Wow, for a second I thought the amount of "I quit!" threads around all forums were just BS and people just whining at max levels...
But this definitely proves Blizzard is losing subs. Pitiful.
The annual pass was a very thinly veiled attempt at locking subscriber numbers when they knew there was going to be a loooooong stretch of dead time with no content happening. It was made available in October 2011, with Dragon Soul coming shortly after, and then absolutely nothing happening until Mists of Pandaria came out in September 2012.
So if you bought the annual pass, you basically were roped into a year of Dragon Soul - almost none of the game time would have been left over by the time they finally released MoP. The big reason this gets a lot of flak is because Dragon Soul was widely regarded as one of(if not the) worst raids Blizzard ever released, especially for what was supposed to be the final tier of raiding that was intended to wrap up the expansion/Deathwing storyline - with lots of recycled content and frustrating boss mechanics(particularly spine), combined with almost a year of content drought following its release.
This new pirate ship scheme is getting flak now because of the timing - people have been widely deriding Blizzard's design choices and lack of content in BfA so far, and along with Ion's whole "grand scheme" meme, it's just not a good look for them to be pulling this right now.
Imagine if instead of adding the mount and pet to the cash shop they updated Pirate's day to actually be a fun and rewarding mini-holiday.
Last edited by Drikto; 2018-09-19 at 06:53 PM.
There was never a time in this game's history when they weren't bleeding subs on some level. Never more than 12 million retained, over 100 million accounts created.
I remember the Annual pass back in Cataclysm being "teh literal death of teh game!" though, and yet here we are, the game still garnering the attention of millions with new content.
Is it a cash grab? For sure, BUT, it's also an added incentive to people who otherwise sub for 6 months at a time. They can get a mount with it now too. Why make less money when you could make more?
If it were the case that they were struggling, they'd be VERY careful to add things like this to the shop. Look at the end of WoD and the moose mount for reference.
I for one will be getting it using gold conversion. Why spend real money when you can spend pixels? :3
Last edited by Queen of Hamsters; 2018-09-19 at 06:54 PM.
Annual pass was 12 months and it was at the end of the expansion to keep people subscribed during the content drought. This is at the very beginning of the expansion, is only 6 months, and people who have also bought gametime recently get it, too.
This isn't to keep people subscribed through a lack of content, but to just give them a nice reward as a thank you for their loyalty.
I purchased 6 months of gametime a while ago and I also got the mount. So it's rewarded retroactively, at least up until some point.
As soon as I saw "for purchasing 180 days of game time" I just KNEW I had to hurry to the comments section lol.
I am confused - I sub for 1 year and haven't received this
Hoooooooooooooo so that's why the Alliance only got the lamest mount possible possible on their rep this xpack!
It's because the cool stuff they should have got was put in the cash shop!
But hey, I'm sure the horde also got fuck over with the rep mount right?
Right?
RIIIIIGHT?!
My Collection
- Bring back my damn zoom distance/MoP Portals - I read OP minimum, 1st page maximum-make wow alt friendly again -Please post constructively(topkek) -Kill myself
If this was a reward for paying for 180 days within that interval, it would have been a good incentive not to drop your sub or take a break, but paying upfront for it? Meh. Especially for people who already bought game time recently.
Ah, the earnings calls are coming soon...
Got to get those subscriptions up!
I haven't yet seen mentioned one of the other big perks (for some of us) that came with the Annual Pass...... Diablo3. I planned on playing WOW for another year at that time anyway, and would have bought Diablo3 either way, so there was absolutely no downside for me in subbing for a year.
Lol, already had 6 months beforehand (I'm 3 months through it currently), so I got this immediately.
Won't catch me saying no to a free mount, thanks, Blizzard.
There's a difference in the situation however. The content drought for Cata was backloaded, where the annual pass coincided with a year of absolutely nothing post-Dragon Soul.
The content drought is front-loaded this expansion - the expectation is that we're going to have a dearth of content until whatever they're planning to implement finally shows up(see: "grand scheme" meme). This 6-month lock-in lines up perfectly with the idea that we're not doing to see 8.1 for several months at least.