Cross-Realm Dungeon Feature Coming Soon

This is very sad.

They are making it a paid service because otherwise they lose way too much revenue from realm transfers.

bliz just milk as much as they can b4 game dies.

Originally Posted by creb99

I really hate over reacting, but this is blatant greediness and things like this will cause me to reconsider my ongoing subscription.

You're right, it is blatant greediness. You are being greedy by expecting something for free.

So to recap, if you want to play WoW and have a fair chance at the achievements you have to pay for:

- the base game
- the expansions: WotLK, TBC, Cataclysm
- the monthly fee
- the pets and mounts from the cash shop
- trading card packs if you want cool pets or achievements
- the premium subscription for the auction house
- the premium subscription for the party invites

Additionally, if you want the whole experience, you have to pay:

- multiple accounts if you don't want to be locked in to 1 region
- multiple accounts if you want to stand a fair chance against multiboxers
- DirectTV Blizzcon Livestream Premium Fee
- Blizzcon Tickets massively overpriced because they sell out in 1 second anyway


Ok, let's say you want to play Guild Wars 2 instead. Then you have to pay for:

- the base game

And that's it.


So Blizzard acknowledges players are leaving their MMO due to lack of value, oh what will they do? Add more premium options that add virtually nothing to the game other than decreasing its value even more for the majority of the playerbase.

Originally Posted by creb99

I am now willing to take a bet that when Blizzard figures out how to do cross-realms BoA transfers, it will be a premium service as well.

well can realy see it comin'

Originally Posted by isendims

Then who are we playing with if we don't have the ability now?

That's what I'm trying to figure out. People keep saying that they have to now pay to play with their friends, so apparently they don't have the ability to play with their friends in the games current state and the new feature will be the first time people can play with their friends ever.

Originally Posted by Scratches

Sorry, but that's a false analogy.

We already pay a fee to help offset the costs of all development.

But since you like analogies so much, try this one: Valve Software. They put a game out for ~$40, and 4 years later are still pushing updates and content patches for the game, without asking for or requiring a single additional fee. My oh my, if development costs were so astronomical, as many people suggest, they shouldn't even be in business any more... especially not at the rate that they release games!

Also, to the people who are saying that people always drop off after an expansion... sure, that happens, yeah. But 600k within the first 3 months? Morhaime himself said that such a loss, so soon after the launch of an expansion, was unprecedented. Go ahead and laugh it off though; it's only 5%, though, right?
You're not the one that has to answer to investors as to why your product generated $9M less income than it did 3 months before...

I'm guessing that you haven't seen the paid DLC available in Team Fortress 2 and Portal 2, have you? Because, yeah, it's there. Valve does offer free content after releasing a product, yes, but we're not talking about content -- we're talking about a service.

Also, they are now locking and deleting all new threads about it, pointing people to the first thread, which is full.

I guess they don't want to hear from us.

Originally Posted by Scratches

People like you and Mascotte just don't get it, apparently. It has nothing to do with how having or not having the functionality affects your game. It's all about mentality; it's about their desire to start charging for in-game features - something we were told, upon their introduction and over and over since, that "premium services" would never provide - on top of a subscription fee that's already supposed to cover the costs of developing things like this. It's a very slippery slope, and such a simple, very basic, move like this suggests they want to move towards adopting a micro-transactions business model (aka, F2P), but still keep the subscriptions mandatory.
Additionally, considering the ability to group indiscriminately with players cross-realm, region-wide, is already in the game, it also raises a lot of questions about where the development costs actually are for this feature, to justify the extra $3/mo surcharge.

"Hey, remember that thing you guys have been asking about for the past year or so now? Yeah, we figured out how to do it, but we're going to charge you extra for it, just because we can. Sorry, but our investors and us, we love money. You understand, right?"

On a side note: Indelible proof that the Blizzard of yore is gone...

First, it's only one person who needs to upgrade. Lets not forget that.

Second if this was in any way game changing (or more game changing than server or faction transferring) I would be against it too. This is an alternative to Paid Server Transfer, and is a Luxury service, and like all other Luxury Services, you have to pay extra for it.

I know the price has not been released yet, but I promise you the price will not be ridiculous, second, it's not mandatory, you don't need it and if you don't have it it will NOT make ANY different to you in ANY Way. Hell, as a matter of fact, if you didn't even know of this existing, you probably would not even notice it thats how little of an impact it would have.

There are plenty of places where I would draw the line. If they started to remove features, and reintroduce them as "Premium" services then I would draw the line, if I noticed any impact on my day to day gameplay I would draw the line, if these "Premium" services were what would otherwise be standard features, I would draw the line, if these "Premium" services gave another player an advantage over me, I would draw the line.

However, this does none of that, nothing more than a server transfer would at least. This allows people to remain where they are, and still play with friends. And I have nothing against that, however, I do not believe this should be an assumed (standard) feature of the game, because you have the option to reroll (for free) to be with your friends.

I'd be Anti-Blizzard right now if they had announced

"DUNGEON JOURNAL!

In 4.3 We introduce a Dungeon Journal feature into the game! Blah blah blah blah blah.

This new feature will be a Premium Service, available only to those who are properly subscribed."

Now that is something to cause outrage and outcries, this, however is not.

"BUT THIS IS LEADING UP TO THAT"

Not really, no, and much like the RealID on the forum incident, we know that when we know we are right, we can have our way, so if it were to ever come down to Blizzard doing something like that, we could, and would put them in their place.

For now, don't worry, choose your battles. I promise you, you won't even notice the difference.

greedisgood 100fuckyou0000

i ain't paying extra for shit!

Originally Posted by Ranor

That's what I'm trying to figure out. People keep saying that they have to now pay to play with their friends, so apparently they don't have the ability to play with their friends in the games current state and the new feature will be the first time people can play with their friends ever.

In Guild Wars you can play with your friends anytime, even if they are in other regions.

Willing to bet that the current mobile AH/guild chat will be bundled with this "premium service." If it's the same price I would consider it alright. If it was something stupid like 10 more dollars a month then I just won't pay for it. Simple as that.

Originally Posted by Ranor

That's what I'm trying to figure out. People keep saying that they have to now pay to play with their friends, so apparently they don't have the ability to play with their friends in the games current state and the new feature will be the first time people can play with their friends ever.

Yea but now its a slap in the face taunting you. "Yea your playing with your friends, Oh you want to play with your other good friends? Well heres this feature, oh by the way you have to pay for it, though its the same thing"

Originally Posted by Linzo

greedisgood 100fuckyou0000

i ain't paying extra for shit!

Cancel your subscription and take a deep breath. WoW sucks.

Get some decent single player games like Portal 2. Do anything to pass the time until Guild Wars 2 releases and then you will have your new MMO.

Originally Posted by kuku2

The community is going to ruin the game, not premium services. If you don't like the service, don't pay for it.

We can group with people via LFD for free, granted, randomly.

We can group up with people, randomly, in dungeons. I was in an AV match a couple weeks ago facing off against my friend, it was a lulz worthy match if I might say so myself.

We can chat with friends via real ID.

This all comes at a price we all pay, IE monthly fees.


But if you can sit there and tell me that having to PAY FURTHER to PLAY with my friends on my other alts is my fault because I got alt itus and you can only have TEN toons on ONE server even when you can have up to FIFTY, that I should forever be forced to play alone on other servers?

I bet you were one of the people all for a Server having more than 10 char limit if it had 'Fees' involved, too. Sure I wouldn't mind if it was one dollar per extra slot but you see the point of the matter is, it's not going to be a one dollar fee. This is most likely going to be as costly as Realm Transfers.

Fuck that bullshit.

Originally Posted by kuku2

You're right, it is blatant greediness. You are being greedy by expecting something for free.

Yes, I expect to pay for something like this in LOTRO and other F2P MMOs, because that is their business model. When I pay a monthly sub to play a game, I expect all current and future functionality to be included with the subscription.

Originally Posted by Komati

This is bullshit...This should be free! -.-

Nothing is free, but we are already paying $15/month for it... and bought that half-assed expansion called Cataclysm for $40; it's just greed, there's no other word for it.

I can't believe the stupidity of the human race! the people who defend this must not have noticed but this feature that is "optional" was developed with our 13€/month subscription. If they wouldn't do this but concentrate on "real" content then we maybe could have that additional raid coming in 4.2. Oh excuse me i was wrong. Making this feature takes maybe a few days since we already have cross realms dungeons and real ID. We can even chat in a cross realms group while not in the dungeon so i don't think they could add any extra content even if they scrapped this.

I can't wait for SW:TOR and D3 to come out. I'm also looking forward to titan, the new cash cow which development they are funding with millions and millions of bucks that wow makes. It must really be something given it'll be based on modern game engine and not 12y old crap, it also has all the best developers from wow so i bet it will be something epic! can't wait till that. I'm so going to ditch this game like a rat abandoning a burning ship.

Open it up for raids too, and I'll be paying.

Originally Posted by Nyrin

Yea so... first off, go to hell blizzard. second off... PLEASE before you start asking for more money i ask for a detailed list of how you currently spend close to or all of the 171 MILLION dollars a month that you make from your current (albeit "lower") subscriber base. kthnksbye

holy nerd-rage. If you want to play with your friends so bad roll a toon on their server or pay for server hop. Dont sit here and rain QQ because you want "cheese on your burger" but dont have extra .25 cents to pay for it. Business is BUSINESS. Tbh if blizzard banned all the QQers, fails, nerd ragers, spammers, botters, other "trash" that is ruining this community i would gladly pay 4x as much a month to make up the difference. All of you need to understand the choice being offered to you - Either you get this option as a paid feature or you dont get it at all. Its not rocket surgery ffs.
Umm its none of your business how blizz spends their money. They dont need to spend every dime they make to improve the game... every company in the world (unless specified non-profit and dont get me started on those) is in its trade $$FOR THE MONEY$$ if you cant understand this then you are either very young, very naive or possibly a dangerous combination of both