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

[coldrain]

None of the items in the store are in anyway a requirement to play the game nor do they boost anything you do.

Gold / cash sink =/= OP items that break the game.

No you lie. I RAF'd myself and got realm first from the rocket. I PAID TO WIN

[Deleted]

Tell that to all the people selling them.

Until about 2 years ago all TCG items were Bind on Pick Up. Which means the only way you could get those items was by either a) buy TCG decks and b) buy item code on ebay. Most people didn't have access to the latest TCG expansions because their availability was limited so prices on these decks/codes if you didn't live in the US were pretty high.

Blizzard changed how TCG item work and made them Bind on Use after you redeem the codes probably because a) lots of people got scammed or b) they knew people value TCG items so much so they wanted to increase booster packs sales.

I tend to go with b) tbh because... well.. cash shops etc etc. Everything Blizzard does lately isn't in favor of the player, but their own pockets. Also, the return of specific discontinued loot cards in the most recent TCG expansion only strengthens my belief.

So, yeah, either you're a new player and probably don't know most of this stuff and how Blizzard changed over the years or you simply didn't pay much attention to it.

[Deleted]

Someone mentioned gw2 as a game where u can get everything from the $$$ shop for ingame currency if u grind enough. Thats 100% true for Neverwinter too and i think to some extend to SWTOR.
I wish the ppl who are defending blizz and saying that this is just cosmetics think about what part of their game is actualy cosmetical. I personaly spend 75% of my time when im online into getting rare stuff: pets/mounts/good (imo) looking sets. I also spend a decent amount of time farming gold wich ALSO some ppl have it easy as a norwigian friend of mine for example that has no issue to spend 200 euro for a TCG loot and sell it ingame and do that every 3-4 weeks or so.
Ppl are correct when they say that this isnt something new and its been around for a while, BUT as all things its all about the scale. Eventualy it just gets out of line. For me i think the stepping stone wasent this ugly helmets, but instead the bat mount wich has been desired for a realy long time by a majority of players as a natural reward for the horde side.
Now for that random idiot who was calling ppl lazy for not buying the ingame store stuff. I get realy tired of ppl who thinks that everyone is in the same financial status as they are, and if they have tons of cash to spare so should everyone else. Come please to Bulgaria and get a normal goverment job with a magisters degree as i have , get ur 350 eu paycheck, pay ur fucking bills and come back to me again about ingame store.
Why should i feel like a second class player in WoW just because i cant afford all the stuff that TBFH is looking better than all the crap blizzard designs lately as a reward for PVP or PVE.
I would have been just 1/10 less frustrated if i could atlest farm for this items myself : ie farm gold and trade it for the blizz balance or smt, coz knowing its there and u can only get it for cash feels realy bad.
They should man up and come out clean and say if they intend to transition the game to F2P or folow the sub based system. If they come out clean and say that for example in 1 year from now they plan to drop the subb and the whole point of this item shop is that transition i could understand their actions. But for as this moment i find this bussness practises higly shady and unjust. As i stated earlier on page 32 blizzard is far away from broke to need extra 10-20% income. Ppl need to realise that every single move like this is like pining a nail to a deads man coffin. The truth is that this game relyes mostly on old players and bit by bit they quit, and even if u dont care now eventualy it will get to the point that u would quit aswell because there wont be a community left for u to play with (and this is not a theory its a fact, and ppl from low pop servers know it very well).

[Gilian]

I don't get it. Blizzard is testing something to make more money that has barely any benefit for the consumers. People here are defending it with the only arguments "it doesn't affect your or my gameplay" or "I have plenty of money".

Can someone explain to me how this can makes sense to someone? Why do you people want this ingame store so badly? Why do you want to get rid of your money so badly?

It's seriously mind boggling... Blizzard seriously wants to claim that players asked for this and that the big benefit is that it's convenient because you don't have to alt-tab to your webbrowser anymore?

10 pages later, still no answer. Once someone can answer this we might be done "discussing".

Please, self-deetermined arbiter of logic, explain what is illogical about anyone asserting that a business broadening its income streams by offering a larger variety of content in exchange for real currency - thereby accomplishing the stated objective of every business ever - is illogical. Go ahead, I would love to see you try this one.

A business trying to make money is not illogical. You defending it as a consumer when you gain nothing from it besides being able to spend more money on their product and enjoy more advertisement is very illogical.

The only good argument I can come up with is that this way Blizzard makes more profit so they can put out more/better content. But who are we kidding. Like they are not swimming in money right now...
Would also be really hypocritical to think a business whos only purpose is to make more profit will spend your money for your benefit in a 9 year old game.

Because they are a business trying to make money also doesn't mean we need to accept that they are extremely greedy.

[Flower Milk]

Again, it's a corporation, not some trust fund. They take additional revenue after covering overhead and invest it into other projects (not just "pocket" it). Sure, employees may get bonuses, but where do you think the money to make Hearthstone or Titan came from?

And as a corporation, they also try to make as much profit as possible with having to invest as little as possible. Do you really think all of their profit they turn around and invest and never take home any profit at all? They probably invest just enough to where they are near certain they will make a hefty profit from it. This is the basic fundamental of any business.

[Hypro]

I hear SWTOR is a great game that uses the same paymodel as WoW USED to use. =D

SWTOR Is a good game... I play both. The Cartel Coins are a good idea... You get nice vanitey items. Its a company at the end of the day and they need to make money so kudos to them. As a long of people say if you dont want to the items dont buy them. Blizzard isnt saying if you have to buy this item or your account will be banned.... You are the foolish people buying them then complaining because you sent x $ on it

[Flower Milk]

This is the flaw in a lot of people's thinking. Yes, you pay to log on, but as a consumer you're not supposed to TRY and get yourself boned. You're not supposed to bend over and say "here mega-corporation, have your way with me!". You want good value for your money, not for the company to nickle and dime you by putting development time towards things you have to pay extra for instead of towards the things your expensive sub fee is paying for.
And to those ignorant individuals who don't realize 15 bucks a month is a lot of money for a video game, go look on Steam right now, see how much you can get for that same 15bucks. With the money you spend just to be able to log into WoW for a year (not including buying hte game, expansions, or the at times necessary account services), you could buy an entire library of games right now. If you want to argue that WoW and it's measly few patches a year has more content, and content of higher quality, then an entire library of games of your choice from Steam, then you're so poorly informed that you're not even qualified for this simple discussion.
This isn't a game that's struggling to get by, so stop justifying the company making the game a worse deal for you.

So much this, I can't believe anyone would argue that they want to have to pay more money. It is just... odd.

[Pancaspe]

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..

- - - Updated - - -



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

I love this poster!

[Arewn]

I love this poster!

Yea, he's pretty funny, taking the value of 15$ so far out of context.
You want to find out how EXPENSIVE 15 bucks for a video game is in 2013, then like I said earlier in the thread, go on Steam right now and see how much you can get for 15 bucks.
15 bucks can get you a lot more then a month's playtime on WoW.

If you want to argue that you're willing to part with 15bucks a month because it offers you a lot of time worth of entertainment/things to do, then fine that makes sense. But by video game standards, 15 bucks a month is pretty expensive, it's not a good deal for what you are getting (once again, by video game standards), so don't pretend otherwise.
Fight for better deals, don't justify getting ripped off. That's just falling victim to buyer's remorse.

[coldrain]

€12 / $15 for each helm..lmfffff

[Tharkkun]

Player will still have to alt tap to buy in game currency. Real question should be... why should a player that is ALREADY paying a sub then have to add real money into special currency account IF this was about Convenience? You know it has nothing to do with convenience even when you wrote these lines. PPL will STILL have to pay the sub and ppl will STILL have to alt tab.

And the real difference here is EXTRA ingame currency that will be directly connected to real money outside of the game. Thats exactly what Pardo said they were trying to avoid with WOW. But if you can not see the difference... .then I can't help you.

For players who are already interested in the in-game items we offer, such as Pet Store pets and mounts, the benefits of an in-game store are pretty clear. We think everyone would appreciate the convenience of being able to make such purchases without having to leave the game, and ultimately that’s our long-term goal for the system, though there’s quite a bit of work involved in retrofitting those existing items into the new system.

I don't see anything about having to convert currency. This says to me I logon to WoW. Click the button for the in game store and click purchase.

Btw here's Rob Pardo's quote.

Q: Have you considered micro-transactions in WoW?
A: We chose to go with the subscription-based model instead of that approach. We've taken the approach that we want players to feel like it's a level playing field once they're in WoW. Outside resources don't play into it -- no gold buying, etc. We take a hard line stance against it. What you get out of microtransactions is kind of the same thing and I think our player base would feel betrayed by it. I think that's something else you have to decide on up-front instead of implementing later.
Q: But it might make it easier for the casuals to catch up....
A: They aren't going to be the ones spending the money.

Micro transactions for items that have no balance repercussions is not the same as being able to buy all your raid or pvp gear. That was said in 2008 btw, 5 years ago. The MMO world has changed.

[Superchief]

It's not the price, I think I speak for a few people when I say it's the principle of it. It's like hidden fees, or some kind of legal scam. Pay to play the game and then pay some more because the first payment didn't count. I don't care how much it costs, that's bullshit. I'm going back to spending my couple hours a day on Guild Wars 2 or something until a new MMO catches my interest. Why invest any more time into WoW if they will continue behaving like this? Either go free to play or cut the crap! You can't have both a pay to play subscription model AND game store. Cosmetic my ass, last time I checked transmogrification was PART OF THE GAME.

[Tharkkun]

There is extensive gold selling/buying in game, you should be completely blind to not see it. Apart from scammers, there are also people who use cash-shop to sell mounts to other people for gold. Blizzard even tried to make it "easier" by introducing 1 BoE pet. And in-game cash-shop always leads to promotion of gold-selling, directly and indirectly. Gold-buying via cash-shop existed for quite a time.

Sadly, tons of people who are leaving game, can't outweight income which Acti-Blizzard gets from brainwashed people. By buying pet/mount/help/flask/whatever in $$-shop, those people are just supporting them to continue with their foul practices.

Oh and when you will start to make accent on "business" in game, well you are killing game, that's it. Gaming was used to be art, not some cash cow for milking. That quote from Pardo was not the only evidence of Blizzard (pre-Activi$ion) politics, when cash-shop was something entirely unacceptable for WoW. Now it's even gonna become part of in-game UI like in some f2p game. It's just a spit towards already paying customers.

Those are illegal transactions. The only legal transaction is the BOE pet you can buy and sell after what a week or was it 1 day?

The mount purchase is a scam. Buy the mount with a stolen credit card and sell it in game for gold. When the original owner of the card refutes the charges the mount disappears. The gold seller has your gold and has already re-sold it for profit. You lose the mount and cry to Blizzard. Blizzard notes your account but doesn't ban you for being stupid.

With an in game store this whole middle man transaction would disappear. Person buys mount with a stolen credit card and it shows up on their account in game. No typing in a code. No trading it for gold. Scam eliminated.

Blizzard didn't say they would sell gold in this store. Only vanity items. Mounts, pets, transmorg gear. Direct transaction purchases.

[Gilian]

So much this, I can't believe anyone would argue that they want to have to pay more money. It is just... odd.

The only thing I can come up with is that they are paying with mommy's and daddy's creditcard and are buying WoW gold from some botters and hackers and thus are all for buying xp boosts and charms. They don't give a f*ck about the game itself just about their addiction for fast character progression so they can brag to their friends about how many alts/gear/gold they have.

[Wolfheart9]

Without going into an insult phase as most of the other folk here are, it comes down to a few simple facts.

Fact 1) The existence of these items does not in any way shape or form change the balance, state of play, or gameplay for anyone that wants to only pay their monthly fee and nothing more.

Fact 2) Compared to most games, the price for many of the purchasable items are quite high, but again, offer no stats nor advantage over another player.

Fact 3) Blizzard does not have the time nor the manpower to send a person with a gun to every household of every wow player to hold it to their head, and make them buy what's on the store. There is absolutely 0 'forcing' that some people have been claiming.

So where does this leave us? Blizzard has kept their word that they are not putting in anything into the game to buy with real money, that gives a maxed level player an advantage over another maxed level player. Even if they go with the XP boosting potions, this still does not give anyone an advantage that does not already exist (Extra account to do refer a friend ect leveling boosts), and have no effect on a maxed level player.

In the end, the only thing this has done is those who have extra money they wish to give to Blizzard for a silly cosmetic item, can. Those who hate cash shops, are not in any way, shape, or form, effected by it's existence. So can we please stop saying the sky is falling and everything will end, I've played this game since Beta3, I've heard it more times than I can count, and it always leads into a pointless circle of bias accusations and factless claims.

[Grocalis]

So much this, I can't believe anyone would argue that they want to have to pay more money. It is just... odd.

Who is arguing they want to pay more money? Most people here wouldn't likely care if the cash shop vanished.

However, many of us simply don't mind the idea of them putting up cosmetic vanity items for those willing to pay a bit into it. They are not forcing open my wallet with a crowbar, and them selling these items does not take away from the thousands of items I get the regular way in the game.

Even those saying that they are "wasting time" on these items don't seem to understand that more revenue means more money, and more money means higher chances for them to funnel that into the base game for the regular players. There is nothing negative about the cash shop until they start selling pay2win, which is not even on the horizon.

[Gilian]

In the end, the only thing this has done is those who have extra money they wish to give to Blizzard for a silly cosmetic item, can. Those who hate cash shops, are not in any way, shape, or form, effected by it's existence. So can we please stop saying the sky is falling and everything will end, I've played this game since Beta3, I've heard it more times than I can count, and it always leads into a pointless circle of bias accusations and factless claims.

How do people supporting businesses to be greedy not affect me?

Look at youtube advertisements. First there were none, then they added some and now they are forcing it on everyone on every single video. This only happens because people accept it, you know... people saying "I don't care" or "it doesn't affect your enjoyment".

Sure, it won't hurt anyone right now and we can all just not care. But don't come here whining when Titan or the game after that is full of this crap.

This is like people defending DRM etc. on the xbox one. It has no benefits for consumers at all except maybe some prediction coming true that game prices will drop. Sure, then show it to the consumers how they benefit from it. I might buy your product so convince me! I am not going to simply accept everything these companies do just because "it doesn't affect me".

p.s. Not caring is one thing. Defending it is just illogical.

[Dundebuns]

The business model is untenable. You cannot expect to charge a premium subscription and then expect your customers to purchase more on top of that. Buying the game once, then paying for extras (MMO cosmetic cash shop, DLC) is an acceptable business practice. Having yoru customers buy the game, then pay a monthly subscription, and then have a cash shop is extreme. I don't think even EA has gone that far.

[rejer13]

This is going to bite blizzard in the butt in the next game they make. I will never buy a blizzard product again. They are like EA now. only worse.


What happened to blizzard you ask?

They got a disease named Activision.

[Flower Milk]

Who is arguing they want to pay more money? Most people here wouldn't likely care if the cash shop vanished.

However, many of us simply don't mind the idea of them putting up cosmetic vanity items for those willing to pay a bit into it. They are not forcing open my wallet with a crowbar, and them selling these items does not take away from the thousands of items I get the regular way in the game.

Even those saying that they are "wasting time" on these items don't seem to understand that more revenue means more money, and more money means higher chances for them to funnel that into the base game for the regular players. There is nothing negative about the cash shop until they start selling pay2win, which is not even on the horizon.

But they have proven that they can give us transmog items for the price of our subscription or expansion price, via Challenge Mode armor. Why not do that instead of charging extra?