Would you pay $21 dollars a month to change the biz model?

[Toijin]

What makes you think paying an extra $6 means we get to have a say on how the game is designed?

We have a say by subbing or NOT subbing. That's it. (or moan loudly on forums)

[Swnem]

My thought is that i pay 10.99 euros a month for FFXIV.

So, no. Not even close. They don't even deserve the 12.99 euros. It's such a bad game nowadays.

[Ringthane]

Why have to pay for WOW subscription at all nowadays? Servers are cheap and cost nothing to run. You literally pay 3x over for game content and get nothing on top of a 2-year box payment. So you pay 3 games worth content and get minimal reused stuff and think its acceptable at all to increase the price? No reason that the game has subs anymore other than you fools will pay for it. I make money off you guys regardless but this is just mind-blowing how foolish you guys truly are.

Ummm...

"Servers are cheap and cost nothing to run"?

There's reality, and then there's where you are.

The kind of servers Blizzard use to run WoW on are incredibly expensive to run. There's the servers themselves, and all the replacement parts to keep them running. You think a company like Blizzard is just going to sit around and wait for a new server to arrive when one goes down? No - I'm sure they have dozens in storage that they can roll out and get up and running in case of failures. Then there's the power costs - how much do you think it costs to run your computer 24/7/365? Well, multiply that by the dozens of server blades they have running. Then there's the bandwidth costs and internet costs to keep those servers online and delivering content to your computer. Not to mention the rent or mortgage payments on the buildings they're stored in, and the cost of the fire suppression systems, and the UPSes, and the other security features that keep them safe. And then there's the salaries of the people that build them, and run them, and keep them updated, and repair them when they fail...

This isn't your best friend running a Minecraft server in his basement, dude. This is an infrastructure. If servers are so cheap and cost so little to run, let's see you host a few at your house. Should be a piece of cake, right?

There's only one fool around here.

[zlygork]

The counter argument is what you would think if that extra $6 went into making content that you could play and work towards, rewarding those same shiny mounts/mogs.

Every item that's on the cash shop is one that could be a reward for actual in-game play instead of swiping the credit card. It's not even as though Blizzard needs the extra revenue to keep the game alive. It's purely, 100% exploiting whales for greed.

Tbh i have so many mounts that idgaf anymore. I ecen kinda feel they should start giving something else as cosmetic reward for stuff because I don't even feel motivated to get cool mounts. But it is a fair point nonetheless, if content came out more frequently, I'd be willing to consider a slight increase in price

[ArkantosChampion]

I wouldn't pay. The business model is perfect for me

[Merin]

The $15 hasn't increased but it's also a remnant of an era when servers cost something to maintain back before all these practices and models turned mainstream, so it's difficult to cite inflation when operating costs have decreased in conjunction.

Any increase wouldn't change anything.

[XDurionX]

Ummm...

"Servers are cheap and cost nothing to run"?

There's reality, and then there's where you are.

The kind of servers Blizzard use to run WoW on are incredibly expensive to run. There's the servers themselves, and all the replacement parts to keep them running. You think a company like Blizzard is just going to sit around and wait for a new server to arrive when one goes down? No - I'm sure they have dozens in storage that they can roll out and get up and running in case of failures. Then there's the power costs - how much do you think it costs to run your computer 24/7/365? Well, multiply that by the dozens of server blades they have running. Then there's the bandwidth costs and internet costs to keep those servers online and delivering content to your computer. Not to mention the rent or mortgage payments on the buildings they're stored in, and the cost of the fire suppression systems, and the UPSes, and the other security features that keep them safe. And then there's the salaries of the people that build them, and run them, and keep them updated, and repair them when they fail...

This isn't your best friend running a Minecraft server in his basement, dude. This is an infrastructure. If servers are so cheap and cost so little to run, let's see you host a few at your house. Should be a piece of cake, right?

There's only one fool around here.

While i agree with the "servers aren't cheap"-part, it's neither the "extra parts" nor the power nor the internet connection that makes them expensive. It's the people running them 24/7/365 and solving problems within mere minutes. I bet more than 80% of Blizzards infrastructure costs are for staff. Every outage costs a lot of money, and people resolving them do too. Source: I work in a huge data centre.

[Popastique]

Optional shop cosmetics do not scare me, so no.

[Bryntrollian]

I honestly wouldn't pay Blizz another red cent

[Knaar]

With all the stuff that gets added in the store, they should lower the price to 10$ instead.

And about servers, they should really start fusing the very low pop servers, they culd probably cut 30+ servers just like that.

[SirCowdog]

Tbh i have so many mounts that idgaf anymore. I ecen kinda feel they should start giving something else as cosmetic reward for stuff because I don't even feel motivated to get cool mounts. But it is a fair point nonetheless, if content came out more frequently, I'd be willing to consider a slight increase in price

Exactly. It doesn't even necessarily have to be mounts. The art team could make different colors for existing gear, or new xmogs, or dances. Whatever.

The point being that it's something players could be playing the game to unlock instead of swiping the CC.

And before anyone says it: the gold token is a cop out. Yes, it's nice that it's there as an option. But really we should be seeing specific rewards tied to specific accomplishments instead of hardcore gold grinding.

[ErrandRunner]

Calm down, no need to throw a tantrum!

I'm completely aware of that, it's just that at the moment I / we are talking about Blizzard :P

Blizzard Defence Force employees are rather adamant about protecting the reputation of their employer.

[ErrandRunner]

I believe a lot of people - especially those with an unhealthy relationship with the game - actually would continue to play even if it went up to $21. It's one thing to not want to play on principle because you disagree with the increase, but for 95% of people having to pay $6 more a month would not mean their banks have been broken.

[La]

...So you want to increase the price everyone pays because of optional items people buy? You're making a lot of assumptions based on what that would do for the game. Some people really can't get it out of their heads that MTX aren't evil.

[Camelboy]

Yeah please no. I'd rather pay for p2w mtx. They should start selling gear. WQs are so boring.

ilvl 440 gear set for 150$? Sure. I'd pay that.

[horbindr]

I'd have paid a $1 increase every few years (say every expansion or every other expansion), i'd have bought the inflation excuse especially early on when i liked the game a lot more. Todays me would just say: a lot of your costs have gone down over the years, and many of your costs don't scale with more customers, so you don't need to raise the price, if you had any competition you would have lowered your prices.

but a $6 increase overnight? no way.

and if they did, you know what would come next right? "cause a undisclosed amount of people quit the game because of a recent inflation adjustment, were selling another mount!". no way they would actually change their business model.

- - - Updated - - -

Ummm...

"Servers are cheap and cost nothing to run"?

There's reality, and then there's where you are.

The kind of servers Blizzard use to run WoW on are incredibly expensive to run. There's the servers themselves, and all the replacement parts to keep them running. You think a company like Blizzard is just going to sit around and wait for a new server to arrive when one goes down? No - I'm sure they have dozens in storage that they can roll out and get up and running in case of failures. Then there's the power costs - how much do you think it costs to run your computer 24/7/365? Well, multiply that by the dozens of server blades they have running. Then there's the bandwidth costs and internet costs to keep those servers online and delivering content to your computer. Not to mention the rent or mortgage payments on the buildings they're stored in, and the cost of the fire suppression systems, and the UPSes, and the other security features that keep them safe. And then there's the salaries of the people that build them, and run them, and keep them updated, and repair them when they fail...

This isn't your best friend running a Minecraft server in his basement, dude. This is an infrastructure. If servers are so cheap and cost so little to run, let's see you host a few at your house. Should be a piece of cake, right?

There's only one fool around here.

sure it costs a lot, but i think in relative terms it cost less then it did 10-15 years ago.

they can get better scale discounts now, costs for data transfer have gone down, the costs are spread between multiple IPs not just wow, they probably don't need to take out a loan to buy extra servers now, they have more experience and automation every year, datacenters are bigger and more efficient, etc.

[owbu]

No, I prefer the current model, as long as the quality of the in-game mounts and pets stays BFA great instead of going back to wod abysmal

[WowIsDead64]

One thing that does not get brought up much in talking about WoW's business model is that the sub fee has not changed since launch. It has always been $15 dollars. (with some scaling due to buy more save more pricing)

A question I have is would you, and by extension enough people, be willing to pay $21 dollars today to steer the business model back towards the path it was in the years of launch, less cash shop items and less token sale driving efforts in game...hypothetically allowing those efforts to go back into outright game development. Hard to say the direct impact that it would have on actual gameplay, but presumably it would change the in-game economics and some of the motivators and world design/development due to no longer having the cash shop and freeing up a small team of devs to go back to actual game rewards/quests/things.

$21 dollars is, rounding up, the value of 2004 $15 today.


One thing I do not think many who complain about cash shop items consider is that they are taking in the same sub money, but the production costs have skyrocketed during the years due to many factors, not to mention the overall sub level has dropped considerably - with momentary spikes up again. The cash shop is part of what has kept that fee at $15.

Thoughts.

Overall idea is good, but we need some guarantees, that Bobby won't put this money to his wallet the same way, he puts $15.

You know. What is good for player =/= what is good for Blizzard. We want game, we play and pay for, to become better. But Blizzard want to be more successful business instead. And in this case they can sacrifice one game to make another one, that would widen their auditory and bring them more money. And may be this will make their company more healthy in a long term. But when will we get our dividends from it? In 2 years? In 4 years? In 10 years? When will money from other games be returned back to where they have been taken from?

So, no. Idea of premium sub is good, but only if players would be able to invest money directly into development of content, they actually play. And, I guess, it will never happen.

[styil]

Where has the "$15 a month is nothing, you can't even buy a lunch with that" and the "$15 for hundreds of hours of entertainment" crowd gone?

[Sangfoudre]

I don't give a crap about mounts/pets/xmogs or whatever is sold that has no impact save for appearance.
In 6 years of active subbing, I bought a charity pet and a faction transfer.
I've got friends who buy every mount/pet available and that make them happy so imho, the model is fine.