Battle.Net Balance Active, Blue Posts, Fan Art, MMO Report

[Renwin]

Is it me or is this 'Blizzard Balance' just another way to milk money from customers?

What are the benefits of paying using Blizzard Balance compared to current payment options? (Credit Card, Paypal). I mean you'll probably be stuck with a few "balance" on your account, after making a purchase, you can't do anything with making it useless and wasted money. I fail to see the pro's of using Blizzard Balance than the current conventional ways.

If I'm wrong, please do enlighten me, I'm not trying to sound an arse, I'm just stumped at what the point is.

Not to mention they still need credit card information for PayPal (thought it was going to include the PayPal Balance, but it doesn't). Sounds like Blizzard is getting grubby at this rate, but I'm not sure why aside from D3's AH.

[Mysticcal]

Is it me or is this 'Blizzard Balance' just another way to milk money from customers?

What are the benefits of paying using Blizzard Balance compared to current payment options? (Credit Card, Paypal). I mean you'll probably be stuck with a few "balance" on your account, after making a purchase, you can't do anything with making it useless and wasted money. I fail to see the pro's of using Blizzard Balance than the current conventional ways.

If I'm wrong, please do enlighten me, I'm not trying to sound an arse, I'm just stumped at what the point is.

Microtransactions are expensive for retailers for small amounts to the point where they lose money. In order to create cost savings, you add amounts which are higher than the few microtransactions you were going to purchase and blizzard loses less per transaction in merchant fees.

Sucks for the consumer, win for the merchant.

[Kaldriss]

cant wait to see what we are gonna be doin in pandaria

[VanishO2]

Hummm...

"we don't have resources"

"we're alread working on MoP in may 2010"

Wonder why cataclysm seemed like a half xpac...

Also,

"Currently, we think that Frost mages have too much control in PvP."

Gratz on knowing that after so much time...

As I always say... the main problem in wow pvp... few specs with so much and many others with so few... and most of it without much effort to use (procs, lol).

[Hulari]

In Mists we're attempting to take that one step further and have the world react to the players, and not just have the players react to the world. It gives the game a dynamic, “alive” feeling which is very much needed in a persistent-world game.

So like Guild Wars 2?

[Nesingwary-Eliada]

Yeah, when you or random 16 year olds get hooked to Diablo 3 and they need to buy items to be cool it's entirely fucking optional! I personally don't like that direction for games.

Lmfao uhm... yeah... it is entirely optional. Don't want to spend real money on cool things in game? Then don't. Want to spend real money on cool things in game? Go ahead.

There's absolutely nothing mandatory about it. Want =/= need. If somebody gets so hooked that they feel they can't help but use this feature then that's there own problem and whining about it is unwarrented.

[Skiball]

Account wide achievements? Great, achievements being nerfed for those with ADD and can't focus on a character. Awesome.The worst part is not even the points per say, but it allows people to get a cop out on some achievements. For example, if they play X class, but X class is harder to get a high arena rating with, they simply have to log over and play with flavor of the month Y class to get their achieve for the old toon. Same goes for raiding, or other achievements that may be easier or harder with a class. This is a massive nerf to those who worked on hard with one class to accumulate points

[Tokurei]

I don't have anythin against MoP but the thinh that they are still talkin about it like a far thing scares me... me and my guild (and we are surely not one of the best guilds around) are already on half way trough heroic and progress are going fast with the new debuff in dragon soul. I just dont want to sit there farmin 1 raid for another 7-8 months :/

One million times this ^

I dropped my sub as soon as I realized how boring face smashing into DS week after week on heroic with my main, and LFR on my 8 alts would be. Then they felt the need to accelerate the farming process for DS with a raid-wide buff, so not only can you queue for it via raid finder, but you can also easily blaze through it on normal via pugging through trade. Twice a week, 9 characters... you do the math. It's not "raiding" anymore in any traditional sense, and they seem to think it will hold everyone's interest until MoP. Enjoy leveling your alts until then for those of you that haven't done so already, and if you have, well... sucks to be you (and me, and probably thousands of others.)

[k1037]

Lmfao uhm... yeah... it is entirely optional. Don't want to spend real money on cool things in game? Then don't. Want to spend real money on cool things in game? Go ahead.

There's absolutely nothing mandatory about it. Want =/= need. If somebody gets so hooked that they feel they can't help but use this feature then that's there own problem and whining about it is unwarrented.

Except for the part where there are arenas in Diablo 3 and you will essentially be able to buy the best gear, putting everyone else at an immediate disadvantage.

So you're basically saying,
"Just because you WANT to be competitive doesn't mean you NEED to be competitive. You have the OPTION to pay extra money every time new gear is released. You can just spend weeks at a massive disadvantage while you spend hours farming while others have already bought better items with real money. See, totally optional and fair!"

Granted, I haven't kept up-to-date on whether there will be different sets of PVP/PVE gear, etc. But last I checked, there weren't. So this is essentially like allowing players to buy the *best* arena and raid sets with real money, and then telling everyone being facerolled while they spend months raising their rating/downing bosses for the same loot that the field is totally fair. Yeah, LMFAO is right. LMFAO @ Blizzard.

[The Ogdru Jahad]

Did blizz JUST figure out frost mages are OP in pvp... FINALLY account-wide achievements! been waiting for ages..

[lildave151]

One million times this ^

I dropped my sub as soon as I realized how boring face smashing into DS week after week on heroic with my main, and LFR on my 8 alts would be. Then they felt the need to accelerate the farming process for DS with a raid-wide buff, so not only can you queue for it via raid finder, but you can also easily blaze through it on normal via pugging through trade. Twice a week, 9 characters... you do the math.

So your only two choices were to either run all 9 characters through LFR every week plus your main through heroic DS or quit? Sounds like you'd burn yourself out on any content like that no matter how awesome it is. I'd suggest trying a bit of moderation.

[Umbrokill]

Hummm...
"we're alread working on MoP in may 2010"

Wonder why cataclysm seemed like a half xpac...

You do know that Blizzard was working on Cataclysm at the same time as Wotlk, don't you? And "Working" can mean alot of things.

[Necrophetamine]

I do hope they extend the account wide achievements to titles, or at least the rewards from them, say, Invincible's Reigns or one of the meta achievement mounts. Since the key part there was " players will at last be able to proudly display proof of the full scope of their adventures around Azeroth". At least that's how I see it. I just don't think it has much of a point if all you're doing is allowing people to transfer achievement points over to another character.

[Rigrot]

Yeah, when you or random 16 year olds get hooked to Diablo 3 and they need to buy items to be cool it's entirely fucking optional! I personally don't like that direction for games.

If they (or their parents) can learn any self control then its their fault. Not to mention the last I remember (don't read a lot of D3 stuff) the stuff you can sell on D3 is items that drop ingame, so yeah it is optional.

also: The fan art makes me laugh

[Dasn]

casey >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> curse girl

[HatakeSC]

Great MMOReport!

[TimeTravel]

You do know that Blizzard was working on Cataclysm at the same time as Wotlk, don't you? And "Working" can mean alot of things.

People must understand that the price they pay for LFR is that no raid will ever feel epic again, I am just glad I played burning crusade because that era of wow was worth putting time into.

[Buu]

Funny story: One of the Fan-arts they released...

... is stolen and had the signature erased on purpose.
http://k-rocket.deviantart.com/galle...et=24#/d3c2zbg

[Blimm]

Some of the fan arts are really great, great job on them