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

[Vargur]

Believe me when I say this... 15$ a month is pathetic amount of money for as much time, and fun I get out of WoW.

All you haters need to understand how many billionaires are in the world, and find out HOW LITTLE 15 bucks is in 2013.

Seriously..

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You're telling me you unsubbed for something that isn't even in the GAME yet...?? Dramaqueen

1. We're not billionaires and I do not actively pursue the goal to make them even richer. Maybe you do, that's your problem.
2. 15$ is little in MOST first world countries, not even all of them.
3. Year is highly irrelevant in our context.

[Landrid]

Lets see $15 a month x say 5 million player base? = that's still 75 million a month. That's a lot of money for a company to be making. One wonders why they need to increase they profit margin at a risk of alienating some of their fan base seems weird.

[Milkyz]

So lovely seeing how our Education System is pouring Game Designers / CEOs so hard in our world that we have an abundance of them right here.

Good point is that now that we clearly have a massive amount of gaming/business experts around, next generation of games/business will be close to perfect. I dare say that World Economy is saved! Horray!


Hmm. Wait. Not really.

We need "Basic Concept of Logic" as an obligatory subject in all schools.

[Lochton]

You seem to fail here...

It's still not forced for you to buy it. It's not like SWTOR where you actually need to use money as F2P to get progress. Blizzard did state that current and future plans (For Now) is still for cosmetics and vanity for now.

We already have a valor buff, cap your main and you have it on your alts.

And don't you bring the XP boost into the arguement. It's only been datamined, not chosen a location, time, zone, reason or market for it yet.

And you have buffs for ingame currency already, so slightly confused about that point out. (If you didn't know, it's called, Food, Potions, Flasks and so on)

[The Madgod]

Lets see $15 a month x say 5 million player base? = that's still 75 million a month. That's a lot of money for a company to be making. One wonders why they need to increase they profit margin at a risk of alienating some of their fan base seems weird.

If they would lose a notable amount of subscribers over this they wouldn't do it.

I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of people who are saying they don't like it are just blowing off steam. In the end, it's not an issue that's big enough for them to quit over.

[Noomz]

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.

Well, I know what you mean but I still have somewhat of an issue with it.
Cash shops are often something you have instead of a subscription cost. WoW seems to be keeping their subscription. Ontop of this, games like Guild Wars 2 have a means to let anyone convert in-game currency to the currency used to buy all their cash shop items IF THEY WANT TO. This isn't the case for the WoW cash shop, so far.

That's the two big problems I have with it.

[Lochton]

Seems to me that you are the one who just doesnt get it...

You pay a monthly fee to be able to play, that is correct but the more important part...YOU PAY TO HAVE THE GAME EVOLVE AND INTRODUCE NEW CONTENT. This is what you pay for and this is the only justification for monthly fee (tough nowadays there is no justification since blizz produces half of the content they used to in vanilla/tbc). If time of designers go into creating trash items for blizz store then they are not working on something YOU PAID FOR, which is content of the game.
So Blizz store, directly fucks you in the ass here, but you are too stupid to even feel the giant cock that comes in your rear

Question to you, good sir. Are you the one of the crowd who claims Blizzard doesn't cater to you because they implemented a new BG/Raid/Dungeon/Achievement/Faction/Zone/Quest Line/Store Item and so much more - I had to list them all, because you sound like one of the people who complain if Blizzard releases something that you doesn't like.

Yes, Blizzard may make something you don't like. But so does restaurants, don't you like the carpet? Their money goes for -OVERALL- development. This means all I meantioned and TONS more, EVEN THE STORE!

[Landrid]

The logic of "I pay a monthly fee so the blizzard store shouldn't sell vanity items" is the same as complaining about paying to enter an amusement park, but still having to pay for the food and/or drinks inside or gift shop items.

. When you enter a amusement park you are under no illusion that the gifts and food will be free you know exactly what your admission fee is going to.
With WoW on the other hand subscribing to a MMO normally means you get everything. That's why Free to play have cash shops. Some have subscriptions which let you get everything in the cash shop. So what really is my $15 really going towards? Better game content or more cash content.

[Lochton]

Lets see $15 a month x say 5 million player base? = that's still 75 million a month. That's a lot of money for a company to be making. One wonders why they need to increase they profit margin at a risk of alienating some of their fan base seems weird.

Good man, go back to school. You cannot calculate the income that easily due to subscription plans, game cards and people unsubbing and resubbing. Only Blizzard can do so.

And this store, doesn't touch any fan base at all. It's vanity and cosmetics. Just like real life, you pay for a tux to look good, you don't expect it to be free. The fan base isn't even touched by the store - some of the fan base "feels" touched by it. They believe that because it's there, they have to use it. BUT YOU DON'T! It's there to make some things a bit more fun.

And most of you that complain about all this store being a problem - go away. There's no problem with it. It's not brough ANYTHING BAD (yet). You can't take the XP boost as an example as it's not even been selected to be used yet, it's research.

[moremana]

As long as it doesnt give anyone an advantage in either PvE or PvP and is just for vanity stuff, i'm fine with blizzard store.

This^

I agree as long as its vanity items like mounts, pets, etc. I have no problem and will probably buy some myself. The line is drawn when it pertains to gear.

[Deleted]

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.

Stop whiteknighting, you pay a sub to access the whole game, not pay a sub then pay some more. Any reasonable person would take that position.

[Illiterate]

I pay $15/month for content. I shouldn't have to pay MORE to get shit that should be included in the monthly sub fee. The store is just a money grab, GREED.

[Flower Milk]

Yes I'm well aware of the Chinese pay model. I'm looking at the situation though from the business perspective where most people here let emotions drive their reasoning. I'll try to find the original article that was pretty specific, but here is one from Forbes (financial magazine) that was released today: http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain...ends-in-china/

And I'm telling you, a small flat fee to play the game one time in an internet cafe and then counted as "subscriber" probably isn't as much of a contributor to their profits as people think it is, when you think about it. Hence, not as much of a reason for them to add an in game store like you said.

[Mawnix]

Stop whiteknighting, you pay a sub to access the whole game, not pay a sub then pay some more. Any reasonable person would take that position.

I'm a reasonable person and yet I don't.

[Tomana]

We need "Basic Concept of Logic" as an obligatory subject in all schools.

Amen to that. -_-

[Lochton]

. When you enter a amusement park you are under no illusion that the gifts and food will be free you know exactly what your admission fee is going to.
With WoW on the other hand subscribing to a MMO normally means you get everything. That's why Free to play have cash shops. Some have subscriptions which let you get everything in the cash shop. So what really is my $15 really going towards? Better game content or more cash content.

You really don't get it? These store items are hardly made on your subscription alone. They are made by having time, and profit.

Lets see what you (And no, not you as a single person, that's selfish - ALL PLAYERS) pay for:
- Servers running live every day but some of 1, due to maintenance.
- 11 Character slots (more than other MMO's)
- Free Roam of all servers on your group (EU/US/Asian and so on)
- Raid content
- Player Versus Player content
- Dungeon content
- Zone content
- Character creation and updates
- Armor creation and updates
- Map creation and updates
- Voice acting in a game
- Cinematics
- Customer Support
- Accounting
- Building maintenance
- Payment for employees
- Community Support
- Moderators and author's
- researchers
- Human Resources
- Power
- Water
- Waste management
- Taxes
- Rent
- Website /Forum
- Adjustable UI
- Classes and updates
- Frequent updates from Blizzard
- Hotfixes and patches
- EXPANSIONS!


Maybe somewhere, a thousand lines down, you have the store. This store doesn't have thousands of items in it like other F2P's. It gets some items new and then but not really enough for you to demand your money goes to that and not what you want. Maybe 1 cent of your money, or even hardly any. You also gotta realize, the store also sells World of Warcraft game, as well as game cards - Is that a problem too then?

I could keep on, but I hope you get the point..

[Celista]

I think it's interesting how the store helms seem to match the art style of a couple of the legendary cloaks' use effect.

Coincidence? I think not. >.<

I think we'll be seeing more than just helms, and that there will be more mog pieces in the store soon after these.

[The Madgod]

Stop whiteknighting, you pay a sub to access the whole game, not pay a sub then pay some more. Any reasonable person would take that position.

Except not really

There's a lot of things where this happens and nobody bats an eye. It's a double-standard that is pretty commonplace.

[DrMcNinja]

They're gonna sell charms iirc? which means they're basically selling gear - Doesn't matter if it's just a small chance for gear, it's still gear in the end. I could be mistaken though

The thing is, it gives people a chance. A chance if they kill a respective boss. It still won't allow casual players to buy High-end gear

[Lochton]

They're gonna sell charms iirc? which means they're basically selling gear - Doesn't matter if it's just a small chance for gear, it's still gear in the end. I could be mistaken though

No they are not