Then you can happily be wrong I guess?
They've diversified and increased revenue from fewer players. During a bad year in WoD they made 800 million USD (from less than half of the 12 million peak) and the game's profits INCREASED in the years since it saw 12 million subs retained. What, you think they upped the team size between MoP and WoD because they made less money? You think they're literally announcing an increase to the resources put into the game because they expect to make less money or the game isn't making mad profits?
Please. And no, it's not just store mounts. It's a WoW token (Battle.net Balance), character services, pets, now toys, and to be expanded.
Last edited by Queen of Hamsters; 2019-08-10 at 09:07 PM.
no, but the fact is that you didn't have to be subscribed to beta test before.
why all of a sudden do we require a sub to beta test classic?
i can understand requiring a sub to play classic. but beta test?
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i didn't require a sub to beta test BFA or LEGION.
why do i need one to beta test classic?
i have no problem with requiring a sub to play classic when its live. but beta testing?
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why was i required to sub to beta test classic but not BFA or Legion?
I only subscribed for the classic beta I bet many players did like this .
I don't know their reasoning but you were not forced to do anything. They set the requirement of subbed players having access to the beta. You chose to activate your sub to test. You were not forced to do anything. You really sound like a child who doesn't understand how things work.
You sound like one of those people who excuses everything blizzard does.
Probably buy ea games too.
Fact. I didn't need to sub to beta test legion and bfa.
Fact. I was required to sub to beta test classic.
What's the difference? Oh different audiences and blizzard doing a cash grab for classic.
1) classic beta is over.
2) you had to sub to even have access to it. and that didn't guarantee access.
3) why did i require a sub for classic beta if i didn't need one for the last several expansions?
4) how is it not a cash grab when all of a sudden you require a sub for something you haven't required a sub for in the past?
I'm sorry but I feel I need to weigh in here.
I'm not trying to antagonize you but based on all of your responses so far you seem have an expectation that since something happened previously, it MUST happen at all points in the future as well and this is wrong. Just because they may have allowed you to test the betas for previous expansions does not mean they cannot change the standard and require a sub for future things.
And yes, you are totally correct, they are in fact looking at a group of people that do not play anymore and trying to get money of them for the classic beta. It's because they're a business, and like every business on earth they will want to make as much profit as they can as well as finding new ways to make even more. Business is greed, and the bigger the company, the more greedy they will get (and they don't get much more greedy than Activision/Blizzard).
For years they tried to stem the tides of people wanting to play WoW as it once was, they've tried for years to stop private servers, all to no avail. I'm sure one day at some meeting or other someone ultimately realized that they could create a larger revenue stream of subscribers by making a classic wow version and thereby bring back some or most (or all if they had their way) of the people that no longer play but instead play on private servers. Its win/win for them. They gain control of their IP again (in their mind at least despite the fact that private servers will most likely never go away), bring back people who want to play under the official banner and make even more money in the process.
So yeah. you're completely right, they're using you to make more money. I'm completely shocked as to why you can't understand it when you are literally answering your own question in your post.
I also fully expect them to go against their word and create an in game store as they have in retail which will offer the TCG items, it'll make them a fortune.
And before the classic purists come in with a defence of *NO CHANGES! I'd like to point out the truly unscrupulous business practices Activision is currently doing in it's Call of Duty franchise by offering overpowered weapons in loot boxes and manipulating the system. All in a game that they're attempting to make a viable and legitimate esport.
If you're at all interested in what I'm referring to, please look up YongYea on Youtube, he has a recent video on this very subject and you'll see the slippery slope WoW could be heading down.
*edited to correct spelling
Last edited by Chefjayman; 2019-08-11 at 03:26 PM.
Originally Posted by Yakusai
For one thing, Classic isn't an expansion. So it's not surprising they chose a different path for trying out the beta. And it's not a cash grab because anyone who was already actively subbed could have tried out the beta without giving any extra money to Blizzard. And folks who didn't have a sub had a chance to resub to try the beta if they wanted to. Both groups of people were the target demographic.
Only women's hoodies in the 15 year anniversary store? Seems strange?
More will probably be added as time goes on. They have three months to get more in there.
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Because they knew going into 2019 they had cashflow concerns, already. It's not shocking that they're coming up with new ways to monetize the game, when they knew the influx of classic players wouldn't be until late in the year. What's different about 2019? Oh, yeah - they aren't releasing any new games.
I'm actually kind of surprised they haven't required a sub for anything on the PTR, honestly. But maybe they know a lot of people use the PTR for a free version of WoW, and they didn't want to have the Classic test be more of that - people trying to play for free, and not offer feedback. By requiring a sub, they know the people there, want to be there?
But when you take a "Activision Blizzard are evil money grubbing bastards", everything is a conspiracy, I guess.
There might be some sour grapes in the mix as well (not you specifically, but the people still crying about the issue)