not enough resources for new mounts :D

[dwarfkicker]

Was Ghostcrawler ever a whiz with his wording like this? Or is this Holinka guy just that much of a class act?

[apelsinjuice]

Whoa there, I never said my opinion outweighs everyone else at all, all I am saying is that a lot of people here have a lot of misconceptions about what it actually takes to develop a game. Blizzard has a lot of tools to make their lives easier, but not always easy. Things as simple as a mount are easy enough when the whole team is focused on a new expansion and the concepts of that, but ~9 months into the expansion, when resources are being put elsewhere, it can be hard to find the time to develop smaller content.

ofc, thats why they are putting out a new store mount every month.

[Kazgrel]

All the resources are allocated to the Customer Milking and Pruning departments for WoD. Oh and the character model team, who will probably be let go or moved to the Milking team. Just how activision drew it up. Have some of the old timers leave, bring in folks more open to their influence, and ta-da! Leveling boosts, mount skins and all sorts of shit requiring $$$ now available!

[Krommm]

It's because all the resources are going into store mounts/pets. Not much more to be said.

[Elian]

i bet they were planning to release 1 store mount and a pet every month in WOD, and these devs are already developing those items hence why 'not enough resources'to design in game achieved stuff.

[CheeseSandwich]

As a non game dev, or non-potential game dev, I'm aware my thoughts on the design process may lack the knowledge that others have.

However, as a consumer, I am fully qualified to see a dick argument made by a company trying to sell us something. The repeated line of "not enough resources" lost it's weight with me as a consumer a long time ago, and as a result I chose not give them money for that product anymore.

As more people leave, and have left, more things have gone up on the shop to make up for the sub income loss, and this clearly shows to me that Blizz's priorities as a company are increasingly financially driven, and I feel this impacts on the consumer base negatively.

Blizz's first priority should be to sell me on the game, to convince me to buy and to subscribe to their product. When I see a severe live content drought, an uninspired and over priced expac, deceiving presale extras, major changes to game design announced by the companies top brass at their major convention and a double standard in regards to how in game rewards are obtained (with a direct impact on game play), then I see a product I was happy to pay for in the past now taking it's customers for granted, with an air of arrogance and condescension towards its consumers that leaves a sour taste in my mouth, so I don't buy their product, or plan too.

And you may say "Well good riddance, we don't want people like you", but I hope you don't include Blizz in that 'we', cuz they sure as hell want my, and every other non-subscriber's dollar, because let's face it, they already have yours...how else will they generate more money with no new subscribers?

Oh wait, that's right, an in game shop.

[Noctifer616]

Oh wait, that's right, an in game shop.

Micro transactions don't generated as much money as subscriptions do. LoL is the perfect example of that. Tons of players, micro transactions, still makes less money than WoW.

[MinTDH]

A company? Financially driven? No way! How dare they try and make some kind of profit that can go towards there products?

[Deleted]

All the resources are allocated to the Customer Milking and Pruning departments for WoD.

It's because all the resources are going into store mounts/pets. Not much more to be said.

I love it when people post bullshit instead of arguments. No need to take them seriously

[Deleted]

My respect for Holinka just hit rock bottom.

[maxiixam]

I'd truly love to see any one of you people that are always complaining about this game try and make just 1 million people happy with one of YOUR games. While your at it, make sure its free (god forbid a company be out to make money). Don't forget to add in everything those 1 million people ask for. Go ahead, i'll just keep playing WoW until you do.

Alot of you people don't seem to understand the concept of making money as a business. No one holds a gun to your head and forces you to play. So what if they don't make you a fucking pony that looks slightly different every pvp season and choose to spend that time on a cash shop mount and make shit tons of money. ITS THEIR BUSINESS.

And if you don't even play anymore, just STFU and move on, this arguing and complaining is really just pathetic now.

90% of all these threads are filled with a bunch of undeserving assclowns bitching that they don't get what they want. Welcome to life.

Infracted.

[Saladbar]

A company? Financially driven? No way! How dare they try and make some kind of profit that can go towards there products?

Good companies balance profits vs customer satisfaction. Are you saying they should always put profits ahead of customer satisfaction?

It seems like a more honest answer would have been that it isn't a priority.

[Deleted]

Good companies balance profits vs customer satisfaction. Are you saying they should always put profits ahead of customer satisfaction?

Drug dealers generally don't give a flying something or other for customer satisfaction.

[Mouri Kogorou]

better stay quiet than say nonsense, i think blizz should quit twitter.

they have been releasing a mount every 2-3 months on the store and they cant do a mount per pvp season.... and i am not even a pvp player but this kind of hypocrisy is ridiculous.

[Noctifer616]

Good companies balance profits vs customer satisfaction. Are you saying they should always put profits ahead of customer satisfaction?

It seems like a more honest answer would have been that it isn't a priority.

Hearthstone has a financial model people are very happy with (the reaction to the Naxx pricing is also positive). SC2 is pretty much free unless you are interested in ladder and campaign. They still support the servers for D2. They got rid of the RMAH and GAH in D3. And really, in WoW, all the do is charge for some mount skins and pets while other games do stuff like selling weapons, maps, early access etc.

I understand people are upset with subscription + cash shop, but the issue is with people that buy that stuff, that's why Blizzard keeps adding more to the shop.

[maxiixam]

Good companies balance profits vs customer satisfaction. Are you saying they should always put profits ahead of customer satisfaction?

It seems like a more honest answer would have been that it isn't a priority.

More like it doesnt matter how much they focus on customer satisfaction, the vocal crowd is always complaining, ALWAYS. Completely happy customers like myself, who happily pay for 60$ boosts and cash shop mounts, are shockingly enough, HAPPY WITH THE GAME. 10 years i've been playing, only break were due to rl issues, not because i was unhappy.

[Kazgrel]

I love it when people post bullshit instead of arguments. No need to take them seriously

Yet you took it serious enough to quote us.

[CheeseSandwich]

Micro transactions don't generated as much money as subscriptions do. LoL is the perfect example of that. Tons of players, micro transactions, still makes less money than WoW.

So because micro transactions generate less revenue than subs, even in micro transaction driven games, it's therefore ok have micro transactions in a sub driven game? Instead of making things for a shop, shouldn't they be providing the sub base with content first? Again, as a consumer, this smacks of having their cake and eating it too, and prioritizing short term money generation over long term quality content drawing the masses in.

[Noctifer616]

So because micro transactions generate less revenue than subs, even in micro transaction driven games, it's therefore ok have micro transactions in a sub driven game?

According to Blizzard it is. Subscription>Micro Transactions. If we keep that in mind it's not worth for them adding more items to the shop if it would have a negative impact on subscription numbers. With that said, Blizzard probably believes/knows that the cash shop has no significant impact on the number of subscribers.

[TheTaurenOrc]

According to Blizzard it is. Subscription>Micro Transactions. If we keep that in mind it's not worth for them adding more items to the shop if it would have a negative impact on subscription numbers. With that said, Blizzard probably believes/knows that the cash shop has no significant impact on the number of subscribers.

Well yes, apparently Blizzard made:
$213m from Microtransactions in 2013 (http://www.gamespot.com/articles/lea.../1100-6417224/)
compared to
$912m from Subscriptions in 2013 (http://files.shareholder.com/downloa..._2013_AR.1.pdf)

But consider subscriptions were falling whereas microtransactions were on the rise. (http://venturebeat.com/2013/09/11/an...4-in-7-months/).