WoW is a subscription game - why employ scummy F2P tactics?

[Powerogue]

I should really start counting every person in this forum that defends vulpera and happens to have an animalistic avatar. It's almost as if it isn't obvious.

I mean at least you're right, I am absolutely rolling a vulpera because they're adorable as heck and I have a massive weakness to that, same reason I watch that amazing kid's show.

In 8.3 I will be happily riding a vulpera on a big fluffy alpaca. Where will you be?

[Kataroku]

There comes a time in every product's lifecycle where the marketing department officially takes over and begins to strategize how best to monetize it.

Marketing people are going to do what they do: come up with new ways to make the company money. So long as they're helping to turn a profit over last year's, life's good. Can't blame these guys for not caring about how the player feels. They'll use every trick in the book to separate players from their money.

Things will only change if the company suddenly starts losing money, and that won't be any time soon.

[Depakote]

Because I like money and to spend it on things? Why pay for the price of a AAA game title when I can do it myself and buy the game? Or order myself a couple pizzas to periodically eat while I level said character?

Other than being faster what does it do? It doesn't affect you...doesn't affect me...

It might inflate wow's economy. How i'm not exactly sure how to put into words.

[Exkrementor]

how does that actually hurt the game though? people who don't want to level don't have to and lose out on all the stuff you get while leveling like golds world drops ect.

It hurts the game when Blizzard makes the leveling hard and long and boring on purpose to sell more boosts which you could make a case for these days. But they promise to make leveling better in shadowlands so I am like 50/50 on that.

[KaPe]

I should really start counting every person in this forum that defends vulpera and happens to have an animalistic avatar. It's almost as if it isn't obvious.

Damn, I guess you won't be counting me then. Did you do the same thing back when Draenei were introduced? Surely the goat people were also being defended by posters with animalistic avatars? Well, I can see you weren't active poster back then, but surely you were raging at Blizzard in private, at least?

Hell, you should probably head to FF14 forums - they have cat girls *and* cat boys, which should make you even angrier than Vulpera. And probably even more animalistic avatars, they clearly need your rage to set them straight.

It hurts the game when Blizzard makes the leveling hard and long and boring on purpose to sell more boosts which you could make a case for these days. But they promise to make leveling better in shadowlands so I am like 50/50 on that.

So you do admit they're making the levelling easier in Shadowlands, which, by your logic, would cut directly into their profits. And yet you claim they made the levelling long and boring on purpose? They'd *never* rework it if that was the case - it's both a ton of work *and* less sales. Lose lose situation, according to your logic.

Instead, realize that's simply how levelling works if they keep adding extra levels with each new expansion. Eventually, it becomes too much and needs a major rework - which is exactly what we're getting. Selling boosts is certainly beneficial to them, but not the primary goal in itself. The rework is simply that complex... which we already saw back when they introduced scaling and it broke many things. Or how some people kept complaining about Cataclysm "wasting" development time on reworking the old world. Or people complaining about being unable to solo old raids, even though it was directly stated to be possible, but raging > reading.

[Halicia]

It hurts the game when Blizzard makes the leveling hard and long and boring on purpose to sell more boosts which you could make a case for these days. But they promise to make leveling better in shadowlands so I am like 50/50 on that.

I'd argue that gouging for server/faction transfers has been *FAR* more damaging than level boosts. While its a shame what Rift apparently turned into, they at least did transfers right.

[Raugnaut]

At least a year if not two. This is a scummy move designed purely to shit on achievement collectors and get them to resubscribe for 8.2 and scramble to get those achievements in a mad frenzy.

So, basically you want them to announce the removal of content in roughly the same timeframe as the ENTIRE lifespan of an expansion? Get real.

Note that Blizz has specifically stated that the Deepwind Gorge achieve is remaining, they are merely removing 2 achieves limited to the previous version and adding 2 acheives dealing with the new version. Also, where were you when they decided to completely remove Strand of the Ancients with basically NO warning or official post on it?

[Mojo03]

The game should legit be free to play at this point. It’s not worth $15 a month by any stretch.

[Lollis]

Because of shareholders.

[Vynestra]

because if they want to support the game at the current pace they need to make money from multiple different ways?

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The game should legit be free to play at this point. It’s not worth $15 a month by any stretch.

Do you know how much man power is put into the game to keep it at the quality it is?

Theres a reason no other game has ever replicated the success wow has had.

[Nzx]

I'm talking about utter crap like:
-store mounts
-character boosts
-"get this now before it's too late and we arbitrarily remove it"
-purchasable cosmetics
-whale targeting
-cute fox people

I mean yeah sure it allows Activi$$ion Bill$$ard to rake in more money but it damages the integrity of the game. You'd expect to see crap like this in games like League of Legends and all of those billions of mobile "clash of clashes" clones. Not a monthly-sub based game like WoW.

Listen up, Kotick. If you want to suck $$$ out of your hapless victims then by all means do so but do it in a separate mobile game that is clearly designed to bleed the whales dry. Leave WoW alone and let us have our fantasy RPG.

Half-hourly "why does business that exists to make money try to make money >" MMOC thread has been posted I see

e:

The game should legit be free to play at this point. It’s not worth $15 a month by any stretch.

Also fucking lol at this. People really out here paying $80 for a 25-40 hour long game that you play once and never again and giving it a 9/10 while ~$180 a year (at most, less if you bulk sub) for a game that gives you 48 hours+ per character of story and literally thousands of hours of other content "isn't worth it". Just quit then you absolute mince, the game doesn't revolve around you.

[glowpipe]

Character boosts hurt the game quite a bit tbh. Just think about it. Why should anyone play through the content of an expansion when they can just drop 60$ or whatever it costs and get to max level?

how does that hurt the game ? You can't skip the current expansion and no one is playing the older ones. They skip old content no one playes and forcing players to go though inactive content makes players quit and that hurt the game more

[korijenkins]

they do it because they can and because for the most part it doesn't hurt the game in any way.

Once again, someone doesn't understand the root problem.

Every person they have designing, modeling, or animating the store mounts is a person not working on the same for a raid, a boss, or even mounts we can earn in-game.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

It hurts the game when Blizzard makes the leveling hard and long and boring on purpose to sell more boosts which you could make a case for these days. But they promise to make leveling better in shadowlands so I am like 50/50 on that.

It's a good thing they haven't done that then. leveling is still easy and fast even without the shadowlands rework.

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Once again, someone doesn't understand the root problem.

Every person they have designing, modeling, or animating the store mounts is a person not working on the same for a raid, a boss, or even mounts we can earn in-game.

or mabye those people only work there at all because they work on store mounts and we wouldn't get any extra raid assets if the store wasn't there.

[grexly75]

Is anyone bitching about ff14s store at all? You know the one with a million cosmetics multiple types of boosts AND a cute catgirl and bunny race? You know since its like the only other big subscription MMO on the market......


Yall act like Blizzard forces people to pay for shit...


Lets go through points

-store mounts: hurts no one, not necessary for anything at most saves a one time gold purchase for a wyrven/griffin

Boosts- as much as people say it hurts the game....in reality there are max level people who run around having no idea how to play back in Vanilla....sooo they wanna pay the $60 to boost who cares...if Jonny 100 alts wants to skip the leveling process on alt 49 who cares, pugs suck no matter what sooner you accept that the better....also blizz doesnt force it

Whale content: wat....i mean other than some of the overpriced statues there really isnt a lot of whale content IN wow.....unless you mean people who drop a couple hundred on tokens which ...who cares

Very interesting point no one seems to whinge about the FFXIV store, yet they can't wait the wade in and lambaste the WoW store..

[Mojo03]

Half-hourly "why does business that exists to make money try to make money >" MMOC thread has been posted I see

e:


Also fucking lol at this. People really out here paying $80 for a 25-40 hour long game that you play once and never again and giving it a 9/10 while ~$180 a year (at most, less if you bulk sub) for a game that gives you 48 hours+ per character of story and literally thousands of hours of other content "isn't worth it". Just quit then you absolute mince, the game doesn't revolve around you.

I don’t blame them. If I had idiots like you as my demographic I’d charge it too.

[grexly75]

FFXIV has a massive cash shop, they're a sub game.
Idk any other sub games to compare.

Which I find curious, they give crap to Blizzard for putting a in game shop for WoW, yet don't seem to give two hoots when Square Enix do it with FFXIV..

[Neuroticaine]

I legitimately can't think of ANY MMORPG that is subscription based in which the subscription is the end-all-be-all. Literally every other Subscription-based MMORPG I can think of that is worth playing still has a cash shop for services and cosmetics. Don't single Blizzard out, it's a much bigger problem than that.

[grexly75]

I'm talking about utter crap like:
-store mounts
-character boosts
-"get this now before it's too late and we arbitrarily remove it"
-purchasable cosmetics
-whale targeting
-cute fox people

I mean yeah sure it allows Activi$$ion Bill$$ard to rake in more money but it damages the integrity of the game. You'd expect to see crap like this in games like League of Legends and all of those billions of mobile "clash of clashes" clones. Not a monthly-sub based game like WoW.

Listen up, Kotick. If you want to suck $$$ out of your hapless victims then by all means do so but do it in a separate mobile game that is clearly designed to bleed the whales dry. Leave WoW alone and let us have our fantasy RPG.

Have a question are Blizzard holding you at gunpoint forcing you to buy from the shop?

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Its Activision, they will always try to milk it is in their nature.

Try any gaming company, not just Activision..

[Lolites]

The game should legit be free to play at this point. It’s not worth $15 a month by any stretch.

thats not how this works...
for some of us it definitely is, if you dont want to pay it, quit