Will WoW ever go F2Play?

[BenBos]

so for a year you spent 130$ on a game you don't even play???

I think you guys underestimate the importance of a club feeling.

A subscription based game is more than the sum of its parts. It is belonging to a club mentality.

The effort of taking a subscription is really making a statement of belonging to that club.

Very important for an MMORPG.

I read it a few months back when a stock analist came up with this theory.

He answered a question why WOW remained with 10 million subscriptions (and all that money) while new games failed to keep players in.

Belonging to a club with a paid membership is an extra motivator that free to play games don't have. (of course it is not the ONLY reason, but it explains an extra motivation to keep "playing" even if you hardly log in).

My guess is that Blizzard wants this feeling to spread all over their games through BattleNet.

That's why I think they will go with a BattleNet subscription fee for all their games combined and all services included: WOW, D3, SC2, Blizzard All Stars and of course Titan.

The underlined scenario is far more possible than a free to play WOW in 5 years time. Of course a Blizzard club fee of 15 Euros is a nice replacement for their current system.

[A Challenger!]

Possibly because wow's engine is ancient. If they'd ever update you'd be amazed at the things that can be done.

BTW GW2 hasn't proven anything except they can fill forums with more whiners (amazing considering they have 80% less players) than Blizzard.

Calling bullshit on the 80% less players and whining part, as there is a reason Blizzard is known to have one of the most toxic communities around. I do agree though that if they just put some effort into the game, an updated engine would do wonders for a variety of features.

From a business standpoint there is no reason to go F2P, people will just continue to pay for it like they are currently doing. But if the subs fall off and the game is getting less and less popular they may reduce the prices or abolish them altogether as a marketing strategy.

If BenBos would stop his misinformation spreading and general cheerleading of Blizzard for one second, he'd realize that their strongest point is not their games, but their business ethic. Blizzard is one of the strongest businesses out there, and Activision only improved that ability to rake in currency.

[Brewski]

From a business standpoint there is no reason to go F2P, people will just continue to pay for it like they are currently doing. But if the subs fall off and the game is getting less and less popular they may reduce the prices or abolish them altogether as a marketing strategy.

[Karizee]

BTW GW2 hasn't proven anything except they can fill forums with more whiners (amazing considering they have 80% less players) than Blizzard.

They just announced they sold 3 million copies. This is in the west only, they will be launching in China later this year

[SamR]

In Blizzards Mind " Why Release 3 raids then be forced to make new ones when you can just gate the first 3 raids and call each one a content update"

This line right here shows the comical extent of your Blizzard hate. So Blizzard using a staggered release of HoF/ToES is a bad lazy decision.

But Trion staggering the release of EE highlights what an awesome company they are and how much content they pump out so quickly!


BTW, none of MoP's raid staggering was ever called a content update by Blizzard. The first and only MoP content update so far was 5.1 and did not include raid content because it was labeled a lore content patch. EE, which was already announced to be stagger released 4 weeks after Storm Legion went live was heralded as the first major content patch for SL.

[Zulkathan]

all people try it when wow goes free to play XD .... in that time, we not stay in the game XD

[Frank Garrett]

it's already free to play

[Graffin]

It will be FTP in 2025.

[Deleted]

Yes one day. But far far from now, and only when Blizzard is satisfied that they have milked every last penny from subs. Once the sub base hits a certain level, it does become beneficial to go F2P, but right now with WoW's super massive sub base, it would be insanity to even think about it.

[BenBos]

If BenBos would stop his misinformation spreading and general cheerleading of Blizzard for one second, he'd realize that their strongest point is not their games, but their business ethic. Blizzard is one of the strongest businesses out there, and Activision only improved that ability to rake in currency.

You forget one thing though.

No one is holding a gun to the head of those 10.000.000 WoW subscribers.

So I guess there MUST be something about their games after all since almost all the rest deleted their subscriptions to stay afloat and still are WAY behind in player numbers and even then their player numbers drop like dead flies... Free or not.

It simply is called better quality. Be that world design, raids, flying, ... more and better things. So people PAY subscriptions and stay within that Elite Club.

[Nerraw]

They just announced they sold 3 million copies. This is in the west only, they will be launching in China later this year

Doesn't mean all 3 million people are still playing.

[Kioshi]

Doesn't mean all 3 million people are still playing.

3 million sold is as reliable as following

-10 million shipped World Wide. (Consoles)
-500 million account (Free game)

The fact is the only reliable numbers are paying number.

-10 million active subscription.
-gross revenue of 150 million dollars.

3 million sold can be just sold copy and only 10% are active.

I don't know why this debate is still going on, WoW will not be free till they are lower than 2 million paying subs.
The fact that you want it free right now is that you are a cheap bastard. Yes F2P is the future.... the future of a dieing game,
or a korean grind game.

All the people who wants the game for free, let me ask you this: If I said i will hire you, and you work for free, but your only source of cash comes from our customers' tips, would you work?

[Deleted]

I really hope not. So much that will degrade then.

I agree, it's bad enough right now.
There are like 10 million people playing. I don't think it would go free any time soon

[Peanott]

I strongly doubt it will. It's extremely expensive to keep te servers up and running

[Deleted]

I dont think that f2p will do any good but a reduction of the paytime card price would be a welcome surprise although the 0.40 euros per day doesnt seem so much.
Imo another good thing would be if the online purchase of a long time game time (kinda like the Annual pass ) would be more rewarding for example if u buy 6 months to give you a low price mount, a pet or something like this.

[A Challenger!]

You forget one thing though.

No one is holding a gun to the head of those 10.000.000 WoW subscribers.

So I guess there MUST be something about their games after all since almost all the rest deleted their subscriptions to stay afloat and still are WAY behind in player numbers and even then their player numbers drop like dead flies... Free or not.

It simply is called better quality. Be that world design, raids, flying, ... more and better things. So people PAY subscriptions and stay within that Elite Club.

Not true in the slightest. People play for many different reasons besides "this game is good". Many are subscribed for friends, because their account is still active as they unsubscribe, people even subscribe because they are bored. There are many different reasons. This isn't high school; Blizzard isn't the popular crowd, so there is no elite club.

Everything you said is no more than irrational thinking and opinionated comedy.

Doesn't mean all 3 million people are still playing.

The same can be said for WoW, do you even pay attention to the forums? Whether you be wishing for WoW's downfall or cheerleading like BenBos above, people obsess over the quarterly reports as if they are some sort of religious dogma that needs be followed.

[Kioshi]

Not true in the slightest. People play for many different reasons besides "this game is good". Many are subscribed for friends, because their account is still active as they unsubscribe, people even subscribe because they are bored. There are many different reasons. This isn't high school; Blizzard isn't the popular crowd, so there is no elite club.

Everything you said is no more than irrational thinking and opinionated comedy.



The same can be said for WoW, do you even pay attention to the forums? Whether you be wishing for WoW's downfall or cheerleading like BenBos above, people obsess over the quarterly reports as if they are some sort of religious dogma that needs be followed.

You know there is somthing called Facebook for the broke right? if your going to pay blizzard for nothing why would they not accept it? You want to make an impact tell all those people you claim sub for friends and don't do anything in the game to stop paying if you can get enough of them to leave Blizzard might make it Free.

People who wish for WoW's down fall are people who can't get over the fact that they hate the game and need to move on. When your Girl friend dumbs you do you hang around outside her house and hopes she dies do you? (Or even if you Dumb her) NO you man up and move on.

Here how it works. If I can sell you Crap for $15 a month I will, as long as you a paying I don't care if you complain its the wrost crap ever, if your still paying, I will do so.

[A Challenger!]

You know there is somthing called Facebook for the broke right? if your going to pay blizzard for nothing why would they not accept it? You want to make an impact tell all those people you claim sub for friends and don't do anything in the game to stop paying if you can get enough of them to leave Blizzard might make it Free.

People who wish for WoW's down fall are people who can't get over the fact that they hate the game and need to move on. When your Girl friend dumbs you do you hang around outside her house and hopes she dies do you? (Or even if you Dumb her) NO you man up and move on.

Here how it works. If I can sell you Crap for $15 a month I will, as long as you a paying I don't care if you complain its the wrost crap ever, if your still paying, I will do so.

You are just seething with butthurt.

I never said anything was wrong with Activision-Blizzard, and if you'll read, I even applauded the company and its business skills. Doesn't change the fact that BenBos is preaching the dogma of Activision-Blizzard and acting as if the game is solely running off of everyone's enjoyment. It isn't. People play for varying reasons, regardless of how ridiculous said reasons may be.

Then again, you seem to be mistaking me for someone who cares. This is all just mild amusement and nothing more.