Cross-Realm Dungeon Feature Coming Soon

"We chose to go with the subscription-based model instead of that approach. We've taken the approach that we want players to feel like it's a level playing field once they're in WoW. Outside resources don't play into it -- no gold buying, etc. We take a hard line stance against it. What you get out of microtransactions is kind of the same thing and I think our player base would feel betrayed by it. I think that's something else you have to decide on up-front instead of implementing later.
--Rob Pardo, Blizzard's Senior Vice President of Game Design (2/20/2008)"

Dumb, all this premium stuff is dumb.

Was pumped about this, and then like everyone else saw the extra fee. I guess it's a smart move on their part, however I would have liked this without having to pay extra.

"We chose to go with the subscription-based model instead of [micro-transactions]. We've taken the approach that we want players to feel like it's a level playing field once they're in WoW. Outside resources don't play into it -- no gold buying, etc. We take a hard line stance against it. What you get out of micro-transactions is kind of the same thing and I think our player base would feel betrayed by it. I think that's something else you have to decide on up-front instead of implementing later.
--Rob Pardo, Blizzard's Senior Vice President of Game Design (2/20/2008)"


Interesting quote to put things in perspective. Guess they feel you wow players don't feel "betrayed" by these type of transactions anymore. I understand that as of now none of these transactions are game breakers so I guess technically this quote is not out of context. :/

Well I guess it blizzards way of milking the cow for lost subscriptions they know they won't get back anymore.

Originally Posted by Gurbz

ok, we get it. GW2 is gods gift to all things gaming. But you are kinda driving it into the ground at this point, don't you think?

If this leads to more people suddenly realizing that they've pretty much been milked by Blizzard for the last couple of years then all the better.

Originally Posted by Kaeleena

The majority of server transfers are for players that opt in to play with friends in a raid scenario. This service doesn't offer that.

I'm guessing you're guessing.

Link? Stats? Anything?

Most of my friends and I have xferred to play with other friends, or just for a change of scenery. So, obviously the majority of people must be the same.

O wait... anecdotal evidence is anecdotal.

If this does happen then they will just start adding more premium services and it will soon end up everything being pay to play =\
do not want

Originally Posted by sharpy

"We chose to go with the subscription-based model instead of that approach. We've taken the approach that we want players to feel like it's a level playing field once they're in WoW. Outside resources don't play into it -- no gold buying, etc. We take a hard line stance against it. What you get out of microtransactions is kind of the same thing and I think our player base would feel betrayed by it. I think that's something else you have to decide on up-front instead of implementing later.
--Rob Pardo, Blizzard's Senior Vice President of Game Design (2/20/2008)"

Something that should be seen more.

Originally Posted by Tyrianth

This give you an edge in no way.

You have no friends on your current realm? If it's so imperative to play with others from another realm why didn't you pay for a transfer or take the time to level a new toon on their server?

And if said person has multiple friends scattered across different realms? What then, Sherlock?
Is he supposed to split his toon X ways or reroll X times just so he can play with them all?

Comparatively, the person who pays for the premium services gets to just sit back and game with friends at his leisure no matter where they may be. It's not a tangible edge, but it's still an edge that someone bought. It's an ideal that even Rob Pardo, one of Blizzard's own, used to be vehemently against...

edit: ^ Ah look, and there's an example... lol

Just wait until they release titan and offer a platinum account (~20 $ a month to play both WoW and "titan" at the same time).
You know it will happen.

Good thing I had the foresight to roll on the same realm as my friends.

This is why I can't wait for guild wars 2.

WoW is dead.

This is a very good article that sums it all up, and it was written by the lead programmer of World of Warcraft:

http://www.guildwars.com/events/trad...7/gcspeech.php

Don't count on subscriptions

In the early years of the MMO industry, from roughly 1997 to 2001, there were a few big MMOs that had active player populations. By the time we started ArenaNet in the summer of 2000, we knew of at least eighty MMOs that were in development. Based on the success of UO and EQ, publishers were reviewing their portfolios and planning to migrate their existing game franchises to the online world, where they believed they could adopt a subscription model and "make bank". Clearly, it did not work out that way. As more MMOs came into the market, two things changed. First, players now had a choice about which game they would play, and as a result their expectations for polish, content quantity, and service increased substantially. Second, and perhaps more telling for the future of the industry, it became clear that the subscription model forced players to choose a single game, rather than playing many different games.

Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true – you know it, and they know it. Gamers may buy the argument that your MMO requires a subscription fee, if you can tell them what they are getting for their money. This is the legacy of games like Guild Wars, Maple Story, and Silkroad Online, all of which introduced new business models into the MMO genre and were quite successful. The subscription model is still perfectly viable, but the pain threshold is very low now. It's no secret that gamers don't want to pay a subscription fee. If you can convince them that your game offers enough value to justify it, more power to you! But be prepared to defend your decision, often and loudly, and back it up over the lifetime of your game.

Be very aware of the choice you are asking players to make, and the frequency of that choice. In a subscription model you are asking players to make a choice every month, and it is a fairly drastic choice: Stay married, or get divorced? It is certainly the case that if every player decides to stay married every month, you can make more money from each player in the subscription model. But that will rarely be the case, and not something that you should count on. Every month, some percentage of your player base will decide on divorce, and as with marriage in the real word, once you are divorced you rarely get married to the same person again. If you go the subscription route, you'll need to have the confidence that your marriage rate will exceed your divorce rate.

With Guild Wars we ask players to make a choice only one time, and that choice is whether to buy the game, or not to buy the game. While we don't enjoy a recurring revenue stream each month, we do benefit from the fact that most Guild Wars players come back to the game when we release new content, so we are less concerned about players putting the game down for a few months. Players don't have to decide whether to stay married or get divorced, they just have to decide whether they want to play today or not. Beyond the benefit of a lower pain threshold to get into the game, this is the core strength of the Guild Wars business model, and one of the reasons it continues to thrive when many other subscription-based MMOs are struggling.

Innovate with your game play, and innovate with your business model! The two go hand in hand, and are mutually dependent on each other. Decide on your business model first, and then build your game around it. Guild Wars can be successful with its business model because we decided that we would not charge a subscription fee before we wrote the first line of code, and every design and technology decision we made served that purpose. We could never turn Guild Wars into a subscription-based game, just as Turbine could not suddenly decide to eliminate the subscription model for Lord of the Rings Online. If you decide to require players to subscribe to your game, be prepared to build a game that thoroughly justifies it.

Originally Posted by Scratches

And if said person has multiple friends scattered across different realms? What then, Sherlock?
Is he supposed to split his toon X ways or reroll X times just so he can play with them all?

Comparatively, the person who pays for the premium services gets to just sit back and game with friends at his leisure no matter where they may be. It's not a tangible edge, but it's still an edge that someone bought. It's an ideal that even Rob Pardo, one of Blizzard's own, used to be vehemently against...

edit: ^ Ah look, and there's an example... lol

If it was so game breaking that they had to play with those friends then yes they couldve rerolled. But since this isn't game breaking it's no big issue. If you don't want it, don't pay for it. You wont be at a disadvantage.

Originally Posted by bergmann620

I'm guessing you're guessing.

Link? Stats? Anything?

Most of my friends and I have xferred to play with other friends, or just for a change of scenery. So, obviously the majority of people must be the same.

O wait... anecdotal evidence is anecdotal.

Casual players don't pay for premium services. (Outside of the occasional donation pet for a present for a friend or vice-versa.) The majority of players(even those in raid guilds that server transfer) prefer to reroll and start form scratch rather than paying the exorbitant transfer fees for an entire guild.

Pair service, really?

Seriously blizzard, you keep losing my respect for you...

Originally Posted by ZyngaFail

If this leads to more people suddenly realizing that they've pretty much been milked by Blizzard for the last couple of years then all the better.

All it's leading to is a GW2 fanboy making their player base seem annoying, overbearing and under-intelligent. Which is an accomplishment on a WoW forum. Luckily, I wasn't planning on playing anyways, so you've at least not been the deterrent to my purchase of GW2, like you are for everyone else reading your sycophant posts.

Originally Posted by Notos

Good thing I had the foresight to roll on the same realm as my friends.

'Cause people don't have multiple friends.

Originally Posted by ZyngaFail

'Cause people don't have multiple friends.

'Cause people can't roll multiple toons.

Premium?! /bye friends. No way I'm paying money for that. Isn't it enough with monthly subscription?