Players with store helmets being kicked out of LFR and LFG

[Yarathir]

We should compile a new dictionary of terms.

Exploitation: A transaction in which the buyer and seller are both happy with what they got
Unethical: Companies rolling out new product lines for new revenue streams
Broken Unspoken Promise: Divergence from however you've decided in your head that the world should work

I think I love you now. Ha-ha-ha. Nailed it.

[zephid]

We need people to spam this on official US forums and ask for explanation of current changes.

"We've taken the approach that we want players to feel like it's a level playing field once they're in WoW."

Everything in that statement is still true. Yes, Blizzard has implemented a cash shop, but the items you buy have no impact on gameplay. You get no advantage what so ever if you choose to spend money on stuff in their store. That is what's important.

[Lime]

I wonder how tonight will I go when I take my 526 DK wearing a cosmetic helm through LFR for VP, gold, and Secrets.

Please report back with the results.

[Thage]

It's resourceful of them.

It's being a sociopath. You're fucking up the gameplay of people because they had the audacity to buy something? How in the hell does this make sense unless you totally discount the fact that these people are not paying a monthly fee for you to take out your issues with Blizzard on them?

[prwraith]

I'm all for people removing people who buy these helms. If they're upset about it and blizzard didn't back down. This is the next best way to demonstrate just how much it annoys them. It's fairly harmless, and gets the point across succinctly.

[Manhands]

I bet someone was mocked for having a helm and was an absolute ass in return.

They were kicked for being an ass, not for the helm.

[ZeroEdgeir]

Go ahead and kick me cause I bought all the Blizzard store mounts and pets then too. Kick me cause I bought dummy accounts to get the Refer-a-Friend mounts. Cause like the helmets, they do NOTHING.

People are just absolutely sad. "It looks awesome, but I don't wanna pay for it, so I will make anyone else with it miserable". Grow. The Hell. Up. Oh wait, it's the internet, that is impossible.

[Hughes]

hmm... so kicking someone out of a group in a game is like kicking someone in real life for talking to the police. Great to see you get the point where it is a game.

Hope you still get it that WOW is a subscription based game and there are and probably will be for quite some time... ppl that will not want to see ingame store in their subscription game.

Items in the in-game store are not required to enjoy the game. Everything (including mounts) is for cosmetic purposes that players are well within their right to purchase (or not). You're not proving your point very well, and like some people, believe that you speak for a good portion of the WoW community.

[shanthi]

No sir, I most definitely do not support the Blizzard cash shop. Oh wait, you didn't include cash shop in your quote. Blizzard is trying to sell two separate services. "Double dipping" is the correct term. One service being monthly access to the game and its servers and content updates which has been the norm since WoW's inception. NOW, the second service which has reared its ugly head is the cash shop and its ridiculously overpriced products for use in their other service.

My local movie theater "double dips" (I like using super technical business terms) too. They used to be all about the movies, but then they started selling snacks like popcorn and soda and candy. And do you really think they're NOT using my movie ticket money to fund that little cash store on the side? LOL. And now they're selling pizza. The greed never ends. We already pay for your stupid movies, STOP exploiting us with a cash store that has overpriced snacks.

[MasterHamster]

Blizzard makes sells gear = business is good
Players chastise those who support this practice = bad business
Blizzard does not repeat the offense.
It's resourceful of them.

How the fuck is it retaliation against the principle by attacking a person and not the practice.
Cancel your goddamn account and state "cosmetic items makes me rage" in the "Reason" box. Then perhaps you might do a difference.

[ZenX]

Think I'll leave this hear too.

"For instance, did you know that WoW's servers (presumably for the North American market, though it's vague) are comprised of approximately 20,000 computers running 75,000 CPU cores and possessing a combined 1.3 petabytes of data? These servers run through 5.5 million lines of code almost all day, every day, with a maintenance cost of $136,986 per day - and that's just on the hardware side of things! When you add salaries for technicians and the hundreds of in-house customer support agents, the financial cost of WoW is simply staggering."

Did some basic math, over $4 mil per month to maintain. That doesn't include the people working for the company.

Source: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/foru...ly-Big-Numbers


I can't blame them for wanting to make money with items players want (that does NOT affect game play).

...and before someone tries to go ahead and call-out "But server-operating costs are really cheaper nowadays", let me note that it is for enterprises as instead of having to lease the resources of a complete server-blade for only $2000/month you get to do it for around $800 now. It is a tremendous reduction in the cost for someone who operates a thousand of these for their business in only a relative perspective. By the way, cost does not get reduced due to servicing costs but rather due equipment costs as in over a price drop of $1000 only $100 of it is on the service side.

[Deleted]

Who'd have known? Players in LFR/LFD have the intelligence of a brick. (sorry for the insult, brick)
And I dont mean that as an insult to everyone, but really, there are people...

[Hipnos14]

*sigh* This is getting really boring. The idea that they would have made these things anyway, even if there were no store, and just given them out for free (i.e. included in the sub fee) is simply random speculation and probably not even plausible speculation. It's like saying that if bookstores didn't exist, Blizzard would still have commissioned the WoW novels and just given them to subscribers for free.

Unless you can meaningfully demonstrate that Blizzard gives subscribers less in-game content than they did before the store existed, you have no leg to stand on in claiming that they're "diverting resources" from what they used to spend on subscriber content.

Every model in the shop is one less model "free" in the game, that is a fact, you have an artist working on one thing instead on other thing, it doesn't need to be exactly a mount or a pet, may be a boss model, npc model, weapon model, so yeah...

[Nerraw]

issues such as the premium fee for battle.net cross realm grouping.

What the hell are you talking about?

[ComputerNerd]

So you complain to blizzard using flawed and arrogant arguments, and blizzard quite rightfully choose to ignore them.
You throw a tantrum and take your anger out on innocent players so you can make yourself feel better.
You are nothing but a bully if you kick someone for that reason.

[Skorpionss]

Tbh I wasn't against the pet store back when it sold pets and mounts only... but adding gear that could have been very well obtainable via a prestigious achievement or a nice quest line or anything ingame even if just BMAH... seems cheap to me if I wanted to buy items that make me look cool(which is down to personal opinion)with $$ I'd play a free 2 play game. I'm playing WoW because I want the chance to obtain all items by in game means even if they are only cosmetical items and very hard to obtain...

I wouldn't even mind if it was a combination like: either spend a few weeks ingame obtaining the item or buy it from the cash shop. I am outraged by the fact that as a customer that has payed for around 7 years of subscription I don't have a chance of obtaining this item ingame whitout spending aditional cash.

If they go down this route even further(p2p+cash shop) I will have no reason to play wow anymore(considering you can obtain items from cash shop even by ingame means in some f2p games such as eudemons online), I can just read up about lore and stuff on MMO-C and wowpedia and not care about playing anymore.

As to be on topic: The guys doing all the kicking are pricks that have no place in an MMO in my opinion. IF they don't like the decisions blizz is making Unsub and put the actual reason you unsubbed for.

[Frogged]

They had no part in the item's creation or Blizz's decision to sell it.

I haven't been kicking people for wearing the new store helmets, but I think it's worth pointing out that someone who buys them does contribute to Blizzard's decision to sell them. If 0 people bought the helmet, Blizzard would never sell one again.

[Yarathir]

I'm all for people removing people who buy these helms. If they're upset about it and blizzard didn't back down. This is the next best way to demonstrate just how much it annoys them. It's fairly harmless, and gets the point across succinctly.

What point? That you can't protest against something without hindering others in the process and lowering yourself to beneath childish level? That point was surely proven, yes.



As if Blizzard will be any more inclined to listen to people who can't even protest maturely.

[Duster505]

"We've taken the approach that we want players to feel like it's a level playing field once they're in WoW."

Everything in that statement is still true. Yes, Blizzard has implemented a cash shop, but the items you buy have no impact on gameplay. You get no advantage what so ever if you choose to spend money on stuff in their store. That is what's important.

So .. if it isn't impacting gameplay... how is a person that wants those helmets supposed to get them through gameplay? And gameplay is not just about stats. Specially in a RPG social game. That has been the the case in WOW for now... 9 years... These are the first items that directly affects player look. Its different than pets and mounts. You can say it isn't... but it still is.

[shanthi]

I bet someone was mocked for having a helm and was an absolute ass in return.

They were kicked for being an ass, not for the helm.

Have we now progressed to the fan-fiction stage of this rage revolution fantasy?

Please advise.