Is there less pressure to address content droughts because of the ingame store?

[Deleted]

They must generate a lot of money from the ingame store. They push out more mounts and pets more frequently. It used to be just about two a year, now it's a new one every few months. They added cosmetic gear and will likely add more. And they just made it possible to buy a level 90 character for 50 euros (60 dollars I think). With the amount of classes, people wanting to reroll and try different classes, they likely get a lot of money from that and will get even more in the future. They will only add things to the store, and if sales go down, they can drop the price. "Get your level 90 for 50% off". "Get every class for 100€ limited time only".

Is it possible the money they get from the store puts less pressure on them to address these terrible content droughts between expansions? It only got worse over time, even though they promised they would try to do something about it. I feel that they would be forced to put out more content between expansions if they didn't have the sales from the ingame store and even the other services they offer. We tend to think like, "I like this company and the game, I want to support them, so I'm gonna give them money for these things and even get something out of it". It seems like the right thing to do, support them by giving them more money, so the game will do better, but do they actually put effort into making the game better? Do they use the money they get to finance other games instead? By not supporting them through things like the ingame store, could we actually get them to realize they have to put more effort into keeping players subscribed?

edited the OP, sorry for the confusion

Moderator Note: Thread title changed at Nindoriel's request [ML]

[Video Games]

People are just going to say you're wrong and to unsub and shit so be prepared for that.

[Zervek]

No. Blizzard (our overlords who do everything right) know what they're doing. You don't HAAVVEE...to buy anything from the store. So the store doesn't affect anything. Blizzard is a business and they need to make money! Who cares if I'm getting milked!

[roahn the warlock]

Well, you can just not buy it. But if blizzard wants to appeal to the tards. Let them, move to wildstar, smaller fanbase, but it's worth it.

Does it make it bad that blizz does this, and unless people wise up the entertainment industry will follow suit?

Yeah most likely. But what can you do but unsub

Also is the rev just from WoW, or does it include hearthstone, which is a massive success

People in general just need to grow the nuts to avoid companies they disagree with. Instead of shrugging and continuing on.

Edit: I still have 0 problem with people who want to discuss it on these forums. 100%.

[ksiyas]

No. Blizzard (our overlords who do everything right) know what they're doing. You don't HAAVVEE...to buy anything from the store. So the store doesn't affect anything. Blizzard is a business and they need to make money! Who cares if I'm getting milked!

This man knows what he is talking about. Nuff said, lock thread :P

[Terahertz]

No. Blizzard (our overlords who do everything right) know what they're doing. You don't HAAVVEE...to buy anything from the store. So the store doesn't affect anything. Blizzard is a business and they need to make money! Who cares if I'm getting milked!

Blergh! Blurgherghuh! I managed to last a few months of milking but then I started to get sore. Not fun to get milked until you're getting sore and dry ya know! That's why getting a break is so nice. Still sad, though, because I did enjoy the barn and all, but all the milking and milking without getting anything in return just didn't feel worth it!

[Pann]

They are not earning more money than before.

[Revi]

Yeah, everything made sense when I read that part :/ Of course they're not going to be as motivated when their revenue just keeps going up. If the in-game store was not in place, their revenue would have been plummeting this past year, and they would be desperately scrambling to put out some filler content.

[Deleted]

How are you trying to link people buying things from the store to a "lack of content" during the lull between expansions that's pretty much the same length now as before (you know before and after the item store)?

[Pann]

How are you trying to link people buying things from the store to a "lack of content" during the lull between expansions that's pretty much the same length now as before (you know before and after the item store)?

Whilst I agree with what you are saying the item store was introduced during Wrath which was the first expansion to have a year-ish content drought, if you exclude RS, between expansions.

[Vetis]

So you're saying while the artists create these small items every few months, the rest of the team like development, coding, level, writing etc get paid for doing nothing?

[Geckoo]

I agree that if they don't feel any financial pressure because they are in fact earning more money even with subs going down, they'll never try harder.
But with a 10 year old game is very hard to be sure about what would happen without the shop, the situation could be even worse, no one can know for sure... many of my friend left because the game got too old for them (or they got too old for the game ), the shop had nothing to do with their decision.

In fact, i don't blame the shop for content droughts, i blame their inefficiency as workers. If you have no content for a whole year one time, i call it bad planning & a lesson to be learned, if it happens again... and even a third time in a row!, i call it systematic inefficiency that should translate in someone getting fired and someone else taking the job with some new and fresh work process. And we see this constantly! For example, i find hilarious that the biggest MMORPG of all times is still trying to figure out how to communicate things properly, as if they were some new company that just got big.

[Noctifer616]

Usually if subscriptions drop, revenue drops. That isn't the case however when you put more and more stuff into the ingame store. The people who give Bllizzard money for shit like helmets, mounts, pets and even paid level 90 characters, are responsible for the content drought in WoW. They feel no pressure to step it up when they can generate even more money from the store. How are they supposed to feel pressured into producing more content faster if 1 million subscriptions drop and they earn more money than before?

What are you on about? WoW revenue is down YoY and compared to last quarter.

[Rosstafa]

The amount of resources that go into the store content is miniscule compared to that which goes into the bulk of an expansion. I imagine most of those mounts and whatnot are made when the bulk of expansion content is made, and the art department is waiting for the initial design phase for the next expansion to be finished before they can start work on new content. If your artists have free time while the next expansion is being decided, might as well get them working on some little odd bits that can be sold in the store.

Blizzard hired new people over the course of MoP, so we probably won't see the benefit of this until Warlords. I do think that SoO will be the last content drought we'll get.

[Rucati]

So, can you prove any of what you said? Of course not, because it's nonsense.

The two things aren't related in any way, but considering you got literally every fact wrong in your post, I'm guessing there's no point in taking you all that seriously.

[NuLogic]

It seems there are too many people content or who don't care.

[Deleted]

Whilst I agree with what you are saying the item store was introduced during Wrath which was the first expansion to have a year-ish content drought, if you exclude RS, between expansions.

"if you exclude"

While it was dull, it still counts and in that expansion they released the store...

So by the logic of internet forums we have store now and no filler content therefore we're owed filler content and because the store existed then and LFR didn't, LFR took away our filler content :P

Or connected realms...but more people bitch about LFR so I'll stick with that

[Asrialol]

Usually people back up their statements with some facts, proof, etc.

[Kaleredar]

Usually people back up their statements with some facts, proof, etc.

I'm going to go ahead and second this statement.



MoP is the expansion with the most store mounts added, yes...


But it's also the expansion with the most unique mount skeletons available in-game. By a long shot.

[Deleted]

Usually if subscriptions drop, revenue drops. That isn't the case however when you put more and more stuff into the ingame store. The people who give Bllizzard money for shit like helmets, mounts, pets and even paid level 90 characters, are responsible for the content drought in WoW. They feel no pressure to step it up when they can generate even more money from the store. How are they supposed to feel pressured into producing more content faster if 1 million subscriptions drop and they earn more money than before?

Get the tinfoil hats, we have a new conspiracy theory =)

No my friend, it isn't. Yes, the store is responsible for the increased revenue. As is hearthstone and DIII. What most of you people don't realize: The numbers they give the shareholders are not resolved by the product that produces them. They are TOTAL numbers. But Sorzzara, why then no new content?

Because Blizz underestimated the amount of work WoD would require. Because they overestimated how happy people would be with MoP. Because their Design goals for MoP were guided by a team with borderline asinine ideas (HEY! Lets make 5man content irrelevant!"

I like it when people try to assign a singular cause to a complex observation. Makes me chuckle.

People are just going to say you're wrong and to unsub and shit so be prepared for that.

And rightly so, given that he doesn't back up his personal opinion with any sort of evidence.