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  1. #241
    Stood in the Fire
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    I agree with you, why should we pay for that? we already pay a subscription and they BARELY give us content patches, ever..

    But the most disgraceful thing of all is that they use our subscription money to make games like Diablo and Starcraft.
    I have no interest in Diablo AT ALL , so why should my subscription money go to that? At least give those only interested in WoW a chance for a cheaper subscription.

  2. #242
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    Quote Originally Posted by Amnesty View Post
    It's a business, not a charity.
    Very well said sir.
    That is all.

  3. #243
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    Quote Originally Posted by sevenbug View Post
    That's a really good question I guess.

    Well, Customer service is not really impressive... since we can change our item if we do a mistake without telling it to a gm.


    Again, you're right. That's sad, really sad, but hey, blizzard is not our friend ;s

    MOP will came in something like 100 days.. and we don't have fresh content now ;/
    You don't rly know what you're saying, keeping over 200 realms UP cost ALOT, everything summed up is about 3 milion$ / month.

  4. #244
    Warchief godofslack's Avatar
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    Because Blizzard charges you for everything and anything. Blizzard uses an archaic method that maximizes profit for existing fans but also maximizes barrier to entry. WoW and it's business model was, mostly, thought out 10 years ago, and right now is way over priced. Servers are cheap enough to not charge for them anymore (from a MMO's perspective), but Blizzard still does it because they can. There is no justifiable reason why WoW charges you for everything when you factor in the resounding success of pay to play and free to play games lately. The only reason why Blizzard charges you for Server/Faction Transfers, Access to the Servers and Expansions and the core game is because they can. Only Blizzard can get away with these terrible business practices, and that's because they have a largely ignorant player base, and loyal fans.

  5. #245
    Immortal Frozen Death Knight's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by volar View Post
    I agree with you, why should we pay for that? we already pay a subscription and they BARELY give us content patches, ever..

    But the most disgraceful thing of all is that they use our subscription money to make games like Diablo and Starcraft.
    I have no interest in Diablo AT ALL , so why should my subscription money go to that? At least give those only interested in WoW a chance for a cheaper subscription.
    /Captain Pickard double handed facepalm

    This is like your freaking boss telling you not to spend money on stuff you want to spend it on after getting your salary. Do you really want to go down this route?

    Where the heck do you expect Blizzard to cough up millions of dollars in development costs for new games if they can not take it from WoW? Really, what the heck?
    Last edited by Frozen Death Knight; 2012-04-29 at 04:04 PM.

  6. #246
    The Patient Wulfstan's Avatar
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    Last time I checked Blizzard is a business. The main objective of a business it to make money, therefore I don't really understand why you're asking this question.

  7. #247
    Quote Originally Posted by godofslack View Post
    Because Blizzard charges you for everything and anything. Blizzard uses an archaic method that maximizes profit for existing fans but also maximizes barrier to entry. WoW and it's business model was, mostly, thought out 10 years ago, and right now is way over priced. Servers are cheap enough to not charge for them anymore (from a MMO's perspective), but Blizzard still does it because they can. There is no justifiable reason why WoW charges you for everything when you factor in the resounding success of pay to play and free to play games lately. The only reason why Blizzard charges you for Server/Faction Transfers, Access to the Servers and Expansions and the core game is because they can. Only Blizzard can get away with these terrible business practices, and that's because they have a largely ignorant player base, and loyal fans.
    Winner! Couldn't have said it better myself.

  8. #248
    Spam Assassin! MoanaLisa's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kelesis View Post
    I don't know why they don't just provide the expansions for free but charge more for the subscription. Maybe there is something good about the burst of revenue generated from the sale of an expansion.
    Strictly speaking from a marketing perspective, expansions are events. Big events.

    Objectively, to me and thee, they may be no more than giant patches but in fact, whole marketing campaigns are built around expansions. It's psychological more than anything although as a practical matter, expansions are different in the sense that you must purchase something to unlock more content.

  9. #249
    Immortal Frozen Death Knight's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by godofslack View Post
    Because Blizzard charges you for everything and anything. Blizzard uses an archaic method that maximizes profit for existing fans but also maximizes barrier to entry. WoW and it's business model was, mostly, thought out 10 years ago, and right now is way over priced. Servers are cheap enough to not charge for them anymore (from a MMO's perspective), but Blizzard still does it because they can. There is no justifiable reason why WoW charges you for everything when you factor in the resounding success of pay to play and free to play games lately. The only reason why Blizzard charges you for Server/Faction Transfers, Access to the Servers and Expansions and the core game is because they can. Only Blizzard can get away with these terrible business practices, and that's because they have a largely ignorant player base, and loyal fans.
    The price is justified if people are willing to pay for it, simple as that. If there is a problem here, it is that the competition is too terrible to even compete at the same level as WoW, which would make Blizzard need to compete with their price tags.

    If you think Blizzard are bad regarding their prices, you need to look around a bit more. Also, assuming that people are ignorant just because they think the price is worth it is an ignorant statement.

    ---------- Post added 2012-04-29 at 04:24 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Spellsword View Post
    Winner! Couldn't have said it better myself.
    Congratulations! He and you won nothing.

  10. #250
    Yeah, when I seen the expenses that Blizzard released. Under their major expenses are several tiny asterisk and server expenses and server housing was less than 5,000$ USD. So servers are not expensive.

    Though everything else is.

  11. #251
    Stood in the Fire Halabash's Avatar
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    That's a great question op!
    Blizzard like most companies working on expanding their market share tend to spend the most on new subscribers. This expense is typically handled thru advertisement. The veteran player is one that is already on the board as dollars to be counted toward next year, so you are excluded from the equation (advertisement dollars/new players). Then there is the matter of operating expenses and since I have no insider information about what their take is, lets assume blizzard gets to keep 25cents out of every dollar, that's a pretty generous assumption imo. Now they are owned by activision if I am not mistaken, and the profit they post, is translated into a value for the stock, i don't own any of it so can't be any more specific than that. The company may pay out a dividend to its shareholders, keep some profit as cash, and reinvest the rest into either new projects or hardware development, or new markets to push the game. Some of these other ventures will fail despite even blizzard's best efforts but its all part of the business.

    Now to answer the question at hand why do we pay for expansions when we are paying for subs the whole time, well if we got the expansion for free then blizzard research and development expenses return at a very slow pace or not even at all based on player turnover, the reason is the lack of a hype machine. You buy the xpac to help the company recoup their investment in the new content. It, the xpac launch, also generates a date that can be compared to the last launch of an expansion where the ratio for advertising dollars to new membership can be realized and at the same time existing members have to make the choice to either stay or play which will most likely negatively impact the aforementioned ratio. Blizzard cares very much about its core players because without you there is no growth, so retention is also a key component, there is no growth if for every 10 new subscribers they lose 10 old ones, but if its 10 to lets say 6, then hey what they are doing will be worth it in the long run.

  12. #252
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    We've been asking that since classic and the answer is still the same..... money... or the fact that developing additional content at a "fast" rate costs money.

  13. #253
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    all i read is blablabla, they make 1200000000$ + money/year on subscriptions alone, add the money from those pets/mounts/server,faction-changes.
    the fact that we have to pay for the expansions is simply because we´re stupid enough to do so and they´re greedy, THAT´S THE TRUTH.

  14. #254
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    because they know people are willing to pay for it, which will make them richer.

  15. #255
    That is... a good point.

    Come to SWTOR. They give us patches every 3 months... for FREEEEEEEE.

  16. #256
    Legendary! MasterHamster's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Diaxx View Post
    That is... a good point.

    Come to SWTOR. They give us patches every 3 months... for FREEEEEEEE.
    And WoWs content patches aren't?
    Active WoW player Jan 2006 - Aug 2020
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    Nothing lasts forever, as they say.
    But at least I can casually play Classic and remember when MMORPGs were good.

  17. #257
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    I don't think it costs them 150 million dollar a month to have some computers running 24/7 as a lot of people here are saying. The ongoing development of wow is expencive but the fact is, they make money with wow. Which is fine imo, they can only charge what the customers are willing to pay.

  18. #258
    Herald of the Titans velde046's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alceus View Post
    The OP has a point. We Pay 15/month so they keep developing content.
    Not a point, strictly speaking that subscription fee if to keep the current expansion running, server fees etc.


    Or They can make a small 'voucher' which they can sell for 9.99 euros to unlock the continent + pandaren and monk and give you a pet along with it.
    As for CE; you'd get the above + OST + Guide for the whole Continent + extra's.

    just my thoughts
    Wouldn't like it that way. and also keep in mind that even though you pay for the expansion, there is a month subscription included in the package. Or at least it used to be...

  19. #259
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    Quote Originally Posted by peedei View Post
    A year of gameplay + about 2 content patches is still better value for money than 3 console games unfortunately :<
    Cata has been out for about a year and a half. That is $40 expansion + $15x17 months or $295 total. What have we gotten? The Cata expansion and 2 content patches. Now add another few months until MoP hits with no new content and that total goes up: $325 to $340+. Is that really better value for money than 3 console games?

    That's not even better value for money than just buying a new expansion every 3 months. We're going about 6 months between content patches. That means we're paying $90 for content patches, which is much less content than a full $60 game.

  20. #260
    Legendary! MasterHamster's Avatar
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    People are so clueless...
    You think asian players pay 15 dollars per month?
    You think hardware is free?
    You think 5000 exployees don't need wages?

    Must be annoying for CMs to watch people throw around a couple of numbers, "X subs times Y fee = Z, omg lazy blizz moar content"
    Active WoW player Jan 2006 - Aug 2020
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    Nothing lasts forever, as they say.
    But at least I can casually play Classic and remember when MMORPGs were good.

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