Game Time Changes

[Kyanion]

It seems it also allowed people to use the discount on the 6month option by buying it with in-game gold, which might also be a part of it.

Which has been a thing since you could buy tokens on the AH. Changing it now is just a bit silly.

[WowIsDead64]

"As of today, the Game Time options of 30, 90, and 180 days have been removed and Game Time is only available as a purchase of 60 Days."

Can anyone provide a logical reason for this change? Because on the surface, it doesn't look great.

Simple thing: many users are so lame, that they don't understand, that subscription means automatic payments every month and don't even know, how to cancel it.

[pinkz]

i knew a couple who played WOW from van wow thru MOP both accounts were subscription set up, in TBC for every 3 months the wife played the husband played 1 month, in WOTLK she played whole expac, he played maybe 5 months. in CATA they both played less than 5 months, MOP they did first 2 months only, yet where still subbed up to WOD. i recommended may times they canx their sub, but they always came back that they planned on returning and like $24 a month wasn't much.

they finally canceled when they had to get money and finances cleared up to get financing for a new home build.

ironiclly another mistake they made was a storage unit that they paid around $100 a month for 9 years to store 3 pieces of antique furniture, glass collection, and misc collectibles that were worth around $3000. they would have saved and made more money throwing it all away

[Chaotic1962]

This doesn't make sense though. Those who were buying six months in bulk because it was cheaper will now be buying one month at a time. People will no longer feel compelled to play for extended periods of time they paid for, so they will take a break whenever they want and as often as they want. This will result in them buying less game time on average which is counterproductive to Blizzard.

They will not be buying one month at a time because it will be 60 days minimum if you are using gold / tokens. If you are paying a SUBSCRIPTION You still have all the options available. Including the discounts for bulk.

[Hellobolis]

€25.98/60 = 0.433/day
€65.95/180 = 0.367/day

combined with no longer getting mounts if you buy 6 months non-sub time after the first mount they did, guess they really want to push people into subscriptions instead of one-time purchases. i suppose they want to exploit people who forget to cancel subs?

i always did one-time purchases since it was the same price, and every time i've had to actually subscribe to get a bonus i've always immediately cancelled the sub.

[AkundaMrdal]

This isnt anything to do with subs, just to be clear.

I said you can sub and cancel sub, which will do the same thing as 1 month game time, but with extra annoying step, not that this change affects sub in any way, just to be clear.
People who would buy 1 month game time and then stop playing, which a lot of people do after content patch, now they have to sub and a some of them will forget to cancel it and will have to pay for 2 or more months instead. It is just Blizzard scam.

[Azerox]

Funny enough i have been buying 1 month gametime every month.
So sad but meh ill just buy 60 days.

[Tiwack]

They wish to push players to sub at length instead of prepay a month at a time. I guess they can still do that with tokens but it's well-known that subs make more money as people forget or have them overrun for longer than they actually need.

[WowIsDead64]

I guess, it's also about saving quarterly report. Recently Blizzard started to constantly try to make players pay in advance, like they're struggling with money. Yeah, Mr. Kotick and his $200M laugh here. Like all that half-year sub mounts. And now they definitely want all players, who think, that they'll play anyway, to pay their sub fees in advance - by paying old prices.

Sorry, but this is big slap in a face for me. More than 200 employees are laid off. SL is bad. They lied about it being more alt-friendly and about all that choices. It doesn't have content. Xpack-wide Anima grind suggests, that future patches won't have it too or will be delayed. They refuse to fix it. I.e. if 9.1 is delayed, then at least fix Anima and give us flying. 9.1 won't have anything interesting. New raid, new M+ only dungeon, Maw 2.0. Just yesterday I had discussion with other players about simple fact, that sub fee no longer serves it's purpose. And what we have today? Local currency exchange ratio has been stable for about 1.5 years. There is no objective reason to change pricing model. But all of a sudden 30 days of game time option is now removed and sub fee is 18% more expensive, i.e. more expensive, than old 30 of game time without bulk discount. So what? They just try to compensate their losses via exploiting their players? Instead of actually fixing their game? Go to hell, Blizzard.

[Azerate]

Simple thing: many users are so lame, that they don't understand, that subscription means automatic payments every month and don't even know, how to cancel it.

There's a major difference between a fair sub model that tells you exactly what it does and is easily available to be cancelled in your account options and a scam mobile app that hides from you that you are even opting into a subscription of some sort...

[WowIsDead64]

There's a major difference between a fair sub model that tells you exactly what it does and is easily available to be cancelled in your account options and a scam mobile app that hides from you that you are even opting into a subscription of some sort...

You know, when you open BlizzStore at Wow tab, sub is always at top and game time is always at bottom. And they look like very similar. You need to read carefully to find difference between them. And for players, who pay via credit card anyway, there is no visual difference in payment process. Then you need to manually cancel it, if you aren't going to pay it next month or you doubt, that you will. And, I guess, many of them think, that they buy game time and don't even notice, that they're charged every month.

And what other reason for making buying game time less comfortable you can imagine? For Blizzard there shouldn't be any difference between this two. Or not? M?

[Big Thanks]

Why is no one bothered by this?
This is the stupidest change ever.

Now i must buy wow game time in BULKS? Fuck that. and fuck u blizzard

[czarek]

Why is no one bothered by this?
This is the stupidest change ever.

Now i must buy wow game time in BULKS? Fuck that. and fuck u blizzard

I think u can still buy 1m for gold.

[huth]

You know, when you open BlizzStore at Wow tab, sub is always at top and game time is always at bottom.

But they are very clearly labeled and explicitly tell you that the sub is a recurring payment. You're just trying to find fault where there is none.

[ParanoiD84]

Im sure they bet on people subbing and forgeting about it i have done so myself in the past and i know others that went like that for a year without actually playing, easy money for blizz.

[SirReal]

They wish to push players to sub at length instead of prepay a month at a time. I guess they can still do that with tokens but it's well-known that subs make more money as people forget or have them overrun for longer than they actually need.

It's also well known that many studies have shown that people prefer subs. While many do unknowingly/forgetfully re-sub, many more prefer the convenience of the auto sub. This isn't specific to WoW and I'm sure there's a sliding scale based on consumer demographics per product, but it's important to be real about the value of auto-subs.

[glowpipe]

There was a long writeup about this on reddit. Its just another change in the battle to remove bots. Bots do not sub, they buy gametime through tokens with gold they botted. Now this cuts heavily into their profits and being forced to buy 60 days on accounts that will be banned shortly for advertising etc instead of 30 days is a blow they need to consider

This is only for pre-paid gametime. Nothing changes for your subscription. you can still sub one month at the time if you want to

[WowIsDead64]

There was a long writeup about this on reddit. Its just another change in the battle to remove bots. Bots do not sub, they buy gametime through tokens with gold they botted. Now this cuts heavily into their profits and being forced to buy 60 days on accounts that will be banned shortly for advertising etc instead of 30 days is a blow they need to consider

This is only for pre-paid gametime. Nothing changes for your subscription. you can still sub one month at the time if you want to

This is another time, when they fail to deal with bots themselves and punish normal players instead, so it brings the question: what hurts players more - bots or Blizzards' faulty anti-bot measures? Not being able to buy game time isn't big problem for me, because I used credit card for it anyway. It's just extra step for me - to cancel my sub immediately. But unreasonable 18% sub cost increase, that comes with this change - isn't that good. Especially if we'd take into account current bad shape of this game and current good financial shape of AB. This is just dirty move and slap in a face.

[Sezerek]

You know, when you open BlizzStore at Wow tab, sub is always at top and game time is always at bottom. And they look like very similar. You need to read carefully to find difference between them. And for players, who pay via credit card anyway, there is no visual difference in payment process. Then you need to manually cancel it, if you aren't going to pay it next month or you doubt, that you will. And, I guess, many of them think, that they buy game time and don't even notice, that they're charged every month.

And what other reason for making buying game time less comfortable you can imagine? For Blizzard there shouldn't be any difference between this two. Or not? M?

You are reaching so hard with this nonsense, it is surreal.
You should just stop playing WoW and more importantly stop using this site, as you just come across as an addict that is unable to let go and needs to find reasons to hate everything.

[glowpipe]

Why is no one bothered by this?
This is the stupidest change ever.

Now i must buy wow game time in BULKS? Fuck that. and fuck u blizzard

if you farm gold for one month over the period of a month and pay for one month or if you farm gold for two months over a period of 2 months. Whats the problem here really ? it will be hard the first transition to get enough gold to buy the for 2 months. but after that. its no real difference. And if you don't like it, no one is forcing you to pay like this. You can still use a regular subscription and simply cancel it after the payment