Cross-Realm Dungeon Feature Coming Soon

[drakonblayde]

You're lumping content and service into the same cateogory. They're two completely different things.

Not from a business standpoint. If you can hold something back, and sell it as an add-on to increase your revenue stream, you probably want to do it. It's bad business not to. You have to walk the tight rope between giving too much away, giving too little, or leave folks just hungry enough for more.

If you think Bioware would be shortsighted enough to release new service features to SW:TOR and charge players to use them, you're really speculating. As far as I know WoW is the first P2P game I've ever heard of that charged for additional service features on top of base content.

I think you're assuming that Bioware still has a choice in the matter. If they develop extra functionality, of whatever manner, and big daddy EA tells them to sell it as opposed to just patching it in, what are they going to say? No?

Game companies are in business to make money. Stringing people along with hopes and promises of a better tomorrow or a bigger better thing is a time honored way of seperating people from their cash. It doesn't matter what the intentions of the developers are, and what they want to do, not unless they're funding it entirely themselves. When the landslide starts, it's too late for the pebbles to vote.

[Frostburn]

And Activision rears its ugly head...

[retpally]

I call bullshit.

[Kaeleena]

Not from a business standpoint. If you can hold something back, and sell it as an add-on to increase your revenue stream, you probably want to do it. It's bad business not to. You have to walk the tight rope between giving too much away, giving too little, or leave folks just hungry enough for more.

I think you're assuming that Bioware still has a choice in the matter. If they develop extra functionality, of whatever manner, and big daddy EA tells them to sell it as opposed to just patching it in, what are they going to say? No?

Game companies are in business to make money. Stringing people along with hopes and promises of a better tomorrow or a bigger better thing is a time honored way of seperating people from their cash. It doesn't matter what the intentions of the developers are, and what they want to do, not unless they're funding it entirely themselves. When the landslide starts, it's too late for the pebbles to vote.

I would hope to god if EA did that to Bioware, Bioware would have the sense to up and walk away from the game just as Mythic basically did with Warhammer, but Blizzard's official company stance until they merged with Activision was that they would only charge you for content and maintenance and felt that paying for additional service "perks" wasn't fair to the community as a whole. It's unfortunately but it seems that they've strayed from alot of their core principles since their acquisition by Vivendi and subsequent merger with Activision.

[phuzi0n]

All of Blizzards paid services are money grubbing. There's absolutely no reason that monthly fees and 3 expansions shouldn't have already included the feature to play with friends from any server in any instance. When you meet new people IRL that play the game, you still can't play with them because they're on a different server. Blizzard benefits by having people socialize (more socializing = more likely to keep paying monthly fees) yet they're going to charge for the feature. This is pure bullshit and even the janitors at Blizzard know it.

[Devlin-]

Don't know if it has been mentioned already...but it clearly states "certain elements of", but it doesn't say that the service itself will be a premium. I guess that's what I get for going to law school, where every comma and word is dissected more than frogs in high school.

Dissecting sentences means squat if you don't even know what the big picture is. Should know that as well from law school.

To me it seems they are milking this as hard as they can. "Titan" is on the horizon, and with the decline in subscribers to WoW I can see how it makes sense. But it really f-ing hurts me as a player and as a fan of the company. My perception of Blizzard has changed dramatically since Vanilla, and while some things are better, overall it's been a drop.

Here's hoping: They could always do a reversed bait-and-switch kind of strategy here though, where they drop a complete (to the players) nonsensical feature, such like this premium thing, and then switch to side with the fanbase to gain instant loyalty from the very people they are messing with.

But premium in-game services are coming. Seems to be sooner rather than later.

[Frostburn]

I would hope to god if EA did that to Bioware, Bioware would have the sense to up and walk away from the game just as Mythic basically did with Warhammer, but Blizzard's official company stance until they merged with Activision was that they would only charge you for content and maintenance and felt that paying for additional service "perks" wasn't fair to the community as a whole. It's unfortunately but it seems that they've strayed from alot of their core principles since their acquisition by Vivendi and subsequent merger with Activision.

Mythic had no sense anyway, they ruined everything they touched. They had such a great game (Daoc) ruined it so quickly by not listening to what the players wanted. Loss players, continued not to change, continued to lose players and now its like 1,000 people who play it.

I thank god that GW2 and SWTOR are coming out, Blizzard has lost me permanently as a customer and I refuse to buy D3 or ever come back to WoW.

[Mistrblank]

Eff you Activision. This is a HUGE feature that your customer base would love and come back for, but you require MORE money. Haven't we paid you enough?

Go to hell, I'm quitting after this xpac wraps.

Guess who will have my attention. Guild Wars 2, where they'll be including this feature right away. Guess how much I'll have to pay each month for the privilege. $0. When I get bored with the game, I won't feel guilty not continuing on later either because it only cost me a one time buy in.

[Kaeleena]

Mythic had no sense anyway, they ruined everything they touched. They had such a great game (Daoc) ruined it so quickly by not listening to what the players wanted. Loss players, continued not to change, continued to lose players and now its like 1,000 people who play it.

EA destroyed DAoC just like they destroyed Warhammer and while Mythic's name might still be on both of them, if you look closer you'll see that EA is running the show(with subsidiaries like Bioware still pushing content for them).

[Frostburn]

EA destroyed DoAC just like they destroyed Warhammer and while Mythic's name might still be on both of them, if you look closer you'll see that EA is running the show(with subsidiaries like Bioware still pushing content for them).

Mythic is also to blame they are not shielded from it. They gave false promises as much as EA does. EA has never been a good company either but they're somewhat better then Activision. Activision has betrayed everyone they helped them in pursuit of money, honestly Blizzard needs to get out right now if they want to save their reputation. Continue to work with Activision will only lead to World of Warcraft: Black Ops.

[drakonblayde]

Implementation of that technology costs money, which comes from your monthly subscription fee. Maintenance of that technology once implemented is cheap. If maintenance fees have exceeded subscription fee, they should raise the subscription price, but it hasn't and the fact is that you can't play with all your friends right now without paying, and this is just another way for them to get money out of you. The next thing you know they'll be charging RL currency to respec, regem, reenchant, and maybe they'll go down the path Allods went and charge you to remove rez sickness everytime you die. It's a slippery slope.

Edit: Remember, all of those things are a "convenience". Why shouldn't they charge you a convenience fee for all of them?

Rezzing when you're dead is not a convenience. It is mandatory to continue playing the game. If you can't get you character back to combat readiness, you have no reason to play the game, hence you have no reason t give them money. That makes it a necessity.

Respec, regem, reenchant.... you already do pay them RL currency for that. It's part of your monthly subscription fee. What you're not recognizing is that those functions allow them to essentially infinitely recycle the same content with very little overhead. In essence, it allows them to sell you the same thing over and over again as microconsumption, instead of requiring you to go full consumption. Take for example if you wanted to play an Arms warrior, and you were a Fury warrior. If you couldn't respec, you'd have to start over from scratch. People aren't going to put up with that kind of thing, and they'd quit, hence you'd lose your revenue stream. Letting people respec keeps them interested, and therefore, PAYING. Regem and Reenchant - those require either money, or a time investment in order to make use of. the money in and of itself is a time investment. Your in game money/materials costs your time. In order for you to have that time in game, you have to pay real money. The more time you decide to spend in game (relatively speaking, obviously blizzard would be perfectly happy to take your subscription fee and not have you login), the more money Blizzard makes.

Some things you do because you have to keep the lights on. Those are your basic services and conveniences. Sometimes they add to those, because to not do so would be to risk hurting your revenue stream. Take dual spec for example. The frustration with being confined to one spec in a game where multiple roles are needed for success boiled up to a point where it was an issue of contention. Blizzard could have tried to make that a premium service, and it would have blown up in their faces (after all, for hybrid classes, the ability to dual spec is a MAJOR advantage over those who can't). They knew this.

Things like faction changes, and realm changes didn't come about until several years into development. By then, everyone had accepted that was just the way things were - you rolled horde, you stayed horde. You rolled on Arthas, you stayed on Arthas, unless you wanted to start over. So when these paid services came available, people thank them for it!

Now we fast forward a bit. Now people have gotten complacent and demanding. It is now a GOD GIVEN RIGHT to be able to group with my friends, whatever realm they may be on!

This is a far cry from the days when you were confined to your own server for groups, AND players had to take the initiative to form their own groups! All of these services have been provided as part of your base subscription fee.

Given all of the services they have added to the life of the game, I'm honestly surprised Blizzard hasn't raised the subscription fee. I certainly would have.

I honestly think they're being somewhat benevolent in NOT forcing everyone to take a price increase for every added new feature, and relegating some stuff to premium service. It's a money grab, no doubt, they see a chance for profit at very little expense (because let's be honest, they'll use this technology for other games besides this one, the development will be done one way or another, but they can monetize it now). By relegating it a premium service instead of forcing a subscription price increase, they're basically limiting the cost increase to people who are willing to be taken advantage of. I don't know of many companies that would be that kind.

[Kaeleena]

Mythic is also to blame they are not shielded from it. They gave false promises as much as EA does. EA has never been a good company either but they're somewhat better then Activision. Activision has betrayed everyone they helped them in pursuit of money, honestly Blizzard needs to get out right now if they want to save their reputation. Continue to work with Activision will only lead to World of Warcraft: Black Ops.

Blizzard can't get out. Activision and Blizzard have been merged into one company now with Vivendi as the majority stockholder. For better or worse, they're not stuck with each other for the long haul.

[Frostburn]

Blizzard can't get out. Activision and Blizzard have been merged into one company now with Vivendi as the majority stockholder. For better or worse, they're not stuck with each other for the long haul.

I expect some people at Blizzard to branch out and go and start a new company any time soon after they see how bad it will get.

[drakonblayde]

I would hope to god if EA did that to Bioware, Bioware would have the sense to up and walk away from the game just as Mythic basically did with Warhammer, but Blizzard's official company stance until they merged with Activision was that they would only charge you for content and maintenance and felt that paying for additional service "perks" wasn't fair to the community as a whole. It's unfortunately but it seems that they've strayed from alot of their core principles since their acquisition by Vivendi and subsequent merger with Activision.

sure, so would I. Except that I live in the real world, and need to pay my bills.

Bioware doesn't have the choice to walk away from EA. They're a wholly owned subsidiary. The individual members of the Bioware team could certain say screw it and leave, and maybe even go out on their own and do something else (go ask those nice gentlemen who left their big conglomerate companies to make games like Hellgate London and Vanguard how well that worked out).

So while I fully agree that the world would be a better place if folks stood up to their corporate overlords and said no, history has shown that's a pretty rare occurrence. This world runs on enlightened self interest, not noble ideas.

[Kaeleena]

I expect some people at Blizzard to branch out and go and start a new company any time soon after they see how bad it will get.

That already sort of happened with ArenaNET.

[Poacher]

This is complete bull... So last year's Blizzcon where they promised this as core BattleNet functionality, hence the overhaul, we have to pay for it? They can keep their money. This game is dying anyway, with Cataclysm being their "lets make everyone pay for crap they've already paid for". Put some cracks in the ground and sprinkle some fire into it, job's done!

GG Blizz. You've lost my business.

[Siq1ne]

LOL Blizz. April 1st was almost 2 months ago!

This is a joke right?? LOL Premium Services...

My $15 a month isn't better than your $15 a month.. so you wanna throw me $5 more? and I'll pretend you're better than the rest.

[drakonblayde]

I expect some people at Blizzard to branch out and go and start a new company any time soon after they see how bad it will get.

Some folks already did that. They went and made a game called Hellgate London.

it didn't work out.

This is the reason we now have to deal with idiots the likes of Tom Chilton instead of guys like Bill Roper.

[Frostburn]

That already sort of happened with ArenaNET.

It's sad how badly things have become, hardly anyone wants to try something new. Keep pushing out new CoDs and the sheeple will go and buy it without a second thought...Oh how Video Games have changed for the worse............

[Mongoose19]

Bob Kotic is a awesome troll, he just trolled you all, kudos to him.