Is Wow now a game for the wealthy?

[Deleted]

Ive been thinking this for a while but never bought it up but what with the new announcement that players can now buy a lev90 for $60 i think its time to address what could be a serious accusation at Wow... Has Wow become a game for the wealthy?

Obviously the first significant cost is the sub fee itself and on top of that there now exists a plethora of services and extras which all cost more money. And its open to debate at just how much these extras effect gameplay, how necessary are they for modern Wow gameplay?

Basically speaking compared to every other MMO out there the costs involved to play Wow both smoothly and competitively is looking more and more that u need to have very deep pockets to do so. Obviously anyone can play Wow without spending extra cash but u must be lucky enough to have rolled on a busy realm and if u want to have the same stuff as a coiner u must be prepared to put in much more time and effort. The coiners will get all the newest and coolest sparkly stuff which the store carries and is not available in-game.

In the early days the only charge was the sub fee and that meant that everyone was on a level playing field as every player spent exactly the same on the game. And anything cool that a player had to show off was equally available to every other player to go out and get it... Now guys with deeper pockets can buy all the latest and coolest stuff from the store, realm xfer/faction change/race change/name change at their leisure, and now they can boost a catalogue of toons to top level. There is a significant difference between the wealthy guys game experience and the poorest players game experience.

Ive heard many times on Wow forums the opinion that removing sub fees will somehow mean that Wow will attract asshat players but the truth is that there is absolutely zero evidence to support this. Are people really saying that poor gamers are nastier individuals than wealthy ones? That somehow richer players are nicer people to play with?

After playing alot of free MMOs i did not find them 'infested with asshats', in fact i would say the total opposite, their communities were all very friendly.

Maybe its just me but it does appear that most players who are still playing Wow are all spending alot of money, have all the poor players left the building already?

[Fathr]

Nope it isnt. Its an option for those that are lazy and can afford it. If you are neither you dont have to buy it.

[Deleted]

Yeah you're totally forced to buy your characters now instead of leveling them yourself.

Wow is only for the rich people now, its a conspiracy!

[Deleted]

I sit in my castle and laugh at everybody who cant afford to play WoW.

[Underverse]

Those with money but little time can now partake in endgame content more frequently. I don't see a problem here, at least not yet.

[enragedgorilla]

Keeping the sub fee the same as it has been since...day one... while still finding ways to grow their income year to year.
If anything , I would say that the "cash shop, "extras" Blizz has put into the game has kept the "less financially advantaged" playing the game thanks to those players who have the $$ willingly paying more to keep the coffers flowing with $$

No , to the og Question

[Chireru93]

the ONLY thing you need to pay is the box cost and $15 a month sub fee.

character transfers and remodelling do not in any way shape or form affect your progression in both pve in pvp (I guess you could go human for pvp, but there's plenty of skilled non-humans in high rankings).

also, if you don't want to buy a 90, level a character to 90. the buy a 90 feature, as I can imagine, isn't meant to be used to get an instant 90 of every class, rather to be used sparingly. I might use it once, mayyybe twice, in total I'd imagine after I use my free one from my WoD preorder. sure, if you're wealthy then you have it easier, but it's not hard to level a toon to 90 just tedious.

Edit: I'd also like to add, that every single mmo that started out with a sub fee and gone F2P (RIFT and ToR come to mind), had amazing content releases while the sub fee was active yet after it went F2P content has been far more scarce. Still amazing, but not a new patch every 2 months or so if I remember right with RIFT. While there is no evidence to support only "asshats" are attracted to F2P mmos, there is evidence to support that the quality of a F2P mmo is generally lower than that of a sub-based one.

Also, when did $15 a month become "wealthy"?

[Vargur]

It's P2W for FOTM classes for high progressed guilds - if you don't already have such a character. Time is progress for such guilds, so saving time is essential.

[Cafua]

So I'm not the poorest person in the world and I'm definitely. I work 40 hours a week while my girlfriend goes to school and fortunately were lucky enough to still be living with our parents. (In our early 20's). But if you have a job and work 20+ hours a week you can afford WoW. It honestly is all up to you if you want to spend more money that the sub. You can do everything in game without spending money, besides the store mounts and pets, which don't really matter too much to me because there are much cooler in game mounts. Idk as long as your having fun it shouldn't really matter what everyone else is doing/buying. Honestly you really don't NEED to roll on a high pop server because if you play your cards right you can farm everything you need so the AH doesn't matter. But to answer your question, 15$ a month + the initial cost of the game is not expensive, and to be honest the other services aren't either if you make a weekly/bi weekly income.

[Unproven]

And dont forget, they increased the monthly sub from 13$ to 13$.
Also a huge increase, which makes the game even more only for the wealthy.

holi shait, when did they do that?
ive gotta take another part time job to be able to pay that man..

OT: No, wow might have gotten more for the LAZYies with money..
nothing else changed (as of yet)

[Canderous1]

all that is required to play WoW at any level of competitiveness is 13.99 per month. or whatever plan you take.

the rest is fluff.

[Roamingstorm]

Here's the thing...

"Basically speaking compared to every other MMO out there the costs involved to play Wow both smoothly and competitively is looking more and more that u need to have very deep pockets to do so."

In nearly MMO I've played ranging from Star Wars Galaxies, to Star Wars the Old Republic there has been at one point or another something in the game to buy something. Whether it be a mount, something to change the look of your character, or even currency/XP boosts.

"Ive heard many times on Wow forums the opinion that removing sub fees will somehow mean that Wow will attract asshat players but the truth is that there is absolutely zero evidence to support this. Are people really saying that poor gamers are nastier individuals than wealthy ones? That somehow richer players are nicer people to play with?"

Yet again, in my experience of playing MMOs, including F2P ones, such as SWTOR, which I played when it first started and still dabble with it from time to time. When that game went free to play you have to pay for even adding ACTION BARS. Let me say that again...You have to pay for ACTION BARS. The game pretty much is like a group of friends peer pressuring you into subbing to the game to open up just basic things for the game, that's not including the XP bonsues, transmog armor, vehicles, ships. etc.

Also assuming the community is going to be better is not true at all, but it's not to say that the game will be worse though, F2P and Sub based games communities are still incredibly similar, with the only MMO to actually have a decent player base has been EVE, but that's been years since I've played that.

I don't find it in the game that anyone has any advantage over anyone else depending on their financial situations in real life. There is no game breaking thing to buy. Obviously if they started selling a current raid tier or PvP armor then yes, there's every right to start raising an eyebrow and questioning what in the world Blizzard is doing, but that hasn't happened.

[Dukenukem]

Those with money but little time can now partake in endgame content more frequently. I don't see a problem here, at least not yet.

Well, its not max lvl so it impacts nothing.
And powerleveling from chinese is cheaper and you get lot of Gold (actual leveling will yeld about 10k) and gear (basic LFR ready char) AND its for max lvevel

[Deleted]

Not sure laziness can be attributed to wanting an instant 90. It's a game, not life and if you don't enjoy something, you're not lazy wanting to pay to skip it to get to the stuff that matters.

WoW has never increased it's sub charges. A decade of inflation means the sub fee is worth a lot less now than it was in 2004. They develop purchaseable items and services (realm transfers not withstanding, always a rip off even when inflation was not a factor on the sub fee) rather than increase the sub fee.

I'd prefer a sub fee increase. I don't want development time spent on shit I can't use that takes away time from shit I can. Having free to play elements in a subscription based game is just fraught with ethical dilemmas that Blizzard are really touching upon with the frequency of new pay mounts and the transmog helms.

[Immitis]

And its open to debate at just how much these extras effect gameplay, how necessary are they for modern Wow gameplay?

the red mounts go fasta!

[Laerrus]

There's still plenty of lower class to middle class people that play this game, I am one of them.

There's the one option that Yoda mentioned above and it would also be useful for raiding guilds that need a specific class for an encounter and need to save time by skipping the first 90 levels.

Other than that, I don't see how it is going to change the game.

[enragedgorilla]

It's P2W for FOTM classes for high progressed guilds - if you don't already have such a character. Time is progress for such guilds, so saving time is essential.

Save for the fact that High Progressed guilds have already had current content on farm since...way before this "service" was introduced.
Small point that makes a big difference I would think.

[Deleted]

Nope it isnt. Its an option for those that are lazy and can afford it. If you are neither you dont have to buy it.

Lazy or just prefer to have fun in their free time instead doing something mindnumbingly boring? I'm a bit ashamed to admit that I do have 10 level 90 characters and most of the time I haven't enjoyed leveling them. I do like to be able to play different classes at maximum level though, so that has given me a motivation to grind them up. Also lazy people are more likely to be poor too .

[Wezmon]

Considering the sub price has never gone up, it actually gets cheaper to play every year in real terms due to inflation. In the UK for example the price should now be over £12 instead of the £9

[Elite Peon]

If 60$ means you are wealthy then I feel very very sorry for you........