The Blizzard Store and the Monthly Fee. What you need to realize.

[Dragon2K]

Blizzard is quite clear on what constitutes "content;" PvP and PvE. That's what receives balances and tune ups. Those can be objectively measured. They don't shift around mounts or re-polish gear sets to "balance" them with the looks of other mounts and other gear sets.

"Patch notes: We came to the consensus that the new mage tier wasn't performing visually as well as expected; we're buffing the mage gear's appearance by about 20%. We also noticed that Shaman tier's appearance looked a little too good; as such we'll be nerfing its appearance by 5% to bring it in line with most of the other classes.

We also found that the Meta achievement mount was not performing as expected; we're applying a hotfix that will change it from a Wyvern to a gryphon, as we decided a gryphon was more in-line with the spirit of the patch."

I mean, if cosmetics are such a huge deal, then obviously they should receive the same amount of constant attention as class balances in PvP and PvE, right?



So then they should get the green raptor at level 20, and have to kill heroic garrosh for the mount, but I should get the heroic garrosh mount at level 20, and have to kill heroic garrosh for the green raptor?

Because that's what you're trying to say needs partitioning off here; "coolness."



And that was true of the spectral tiger and stuff that's been around for years. I can stare at the aforementioned guy bouncing around on his sparkle pony in his fire helm and go "It's nice that that looks good to him" and then sally forth on my merry way on my own mount that looks good to me in my transmog gear that looks good to me. Which is why I ride said mount and wear said transmog gear.

If someone's whomping my ass in PvP with gear that far exceeds mine that they bought, I can't really say "well they didn't really just win this arena match; they just bought the gear after all." But my rating is going to dive accordingly, and there's is going to go up.

If I get benched because someone bought gear that exceeded mine for PvE, I can't say "well they're not really earning that meta achievement right now, they just bought the gear after all" while I sit in Shrine of Seven Stars watching that tiger run in circles.



And if someone places the importance of looks above all else, then I can only imagine they're already a very, very unhappy customer. Especially if they dislike "disconnects" between in-game and out-of-game goings on.

"freakin' Blizzard makes an awesome mage tier set, but makes the hunter one look like crap! They're FORCING me to can my hunter and level a mage all the way up to 90, and THEN gear them so that I can get the set"

"Wow Blizzard, nice job, you make a terrible looking PvE set, but make the PvP set look fantastic. Now I'm going to have to gear up through honor gear and random battlegrounds JUST to have a shot at the PvP set. And if I don't make gladiator this season, I wont be able to obtain the best color scheme AT ALL. Way to go..."

"SURE, Blizzard, release one of the best looking pets in the game as a Starcraft collector's edition perk! Now I'll have to go out and PAY THEM for Starcraft; I don't even like Starcraft! But boy, do I want that pet..."

"Nice job Blizzard, you make a weapon that would look FANTASTIC with my transmog set, and then make it for NPCs only. What the hell is my 15 dollars going towards? So you can make NPCs look pretty while you give us crap as usual for tier weapons?"


And obviously, these are perfectly valid complaints, right? Who would you be to say that these people, who's values include gear, pets, weapons, what have you, are unjustified in their annoying and trite complaints?



More often than not, "which stat is most important" usually gets mathed out fairly quickly.



You seemed to state they'd be investing less and less effort on non-store items while investing more and more effort on store items, citing the "coolness" of the mounts appearances.

Which I quickly dispelled as bullshit, which you then promptly glided over.



"coolness" cannot be quantified.

Stats can. Performance can. The relationship between stats and your performance can.

You're comparing the immaterial to something that can actually affect how you play the game, the degree to which you can play the game, and the degree to which you can meaningfully interact with others, whether you're helping them kill twin consorts or they're trying to kill you in Ruins of Lordaeron.

You're rude and completely incapable of putting yourself in someone else's shoes. The sparklehorse was ALSO NOT GOOD, but this is WORSE, don't you get it?

The fact that people are upset about it BY ITSELF is proof that not everything is hunky-dory. Basically your position is that we should all shut up because you only care about stats and lvl 20 raptor mounts.

You don't seem to understand that the VALUE of a WoW item is not just its combined stats.

I could write a whole essay on why in-game item stores rub people the wrong way, but I'm not going to bother. I'm done talking to you and I think you're a jerk.

[Brewslii]

Every time Blizzard announces something new for the pet store we see the same threads come up about how a game with a monthly sub fee shouldn't have a microtransaction store. I get really frustrated when I see these posts because some people just don't get it.

You pay a monthly fee to be able to log in to your account and play; nothing more, nothing less.

Blizzard is a business and they have to do with that money whatever they feel will be most profitable. This can be anything from developing PvE and PvP content to developing items for the Blizzard store. The purpose of the former is to keep people subscribed to WoW and maybe even bring old people back/new people in. The latter is designed to bring in additional revenue to be able to develop more content.

The most important thing to realize is that Blizzard will NEVER make Tier Sets or any current content gear available for cash; they are not stupid enough to do that and you can mark my words that it'll never happen.

The Blizzard store is not a slippery slope, it is a smart business move to bring in more money for the company. The more resources Blizzard has, the more content they can develop and the better off we are as players.

I think the biggest complaint about these newest additions is that these are items you can only have if you pay for it and that isn't fair.
Now while i personally don't care, if i want it i will pay for it, i do see the point of view of the people that may love one of those helmets but be unable to pay for it.
Blizzard should just up everyones sub by 50c and give away these items.

[Deleted]

There might be some people quiting over this sadly.

Like those who dont like how their pvp tiers looks so crap while Blizzard has time and effort putting awesome transmog in the store. Lets see how long this last.

[Dragon2K]

Now that is what you call a contribution to this thread?. I am sorry (no I am not) but you rant like a child. No..nothing is ever hunky dory, how could it be with 8, 9, 10...million people playing? Somebody always complains. Somebody always is upset.

You know how many people voted in the thread here about the pet store? 475. Of which 177 are against it and the rest is a mix of support and I don't care.

The sky is falling.

Write that essay, maybe you get respect for it. For raging and calling somebody who actually put thought into his post (you quoted a nice wall of text) a jerk you lose it all.

Put thought in his post? It's a big wall of text all right, but with very little content except twisting my words and then saying he 'dispelled my bullshit'. Sorry, that's not an argument, I might as well be talking to myself.

[Bassch]

Once the Blizzard store doesn't offer stuff that can cause major imbalances in PVP/PVE, I don't really mind. Nice small things to get Blizzard more money, for, hopefully, more and better content.

[Yriel]

You pay a monthly fee to be able to log in to your account and play; nothing more, nothing less.

Who are you to decide this ?
Besides, this is bull and you know it. The subscription is mainly there to finance regular content updates. Thats the main difference between sub and F2P games. F2P games sell their patches as DLCs and put the fluff portion of them in the shop.
And people are right to complain that Blizzard more and more shifts their fluff to the shop as well while maintaining the full sub fee.

Blizzard is a business and they have to do with that money whatever they feel will be most profitable. This can be anything from developing PvE and PvP content to developing items for the Blizzard store. The purpose of the former is to keep people subscribed to WoW and maybe even bring old people back/new people in. The latter is designed to bring in additional revenue to be able to develop more content.

The Blizzard store is not a slippery slope, it is a smart business move to bring in more money for the company. The more resources Blizzard has, the more content they can develop and the better off we are as players.

Or just generate more revenue for their shareholders. You are naive if you believe that the money from the shop goes back into the game. Some of it will probably be invested in new shop items, the rest is pure profit.
And i hate this "They are a company, they want to make money so don't complain." argument. As a company thats their interest but as a customer it's your interest to get the best deal possible. And with good companies both meet in the middle.
But it seems that Blizzard is trying to shift that balance and it's in the best interest of us as customers to complain.

[Deleted]

I doubt that it will stop at cosmetic. There will be "inc xp for all char" buff in stores, might even buy to maxlvl, instead of questing ... all those things that makes it easyer to have alts etc ....
imo, there should never have been a store - not even for companions and mounts. But people likes it, spend money on it, then WHY does people complaine about Blizzard expanding that way? if its succesfull it will expand - popularity = more resources gets tranfered from blizzard to it, taken from somewhere else.

[Ardourdan]

I really don't see what the problem is with these sort of items. It has been a long time coming. The store has massive potential to change the game for the better. I for one am glad to see these items coming into the game but I am worried that Blizzard won't execute it correctly. These helms look good, but when any one can buy them they instantly lose appeal, and thus their value is reduced regardless of their cosmetic quality. It is still to be seen whether other items will be added that may match these helms.

I believe that in terms of value-for-transmog, those items earned in-game by killing bosses will always be those with the most appeal because far fewer people have acquired them.

Personally I would like to see other items added to the Pet store such as items that never made it into the game but are a part of a set. For example, there are many Tier 12 heroic belts that are not in-game. I would gladly pay £2-5 for that item so that I could complete the transmogrification looks.

[Yriel]

I really don't see what the problem is with these sort of items. It has been a long time coming. The store has massive potential to change the game for the better.

How does it change the game for the better if there transmogs have to be bought instead of them being quest- or reputation rewards ?

[Whiskra]

Blizzard must be the happiest company in the world to have so many loyal fans who would throw their money away unconditionally on so many things that acctually hurts the game they love just because they want to give Blizzard money.

[TS26]

To bad blizzard no longer follows that statement.

Wheres' your proof?

- - - Updated - - -

No it does not. It just says "CONTENT CREATION" not "ALL CONTENT CREATED". There's also an updated ToS that renders your post invalid.

Terrible argument. They do not have to be latterly correct. Content is content. They weren't saying some of the content, they meant all of it. Trying to grasp for straws is meaningless

Show me the point in the TOS where it says the fee is no longer used to develop the game. I'll be waiting.

[Huehuecoyotl]

I really don't see what the problem is with these sort of items. It has been a long time coming. The store has massive potential to change the game for the better. I for one am glad to see these items coming into the game but I am worried that Blizzard won't execute it correctly. These helms look good, but when any one can buy them they instantly lose appeal, and thus their value is reduced regardless of their cosmetic quality. It is still to be seen whether other items will be added that may match these helms.

I believe that in terms of value-for-transmog, those items earned in-game by killing bosses will always be those with the most appeal because far fewer people have acquired them.

Personally I would like to see other items added to the Pet store such as items that never made it into the game but are a part of a set. For example, there are many Tier 12 heroic belts that are not in-game. I would gladly pay £2-5 for that item so that I could complete the transmogrification looks.

Blizzard have already said they have limited resources to devote to development. that limit has NEVER been related to the income the game generates; they could have run a team 10 times the size over the last 5 years, and produced 10 times the content, and still made massive profits from the game. the development cap they have is, at least in part, self imposed.

so now if they have transmog gear in the shop, part of their development effort has to go to creating them. which means less will go to the ingame art, which means lower quality items, or less variety in the items, or more reuse of existing art. and since the shop items will generate extra income, which ones do you think will get priority for their art team?

this is a bad development for WoW as a game, and if it succeeds it will be bad for gamers in general. every time we take a stand when companies like EA try to take the piss, and it forces them to back down, its a good thing. sitting back and not only accepting blatant cash-grabs, but actively encouraging them, is a poor stance to take as a gamer, and as a consumer. it will hurt us all, in the long run.

[Asmekiel]

You're ignorant if you think it'll stop at purely cosmetic stuff. You'll be seeing different sort of buffs to ingame currencies soon enough. Be that honor, conquest, valor, justice, charms - you name it.

I unsubbed today, been playing since early 2006 - and this is where I get off. It's the principle and the lack of integrity on Blizzard's side - not the current content.

Don't you think you're a little late unsubbing over the Blizzard Store, it has been around for years.

[Armourboy]

You know I get they are a business, I have zero issue with a business making money, none at all. However, if you are Blizzard you are treading a very thin line with all of this.

Keep in mind, one of the reasons Blizzard has had so much support over the years is because they were different. Sure they made money, and we gladly supported them because they were a gamers company. The didn't operate like SOE, EA, or Activision, they made money, but they also did things that weren't solely based on maximizing profits. They had a quality name in the industry and people were more than happy to line up to support them.

Fast forward to today and you scratch your head wondering where this company you supported for all the right reasons went too. Not completely, but in some ways they have slid over to the dark side, where things are solely done to maximize profits. There was a time when these helms would of been something from a long rep grind, or some crazy long quest, etc. Today instead of it being rewards for doing content, its a way to make a quick buck.

Now I don't totally put it on Blizzard, they are reacting to the newer model of MMO gaming, where its less about time and commitment to the game, and more about instant gratification and finances. The players are just as guilty as the company. A large chunk of us have grown up and instead of finances being the limiter, time is now the limiter. People have plenty of money to spend, but not plenty of time, thus a ton of the changes we have seen over the years.

We've now seen with WoW, D3, and Starcraft that the face of Blizzard has changed. Quality of the games and being "clean" in an industry of dirty companies is no longer Blizzards largest concern. Its largest concern now is shareholders and profit margins.

Still haven't decided what I'm going to do long term, but suffice it to say I'm not exactly thrilled with Blizzards direction of late. Yes I know they need to make money, I'm just not sure if this direction is something I want to continue to support. I thought I would be playing MMO's til I was dead and gone, but with the way the industry has turned in the last 4-5 years I'm not so sure I can say that now. I don't like the F2P model, and I really don't like Micro transactions so I may find myself out of the market completely before too long.

[SodiumChloride]

They actually do. They sell popcorn, coke and tacos at OUTRAGEOUS prices and the people who buy them impede my enjoyment of the film with their noisy rumination. And those products are OPTIONAL. Just like the pet store. The film doesn't get better with it, some ppl enjoy it more with it. Thank you for offereing that example..it also is a good answer to your demand what the industry needs to do.

They don't need to do anything you want and complaining about how this is not the game of 8 years ago won't help..because you are right. It isn't. And that is news as well.

Unfortunately the one solution (take your money elsewhere) is the one you people just don't like to hear. Which is so frustration, because there is NOTHING else to point out that you disagree with them.

You can rant your heart out on the forum, you can say you hate them, you can threaten to quit. As longs as you pay, you signal you are ok with how it is. No matter how much you throw a tantrum.

Cosmetic stuff is not optional. Not in this type of game. Nice looking stuff is the reward in a game like this - in addition to player power.

The Blizzard Store is less selling "popcorn, coke and tacos" and more like selling "the ending to the movie".

In most games, players operate on equal footing. My payment for the game and its expansions, and my subscription, gives me full access to the game - or at least it used to. Apart from those 2 "fees", money has nothing to do with the game - until the Blizzard Store came along that is. It doesn't matter if you are filthy rich like Bill Gates or a 9-5 office drone who penny pinches to save for retirement. In the game, you are equal. Whatever some other player got, you can get too if you play the game right.

The Blizzard Store changes all that. If you don't have a lot of disposable income, you are a second class citizen. It brings the Real Life inequality into the escapist fantasy that is WoW.

[namelessone]

The Blizzard Store changes all that. If you don't have a lot of disposable income, you are a second class citizen. It brings the Real Life inequality into the escapist fantasy that is WoW.

Real Life inequality was always at the CENTER of WoW, that's how people with no jobs or families could always achieve everything faster than those who had real life obligations. If anything, Blizzard Store helps to alleviate that inequality.

[Huehuecoyotl]

Real Life inequality was always at the CENTER of WoW, that's how people with no jobs or families could always achieve everything faster than those who had real life obligations. If anything, Blizzard Store helps to alleviate that inequality.

this statement is only true if EVERY item you can buy with money, can also be gained by playing the game for a period of time. Blizzard have already shown that the cash shop is for items that are unique to the cash shop. so it creates more inequality, not less.

[namelessone]

this statement is only true if EVERY item you can buy with money, can also be gained by playing the game for a period of time. Blizzard have already shown that the cash shop is for items that are unique to the cash shop. so it creates more inequality, not less.

There are unique items available in game that people without a lot of free time have no hope of gaining. And there are items in cash shop that people without 20 bucks to spare can't gain. Seems pretty equal to me. It makes no difference if those are the same items, really.

[Bloodfire]

As usual.
MMO-C has no difference, every WoW forum has about over9000 posts pro-claiming End of The World.
You seriously think they're so stupid that they don't watch them?

To be fair, if you think you're able to make better game or smth, go to Kickstarter and DO IT.
Instead of posting.

[Armourboy]

Cosmetic stuff is not optional. Not in this type of game. Nice looking stuff is the reward in a game like this - in addition to player power.

The Blizzard Store is less selling "popcorn, coke and tacos" and more like selling "the ending to the movie".

In most games, players operate on equal footing. My payment for the game and its expansions, and my subscription, gives me full access to the game - or at least it used to. Apart from those 2 "fees", money has nothing to do with the game - until the Blizzard Store came along that is. It doesn't matter if you are filthy rich like Bill Gates or a 9-5 office drone who penny pinches to save for retirement. In the game, you are equal. Whatever some other player got, you can get too if you play the game right.

The Blizzard Store changes all that. If you don't have a lot of disposable income, you are a second class citizen. It brings the Real Life inequality into the escapist fantasy that is WoW.

Which is why I'm not thrilled with the direction the entire market is heading. When MMO's were first introduced that was one of the appealing things about them. Everyone was on equal footing, and whether you were a corporate CEO or some dude at Burger King, in the game world you were the same. The only real limiting factor was time commitment.

Today, if you aren't willing to spend a ton of money ( well ton in gaming terms) you probably aren't going to get to see everything. Thats why the Sub approach still appeals to some of us over the F2P market.

And for the record, I would have zero issue paying $25-30 a month for an MMO sub if it meant keeping stores out of games.