Charging $35 for a character copy is why people say Blizzard is greedy

[Low Hanging Fruit]

no, because i actually made a case for why it's not too high, in addition to defining what 'high' even is and what is or isn't 'too high' in this instance.
you did none of those things, and then just repeated your claim - which is fine, if all you have is an appeal to emotion and you're incapable or unwilling of articulating a rational point you're allowed to do that, i was just establishing if we can't actually have a conversation because you're simply an animal grunting in a knee-jerk response to stimuli without cause or understanding.

not that it matters since they changed the price point anyways, which i figured they would do - since the service wasn't even live yet, "announce the price point high and judge the public reaction" is a bog standard tactic.

i'm glad that people who were upset about it, had a fit, and that they changed the price because of it.

You are damn right I was unwilling to accept 35 bucks as a reasonable price point and I wasn't going to be walked into accepting it. Oh, and of course you saw it all along. Of course it is an obvious tactic. Of course you weren't making that point when people were upset about the price point. Instead you were poking people upset about it. The people that were working to make the change that happened.

[scelero]

aren't you supposed to enjoy the game that you're paying for?

i dont get it. why pay for the game and then pay to not have to play the game?

Who said I didn't enjoy playing the game, I'm happy to pay them to boost my character. So logic would tell you that I don't play for the leveling experience and instead like what I do at max level. I also don't pvp or do dailies. I like raiding and 5 mans. Every game has this aspect of it, even down to something like Call of Duty, there's a multiplayer option in which I don't use, but I will play Zombies. To each their own.

Where do you work that you can just decide to turn your free time into more work time and get paid more in that week/month?

Lets look at this from a realistic standpoint, it would take me a few weeks to put in that much time into a game to do something I do not enjoy doing while playing the game. Like I said, I enjoy end game content, not the leveling experience. Yeah I said 3 days 20 hours was the fastest leveling recod, but who plays for 4 days straight, it would be over several weeks. And during that time there's PLENTY of time to put that much time in at work. It's as if you've never been a good worker and have free reign to work as many hours as you want. In reality if I work extra hours I get paid 27 dollars an hour so I could literally take an hour and a half of my free time to make that 40 bucks instead. It's a win-win. My job got some more work done, and I get to play the game closer to the aspect I enjoy playing, which is end game. I get I'll have to level to 70, but 58 to 70 is way better than 1-70.

It's sad that you guys will claw at anything to try and bring down something so simple and logical for someone like me. I was presenting why I am ok with it, not why you should be ok with it in your world. In my world, it's a cash grab for me 100%.

If you can't put yourself in my situation and see that 89 minutes of me working is better than spending 92 hours leveling in a game, I don't know what to tell you. I gain way more free time this way.

- - - Updated - - -

What I want is really no different than what you want, which is to not level another character to level 60. What you think cause you did it once already you somehow deserve it more than me who hasn't? Get a grip on life.

[Wuusah]

Who said I didn't enjoy playing the game, I'm happy to pay them to boost my character. So logic would tell you that I don't play for the leveling experience and instead like what I do at max level. I also don't pvp or do dailies. I like raiding and 5 mans. Every game has this aspect of it, even down to something like Call of Duty, there's a multiplayer option in which I don't use, but I will play Zombies. To each their own.



Lets look at this from a realistic standpoint, it would take me a few weeks to put in that much time into a game to do something I do not enjoy doing while playing the game. Like I said, I enjoy end game content, not the leveling experience. Yeah I said 3 days 20 hours was the fastest leveling recod, but who plays for 4 days straight, it would be over several weeks. And during that time there's PLENTY of time to put that much time in at work. It's as if you've never been a good worker and have free reign to work as many hours as you want. In reality if I work extra hours I get paid 27 dollars an hour so I could literally take an hour and a half of my free time to make that 40 bucks instead. It's a win-win. My job got some more work done, and I get to play the game closer to the aspect I enjoy playing, which is end game. I get I'll have to level to 70, but 58 to 70 is way better than 1-70.

It's sad that you guys will claw at anything to try and bring down something so simple and logical for someone like me. I was presenting why I am ok with it, not why you should be ok with it in your world. In my world, it's a cash grab for me 100%.

If you can't put yourself in my situation and see that 89 minutes of me working is better than spending 92 hours leveling in a game, I don't know what to tell you. I gain way more free time this way.

I don't care. I was just asking where you are working that you can just decide to turn your free time into more work time and get that overtime actually paid. Most people don't live that kind of life where they can put a monetary value on their free time because they can't just turn that free time into money by working more. If you do live that kind of life and have such a nice job, then that's great. I don't really care how you spend that money. It's yours after all.

[kukkamies]

In reality if I work extra hours I get paid 27 dollars an hour so I could literally take an hour and a half of my free time to make that 40 bucks instead.

That's a really nice job. I'm pretty much median and make around 20 euros an hour with very limited overtime capabilities. At least the job is easy and can use almost half of worktime not working currently after finishing days things.
Don't think most jobs give you an option to work paid overtime anytime you want?

[Erous]

What's funny to me is that you have your $35 to clone your character that you've been spending $15 for months to play"

You mean, pay $35 to keep an older version of the game, your character and the engine running so you can continue to play said older, dated version of the game, while also playing the newer, older version of the game you asked for. No expansion ever has allowed you to play both. You're essentially paying to keep Vanilla Classic alive.

[Prag]

Why shouldn't it be free? You people do realize that something like this is a script that runs instantly? The word copy suggests it's a file being copied which last I remember costs nothing on my computer. I copy files all the time and you don't see Microsoft charging me a fee.

You suggesting that character copy should have a fee isn't too far off from white knighting.

Your lack of technical understanding in what’s involved in running these scripts at scale makes your attempt at correcting that poster worthless. You’re the WoW version of Karen the Anti-Vaxxer.

Tip: it ain’t a copy paste. It’s not at all like duplicating a file on your computer. Upload a file to an Azure server and see if they don’t charge you to duplicate it.

Is $35 a fair price? Probably not. A few bucks would cover the costs and margin.

[kukkamies]

Your lack of technical understanding in what’s involved in running these scripts at scale makes your attempt at correcting that poster worthless. You’re the WoW version of Karen the Anti-Vaxxer.

Tip: it ain’t a copy paste. It’s not at all like duplicating a file on your computer.

Is $35 a fair price? Probably not. A few bucks would cover the costs and margin.

I don't believe it costs even few bucks. Maybe few cents? There are A LOT of free copies with PTR's, betas and the free character transfers to lower pop realms.

How much do you think making a new character on a realm costs? I don't think this is much more than that. Make character and copy name, level, gear, bank, mail etc.

[Prag]

I don't believe it costs even few bucks. Maybe few cents? There are A LOT of free copies with PTR's, betas and the free character transfers to lower pop realms.

How much do you think making a new character on a realm costs? I don't think this is much more than that. Make character and copy name, level, gear, bank, mail etc.

Oh for sure, it’s gotta be cheap. Not familiar with their PTR infrastructure but I have to assume it’s a similar process in a sandbox-type environment. The free transfers I think are just a business cost - eat the cost to keep people playing/happy/general realm health.

Adding a cost for the elective service is a good way to keep costs lower. If it were free, they’d be duplicating their obligations in maintaining characters for people who have no intention of playing them again.

and FWIW, I have no objections to people not liking the price, but to come in and say "It should be free cuz I can copy/paste on my computer" is just laughable

[Kralljin]

You're essentially paying to keep Vanilla Classic alive.

This ignores that you can choose to leave your character on Classic without any fee and Blizzard straight up said after they announced Classic: It's okay if only 10 people continue to play Classic, so the cost on Blizzards end for keeping Classic servers running is very low.

[TheFirstOnes]

...and everything else in capitalism. But you can all chill the fuck out..due to feedback, they lowered it to 15 dollars.

Though I am sure that doesn't change a thing for some.

God I love it, how ever the most obvious things piss people off. Never thought "if you disagree with a company policy, just don't buy from that company" could annoy people. But these are the times and addiction to a game is apparently strong. As strong as to smoking and alcohol etc.

"It should be free". When something is free I am sure we will see threads like: "Now they let the riff-raff in"

Whoa, 15 dollars...

Still costs money, when fuckin PTR's do this shit for free. "BUT IT'S A PTR" and this is Classic...not fuckin Retail. Classic.

""It should be free". When something is free I am sure we will see threads like: "Now they let the riff-raff in""

And the people that make those threads are wrong? What's the point?

I'm personally on the mind set that Character Copies or shit like Boosting shouldn't fucking exist to begin with, but whatever. Corporate sellouts have to pander to the shareholders and casuals, I guess.

- - - Updated - - -

This isn't even me being rurde. This is legit just me wondering why tf they're adding paid services to Classic, especially Classic TBC, when the whole point of Classic was for us to go back to a time where none of that shit existed. Hell, that's kinda why Classic WoW's so successful.

[Vash The Stampede]

You mean, pay $35 to keep an older version of the game, your character and the engine running so you can continue to play said older, dated version of the game, while also playing the newer, older version of the game you asked for. No expansion ever has allowed you to play both. You're essentially paying to keep Vanilla Classic alive.

Excuse me but I've been playing on private servers for a while so I'm not sure how this works. Is Blizzard going to convert all vanilla classic servers for TBC? Are there going to be servers running so people can continue to experience Classic Vanilla WoW? When you say "older dated version" it suggests that there won't be any Vanilla servers running. No expansion has allowed you to play both but doesn't everyone understand that's retarded? There's nothing stopping Blizzard from running multiple servers other than greed. Private servers don't have a problem with this, and they don't charge a fee to copy a character.

- - - Updated - - -

Your lack of technical understanding in what’s involved in running these scripts at scale makes your attempt at correcting that poster worthless. You’re the WoW version of Karen the Anti-Vaxxer.

Look at this genius here. Hey Bob, private servers have been doing it for free for years. Go Karen anti-vax explain that to me.

Tip: it ain’t a copy paste. It’s not at all like duplicating a file on your computer. Upload a file to an Azure server and see if they don’t charge you to duplicate it.

I'm pretty sure it is. Pretty sure they're going to transfer your character to TBC for free. They don't have to delete the Vanilla character file. They can just copy it over with zero effort.

Is $35 a fair price? Probably not. A few bucks would cover the costs and margin.

Now I remember why I stopped posting here. You're all a bunch of corporate trolls who promote micro-transactions. You're the reason why people wanted to go classic in the first place because Retail WoW when to grinding micro-transaction hell.

[Erous]

Excuse me but I've been playing on private servers for a while so I'm not sure how this works. Is Blizzard going to convert all vanilla classic servers for TBC? Are there going to be servers running so people can continue to experience Classic Vanilla WoW? When you say "older dated version" it suggests that there won't be any Vanilla servers running. No expansion has allowed you to play both but doesn't everyone understand that's retarded? There's nothing stopping Blizzard from running multiple servers other than greed. Private servers don't have a problem with this, and they don't charge a fee to copy a character.

O I C. I wasn't going to post this because I was thinking to myself "it would be harsh for me to think these are all private server players that think because they circumvented trademark rules and illegally played world of warcraft that they feel they are entitled to something actual players never had." Thank you so much for proving that I shouldn't feel bad stating the obvious.

[deniter]

Why shouldn't it be free? You people do realize that something like this is a script that runs instantly? The word copy suggests it's a file being copied which last I remember costs nothing on my computer. I copy files all the time and you don't see Microsoft charging me a fee.

Exactly my thoughts. Even the metaphore was the same i had in mind.

What next? Classic Diablo and 1 cent for each LMB click?

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Good change. $35 was disgusting and anyone defending that is a corporate shill.

Got to agree. Now we get to see everyone of them spin hardcore into the "I always knew" , "this is standard proceedure" , "and it never mattered to me anyway" zone after machine gunning support for a 35 dollar script charge and how people thinking it was too high were some how the greedy unreasonable ones.

[Prag]

Look at this genius here. Hey Bob, private servers have been doing it for free for years. Go Karen anti-vax explain that to me.

It’s not free, which is why the big ones have paid services and rely on donations.

I'm pretty sure it is. Pretty sure they're going to transfer your character to TBC for free. They don't have to delete the Vanilla character file. They can just copy it over with zero effort.

It literally isn’t. For one, your character isn’t a FILE, it (and it’s historical information) are data objects that have to persist in (now) multiple databases.

Now I remember why I stopped posting here. You're all a bunch of corporate trolls who promote micro-transactions. You're the reason why people wanted to go classic in the first place because Retail WoW when to grinding micro-transaction hell.

I’m not promoting shit, I’m telling you that you are making inaccurate claims to support a “it should be free” stance.

Again, private servers have added their own transactions because at some point (see: at scale) it grows beyond just a hobbyist amount of money to maintain.

[keelr]

Good change. $35 was disgusting and anyone defending that is a corporate shill.

This change doesnt mean everything and everyone spitting at everything Blizzard does is a reverse-shill.

[Lochton]

Even if prices are reduced, people will complain.

Once the Classic project was activated, you knew there would be things tied to it.

[HansOlo]

Before you complain - please go throu these:

1)Do you KNOW why they need 35$(try to ignore Bobbys paycheck - maybe because they need to allocate more staff)?
2)Do you KNOW the consequences - if they don't generate that money(could it be that they have to quit some other projects or services)?
3)Do you KNOW if they are actually greedy - or just a buisness - such as Microsoft or Apple - if so, why are Blizzard something so bad?

If you don't atleast go throu these - you just going to sound like loser with no perspective in buisness - yet critizing it.

[Vash The Stampede]

O I C. I wasn't going to post this because I was thinking to myself "it would be harsh for me to think these are all private server players that think because they circumvented trademark rules and illegally played world of warcraft that they feel they are entitled to something actual players never had." Thank you so much for proving that I shouldn't feel bad stating the obvious.

Firstly, you should thank private servers because if it wasn't for Nostalrius then you wouldn't have classic WoW. Secondly, I own my copy of WoW. I still have the box with CD's or DVD's. I haven't opened that box in a while, but I do own the game. Also I spent what added up to be over $2k since 2004, so I don't have any remorse for what you consider to be circumvented trademark rules. Thirdly, you could learn a lot from how private servers function. Might teach you how Blizzard does it.

It’s not free, which is why the big ones have paid services and rely on donations.

More importantly is I didn't pay. There's a huge difference in having a small group of people running a server compared to Blizzard who writes every expense they pay off on their taxes. Activation Blizzard didn't pay any taxes in 2018.

It literally isn’t. For one, your character isn’t a FILE, it (and it’s historical information) are data objects that have to persist in (now) multiple databases.

SQL databases to be exact. But it's still a file or bunch of files sitting on computers. There isn't a guy named Dave sitting at these things manually entering your data from one Realm to another. It's still a script executed automatically.

I’m not promoting shit, I’m telling you that you are making inaccurate claims to support a “it should be free” stance.

Again, private servers have added their own transactions because at some point (see: at scale) it grows beyond just a hobbyist amount of money to maintain.

But you don't know what you're talking about. Many online games function just fine without the need of a steady stream of income. Guild Wars gets along just fine without a monthly fee, though they did add micro-transactions. Also yes a lot of private servers have micro-transactions but not all of them, and not because they need the money to keep the server going. A little known private server had broken a rule by selling things in game and they were quickly separated because of this reason. People who know, will know what I'm talking about.

Pretty obvious that classic content is popular and Blizzard has started to break some unspoken rules. The monthly fee alone is more than enough to pay for all the things needed for server maintenance, including server copying and transfers. If it isn't then why the hell am I paying the fee for?

- - - Updated - - -

Before you complain - please go throu these:

1)Do you KNOW why they need 35$(try to ignore Bobbys paycheck - maybe because they need to allocate more staff)?

Bobby Cotex's paycheck is hard to ignore. I'm not the only one saying this, but Investment group says Activision CEO Bobby Kotick gets paid too much.

2)Do you KNOW the consequences - if they don't generate that money(could it be that they have to quit some other projects or services)?

Am I using those other said projects or services? If not then why should I care? Not that I care for future Blizzard Activision projects as they'll be some awful online game that's full of micro-transactions. Or worse, mobile games.

3)Do you KNOW if they are actually greedy - or just a buisness - such as Microsoft or Apple - if so, why are Blizzard something so bad?

Trick question, all businesses are greedy. This is capitalism which the only goal is money. No business exists to be a charity. The question is will this hurt Blizzard's bottom line? Kinda.. maybe? We've said this about Word of Warcraft for years and nobody thought anything about it, until half of the player base goes missing this early in Shadowlands expansion. TBC is set in stone and is hard to screw up what's already a finished and well received product. After WOTLK classic is released is when Blizzard's greed will get the better of them... again.

Blizzard wouldn't release TBC now to cannibalize Shadowlands unless Shadowlands was doing poorly. Let me know when future Blizzard products are worth it for me to pay attention to.

If you don't atleast go throu these - you just going to sound like loser with no perspective in buisness - yet critizing it.

I did and you're still wrong. Where's my cookie?

[Prag]

More importantly is I didn't pay. There's a huge difference in having a small group of people running a server compared to Blizzard who writes every expense they pay off on their taxes. Activation Blizzard didn't pay any taxes in 2018.

I'm not surprised that Blizzard/ATVI didn't pay taxes. There's a laundry list of companies that do this, and it's not a good thing IMO. That said, it doesn't preclude them from charging for their services.

SQL databases to be exact. But it's still a file or bunch of files sitting on computers. There isn't a guy named Dave sitting at these things manually entering your data from one Realm to another. It's still a script executed automatically.

The last I had seen, they used a hosted NoSQL service but who the fuck knows how outdated that is. Either way, hosted DB's aren't cheap, scaling is expensive, and if the clone were free they'd basically be accepting that scaling cost for people who have little/no intention of actually playing. $35 was too much, hell, $15 should still cover ALL characters, but whatever.

And the script(s) you're referencing require compute cycles, which cost money.

But you don't know what you're talking about. Many online games function just fine without the need of a steady stream of income. Guild Wars gets along just fine without a monthly fee, though they did add micro-transactions. Also yes a lot of private servers have micro-transactions but not all of them, and not because they need the money to keep the server going. A little known private server had broken a rule by selling things in game and they were quickly separated because of this reason. People who know, will know what I'm talking about.

Pretty obvious that classic content is popular and Blizzard has started to break some unspoken rules. The monthly fee alone is more than enough to pay for all the things needed for server maintenance, including server copying and transfers. If it isn't then why the hell am I paying the fee for?

You literally just listed examples of either games that don't charge but have an abundance of micro-transactions, or private servers that grew and started offering services. I'm not sure if you're trying to help make my point, but thanks?

Anyone thinking there are "unspoken rules" with Blizzard and Classic is just naive. The same people responsible for the state of Retail's "value added services" are making decisions on Classic. If people came back to Classic under the current Blizzard thinking they were "Indie Again", I've got a bridge to sell them.