Activison never bought Blizzard

[Sanguinerd]

Why do people keep using Morhaime leaving as some bad freakin' omen?

The guy is literally a billionaire.. why wouldn't he retire early? But I guess everyone here would keep working and shit ;/

[Soon-TM]

Still isn't P2W. You aren't paying Blizzard actual money for gear on par with the best gear available while circumventing the usual process of gathering said gear. Blizzard isn't officially selling carries through their store, just saying that they aren't against ToS and you won't get banned for selling them unless actual money is involved.

So, if there is a middle man it isn't P2W. Gotcha.

technically the game is p2w, but you have to spend absurd amounts to actually do that. As an example, the new auctioneer mount added with BFA, would cost $1,000 in USD. While this may be petty change for the top 1%, majority of wow's player-base couldn't afford that. Full raid clears cost about double that, so $2,000 for cutting edge and the mount that drops with it? I'd be surprised if anyone actually spends that much just to get ahead in WoW. (The USD amounts are based around US token price)

Now on the contrary, many people have obtained gold cap in previous expansions (WoD/Legion) and can easily just spend gold on raid carries. Spending gold on a raid carry isn't necessarily p2w. I'd argue the only p2w in WoW is through character boosts, and even that is insignificant when leveling takes less than a week.

It's a milder/subtler form of P2W, I'll give you that. But it's P2W nevertheless, and like most forms of P2W, it caters to the whales mainly.

[Projectmars]

So, if there is a middle man it isn't P2W. Gotcha.

Wrong. Players who buy clears aren't getting an advantage other players who don't buy clears have access to. That's what makes it not P2W.

[Kathranis]

The only thing you can't really buy right now is BOP gear, but give it time...

I feel like people have been saying "give it time" since 2013 and so far we're still only seeing character services, pets, and mounts.

Nevermind that you can also spend gold on blizzard bucks which means that you can earn everything in the paid shop by playing the game.

[siskokid21]

Wrong. Players who buy clears aren't getting an advantage other players who don't buy clears have access to. That's what makes it not P2W.

That's a good example but i would necessarily consider it the rule. If blizzard decided to add 385 gear to the cash shop i'd 100% consider that p2w. Using your definition, it wouldn't be p2w as other players can get 385 gear from raid/M+/pvp/wq/etc. Paying for carries is something of a middle ground, but ultimately it depends on what is "winning" in World of Warcraft for you. Personally i don't consider the game won, until the current tier has been cleared on Mythic. Others will be content with heroic. Some don't even go past one clear of LFR. Others may choose high pvp ratings as winning, or high M+ score as winning even. Or perhaps collecting every mount,pet, or achievement is what will win the game. Really hard to say for sure since WoW can't really be won in any one way for everyone. To me WoW is not p2w, because i don't see it being practical for anyone to dish out $2,000 or 10million gold on a full mythic raid clear.

I feel like people have been saying "give it time" since 2013 and so far we're still only seeing character services, pets, and mounts.

Nevermind that you can also spend gold on blizzard bucks which means that you can earn everything in the paid shop by playing the game.

Buying gold could be considered p2w, but generally speaking you have to spend an absurd amount of $$ to really get ahead.

[Echocho]

There are microtransactions in WoW?

Link where can I buy CE achievements and gear? Thanks.

I think you're confusing Pay2Win with microtransactions. Microtransactions can be the sale of anything on top of the cost of the main game, in WoW this takes the form of cosmetic items and character services. The only debate for me would be if "micro" is really the right word since they cost almost as much as a full game.

[siskokid21]

The market for paid carries is quite good though. Funnily enough, my guild earned more gold from Heroic carries than we ever earned from Mythic clears. Mostly because there was more demand and also because you could actually bring 5-6 people on the same run and still manage it. With mythic carries, it was hard if the person being carried wasn't aware at all - back when we were doing those, you also needed the people to be on your realm (for mythic locks) so that cut down the potential mythic customerbase quite a lot - it's a bit different now that they open mythic for cross realm pugs early on.

My guild sold 1 7/8m run this entire tier and a few single bosses. 3million for the 7 wasn't too bad compared to near 4-5m for just G'huun. I also assume a lot of people who spend that kind of gold on carries are not actually buying gold, and instead have gold capped toons from previous expansions (WoD/Legion) which is a bit different than just buying tokens. Heroic G'huun buyers were definitely easier to find for sure, as the price is drastically lower than mythic sales.

[therealbowser]

I feel like people have been saying "give it time" since 2013 and so far we're still only seeing character services, pets, and mounts.

Nevermind that you can also spend gold on blizzard bucks which means that you can earn everything in the paid shop by playing the game.

I'm being sarcastic about BoP items, but we've already crossed the line when Blizzard made it so that you can literally buy gold with money. You can sugarcoat it if you wish, but it doesn't change the fact that you can buy gold with money now, and you can spend that gold on top tier gear or whatever.

[Kathranis]

I'm being sarcastic about BoP items, but we've already crossed the line when Blizzard made it so that you can literally buy gold with money. You can sugarcoat it if you wish, but it doesn't change the fact that you can buy gold with money now, and you can spend that gold on top tier gear or whatever.

You could always do that through black market resellers.

[kaintk]

because you think that activision stakeholder never buy some from blizzard when they are be put together ?
its them that told blizzard what to do to make them more money now
its them who put their man one by one in high position in blizzard team
its them who told some team memeber of blizzard to get away
now that blizard have the man that activision wanted to have, blizzard is fucked

its why im looking forward to see what bonfire studio will do in a few years (who consist of a few ex-dev of blizzard, the goods one) they want to redo games with good experience for player like blizzard did before activision coming, if they succeed, the actual blizzard will be done for me and im switching to bonfire

[therealbowser]

You could always do that through black market resellers.

Welp, there you go. And that requires a ton of gold, so it applies perfectly.

[Projectmars]

That's a good example but i would necessarily consider it the rule. If blizzard decided to add 385 gear to the cash shop i'd 100% consider that p2w. Using your definition, it wouldn't be p2w as other players can get 385 gear from raid/M+/pvp/wq/etc. Paying for carries is something of a middle ground, but ultimately it depends on what is "winning" in World of Warcraft for you. Personally i don't consider the game won, until the current tier has been cleared on Mythic. Others will be content with heroic. Some don't even go past one clear of LFR. Others may choose high pvp ratings as winning, or high M+ score as winning even. Or perhaps collecting every mount,pet, or achievement is what will win the game. Really hard to say for sure since WoW can't really be won in any one way for everyone. To me WoW is not p2w, because i don't see it being practical for anyone to dish out $2,000 or 10million gold on a full mythic raid clear.

The advantage from them selling 385 Gear vs getting it from raids is that the gear is guaranteed if you buy it, but something you can spend weeks trying to farm if you don't.

[Hellfury]

Doesn't mater who if its Activision or not, the thing is that the suits are now in control of Blizzard

[Gadzooks]

Doesn't mater who if its Activision or not, the thing is that the suits are now in control of Blizzard

When were the "suits" not in control? When was this golden era of Blizzard gaming when they weren't a company?

[Stormspellz]

Activision never owned Blizzard, and Blizzard stated multiple times that Activision has no impact on their game development.

People just use Activision as a convenient scapegoat for anything they don't like.

also why is this in the classic subforum

Ever heard of public relations? Of course they aren't gonna go ya, the guys who are the majority holder of our merger is pressuring us to be me corporate streamlined.

[Kallisto]

Ever heard of public relations? Of course they aren't gonna go ya, the guys who are the majority holder of our merger is pressuring us to be me corporate streamlined.

What about the 100s that have come and gone since 2008? They have nothing to lose to say it's happening. Yet they all follow the same views.

[anon5123]

Ever heard of public relations? Of course they aren't gonna go ya, the guys who are the majority holder of our merger is pressuring us to be me corporate streamlined.

"ha they never went on record saying it's true, so it must be true because they're obviously lying!"

[Malikath]

Vivendi games merged with Activision's parent company Activision Inc.

Again. Blizzard and Activision never merged , their parent companies did.

bingo, if acti/bliz dies tomorrow activision and blizzard could follow bungie in separation.

[Echocho]

Does it matter WHY Blizzard became a greedy company?

[Malikath]

Does it matter WHY Blizzard became a greedy company?

yes, you have to at least autopsy the corpse.