The store is becoming obnoxious.

[wych]

So you're lowering yourself to their level. It does nothing for your credibility and it makes you look like you easily take argument bait.

Oh well, this has nothing to do with the thread at hand anyway, so let's leave it there

[Deja Thoris]

Who are you? Oh, yeah, the paperclip guy. If you can see your underfelt you need new carpet.

Reading comprehension. You were so anxious to wittily troll me you inadvertently looked stupid(er)

[IIamaKing]

First one during Wrath.
If people felt as strongly as they make out, then they should have left the game YEARS ago.
Back up your words with actions, leave the game, leave feedback for blizzard and shut up.
Anyone making so much noise about the store but continuing to play is simply a liar.
It is not going away, accept it, grow up and shut up or leave.

Well there are a few million less subs now than there was back in Wrath. I know I no longer sub in part because of them selling other items for cash.

[Rindrae]

Fanboys are gonna fanboy. You'll always have your drones who think that the company can do absolutely no wrong. But in this case while it may seem that the game is headed in a p2w direction it thankfully hasn't. That could change, and the day it does, you are free to cancel your account like I'm sure many people will.

[Pann]

Reading comprehension. You were so anxious to wittily troll me you inadvertently looked stupid(er)

I am sorry. I don't understand what you mean, I guess that comes down to reading comprehension, or something. I can, however, feel some sympathy that you live in place that has threadbare carpets and I can understand that this makes you angry. Anyways do you have anything to add to the thread? Personally I think the OP is overreacting a little but he does have point about stores in a sub based game.

[RoKPaNda]

Eventually WoW will go F2P, but that's a long long way off. F2P with microtransactions can make them a lot of cash in the short term, but in the long term with their current subscriber base, or even 2/3 of their current subscriber base, they make more money being a subscription based game. Of course they seem to be making the most money by having subs AND microtransactions. The amount of people that I saw in-game last week with the cosmetic helms during the sale was ridiculous.

[Mental Surge]

I honestly dont see a problem with it as it is right now. In fact I honestly don't really know how you could have a problem with it as it is right now. It's perfectly fine.

[arcaneshot]

Oh well, this has nothing to do with the thread at hand anyway, so let's leave it there

I'm sure you could've saved everyone a lot of trouble if you recognized that before you made it about yourself instead of announcing that you're leaving the post in an attempt to 'end' it.

[Deleted]

I've always hated the idea of microtransactions in a game that you've already bought, you're paying a sub for AND that provides you with minimal content updates.

It definitely won't go F2P, because there will always be people willing to pay an extortionate sub to access only half the content, and people willing to pay a sub + the content they're not given. As sad as it is, we see them here, defending being shat on by a company that's sucking their money out of them. I was actually considering returning for WoD, but the rise of the shitty store made that decision for me.

[LilSaihah]

I honestly dont see a problem with it as it is right now. In fact I honestly don't really know how you could have a problem with it as it is right now. It's perfectly fine.

WoW triple dips; it demands (high) box prices, a subscription fee, and has cash shop services.

Most other MMOs on the market don't do this. Of the ones I know, GW2 only asks the initial box price and has cash shop services; no sub fee. SWTOR doesn't have a box price and has an optional sub.

For a product that's not so much ahead of its competitors and is behind them in some places, it's asking a heck of a lot. If it were any other game on the market, it would be deader than disco, and the only reason it can get away with its model is because of its massive inertia from the WotLK days.

[Adlian]

Fully agree with the video and sadly Blizzard are trying to squeeze every possible $ from the game and not realizing that they are killing the game...

[Stonecloak]

Their milking the compulsive consumers, and will continue because it sells.

[Louis CK]

With the recent appearance of the ravager and fiery horse store mounts (well, presumably), that brings the total number of mounts available for purchase to 9, not including their various other promotions (Digital Deluxe editions, SoR, Recruit-a-Friend, etc). This isn't really that big of deal, but it seems like they've started adding mounts A LOT more frequently lately.

Besides mounts and pets, they started adding more and more additional things to the shop. The transmog helms (which were and are way overpriced), the experience elixir and charm bag (for Asia only), and the Boost to 90. Plus, the store has become far more prominent and in-your-face - look at the addition of the in-game shop as well as the button allowing you to buy things on the character select screen.

I don't think of the items on the store have crossed the line into pay-to-win territory, but I feel like they could end up there. Even if every item is entirely cosmetic, it feels like they're starting to spend far more time and resources on store items compared to things available in-game. Compare the Iron Skyreaver and the Fey Dragon to the other mounts added in 5.4. The Sky Golem holds up, but the Galakras mount, the Kor'kron Wolf, and the Juggernaut all seem lackluster by comparison.



This makes me wonder, why is Blizzard stepping up their game with regards to the store? A few months back, they were even establishing a "Microtransaction Strategy" unit, hiring some new people for it. Obviously, with the introduction of Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard is entering the free-to-play market. Do you think they could ever push WoW in that direction? Blizzard already makes a big chunk from the store alone (213 million in 2013 - League of Legends made 624 million, meanings WoW's cash shop makes more than a third of League's total revenue).

Tons of games have seen success after making the switch, and while WoW still dominates the sub market, it's in a decline. Once it slips a bit more, wouldn't it seem like a good idea to go free-to-play? It has the potential to reinvigorate the game. I'm sure there's tons of potentially or formerly interested players who just can't justify the sub fee when compared to games like League of Legends, but would love to play, and quite probably pay for things like cosmetic microtransactions.

I never even notice the store's existence, but now that you've made this thread, posting all this new information, I now hate the store, too. In fact, instead of posting in one of the dozen threads about how much people hate the store, I'm going to make my OWN thread about it!

Thank you for bringing this to my attention, OP. I'm sure your mother is a very nice person.

Just watched that video... Well, some of it. Dude was annoying as shit.

[BurningSkies2018]

Poor OP, you never ever disagree with wow shit on a site like this, 98% of the replies are going to disagree with you (even if your points are rather valid.) Prepare for the shit storm of "if you don't like it don't buy it" and miss the point of your post completely. Duck for cover OP, and save yourself.

[Dasani]

I agree with the OP really. It is quite irksome they added a button to access the store in the default UI while playing and it also pretty annoying they added a store button to character selection screen as well. They want it in your face as much as they can and it'll only get worse as time goes by.

But what can you do? Greedy bastards have been making more and more "premium" content that you have to buy separate for a long time now and it will never stop until the company dies in a fire, which I doubt will be for a very long time. I don't mind the whole model with having extra crap you pay for, but having a monthly sub in addition to additional content and so on is extremely, as the OP puts it, obnoxious. It's like they want the supplemental income of the Freemium style of microtransactions but they don't want to give up their monthly subs to do it. They are sorry SOBs imo. I think if you gotta pay monthly for a game, you should have access to all the content in it. Especially when every 2 years they shit out another expansion you have to buy again at full retail price of any other new game release.

But i'm an old school MMO'er. Back in older games you had expansions now and then, but once you bought the shit you had access to everything, they didn't nickel and dime you with microtransations and in game stores and so on. I really, really hate the way this industry is going.

[Stonecloak]

I agree with the OP really. It is quite irksome they added a button to access the store in the default UI while playing and it also pretty annoying they added a store button to character selection screen as well. They want it in your face as much as they can and it'll only get worse as time goes by.

But what can you do? Greedy bastards have been making more and more "premium" content that you have to buy separate for a long time now and it will never stop until the company dies in a fire, which I doubt will be for a very long time. I don't mind the whole model with having extra crap you pay for, but having a monthly sub in addition to additional content and so on is extremely, as the OP puts it, obnoxious. It's like they want the supplemental income of the Freemium style of microtransactions but they don't want to give up their monthly subs to do it. They are sorry SOBs imo. I think if you gotta pay monthly for a game, you should have access to all the content in it. Especially when every 2 years they shit out another expansion you have to buy again at full retail price of any other new game release.

But i'm an old school MMO'er. Back in older games you had expansions now and then, but once you bought the shit you had access to everything, they didn't nickel and dime you with microtransations and in game stores and so on. I really, really hate the way this industry is going.

At this point their digging themselves a hole. Either they want wow to go FTP quicker by losing subs or they just don't care and are trying to keep stocks up. It's obvious the store mounts are the best looking in the expansion. One mount a year should have been the limit.

[Louis CK]

At this point their digging themselves a hole. Either they want wow to go FTP quicker by losing subs or they just don't care and are trying to keep stocks up. It's obvious the store mounts are the best looking in the expansion. One mount a year should have been the limit.

I honestly don't like any of the store mounts, and the fact that there are dozens of people sitting on them every time a new one is released makes me like them even less.

If people like them and want to buy them, more power to them, but it has no effect on me whatsoever.

[Mental Surge]

WoW triple dips; it demands (high) box prices, a subscription fee, and has cash shop services.

Most other MMOs on the market don't do this. Of the ones I know, GW2 only asks the initial box price and has cash shop services; no sub fee. SWTOR doesn't have a box price and has an optional sub.

For a product that's not so much ahead of its competitors and is behind them in some places, it's asking a heck of a lot. If it were any other game on the market, it would be deader than disco, and the only reason it can get away with its model is because of its massive inertia from the WotLK days.

So? The shop is a completely optional service. It's not asking for anything. If we were talking about items that help you at max level then I could see the hate against 'pay to win', but purely cosmetic items? I don't see a problem with that. That being said though, Blizzard could still do a lot more I think for the playerbase without them having to use additional services. You know.. ADDING CONENT every few months.

[LilSaihah]

So? The shop is a completely optional service. It's not asking for anything. If we were talking about items that help you at max level then I could see the hate against 'pay to win', but purely cosmetic items? I don't see a problem with that. That being said though, Blizzard could still do a lot more I think for the playerbase without them having to use additional services. You know.. ADDING CONENT every few months.

The shop is an optional service in SWTOR and GW2, too.

[Stonecloak]

I honestly don't like any of the store mounts, and the fact that there are dozens of people sitting on them every time a new one is released makes me like them even less.

If people like them and want to buy them, more power to them, but it has no effect on me whatsoever.

It kind of does have an effect on everyone. I'm not saying it has to bother you, but when the store mounts are the best looking and easiest to get if you pony up cash. Then it will continue in this direction for everything, not only mounts. In a sub game I don't think it's merited to also have a growing store with the best looking items. It really is double dipping at this point.