Wow testing in-game payments

[Hexotic]

for all we know, they are just making it possible for us to access the store in game to buy mounts and stuff.

[Lomak]

for all we know, they are just making it possible for us to access the store in game to buy mounts and stuff.

Maybe for all you know. The rest of us are better informed.

[Sosuke Aizen]

The discussion has been very on topic, apart from your attempts to rile people up by calling them poor, uneducated and children.

There you go again bro with your jabs directed to me. You really need to grow up and stop hating your life. If you come to NY, I could hire you as an assistant. Look me up.

If they can't spend time on progressing in a fair setting like everyone else that pays a sub fee then they should look for another game.

You should not dictate what people with money should or should not do, you can read my previous post if you forgot where that road ended up. Unless you have anything of value to add, you should just jump on another thread.

[MoanaLisa]

From an objective standpoint, as a gamer, I find what blizzard is doing (their entire philosophy when it comes to design) disgusting and disingenuous. Posting about that, and the reason why, is just as reasonable to do (if not more so) then blindly praising every decision, or worse off, going out of the way to make up excuses for their practices.

Doesn't make us haters for spreading the truth.

Everything in your reply was subjective, not objective and it's well to keep in mind that your truth is someone else's opinion. In fact reading your post carefully everything else in the sentence after the words 'I find' is purely opinion.

People can make up their own minds about whether someone is a hater or not although I'm not wild about people who carelessly label people either fanboy or hater thoughtlessly. In fact, I didn't call anyone a hater. I simply observed the hypocrisy in to accusing the 'fanboys' of being a cult when some of those very same people make hundreds of posts about a game they no longer play or even have any use for. Obsession goes both ways.

Speaks for itself really. I've seen a tremendous amount of stuff that is simply stupid at this point since Monday's announcement about the impending cash shop for Korea now and probably everywhere else at some future point, distant or otherwise. It's been ill-informed, misinformed, or completely uninformed. That's fine for an opinion stated as such. It's less fine when people pretend it's either 'fact' or 'truth'.

[Neddi]

Well considering Asia is on a different payment set as ours (they pay hourly I believe I read) the catch up to other people in terms of coins and levels takes longer. Honestly I don't see a problem with a store. The pet store is awesome, but it is by no means mandatory. I've bought a couple of the pet store pets and mounts. I doubt this will even make it to NA honestly.

[championknight]

They just opened a can of worms, which may lead to other things to come in the future just like he effects tpaid faction change.

And people should know that the only players in Asia who would have a pay by hour model is Korea, China and/or Taiwan. Everyone else in Asia mostly plays on US servers

[Syio]

stop thinking of them as consumers; they dont behave like consumers do in any other area of life. if you think of them as cult members, the behaviour starts to make a lot more sense.

A few years ago I would have taken offence to this. Now, it really hits home in a funny yet tragic way.

[mmoscreenshotproof]

Most if not all of those objecting to any sort of "cash shop" appear to live in a bizarre world where only two types of payment models can exist, F2P or P2P. I'm sorry, Blizzard is their own company and adding a cash shop an mixing the sacred two payment models is nothing to get upset about. If you don't like it, don't play. I really just do not care if people can buy 100% exp for leveling toons (after the first at least) or anything that is not gear/raiding or PVP mounts and or titles. Anything cosmetic or nonimportant like exp boosting (after first character) really just doesn't matter.

[strangerdanger]

I really hope they are moving towards a free to play model... I love all of the pets in the pet store and I would buy a mount too, but I will NOT pay for an in game cosmetic item on top of a $15/month subscription fee.

I'm sure I am not the only person that would be more willing to pay for their store items if there was not a $15/month fee. I guess I got a little OT, but I was just trying to say that I hope this doesn't reach US/EU servers without some kind of change as to how you pay to play the game.

[Ferocity]

Most if not all of those objecting to any sort of "cash shop" appear to live in a bizarre world where only two types of payment models can exist, F2P or P2P. I'm sorry, Blizzard is their own company and adding a cash shop an mixing the sacred two payment models is nothing to get upset about.

Most people live in real world, where they already have too much greedy structures trying to milk them down. Attempting to milk people for cash in game, which is already being paid for, is such a low move, and must be frowned upon.

Honestly I don't see a problem with a store. The pet store is awesome, but it is by no means mandatory.

Playing game isn't mandatory too. You will see the truth behind these words when in-game cash-shop with new items will go live. Even if it will be only in Asia, you think paying per hour and paying on top of that to get most out of hour will make people happy? Of course they will decide that cash-shop isn't "mandatory" as well as the game.

[nekobaka]

Not only that but your consumers will actively go out and defend those decision, voluntarily and sometimes almost obsessively to any detractors.

Add-on to the point of blaming other players for Blizzards poor design decisions, than again they have issues with accepting their own mistakes and tend to blame others.


In-game shops are there to decrease the barrier between the user and their wallet. Clicking a button in-game and having the option of buying that item right then and there is far more likely to grab a sale than a player having to open up a browser, log-in, select an item, and place in payment information. To spend development time on an in-game cash shop that has to sync with the other databases shows that Blizzard is looking at this to be a long term investment that involves an increase in products available for purchase. A number of features we see are laying the foundation to not only deal with further subscriber loss but to also ready the game for F2P. F2P is not going to happen in the next expansion and a number of things will have to change about the game in order to accommodate the model, but the developers will certain look for ways of introducing the idea of such systems into the player base early and there could likely be many more cosmetic items offered along with boosts. Asia will lead the way.

I just hope Blizzard doesnt do the premium member bull shit which is basically a subscription that gives you queue priority and some other perks. I still think subscription based game should have no cash only exclusive rewards or boosts.

[Cybran]

There you go again bro with your jabs directed to me. You really need to grow up and stop hating your life. If you come to NY, I could hire you as an assistant. Look me up.

You have absolutely no contribution to the discussion in this thread. I even got infracted for calling your bullshit. I really don't understand how the mods can be so blind.

[MoanaLisa]

You have absolutely no contribution to the discussion in this thread. I even got infracted for calling your bullshit. I really don't understand how the mods can be so blind.

You have both been infracted for much the same thing in this thread. You will be yet again very soon if you don't knock it off and get back on topic. If someone's posts bother you that much, put them on ignore and move on. If you really feel you must comment further take it up with me in a PM, another General Discussion moderator, a super moderator, or send a note to an admin.

[Deleted]

Some more evidence for the cash shop apologists* to gloss over after a few pages when the shock-factor has subsided.

"BLIZZARD_STORE"
"BLIZZARD_STORE_ON_SALE"
"BLIZZARD_STORE_BUY"
"BLIZZARD_STORE_PLUS_TAX"
"BLIZZARD_STORE_PRODUCT_INDEX"
local numGroups = C_PurchaseAPI.GetNumProductGroups()
local id, name, description, icon, normalPrice, currentPrice = C_PurchaseAPI.GetProductGroupInfo(CurrentGroupIndex)

Note that these are extracted from the English Client using the tools freely provided by Blizzard with the game for that purpose (no third party tools or datamining needed)
I guess that's going into the enUS client just to support an exp boost for the Asian market...

*sorry I meant impartial moderators

[LilSaihah]

Some more evidence for the cash shop apologists* to gloss over after a few pages when the shock-factor has subsided.

"BLIZZARD_STORE"
"BLIZZARD_STORE_ON_SALE"
"BLIZZARD_STORE_BUY"
"BLIZZARD_STORE_PLUS_TAX"
"BLIZZARD_STORE_PRODUCT_INDEX"
local numGroups = C_PurchaseAPI.GetNumProductGroups()
local id, name, description, icon, normalPrice, currentPrice = C_PurchaseAPI.GetProductGroupInfo(CurrentGroupIndex)

Note that these are extracted from the English Client using the tools freely provided by Blizzard with the game for that purpose (no third party tools or datamining needed)
I guess that's going into the enUS client just to support an exp boost for the Asian market...

*sorry I meant impartial moderators

why is codes in english? conspiracy

I'm wondering why people are skeptical about this. A cash shop ingame is a convenience for players, regardless of whether it's a stepping stone to F2P/B2P. If they're going F2P in the Asian market and they implemented this, it's kind of a disservice not to put it in the US market. At the end of the day, why not? (other than to dissuade F2P naysayers)

[Cybran]

I'm wondering why people are skeptical about this. A cash shop ingame is a convenience for players, regardless of whether it's a stepping stone to F2P/B2P. If they're going F2P in the Asian market and they implemented this, it's kind of a disservice not to put it in the US market. At the end of the day, why not? (other than to dissuade F2P naysayers)

They would never go Free to play. They make far too much money from the subscription fees. They will add the store to milk even more profit without adding any value to the game.

[LilSaihah]

They would never go Free to play. They make far too much money from the subscription fees. They will add the store to milk even more profit without adding any value to the game.

this is a great thing to put in your signature or maybe for someone to write down in notepad so eventually a nerd can go "HAH you were WRONG"

for what it's worth i doubt they'll go f2p/b2p any time soon but in a couple expansions when everyone realises that blizzard isn't what it used to be they'll think about it

[Deleted]

They would never go Free to play. They make far too much money from the subscription fees. They will add the store to milk even more profit without adding any value to the game.

While removing value from the game (for subscribers) without reducing rent (subscription price) to put it on the shop (where you can "optionally" buy it back).

I think that's a more appropriate description (I'm agreeing with you btw)

[Cybran]

While removing value from the game (for subscribers) without reducing rent (subscription price) to put it on the shop (where you can "optionally" buy it back).

I can already see them trying to rationalize the store: "Well how does that guy who paid for his heroic thunderforged Bad Juju trinket devalues your own? How does him paying for something impact your own experience? You are such an elitist, trying to take away content from casuals, let them have it /sob"

[Pann]

I can already see them trying to rationalize the store: "Well how does that guy who paid for his heroic thunderforged Bad Juju trinket devalues your own? How does him paying for something impact your own experience? You are such an elitist, trying to take away content from casuals, let them have it /sob"

I do agree with much of what you are saying but I do not think it is helpful to turn this into casual/hardcore debate and doing so is only likely to get the thread locked.