Can we changed Blizzards stance like we did with Real-ID?

[Knirps]

well if you yourself cant afford the premium-service, maybe one of your crossserver-friends can, then youre good to go too.

also theres no real detail on the features of the premium account yet. i hihgly believe theres gonna be some additional benefits from going premium. maybe something like a vip-priority on their servers when packages are being read, maybe this would increase the ping a lil.

And that would be TERRIBLE.

The point of this being a P2P game with hard stances on RMT is that everyone plays on the same level so that everyone can enjoy the game without having to have more money IRL to make the game work.

The MORE they add that would affect in-game gameplay, the worse this 'premium status' gets.

[kalinah]

"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.
--Rob Pardo, Blizzard's Senior Vice President of Game Design (2/20/2008)"


And then, 3 years later, we feel betrayed.

[tacoloco]

And then, 3 years later, we feel betrayed.

3 years is a -long- time in the software industry.

[unholytestament]

And then, 3 years later, we feel betrayed.

You can feel however you damn well please, but from what little we know about the RealID group feature it affords you no advantage over anyone who had the presence of mind to roll their character on the same server as their friends and the luck that none of them decided to set up shop someone else.

Or the folks who are perfectly content to run dungeons with strangers.

[Koen]

You must be kidding, right? Wow is certainly not the one and only reason you buy a computer... But if yes... you could also count your apartment, food and clothing expenses as the cost of WoW, because you know you can't play it on the street naked while starving.

Hahahaha!

I was gonna reply to his argument that it's ridiculous to add the costs of a computer to the subscription but what you said is even more hilarious!

Also, I do not support their premium services either. As said before, things like this often lead to more and more services familiar until they will start handing out characters at certain levels and epics and what not.. because well it does not affect end game raiding?

[Rotagitsni]

You can feel however you damn well please, but from what little we know about the RealID group feature it affords you no advantage over anyone who had the presence of mind to roll their character on the same server as their friends and the luck that none of them decided to set up shop someone else.

Or the folks who are perfectly content to run dungeons with strangers.

WoW has grown considerably in playbase since Vanilla. It's not unheard of to come across a new friend (or an old one) in real life and learn that they also play this game.

When that happens, it's always this weird conversation. Find out what server they are on. Is it yours? No, never. Well...I guess...yeah we'll never play together sorry.

It's not just people that lacked "presence of mind to roll their character on the same server as their friends"

[Focault]

Hahahaha!

I was gonna reply to his argument that it's ridiculous to add the costs of a computer to the subscription but what you said is even more hilarious!

Also, I do not support their premium services either. As said before, things like this often lead to more and more services familiar until they will start handing out characters at certain levels and epics and what not.. because well it does not affect end game raiding?

Baseless speculation is baseless, but hey it's fun right?

And almost surely once the paid expansion/subscription model has run its course WoW will morph over into a f2p micro-transaction type business model and Titan will be Blizzard's primary subscription model focus.

Things change nothing to stoke up your outraged selves about. If you are this outraged about a game, you must be pulling your hair out about the change in policy towards a Palestinian state. I feel you there.

---------- Post added 2011-05-20 at 04:49 PM ----------

WoW has grown considerably in playbase since Vanilla. It's not unheard of to come across a new friend (or an old one) in real life and learn that they also play this game.

When that happens, it's always this weird conversation. Find out what server they are on. Is it yours? No, never. Well...I guess...yeah we'll never play together sorry.

It's not just people that lacked "presence of mind to roll their character on the same server as their friends"

Is what Blizzard has proposed charging for standard practice already on other MMOs?

[unholytestament]

...

Yeah. Over time people might make friends on different servers. I still don't see the explanation of the gameplay advantage this feature provides.

You know, the thing Blizzard promised they wouldn't add and people feel betrayed over them now... Not... Adding...

[schippie]

Tbh if we could have change blizz mind it would already have happend on the us forums alone ther wher 6k+ replies in the offical thread.
And blizz did not reply 1 time so. I think blizz is just w8ting for this to fly over and then implent it.