The Blizzard Store and the Monthly Fee. What you need to realize.

[SodiumChloride]

Woohoo! comparing sweat shops to Blizzard Activision! You realize you JUST lost whatever argument you were having right? Apples to apples my friend.

Apparently an example to illustrate the concept of "profits-are-all-that-matter unrestrained corporate greed" seems lost on you.

[Ilfayt]

So if they put the new character models in the store, you would be okay with that?

I keep seeing people say this like it's a big 'AHA!'. 1. It's a maybe, 2. They've promised the character models way before the store even got past having '1 mount and 2 pets'. 3., most of them are saying things like "Yeah, why not just make all gear grey and square....since it's 'optional", a single tiny, TINY fraction of the many great, wonderful pieces of gear being made(again 'art is subjective' so some don't think so, some do), that's not even a reasonable argument. 3 heads(and what, maybe a dozen more in the future?) pales in comparison to hundreds of helmets, plenty of them quality gear, the same art team that's making the transmog heads. When we've got 50% of the heads being store heads, or OBVIOUSLY skimped out tier sets(like a triangle of 'plate' on the shoulders with a basic skullcap) dominating all the tiers, THEN that question might actually have some weight...right now, it's a hyper-exaggerated hypothetical, the kind that amounts to questions like "what if the world ran on whale oil, what then?"(yes, I've actually seen that one too...)

On a side note...anyone else pissed off at the people claiming every last piece of tier in this expansion is 'asian crap' when a good majority of them don't even have that feel. Heck, if bliz's goal was to add an 'east-asian' feel to EVERY piece of gear, they're doing a bad job at it, with things like Warlock tier at the start of the expansion, or that new pally one(I forget if it's Pvp or the new raid tier)? I swear, on that one pally piece, a guy said these exact words "I can't wait till the next expansion, so we can get past this ugly east-asian crap'..... when it's a classic templar helmet(not the flashy 'pew pew holy fire' ones in Wow, but the real world ones) with a twist...

Edit: It's pally season 14, not the new raid tier*

[Tauren]

anyone can try and make something look justified but in the end its still fukin retarded

[TS26]

Every time Blizzard announces something new for the pet store we see the same threads come up about how a game with a monthly sub fee shouldn't have a microtransaction store. I get really frustrated when I see these posts because some people just don't get it.

You pay a monthly fee to be able to log in to your account and play; nothing more, nothing less.

Blizzard is a business and they have to do with that money whatever they feel will be most profitable. This can be anything from developing PvE and PvP content to developing items for the Blizzard store. The purpose of the former is to keep people subscribed to WoW and maybe even bring old people back/new people in. The latter is designed to bring in additional revenue to be able to develop more content.

The most important thing to realize is that Blizzard will NEVER make Tier Sets or any current content gear available for cash; they are not stupid enough to do that and you can mark my words that it'll never happen.

The Blizzard store is not a slippery slope, it is a smart business move to bring in more money for the company. The more resources Blizzard has, the more content they can develop and the better off we are as players.

Gonna destroy your arguments now with 1 quote

Taken from http://web.archive.org/web/200703140...q/general.html

This is the old wow website. They do not say this anywhere on their new website, since it contradicts their cashshop.

Why isn't World of Warcraft free?
World of Warcraft will require a fee to play. This fee will be used to support the costs associated with the high-quality levels of service, support, and ongoing content creation that we are planning for World of Warcraft.

This is from blizzard themselves, and from their website. So, you are wrong. The fee isn't just used to enable players to login. That's not what blizzard said. This is something that you, and others said to justify the sub fee.

Do you even realize what this statement means? It means that everything they created in the item shop, is ALREADY paid for by the sub fee.

[DrSteveBrule]

Ever notice how in like every movie the bad guy always delivers the line:

"Nothing personal, it's just [good] business."

After doing something shady?

[Ballfro]

Apparently an example to illustrate the concept of "profits-are-all-that-matter unrestrained corporate greed" seems lost on you.

Why are you so hell bent on a company, one in which I like very much, make a profit off of me? If im going to spend my money I feel much better about spending it on a company in which I enjoy their products. Anyone else feel like telling me im evil for giving them my money.... MY money?

- - - Updated - - -

Ever notice how in like every movie the bad guy always delivers the line:

"Nothing personal, it's just [good] business."

After doing something shady?

Blizzard said that? Show me please.

[HNIC]

Blizzard said that? Show me please.

No. It's you , fanboys, who say it FOR them, which is even more retarded.

[zito]

Gonna destroy your arguments now with 1 quote

Taken from http://web.archive.org/web/200703140...q/general.html

This is the old wow website. They do not say this anywhere on their new website, since it contradicts their cashshop.



This is from blizzard themselves, and from their website. So, you are wrong. The fee isn't just used to enable players to login. That's not what blizzard said. This is something that you, and others said to justify the sub fee.

Do you even realize what this statement means? It means that everything they created in the item shop, is ALREADY paid for by the sub fee.

To bad blizzard no longer follows that statement.

[Deleted]

You pay a monthly fee to be able to log in to your account and play; nothing more, nothing less.

And who do you think paid for the development/design time of those things they are adding to the cash shop? that's right our sub fees did. So in a way if you buy things from their cash shop you pay for it twice.

[bigmac]

Did they ever put a cash shop in FINAL FANTASY XI?

[Wokopoly]

If an item shop is what's going to "end wow for you" then good riddance. Getting rid of the casual crowd is a double edged sword. But i see it as a good thing, less under performance in raids and dungeons!

[Ballfro]

Did they ever put a cash shop in FINAL FANTASY XI?

I played FFXI for 7 years and while sometimes I wish they had, no they did not. But do you know what the main difference is between Square-Enix and Activision Blizzard? Square-Enix is not a publicly traded company, so they do not have investors to please like Activision Blizzard does. Case closed.

[Defengar]

As long as it doesnt give anyone an advantage in either PvE or PvP and is just for vanity stuff, i'm fine with blizzard store.

Its coming to that, only a matter of time now.

The sparkle pony was the beginning of a very slippery slope. First it was mounts, then pets, now cosmetic gear, and soon they will be testing leveling EXP selling in Asian regions. They keep pushing the boundary of what is acceptable and "advantage" giving. At some point they are going to legitimately cross that line. And then they are going to see a shitstorm that will make even the Real-ID and D3 DRM fiasco's look small. BLizzard as a company has grown to bloated and close minded to learn from past mistakes and history, which as any non ignorant person will tell you is a very bad thing for countries, people, AND corporations.

[JoeShmo]

It would be too easy to point out the hypocrisy that spending development time on making micro transaction items means less resources put towards the actual game content (The whole "Are you willing to give up raid content for more 5 mans." or "Are you willing to give up xxx content for better armor models" arguments).

As much as its a few helmets now, it could end up being a lot more later, and either way its still resources that could be better spent elsewhere in the game for people who are paying the subs for said resources. Its also rather lame that the tier 16 helms from some classes look horrid in comparison to the preview item store helms, like the frost one. While the whole thing could be broomed under the table with some fancy PR and fanboys about how nothing is changing and nothing is being reduced by the item store, its still taking people out of the normal game content to create cash shop stuff.

Its just rather ironic how some of the more prominent blizz cms / devs have been using the "we have to sacrifice something to gain something" when it comes to talks about more 5 mans , character models, armor models, etc. and then they go and "full speed ahead" a system that will be taking away from the game, to gain something else.

The more cynical side of me would say " Great, instead of the Titan devs being put back into helping with wow development and/or starcraft 2 and diablo 3, they put them on the item store. So much for that hope. "

[Lord Blackmore]

Blizzard does not hire a new team to create premium items, they have old workers create them. What happens when people are spending more time on one thing and less on another? One of those things goes down in quality. Or, are we going to fool ourselves and assume that everyone is spending more time working to be able to create the same amount of "free" content along with premium items?

I can't imagine creating things for the cash shop requires all that much effort or expertise. They could hand off some of that work to interns to do.

You get frustrated because people don't get it? It's not quite so simple.[/QUOTE]

[Ichifails]

Since putting it in words would take too long, I've made a video about it. It kind of boggles the mind how many people think they are entitled to every item in game just because a sub fee...
And cosmetic gear added to a cosmetic shop that had this goal since release? HOLY FUCKING SHIT DID NOT SEE THAT ONE COMING... especially with how many threads were made demanding cosmetic gear in the "Pet Shop"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTgwJbgrPmo

[Lord Blackmore]

If an item shop is what's going to "end wow for you" then good riddance. Getting rid of the casual crowd is a double edged sword. But i see it as a good thing, less under performance in raids and dungeons!

And what makes you think "the casual crowd" is the ones who will actually be quitting?

[Ichifails]

Gonna destroy your arguments now with 1 quote

Taken from http://web.archive.org/web/200703140...q/general.html

This is the old wow website. They do not say this anywhere on their new website, since it contradicts their cashshop.



This is from blizzard themselves, and from their website. So, you are wrong. The fee isn't just used to enable players to login. That's not what blizzard said. This is something that you, and others said to justify the sub fee.

Do you even realize what this statement means? It means that everything they created in the item shop, is ALREADY paid for by the sub fee.

No it does not. It just says "CONTENT CREATION" not "ALL CONTENT CREATED". There's also an updated ToS that renders your post invalid.

[Dontrike]

You're ignorant if you think it'll stop at purely cosmetic stuff. You'll be seeing different sort of buffs to ingame currencies soon enough. Be that honor, conquest, valor, justice, charms - you name it.

I unsubbed today, been playing since early 2006 - and this is where I get off. It's the principle and the lack of integrity on Blizzard's side - not the current content.

I hate to say it, but if someone is buying honor, conquest (these two I couldn't care less about), valor, justice, and charms I will feel sad for them instead of thinking they are getting ahead of me. I am already capped on valor, have no need for justice, and I am walking around with almost 4000 charms from pet battles. If someone wants to buy them they can go right ahead and be suckers for buying something they can earn normally.

- - - Updated - - -

Its coming to that, only a matter of time now.

The sparkle pony was the beginning of a very slippery slope. First it was mounts, then pets, now cosmetic gear, and soon they will be testing leveling EXP selling in Asian regions. They keep pushing the boundary of what is acceptable and "advantage" giving.

What advantages are they giving again?

[cFortyfive]

What advantages are they giving again?

Personally I find in a game with not really specified "goals" something that cannot be gained by actual in game means is good enough to be called an advantage. Of course every Blizzard service can at the end of the day be acquired against in game currency but I'd call that not exactly the intended.