers which means less subscribers=less money. Retard man, retard.

Originally Posted by Cassidin

Even if this is true - they STILL have China to come back online and make those numbers back up again. All I'm saying is people regularly talk about how Blizzard is failing and the game is dying, and its just not happening.

Are they making their player base "annoyed"? DAMN right they are, is it currently affecting their profits? Nope!

China is currently in LK subscription upswing. Those players aren't "offline". What do you not understand about that? LK didn't peak in the US and EU until roughly 14 months after it released. What in gods name gave you the idea that WoW was in decline in China because they just got LK 9 months ago? WoW isn't in decline in any Asian country. It's infact the only market where the game is growing and has been growing since 2008 when they stopped releasing regional subscription data. 600k accounts is the number of accounts left after new LK players in Asia, after new Cata players in the US and EU after the banhammer of 500-600k players and the lost numbers of players in US/EU.

It's an 'OK' idea at best and no way should cost any money.

Blizz, have fun spending countless hours and $'s on this idea. It will bomb and you will lose money.

Originally Posted by Cassidin

I don't need to "get over it" as its just wishfull thinking from those wanting Blizzard to fail

Check your facts.

1. Large number of players in China
2. Large number of players stop playing before an expansion
3. China doesnt have Cataclysm
4. Large number of players in China stopped playing before Cataclysm
5. Large number of players in China not counted in the figures released.
6. Cataclysm will be launched in China

I do agree though that this isnt going to win them any favors.

No, you check your facts. The FACT (Blizzard said it themselves) is, they lost 600k subscribers over a tiny period of time. No game should be hemorrhaging that amount of players so soon after an expansion. Yes, the sub numbers might go up when Cat launches in China, but then they'll drop, again, when people burn through the content too fast.

For the record, I don't want Blizzard to fail. I've played and loved all of their games. I'd love them to stop pulling shit like this though.

Originally Posted by Keadin84

Which expansion you have doesn't affect how many subscribers there are. Stop being so ignorant and just open your eyes to see WoW has in fact seen a drop in customers.

Thank you kindly for calling me ignorant Most friendly of you and I think you. Now..... "Which expansion you have doesn't affect how many subscribers there are"? That is what you said yes? How many people stopped playing WoW just before Cataclysm? Do you think for any reason that players in China didnt also get burnt out with running ICC for months and stopped playing till Cataclysm?

Your statement is techincally correct: it doesnt matter what expansion you are as far as subscriber base goes. It DOES matter though if you stop playing because you are waiting for the next expansion.

Next time you call someone ignorant, please try to engage brain

Originally Posted by Cassidin

Even if this is true - they STILL have China to come back online and make those numbers back up again. All I'm saying is people regularly talk about how Blizzard is failing and the game is dying, and its just not happening.

Are they making their player base "annoyed"? DAMN right they are, is it currently affecting their profits? Nope!

Actually, it is affecting their profits; they're $9M/mo poorer now because of it. lol... L2math.

And I'd honestly be surprised if the Eastern markets don't have the same reaction to Cataclysm that the West did.

Originally Posted by Cassidin

Do you think for any reason that players in China didnt also get burnt out with running ICC for months and stopped playing till Cataclysm?

You say that as if it's already happened... o_O

Originally Posted by hawtlol

If those fans were really that loyal of customers and really cared they would still be playing wrath content or farming gold for 85 boe's and such. You really must be on Blizzard's dick or are blind as fuck to not see WoW is awful and Blizzard is falling down a hole.

Lots of people stopped playing at the end of Wrath. You should know that. Also I do not like the offensive insults you are throwing around and would ask you to please act like an adult.

Originally Posted by Cassidin

Thank you kindly for calling me ignorant Most friendly of you and I think you. Now..... "Which expansion you have doesn't affect how many subscribers there are"? That is what you said yes? How many people stopped playing WoW just before Cataclysm? Do you think for any reason that players in China didnt also get burnt out with running ICC for months and stopped playing till Cataclysm?

Your statement is techincally correct: it doesnt matter what expansion you are as far as subscriber base goes. It DOES matter though if you stop playing because you are waiting for the next expansion.

Next time you call someone ignorant, please try to engage brain

You're data is wrong. Subscriptions are up in Asia and have been growing since 2008. The 600k subscriptions were losses in US/EU offset by new players and player bans worldwide.

China just got patch 3.3 in December, when US/EU got Cata, also when US/EU subscriptions were swelling to their WotLK peak. Why would China be losing players when US/EU didn't start losing LK players until at a minimum 6 months after 3.3? It's cuz they're not. Asia is near peak atm.

Originally Posted by tusker

IMO Blizzard is taking WoW towards being a free-to-play MMO many years from now. Just my opinion, though.

They probably will once the subscribtions go down, and I wouldn't have any problem with the premium service if WoW was F2P. But at the moment, it's not.

There's the P2P model where you pay a monthly subscription and get access to everything.
There's the F2P + microtransaction model where you get basic gameplay for free and pay small amounts of money to get permanent access to in game features/items.
There's the F2P + P2P model where basic gameplay is free and additional features come with a subscription.

The model WoW has is P2P where you pay a monthly subscription, but unlike other games you don't get access to everything. Additional items can be bought with microtransactions but these are not permanently accessible after, since you still have to keep the subscription active. And then there's the additional features with an additional subscription.

Originally Posted by Maklor

I'm sorry this is utter nonsense, as far as I know they were never counting the Chinese players anyway.

Yes because large corporations often decide not to count a large number of their customers.

I'm not paying either.

I mean jesus, we've been wanting to do this for awhile now and they decide to charge additional fees?
I can understand about mobile features, because WoW is not a mobile game, but this is ridiculous.

How much you pay Monthly + How much you pay @ Blizzard Store during a moment of Weekend + Premium now?!

Not paying! D<

greedy motherfuckers

Cassadin, you're assumptions about Asian players are hilariously inaccurate. WotLK peaked in US/EU roughly 6 months after 3.3 launched. WoW had 11.5 million players then. What makes you think that China wouldn't still be near peak when WoW just announced 12 million subscribers in December, coincidentally the same time Cata was launched in US/EU. It's not a coincidence. China subscriptions fluctuate similarly to US/EU subscriptions except they're months behind.