Should wow go F2P for non current content?

[Gray_Matter]

So you think that a few more 'bum's on seats' NOT paying is worth >$600 million dollars a year? in order to recoup that loss they'd have to sell 12 million copies of the game each year to cover the loss. Sorry mate, that shit just isn't going to happen.

That's not what I said. Please read it again. I said that they need to have a hybrid model. Some B2P players and some subs. If people have to sub to do raids then you will still have a lot of subs. They might lose $150 million in subs but they will gain that and a lot more in sales and in store items. That $600 million includes items from the store. GW2, as an example, which has no subs and much less players does $25 million from in store items only. LOL makes something like $1 billion from micro transactions. Whales can make companies a boat load of money.

From a player point of view, think of the market for the raiders selling stuff on the AH and in game.

[Seranthor]

That's not what I said. Please read it again. I said that they need to have a hybrid model. Some B2P players and some subs. If people have to sub to do raids then you will still have a lot of subs. They might lose $150 million in subs but they will gain that and a lot more in sales and in store items. That $600 million includes items from the store. GW2, as an example, which has no subs and much less players does $25 million from in store items only. LOL makes something like $1 billion from micro transactions. Whales can make companies a boat load of money.

From a player point of view, think of the market for the raiders selling stuff on the AH and in game.

the $600 milllion dollars I estimated is a really simple math equation... ($15/month sub times 3.3 million players (5.5 was the last number Blizzard released) times 12 months)... go ahead, put the numbers into your calculator... and you'll get the same 600 million dollar number...

Do your research, make your presentation to Blizzard, convince them if you feel this strongly about it... I remain unconvinced of the success of your suggestion, but I'm not the one you have to convince, Blizzard is and I'm certain they'll be far more difficult to convince than I.

[Lochton]

Nope, but I do think F2P should be to lvl 60.

[Deleted]

A big NO. There isn't any productive reason why it should.

fixed that.

After playing many F2P MMO's and seeing the absolute amount of spam constantly in every Zone I'd really rather not open those floodgates in WoW.

Amen!

Well they could always try and figure out a way to filter chat the same way they do for profanities (unless you turn the filter off) so that if it detects someone is trying to send a spam link or message containing specific phrases (a particular service plus monetary values and conversions) via whisper or general chat, you do not receive it unless that person is in your friend's list or guild.

Well Blizzard tried that and yet it changed NOTHING.

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I fixed that for you. Don't mind me though, I have 4 B2P and 1 F2P MMO on my PC, 787 steam games and about 30 GOG games. The competition is fierce and things will only get tougher for Blizzard if they don't do something fast.

And yet none of them are like WOW...

My point was just that you can't say that prices haven't increased when they have. They increase would have gone straight to the Blizzard bottom line.

but they havent. US and EU pay the same since 12 years (UK had to be change because of Dollar Pound stuff and taxes so calling that a price change is just a cheap goat to attack)

I hope WoW will never go even more F2p then it allready is thanks to tokens cause the people that would flood wow then are the people I dont want in this game.

[Shangalar]

Having the game free until level 60 is a great idea. As long as the free characters aren't allowed to stop xp gain, queue for or enter any instanced content that requires level 60. If people want to band together and do level 60 raids and pvp, pay for your sub and do it.

Level 60 content is not max level content and if people want to pretend that it is they can pay for it. Apart from that, you have low level dungeons, low level pvp, quests and professions. And go for it.

[Gray_Matter]

the $600 milllion dollars I estimated is a really simple math equation... ($15/month sub times 3.3 million players (5.5 was the last number Blizzard released) times 12 months)... go ahead, put the numbers into your calculator... and you'll get the same 600 million dollar number...

The sub numbers are irrelevant. You can't just take the numbers and multiply by $15. They change for each region. Some people are using tokens which are $20. Some people are subbed for a month and others for the whole year. What about all of the people from the east who pay by the hour. To make matters worse, those numbers include shop sales so they aren't just subs.

Do your research, make your presentation to Blizzard, convince them if you feel this strongly about it... I remain unconvinced of the success of your suggestion, but I'm not the one you have to convince, Blizzard is and I'm certain they'll be far more difficult to convince than I.

Why must I do anything of the sort? I am the customer. As I said before, I have plenty of games to play. I stay on the forum for other games (GW2 and Video Games). Sure, I miss the ICC days a bit, but I have plenty of other options and there are a lot people like me. My suggestions are things that I think will help WOW in the long run. I don't need Blizzard to do anything. If anything, the people that need Blizzard to do something are the present subscribers because they stand to lose the most. If Blizzard don't do anything then they will lose the game that they are playing.

[kaintk]

no i pay for 100 % of the game not 5% and 95% being free to anyone

[Putin-Chan]

it should be F2P up to 60, and B2P from 60-90(WOD)/100(Legion)

[bloodmoth13]

Make outdated content F2P and still waste resources on it? What exactly would Blizzard additionally gain from that if they can just keep it as it is?

Many other companies do this. Nobody plays the outdated content as it is, they still run the servers with nothing on them. And as to why? To hook people back into the game! It would be amazing for new players that arent sure about it. Heck, you would spend more time downloading the game than actually playing it while the cap is 20!
Think about how much more money they can get by allowing anyone to pick up and get investdd in the game

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no i pay for 100 % of the game not 5% and 95% being free to anyone

No, you pay for max level content, content patches and balance. Blizz doesnt balance low levels or really do anything with them. It wont hurt you that someone very late to the wow party is enjoying old content with empty zones

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it should be F2P up to 60, and B2P from 60-90(WOD)/100(Legion)

I really like this idea actually! Gives buying the game value, allows new comers to enjoy the leveling experience and get attached to their classes.

[SoulSoBreezy]

Wow is currently free to play up to level 20.

Of course... there is literally nothing to do in this time and its a TERRIBLE way to market the game!
If i were new to wow in 2016, and i picked it up and only got to level 20, i would just drop it. This game has been redesigned to simply not function at lower levels, everything good about this game has been shoved into higher brackets.

So i think blizz really arent doing themselves a favor by restricting access and giving newcomers a poor reception of what makes wow, wow.

Of course, i would probably put some restrictions on this, such as a fairly restrictive gold cap per account, no AH access and no trading (staples) simply to stop gold farmers and F2P players from destroying the AH.

What do you guys think? would you like to see some freeloaders padding out old zones? or not?

Someone made a thread/idea like this just the other day.
One of my bigger concerns with this is with pvp. 1-20 takes place in friendly territory. Anything past this literally feeds the pvp community.

[Battlebeard]

Absolutely not! F2P bring the uber-casual kids into the mix who doesn't care about the game at all. Keeping the montly fee makes sure that there is some quality still.

[Thage]

I'd cut off the free-play cap at 60, relax most of the chat/mail/AH restrictions (perhaps put in a hard cap of 5 auctions per day, buying and selling each) to encourage social interaction rather than block off free-players (if need be, allow them to post in public channels and whisper players unsolicited after level 15), and bring back removed dungeons and raids from low-level content. Let players pick which version they want to queue for through the LFD tool by including a checkbox for updated or classic dungeons, and include a Bronze Dragon NPC at the meeting stone for soloing at higher levels to accomplish the same thing. For the purpose of keeping Naxx40 gear prestigious, have it scale you down to the intended item level, so players have to bring a raid with them or use the Group Finder tool to group into one.

This would give a player plenty of time to level up and get attached to their character (unless they're intentionally speed-leveling, playing a couple hours a day will still take at least a couple weeks for the average player to hit 60), then the level 60 raid structure being put back in place allows for them to get a taste of what awaits at endgame in a simplified form (considering how much less complex raids at 60 are versus raids at 80+). From there, continue with the current thing they're doing where buying the base game gives you everything up to the previous expansion, then you just have to buy the current expansion (or wait for next expansion to get it as a base subscriber).

[Denkou]

It should definitely go F2P for non-current content. Endgame is where most of the game is at anyway.

[Deleted]

While the amount of gold you can generate in non-current content is certainly lower compared to WoD content, it is still likely that making the older expansions F2P would cause an even bigger increase in Bots farming that content.

Also, apart from the possibility to bring back some players, there simply is no reason to. I doubt that it would result in a net gain for Blizzard.

[Barnabas]

I don't see a point. There are multiple free servers that offer your favorite expansion at no cost to you.

[Tuesdays]

Free to play offers nothing to us, or Blizzard.

If anything the bots and gold sellers would be in full force, along with tons of freeloaders using hacks.

[Shuji V2]

This game should just go F2P and get it over with already. Subscriptions are no longer the way to keep consumers attached to your product. If they can just expand on their shop and services with the ridiculous price tags then I think this game can actually still grow.

[Deleted]

This game should just go F2P and get it over with already. Subscriptions are no longer the way to keep consumers attached to your product.

Last time I checked the game still had around 5 Mil. subs. That's not exactly nothing. Blizzard has no reason to make WoW F2P at this point.

[Shuji V2]

Last time I checked the game still had around 5 Mil. subs. That's not exactly nothing. Blizzard has no reason to make WoW F2P at this point.

Don't underestimate F2P. Just see how well Hearthstone is doing for example. Seeing as how all their games are connected and feature cross-game promotions, F2P could end up making more revenue than it is doing now.

[Tuesdays]

This game should just go F2P and get it over with already. Subscriptions are no longer the way to keep consumers attached to your product. If they can just expand on their shop and services with the ridiculous price tags then I think this game can actually still grow.

Free to play solution is called a token; however if you cannot afford 50 cents a day, perhaps you should be worried about something else. WoW community is already toxic enough, you open the flood gates with F2P, they might as well cancel the game now.

I mean, if you don't like the game enough to pay for it, or at the very least farm up enough gold every month, the game doesn't need you.