Is the Blizzcon stream too expensive?

[Deleted]

This thread is a perfect reflection of today's "Tight is right"-society.

[Frozen Death Knight]

Lol. 40$ to watch a few hours of video? Seems blizzard really only cares about money.
Thank god it will be pirated anyway and uploaded on plenty of places.

20 hours worth of video isn't exactly a few hours.

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Typical ignorant post from someone who blindly would defend anything from a company. So, according to you, its not absurd as long as theres a profit involved? Imagine how much you could do with that logic in mind (how about all the middle-eastern wars)


Corporations making profit is one thing, exploitation, hypercapitalism and endless greed is something worse.

Strawmanning and exaggerating is always a good thing to do.

[Deleted]

I think it's kind of a joke. But apparently people think it's ok to pay and Blizzard just saw the variables and made a decision.

I'm curious thought, is there any other company in the world that makes you pay for what is essentially advertisement/promotion for their products?

[Deleted]

I'm curious thought, is there any other company in the world that makes you pay for what is essentially advertisement/promotion for their products?

Any clothing brand that puts brands on their clothing for example

[Deleted]

If there's demand people will pay it.

Personally I think it's far too expensive. Though if Apple started charging $100 for streams I bet people would still think it was a good deal.

[starkey]

If Athene is doing commentary for the Method Vs Midwinter Raid race then totally not worth $40 i would of gotten it but i dont trust my ISP enough to have a smooth running stream

[Renisis86]

WOW this is still going? People this is america.....vote with your wallets. If you think 40 is to much....guess what you don't NEED it. If 40 bucks seems like a good value then pay it. Blizzard is a company built on making a profit, not a non-profit. Simple as that. We don't need poor people complaining some form of non necessity entertainment is to expensive for them to enjoy.

[muto]

Yeah it's overpriced especially when I can just come to MMO-Champion and see the news for the new expansion on the front page, likely the same day.

[nathanos01]

I understand that $40 can be considered a lot for some people, and for others it can be considered almost nothing. It totally depends on where you live and how much you earn.

You simply need to decide whether the price is justified for what you're getting.

For me, it was a case of more pets and goodies, not to mention that every Blizzcon I have a bunch of friends around and we watch the stream live in my theatre room. So the $40 was easily justifiable for me.

For others who find that $40 is a serious stretch of their income, then I recommend watching the opening ceremony as Blizzard have announced the opening ceremony will be streamed live for free. The opening ceremony should give you a good overview of what is being announced, and from there just watch the front page of mmo-champion for further updates.

[Frozen Death Knight]

Eh, i can easily buy a week's groceries for me and my fiance for about 40 euros a week (50-ish dollars), and that is including luxury goods. I am in no way a poor man (the opposite is actually true), but i am not "watching prices" and i rarely go over that 40 euros.
If you are a lot above that you may need to reconsider your expenditure pattern....

That completely depends on the family. Mine have quite expensive eating habits and we expect a lot from the food we eat. Still, we get by just fine since we have other resources most people don't to get quality food.

[Rumblecrush]

When did it become the norm for customers to attack other customers for wanting to get the best/cheapest deals for themselves. Do you spit on people in the checkout line when they use coupons

[Frozen Death Knight]

I think it's kind of a joke. But apparently people think it's ok to pay and Blizzard just saw the variables and made a decision.

I'm curious thought, is there any other company in the world that makes you pay for what is essentially advertisement/promotion for their products?

You don't know business that well if you haven't seen anything like it before.

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WOW this is still going? People this is america.....vote with your wallets. If you think 40 is to much....guess what you don't NEED it. If 40 bucks seems like a good value then pay it. Blizzard is a company built on making a profit, not a non-profit. Simple as that. We don't need poor people complaining some form of non necessity entertainment is to expensive for them to enjoy.

America? I'm from Europe. =(

[Kelimbror]

Heres my shopping list from last week for me and my fiance (i always save them in the supermarket app :P). Note it is in Dutch though

In my state milk at WalMart, which is definitely the cheapest place on average for all products, is $4-5.00. So just getting 1 item is 1/8 of $40 for me before tax. If I scanned a copy of our last receipt (which btw we don't by prechopped crap either) you would be thankful you have it so great. I can spend $40 just getting cat food and litter. I don't make a lot of money, but I know the comparative value of goods. $40 is pretty much nothing in America considering what little you can buy with that money.

[Frozen Death Knight]

When did it become the norm for customers to attack other customers for wanting to get the best/cheapest deals for themselves. Do you spit on people in the checkout line when they use coupons

Weird, because I could have sworn that some have outright stated that the ones who decided to buy the virtual ticket should be somehow at fault just because those people thought it was worth the price. Seems like a pretty ridiculous extreme as well.

[crakerjack]

Idk most people are surprised by this... Blizzcon was never free. There was always a price for the stream, it just wasn't ever 40 bucks. I'm not surprised though. WoW has been on the decline for a while, the company isn't just blizzard, it's activision blizzard so of course activision has been influencing a couple decisions on pricing.

[Dhomeli]

I think the price is completely fair for what you get out of it. For me the pets and other game items are just a bonus. I can watch every single panel, event, and contest live and watch the recordings for weeks after the event.

I like hearing the devs talk about the game and answer questions and show off sound, art, and cinematic development processes. Sure, I could watch on YouTube after someone reuploads it, but it's exciting to watch it live. I suppose part of it is that I went in person in 2009 and haven't been able to since, and the Virtual Ticket is the next best thing and I think $40 is fair, and whether it supports the event directly, or supports the company, the cost is worth what I get out of it. I'll be watching it with 5 of my guildmates this year and it should be a great weekend.

[PBitt]

Considering most of it finds it's way to youtube (even if it does eventually get taken down), and everything gets posted anyways, 40 dollars is a bit ridiculous. I'm not a marketing genius but I wouldn't be surprised if they reduced it to 5 or 10 dollars, they would have a lot more people watching, enough to make up the difference for the cheaper tickets. Fuck I don't even play WoW anymore but I'd pay five dollars just to see the changes they're planning to make, Blizzons are usually pretty good as long as Metzen isn't talking about being a geek.

[Deleted]

Any clothing brand that puts brands on their clothing for example

Touché. But in one case you pay to wear the brand and in the other you pay to watch the advertisement.

[wow2011]

Considering most of it finds it's way to youtube (even if it does eventually get taken down), and everything gets posted anyways, 40 dollars is a bit ridiculous. I'm not a marketing genius but I wouldn't be surprised if they reduced it to 5 or 10 dollars, they would have a lot more people watching, enough to make up the difference for the cheaper tickets. Fuck I don't even play WoW anymore but I'd pay five dollars just to see the changes they're planning to make, Blizzons are usually pretty good as long as Metzen isn't talking about being a geek.

I am sure "a lot more people watching, enough to make up the difference for the cheaper tickets" is not true. The reason why I say this is because Blizzard must have had some research done for the ticket prices to maximize profit while you simply believe more people will buy simply because it's 5 to 10.

For example, I wouldn't buy the virtual ticket at 0.01 dollar because I have better things to do. I will need people to pay me 100 dollars if they want me to sit through the whole Blizzcon on stream...

[Ghier]

Wait, you have to pay to watch the part where they announce the new expansion?

Yea they wouldn't want any of the millions of former players to get excited about the expansion and come back. They are only interested in the current sheep who happily buy everything put in front of them.