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

[lawow74]

Once more: exaggerating.

That depends what you consider content. If by content you mean only animated art models the player can exhibit for cosmetic purposes, it is exaggerating. But if you factor in all the other things that qualify as content, like quests, mobs and zones, that starts to not seem like much of a push, IMO.

[Mawnix]

Please elaborate. You cannot possibly justify that a single mount is cost-relative to 60% of the content provided by an expansion like MoP or WotLK

A mount costs 25 dollars based on the amount of work and development put into it. That is blizzards choice to price it as such, and it is purely optional to buy it or not just like any other piece of content.

A mount I wouldn't even consider content.

In no way does it affect my gameplay.

All it does is give me a sparkling pony to ride around and feel like a pretty princess.

Once content being sold for money affects gameplay, Ill frankly start giving a shit.

And if you think they'll actually sell gear with stats, they'd hemorrhage subscribers out the ass. Though you may have a low opinion of Blizzard currently, name a single AAA game where the publishers have sold stat gear.

[Tomana]

Once content being sold for money affects gameplay, Ill frankly start giving a shit.

And if you think they'll actually sell gear with stats, they'd hemorrhage subscribers out the ass. Though you may have a low opinion of Blizzard currently, name a single AAA game where the publishers have sold stat gear.

Pretty much this, yes. Unless they start selling gear or significant boosts in EU/US, there is no reason to complain.

[Leare315]

Please elaborate. You cannot possibly justify that a single mount is cost-relative to 60% of the content provided by an expansion like MoP or WotLK

Theaters charge 7 dollars at the gate for a movie theater, yet the companion novels are 12 dollars, action figures are 9 dollars and any other memorabelia covers the gamut in price. The pet store is just suplmental knick nacks, as are the books and the t-shirts and the toys. They are entirely optional and you pay the premium for the additional development time.

[The Madgod]

The point is that, for example, the xmog gear on the store could have been used as a reward for any number of potential in-game activities.

It's still non-core content. As long as there's plenty of options then I don't really see the problem. People want that shiny crown? Fine go for it. No skin off my nose. There's hundreds of other items I could use for transmog.

I think the core of your argument is flawed because it can be used for almost everything, including things we don't really even take a second glance at.

[lawow74]

Pretty much this, yes. Unless they start selling gear or significant boosts in EU/US, there is no reason to complain.

But then it's too late. Once it's in, it's highly unlikely it'll ever go out. They need to hear concerns now, before they reach that point, so they take it into consideration. It might have all the stopping power that a fly has on a Peterbilt, but it needs to be heard nonetheless.

[Mawnix]

But then it's too late. Once it's in, it's highly unlikely it'll ever go out. They need to hear concerns now, before they reach that point, so they take it into consideration. It might have all the stopping power that a fly has on a Peterbilt, but it needs to be heard nonetheless.

And it's funny because blizzard is listening to the community more than ever before in Mists.

[Deleted]

what if i told you, that they have been using your sub money to develop the in game store and items, to sell to you, your sub money paid to develop the things they are going to sell you, and you say we should be grateful - wake up

Just got a tweet from GC, apparently it was just YOUR sub fees that funded the transmog helms, everyone else has been paying for content development, staff wages and server maintenance.

[Khaza-R]

A mount costs 25 dollars based on the amount of work and development put into it. That is blizzards choice to price it as such, and it is purely optional to buy it or not just like any other piece of content.

The pricetag is not reflective of the cost but of how much demand there is. For all you know there could be anywhere from a 1000-10000% mark-up over cost for those mounts.

And I'm entirely aware that its optional, however I'm merely making the point that those who do purchase these items from the store should be more educated consumers and realize what they are actually getting for their dollar.

[atrixx]

This is exactly right. I will never understand why it's so hard for people to grasp that (any MMO) WoW is the product of a business and therefore subject to the changes that the leadership of said business desires.

No business forces you to spend money with it, you do so voluntarily. There really aren't many gray areas there. You either find your happy with it / justify the expenditure, or you decide that it's a dealbreaker for you and you don't.

The rest of it is just so much gnashing of teeth and wailing.

I'm glad someone else gets it.

LOL! I love the thread title: "What you need to realize." Thanks for the education, Dad.

You know what makes more money than the Blizz store? Subscriptions. Focusing on getting and retaining those would make them lots more money.

Retention is hard and hard these days. Why? Culture is different than it was in 2006 and earlier. The new generation of gamers that is replacing us in our 30s (who started gaming an that amazingly powerful 286 back in the day) is one that wants everything now and the vocal (minority I hope) demands to be treated like snowflakes. They don't want to spend 1-2 months working on a boss, let alone an entire raid instance. They don't want to really face a challenging game. It is all about "me me me" now and getting things handed to them for little effort. Now I say I hope it is a minority because if society overall has that opinion, we are doomed.

Now with that mindset of instant gratification, that is where micro transactions come in. "What I can get this new mount for the price of couple trips to Micky D's without having to kill anything...okay!" Look at the people that whine about Karazhan needing to be nerfed to help with getting the new pets, especially the Chess encounter. Yes it is a little rough, but it is completely doable with the right strategy and patience. People don't want to wait though. They want to be like "I want to go to Kara and clear it in 45 minutes and get all I want."

You can't know that for a fact.

What if *what if* Blizzard adds itemshop items so that it can keep the monthly subscription fee at $15. $15 isn't what it was in 2004, but can you imagine how pissed everyone would be if they raised the monthly subscription fee from $15 to $20? Perhaps generating revenue from the itemshop allows Blizzard to keep the monthly subscription fee at $15 instead of raising it, which in turn leads to a happier playerbase and better company image?

Seems equally possible, if not more plausible.

Agree. Blizzard has revenue gaps they need to cover and increasing costs. Microtransactions are the way to do right now. Though I feel they may face a problem if they toss out too many items to get at once as people will start to get burnout from them. Blizzard also realizes that they can't raise subscription fees anymore or they'll lose more customers than they could afford without losing revenue. HOWEVER. I wouldn't be shocked to see something to the effect of a Battle.Net membership that includes all of their games for something like $25-30 a month...if even that high. If they can afford to give out Diablo III for free to people who stuck with WOW for 1 year, they have some margin room to play with - or are banking on microtransactions being the future.

Of course it's wrong. It's not illegal but they're still using questionable, greedy and just bad business practices. What you're saying is pretty much that the goal of every business is to milk every cent out of their customers without picking how to do it. Everything goes as long as the suckers keep paying, right?

If the demand is there and people keep paying for it, that's Economics 101. Until people refuse to pay $25 for a mount or similar service, Blizzard will keep pumping it out.

I see nothing wrong with the idea of the Blizzard store, but what I do find insulting is the pricing they use.

$10.00 USD for a pet, or $25.00 USD for mount? That's outrageous when you only pay $39.99 for an entire expansion pack. You're paying 60+% of the price of an expansion for probably 1/1000th of the content. That's revolting.

Yet people pay for it. Until they stop it'll keep happening. Just imagine if they found way to make character skins a feature that could be toggled. You know that would put up "New Dwarf Skins - $45" and people would be all over it.

It may be a business move, but it is not a smart one. It is incredibly short-sighted, and was clearly pushed through by someone who knows little of the trends of the Gaming industry. No game with a mandatory subscription has *EVER* found success with microtransactions, and the only reason it hasn't proven to be a bigger issue with Pets and Mounts, frankly, is because most players don't seem that involved with them. I think with the introduction of Transmog items, though, they're affecting people in a much larger capacity -- particularly when it is abundantly clear that Blizzard's artists are putting almost zero effort into the in-game sets.

Then there's the whole issue of the XP Potion. That's not a "frivolous item that doesn't affect game-balance". Quite the contrary; it upsets the balance of the most fundamental aspect of the game. It is a well-known issue that leveling in Mists of Pandaria is more arduous than any Expansion to come before, and rather than exercise better game design, they're going to charge you to play the game that Blizzard is openly admitting is the way they intend it to be played.

If that doesn't piss you off, then this will; they've also mentioned that Lesser Charms of Good Fortune will likely be added as microtransactions. That's right, people with more money will be able to gear out more quickly than you, and you're kidding yourself if you think it's going to stop there. I know this industry, and if someone has managed to push these transmog-helms through as microtransactions, then they have far more dire plans in mind, barring a huge, unified player-backlash. It will probably start with heirlooms being purchasable, followed by removing those Lesser Charms and Heirlooms from in-game. Who knows; Blizzard may just announce "Hey guys, there's already so many amazing pieces of art in the game, we're not going to bother adding any more armor-designs at all! However, out artists have created some amazing new stuff exclusively for the Pet Store!".

This is an MMO with a mandatory subscription. Microtransactions simply cannot co-exist with a mandated subscription cost, and anyone who thinks otherwise is either foolish, or hasn't researched the topic enough. Now, if it's an optional subscription? Maybe. But consider this; WoW how 8 Million subscribers, by last count. What other MMO has even *half* of that? They're going to alienate a lot of players, just to make a few bucks here and there. Whoever made this decision to pursue this needs to be fired; not because it's unethical, but because it is simply poor business-practice, and risks a lot more than it could possibly make up for.

Companies that typically introduced microtransactions ended up going F2P. It grows the user count and opens the door for microtrans. Now I can't defend all of Blizzard's latest decisions (since they've had some pretty colossal missteps recently) but they are overall a very smart organization. I think the XP Potion debacle is something that went into PTR and people read too much into it. The joys of sites data mining when they shouldn't be. Regardless though, the XP Potion technology is a way to see how an item purchased on the store can provide an ingame buff to modify various attributes of the player. To me, the whole thing is a lead up to other items that probably will have nothing to do with XP gains or other major game impacting benefits.

[lawow74]

And it's funny because blizzard is listening to the community more than ever before in Mists.

And hopefully they'll listen when people tell them they don't want a sub game where they get encouraged to buy boosts to overcome gating mechanisms that, sans boosts, would probably not be set nearly so high. Time will tell.

[MagicBanana]

Yeah sure, thats why the tier gear looks so good.

Oh wait, not, they look like fucking garbage, and these helms look good enough to be from a completely different game.

Fuck you and your corporate apologies.


[Infracted]

Harshly said, but I somewhat agree. Unless the helms are dirt cheap, I dont really feel like they look that good to pay for :/

[Tomana]

And hopefully they'll listen when people tell them they don't want a sub game where they get encouraged to buy boosts to overcome gating mechanisms that, sans boosts, would probably not be set nearly so high. Time will tell.

What item currently planned for the shop is going to help someone overcome a gating mechanism?

- - - Updated - - -

Harshly said, but I somewhat agree. Unless the helms are dirt cheap, I dont really feel like they look that good to pay for :/

Then don't pay for them. I never purchased anything from the store (pet or mount) and I'm not planning to.

[ComputerNerd]

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.

And you are ignorant if you make that assumption at this very early stage.
The charms argument has been blown right out of proportion by narrow minded people.
The runes conversion is limited by hard cap on a weekly quest, one which no amount of lesser charms can bypass.
Unless that changes then there is nothing to worry about.

You were just looking for a reason to leave, and this simply gave you a convenient scapegoat to blame rather than you having to look closer to home.
Good riddance and lets hope more such players follow, leaving the game with those who can actually offer constructive discussion and want the game to move forward.

[Zalkercin]

The game has lost millions of subs over the past years. Hasn't your forum experience improved?

Pretty sure the largest percentage of the people on here whining about aesthetic items aren't the millions of subs you're referring to. If so, that would make them look even more childish than they already are.

[THoyt]

I bought a new truck a couple months ago, seen a sweet license plate that had the brand on it so I bought it... I also bought window tint for it. I'm so pissed off I have to pay for these extra cosmetic accessories, I'm canceling my sub with Ford.

[Tomana]

I bought a new truck a couple months ago, seen a sweet license plate that had the brand on it so I bought it... I also bought window tint for it. I'm so pissed off I have to pay for these extra cosmetic accessories, I'm canceling my sub with Ford.

And let's not forget that insurance you have to pay every damn year! You should cancel imo! XDDD

[Krolikn]

I'm so glad you know what Blizzard is planning long term, OP.

Blizzard is glad to have people like you..........

[klaps_05]

maybe, but they can introduce a whole Tier which you will be able to transmog, which won't give you a gear advantage, but will make you feel better(for 5minutes). so although heroic/elite gear won't show up on store, expect more of the retarded helms and other transmog items to show up.

[Difuid]

Just got a tweet from GC, apparently it was just YOUR sub fees that funded the transmog helms, everyone else has been paying for content development, staff wages and server maintenance.

You couldn't be more mistaken, the profits from Wow fueled the development of both SC2 and D3. But keep dreaming.