Content drought and monthly subscription

[Deleted]

Content is something new added to the game. Something the devs have done to earn my 15 dollars. During the content drought i don't see them doing anything worth me paying them for.
PvP is a content (if you can call it that) that i feel like i paid many times over many years ago. Why would i be paying them more just to be allowed to play?

Content is not different thing for different players. It is one thing - what i describe above.
If you think that achievements grind is legitimate content for you, is OK, but why are you eager to pay money for it? Let's say you are after WotLK achievements. You already paid a ton of dollar to purchase this content and play it while it was current. Thus you, so to say, bought your rights over that content.
Wait, no, you didn't. Because Blizzard is the only company in the entire world that makes you pay several times over for something you purchased in full to begin with.

Well, for me, content is something game already has, like book.
If you skip some chapters not interesting to you, its only your fault. I like to read all of it, even multiple times.
Im fine with that model, I dont even think about sub. You are not ownwer of the game, you only rented it for some time.

[Ragnarohk]

Well, for me, content is something game already has, like book.
If you skip some chapters not interesting to you, its only your fault. I like to read all of it, even multiple times.
Im fine with that model, I dont even think about sub. You are not ownwer of the game, you only rented it for some time.

This,
I haven't even cleared Antorus (not even wing 3 LFR) but there's a TON of content.
I'm farming mounts, titles, achievements, old legendaries, BGs, Arenas, Mythic+.
I made new characters and downloaded some addons to enjoy the leveling experience and read all the quests.
And there are tons of other things that I dislike and don't take part of, but It's content and I woulnd't disqualify it as so (fishing, archeology, pet battles, professions)

Things to do in WoW? More than one can handle. If you are done with the content that you like, and don't wish to participate in the rest of the content then just unsub until the next patch or epxansion. I've done it a few times

Edit: I believe there was a person in WotLK who managed to get every single achievement, so technically only he was entitled back then to cry "content drought!"

[Sylvaeres]

From a consumer point of view, it is hardly conceivable to me why they keep charging monthly subscription during the infamous content drought period.
I understand the monthly sub during the active phase of an expansion - they keep adding new content to the game and that costs.
I also understand that the team need the time to develop the new expansion.
But since they are charging full price for the new expac, mean that we are not only paying in full for all the new content that comes with it, but we are also paying them monthly during the time they develop it and do almost nothing else.
This is why i almost always unsub during this period, even though there are some things that i want to do in the game (PvP, achievements and transmog farming mainly) and this is the only time i can do them - because i am no longer busy with the present content.

Do you agree with me that they should drop the sub fee during the content drought?

Lmao what? yea, they shouldn't get paid because you have a crazy mindset. Ok guy

[Caolela]

Dropping sub fee during content drought implies confession of the fact that there is a content drought going on. Not gonna happen.

The reason it's not gonna happen is always the same with Blizz - insatiable greed. They'd 'confess' or admit to and revert anything if there was enough money involved.

[Eleccybubb]

You could always unsub if you are unhappy with the game or feel you have no content to do and come back to it at a later time?

That's what I normally do and it's worked for me for like 8 years or so.

[cparle87]

We're not paying for content, we're paying to access the servers, so no, there's zero reason to drop the sub fee during a so-called "content drought". Even in the worst of them I still always find something to do. If you can't, unsub... no one is holding a gun to your head.

/endthread, resticky to every so-called 'content drought' thread for the rest of existence.

[Mosotti]

Do you agree with me that they should drop the sub fee during the content drought?

If you still pay to play, then there's no content drought. If you pay and don't play, then you're either rich or retarded. So Blizzard has nothing to change since a lot of people pay to play.

[Dahij]

How would they pay for all the servers, employees, offices (+ office supplies) and whatever else they need to pay for if they would suddenly make it free to play? Put all that on hold so that when the servers crash or something they don't have anyone to fix it which means you'd have to wait until they start charging again so they can get it up and running again?

Like everyone has said, if the content is not worth your money just unsub instead of thinking they're some kind of charity. You're basically saying you currently don't want to pay because there isn't content for you, but if it was free there would all of a sudden be content for you? Just unsub and stop making retarded threads.

[Onikaroshi]

We are absolutely paying for content, or at least I and a lot of others with you possibly excluded do. That "paying to access the servers" is just lawyer-speak and since nobody here is talking about legal charges, it is completely irrelevant.

If there was no content being added, nobody would have paid anything. Statistically speaking. This means that we are paying for content.

No, you're paying for access to servers, Blizzard RELEASES content to keep you paying, if they don't release content, people stop paying.

Case in point, if you have all current expansions and unsub 2 months into the expansion you lose access to the servers but if you resub 1 year later you immediately get access to everything, so did you pay for the content that was released during your away time? Did they back charge you one year worth of subs to access that content? No, your Expansion box purchase paid for the content released during the Expansions lifetime, your sub pays to access that content.

Whether the overhead is enough to justify a sub fee is some different conversation, but as long as there is a sub fee it is purely for content access, not content creation.

[Selah]

This is ridiculous, if you're bored and not playing the game, why do you care about the sub? You're not playing, so even if it was free you still wouldn't reap any benefit from it.

[Cracked]

No, you're paying for access to servers, Blizzard RELEASES content to keep you paying, if they don't release content, people stop paying.

Case in point, if you have all current expansions and unsub 2 months into the expansion you lose access to the servers but if you resub 1 year later you immediately get access to everything, so did you pay for the content that was released during your away time? Did they back charge you one year worth of subs to access that content? No, your Expansion box purchase paid for the content released during the Expansions lifetime, your sub pays to access that content.

Whether the overhead is enough to justify a sub fee is some different conversation, but as long as there is a sub fee it is purely for content access, not content creation.

You've been just regurgitating this mantra since the thread started, completely missing the fact that we are all aware that Blizzard is free to charge a sub (as they do, as a matter of fact! shocker), but the discussion is about whether it's justified and if it's not hurting the game just to keep the bottom line of Blizzard higher up rather than care about the players and how the game is.

I used to think of Blizzard as a company that cared a lot about its outlook and how they treat players, putting customer satisfaction above profits on more than one occasion (which actually increased profits thanks to the positive reputation), but I'm not sure of it anymore. Last thing that they did right was trying to fix D3 by removing shit like RMAH, even though it meant cutting profits.. and that was 4 years ago.

Also lol @ all the noobs who came into the thread, read the OP, ignored the 80some posts where the thread develops, and post shit that has literally been argued already.

[Onikaroshi]

You've been just regurgitating this mantra since the thread started, completely missing the fact that we are all aware that Blizzard is free to charge a sub (as they do, as a matter of fact! shocker), but the discussion is about whether it's justified and if it's not hurting the game just to keep the bottom line of Blizzard higher up rather than care about the players and how the game is.

I used to think of Blizzard as a company that cared a lot about its outlook and how they treat players, putting customer satisfaction above profits on more than one occasion (which actually increased profits thanks to the positive reputation), but I'm not sure of it anymore. Last thing that they did right was trying to fix D3 by removing shit like RMAH, even though it meant cutting profits.. and that was 4 years ago.

Also lol @ all the noobs who came into the thread, read the OP, ignored the 80some posts where the thread develops, and post shit that has literally been argued already.

So you want free to play back by microtransactions? That's a deep dark hole that very few games get right and would cost a good portion of the player base. F2P has a, well deserved, stigma of being horrible.

Games that don't do P2W can't seem to bring in enough money to do steady updates, games that have steady updates are often P2W. In MMOs there's is VERY few success F2P or B2P games. GW2 being the only one I can think of that isn't also P2W fully (though I haven't looked at their shop lately). POE is a very successfull F2P game, but no one can argue that isometric ARPG takes nearly as many resources as an MMO.

I'll keep my sub kthx.

[Dundebuns]

Unsub for a few months, then resub for a single month. You'll find you have plenty to keep you interested for a while, and your interest will wane in the final week. Rinse and repeat.

[Cracked]

So you want free to play back by microtransactions? That's a deep dark hole that very few games get right and would cost a good portion of the player base. F2P has a, well deserved, stigma of being horrible.

Games that don't do P2W can't seem to bring in enough money to do steady updates, games that have steady updates are often P2W. In MMOs there's is VERY few success F2P or B2P games. GW2 being the only one I can think of that isn't also P2W fully (though I haven't looked at their shop lately). POE is a very successfull F2P game, but no one can argue that isometric ARPG takes nearly as many resources as an MMO.

I'll keep my sub kthx.

F2P implies no box costs, WoW can keep box costs for base game as well as any new expansion for all I care and I don't mind mount / transmog microtransactions. WoW expansions cost the same or more than fresh AAA titles, games that rely on microtransactions are usually free or cost very little (LoL is free, CS:GO costs what, $5?, pubg recently is $30, Hearthstone is free, Dota 2 is free now, ...), then there is a heap of games that have a couple of DLCs, but they don't release expansions that cost the same as a brand new title..

Look, there are reasons for not making the game F2P, but if you really think about it, there are no reasons for sub to exist in the current year, other than the fact that we are willing to pay for it due to the love for the game / community we have inside of it / what have you, since there are few alternatives. The content we receive in patches is no bigger than what other games provide, comparatively. Is the scope of WoW bigger than say Hearthstone? Definitely. And that's why we will basically be paying 8th box price in past 14 years.

All I want is for the game to thrive again with people coming in as well as going out, but sub is currently a wall that is really tough to sell. Pretty much anyone in the gaming community has played WoW at one point or another, all big streamers pretty much started on WoW, and though they are all fond of it, people rarely come back other than to check out the newest expansion for 1-2 months, if that. I'm not saying that sub is the sole reason for it, but when you get an urge to play WoW every now and then and the first thing you have to do is shell out $15, you are far more likely to say 'eeh, maybe I don't want to play it that bad' than if you could just log in.

[Craaazyyy]

to me content drought is a matter of perception.. when WoW was fun to play for me i played the same amount of time during the so called content drought as i played b4 it started..

[Onikaroshi]

F2P implies no box costs, WoW can keep box costs for base game as well as any new expansion for all I care and I don't mind mount / transmog microtransactions. WoW expansions cost the same or more than fresh AAA titles, games that rely on microtransactions are usually free or cost very little (LoL is free, CS:GO costs what, $5?, pubg recently is $30, Hearthstone is free, Dota 2 is free now, ...), then there is a heap of games that have a couple of DLCs, but they don't release expansions that cost the same as a brand new title..

Look, there are reasons for not making the game F2P, but if you really think about it, there are no reasons for sub to exist in the current year, other than the fact that we are willing to pay for it due to the love for the game / community we have inside of it / what have you, since there are few alternatives. The content we receive in patches is no bigger than what other games provide, comparatively. Is the scope of WoW bigger than say Hearthstone? Definitely. And that's why we will basically be paying 8th box price in past 14 years.

All I want is for the game to thrive again with people coming in as well as going out, but sub is currently a wall that is really tough to sell. Pretty much anyone in the gaming community has played WoW at one point or another, all big streamers pretty much started on WoW, and though they are all fond of it, people rarely come back other than to check out the newest expansion for 1-2 months, if that. I'm not saying that sub is the sole reason for it, but when you get an urge to play WoW every now and then and the first thing you have to do is shell out $15, you are far more likely to say 'eeh, maybe I don't want to play it that bad' than if you could just log in.

You listed a bunch of games that don't even come close to the overhead wow has. None of them have anywhere near as many servers, as much bandwidth usage, as many employees. You have to compare MMO to MMO.

Rift - F2P, Updates regularly, Pay to win, small player base
Wildstar - F2P, Barely updates, not Pay to win, TINY playerbase
Swtor - More of a free trial to 50, you have to sub for anything after that, updates regularly but its really just a sub game disguised as F2P, also, small player base

I could go on and on, but it all ends up being the same. You want to know two very well received, steadily updated games?

FFXIV - Updated regularly, Large player base, B2P with sub
WoW - updated regularly, Huge player base, B2P with sub

Saying sub doesn't work is just silly. Nothing really touches those two in terms quality and update schedules. Sure both have times of drought, but wildstar hasn't had a major update in years and rift doesn't work unless you shell out a ton of money.

[Softbottom]

just unsub until the next xpac if you are out of stuff to do. After you clear whatever difficulty you raid and farm and get the gear you want stop playing for a while. I like the content drought between xpacs; gives me time to level alts and do whatever.

[Cracked]

You listed a bunch of games that don't even come close to the overhead wow has. None of them have anywhere near as many servers, as much bandwidth usage, as many employees. You have to compare MMO to MMO.

Rift - F2P, Updates regularly, Pay to win, small player base
Wildstar - F2P, Barely updates, not Pay to win, TINY playerbase
Swtor - More of a free trial to 50, you have to sub for anything after that, updates regularly but its really just a sub game disguised as F2P, also, small player base

I could go on and on, but it all ends up being the same. You want to know two very well received, steadily updated games?

FFXIV - Updated regularly, Large player base, B2P with sub
WoW - updated regularly, Huge player base, B2P with sub

Saying sub doesn't work is just silly. Nothing really touches those two in terms quality and update schedules. Sure both have times of drought, but wildstar hasn't had a major update in years and rift doesn't work unless you shell out a ton of money.

Haha, there is nothing about being MMO that means you have to have more employees or more "overhead", LoL has 2500 people working on it, whole of Blizzard has 4700, how many are on WoW, 1500? Also saying those games require fewer servers, well, 1st of all, we already established that servers cost pennies, but for the sake of the argument, no, WoW doesn't magically require a million servers to run. LoL has incredibly frequent updates for example, but you don't pay $15 for the privilege of investing into the development but getting none of the profit back.

I understand that the pleb perception is that MMOs have a large overhead, but what is an MMO and what isn't really has blurred lines - massively multiplayer can fit all kinds of definitions, heck, by wikipedia definition, pubg is an MMO game, fortnite is an MMO, and so on. But honestly, people expect the same amount of support on any AAA game these days.

[Spiffums]

You pay a sub for access.........if you play 24/7 for 30 days it costs the same as if you just play 2 hours during the 30 days. How would you like to pay MORE during the active period? Well the expansion has dropped so with SOO MUCH to do the sub fee is now $300 a month.

[Cracked]

You listed a bunch of games that don't even come close to the overhead wow has. None of them have anywhere near as many servers, as much bandwidth usage, as many employees. You have to compare MMO to MMO.

Rift - F2P, Updates regularly, Pay to win, small player base
Wildstar - F2P, Barely updates, not Pay to win, TINY playerbase
Swtor - More of a free trial to 50, you have to sub for anything after that, updates regularly but its really just a sub game disguised as F2P, also, small player base

I could go on and on, but it all ends up being the same. You want to know two very well received, steadily updated games?

FFXIV - Updated regularly, Large player base, B2P with sub
WoW - updated regularly, Huge player base, B2P with sub

Saying sub doesn't work is just silly. Nothing really touches those two in terms quality and update schedules. Sure both have times of drought, but wildstar hasn't had a major update in years and rift doesn't work unless you shell out a ton of money.

Also about "updated regularly", we have had 3 "content" patches in 15 months of Legion, that is $75 per patch on average, otherwise you ahve regular bugfixes and balance fixes, that's not content. Is that worth the money, all added up? You decide. Would people buy 7.2 for $75, if presented how to really was? Yea, let's be honest with ourselves here, there is nothing regular about the updates, more like sparse updates.