Genuine concern for the future of WoW

[Ignatious]

Genuine concern for the future of WoW

First off I want to get a few things straight.

• I currently play the game, and have done for many years.
• I have the money available to purchase these store items if I were to choose to.
• I haven't cleared all the heroic content as to do so would probably mean leaving my casual band of merry men (and women) for a more hardcore raiding guild, and I value playing with friends more than progress.

That should hopefully cover most of the troll responses which will inevitably follow.

'TLDR – I'm worried about how far Blizzard are willing to push the boundaries of the store features.'

The Problem

What concerns me about the current model of World of Warcraft is the “evolution” of the store features that we are seeing. I'll admit when the store was first introduced I was sceptical of the idea, for the simple fact that I didn't feel there should be additional fee's associated with a subscription based model. However, I , and many other players, decided to see how it was going to pan out as only pets were on offer at that time. (As a pet collector, this did annoy me more than most!) As time has progressed we have seen the introduction of more pets, mounts, and now vanity helmets and flavour items. There is also the development of an in-game store, which although not currently confirmed for US/EU release, will probably make an appearance eventually. With each new release Blizzard are trying to push the boundary of player tolerance further and it seems, to me at least, that purchasing level boosts/gear may not be as far away as many people would like to think.

But its MY money!

Many people will argue that it is up to individuals to decide whether or not they would like to spend real money on an item, and I wholeheartedly agree. That is not the issue here. We all pay our £30 for each expansion, and our £9 a month subscriptions for access to newly developed content. If you personally are prepared to pay an extra £15 to turn your character into a troll, or £25 on a winged lion mount then that’s fantastic. You are happy, Blizzard are happy, and your purchases do not affect anyone other than yourself. The problem arises when the development of those optional items actually does begin to hurt the integrity and quality of the game for those who simply subscribe. As more people become accustomed to purchasing from the store, it is highly likely that Blizzard will 'exploit' this means of supplemental income more. Evidence of this can be seen through the evolution of the variety of items available on the store. How much longer is it going to be until we see store items appearing more frequently than content patches, on the basis that they are the more profitable use of financial resources? Admittedly, it may still be some time away, but the fact is that this is very much a possibility.

Go on, quit the game then!

I imagine there will be many responses along this train of thought, but its really not an issue of that. I enjoy the game. I like to play with my friends and derp around killing bosses and other players. I like to pet battle and dig on my farm. However, its the fact that I DO like the game, that makes this issue all the more worrying. I don't want to get to a point where I am a second class player because I have chosen not to use the store.

You're overreacting, Blizzard wont do that!

Blizzard are a company, and the aim of a company is to provide profits to it's shareholders at the end of the financial year. Unfortunately, as companies grow, the emphasis on profits also grows accordingly and often some of the core values http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/about/mission.html can be forgotten. I'm not saying this will happen. I'm not saying WoW is dead/dying whatever. But I am very concerned at what the future will hold for the game we all love (to hate sometimes!).

So, what can we do?

Realistically, there's nothing we can do as players to influence these kind of decisions. We can give our thoughts and feedback, but ultimately it is the money which will dictate the path taken. If people end up quitting in droves it will simply hit the shareholders pockets and financial support for the development of the game will be cut back.

I just hope that Blizzard will show some restraint and not push the boundaries of the micro-transaction model too far whilst still charging a subscription fee for access to content. The age-old wisdom fits in well here: "Just because you can do something, it doesn't mean that you should do it"


Comments and constructive discussion welcomed

[Deleted]

I'm not concerned about the future of wow. Once Wildstar is out, I'm gone.

[Deleted]

As long as it is all cosmetic, I couldn't care less.

[Deleted]

It's just how it is with anything that gets popular in business. WoW is at the cash cow stage where the company is just trying to suck as much money as possible out of the remaining players to maximise profits. They can no longer rely on massive player growth to give them huge profits, in fact the game is now in decline. They need to increase their profits because shareholders demand it.

Imagine a tourist destination. It starts off small and begins to attract ever increasing numbers of people every year. Business booms, but eventually it hits a critical mass of tourists where everything becomes too obnoxious and too crowded, too much vandalism and litter, and full of idiots. Quite simply it becomes too popular and people will inevitably get bored of it and want to look for nicer, quieter destinations. As a result the resort will begin to decline. Local businesses meanwhile still want to make a living and so they will price gouge more, market their junk (souvenirs) a lot more, do more to attract the lowest common denominator of people who don't care about the state of the place, and so it will become full of drunkards and other undesirables who will go anywhere with cheap booze.

Expanding the online store makes sense to Blizzard because it will give them a lot of money. And it will continue to make sense. There must be loads of lazy people who would pay money for xp buffs. Losing players is hardly a massive concern when a game is already losing players. You could argue that anyone who quits from changes like this would have statistically been likely to quit even without these changes.

[HatredAU]

I'm not concerned about the future of wow. Once Wildstar is out, I'm gone.

Just like rift and swtor

[Rucati]

I really don't expect them to go too far with it. They'll probably stick with things like mounts/pets/transmog and then options to remove grinds. Like a way to buy 1000 valor a week instead of having to grind it, buying ways to increase leveling speed (although this exists with RAF already really) or hell maybe even a way to level a profession to 600 without having to grind the mats for it, things like that. And really, that's fine, doesn't make any difference at all, in fact I'd be all over paying for a level 600 profession, I hope they do that. But I am about 99.999% certain they'd never sell items that actually impact the gameplay at all. If someone buys a full set of transmog gear, or a valor cap or something, it's free money for Blizzard and effects literally nobody but them.

I truly don't see this evolving as much as people seem to fear it will. Yes, they'll probably sell a lot of things, no none of them will directly impact the game.

[Deleted]

Just like rift and swtor

Maybe. I'm not saying it's impossible.

[Deleted]

The only reason people are scared is because the items have a 'store' tag on them now. You can already get plenty of items from, say, the TCG.

[Sierra85]

I truly don't see this evolving as much as people seem to fear it will. Yes, they'll probably sell a lot of things, no none of them will directly impact the game.

i believe fully that it is healthy for players to fear the unknown, but people should have some faith that Blizzard have some general idea of what they are doing. If they started selling full sets of current heroic thunderforged gear, they know it would cause a shit storm.

Vanity Items, Cosmetic Gear & XP boosts or Honor boosts or something along those lines will be a nice form of revenue for them and it wont change the game from a gaming perspective. If anything it will probably be better as you will have more time to do other things!

[GKLeatherCraft]

As Treekodar has just said, people seem to have forgotten that for years there have been mounts/pets and cosmetic items in the game, yet that wasn't an issue, no, because the word "store" wasn't used, They need to realise Blizz have to make money, and they know also, that people have wanted cosmetic items in the shop for transmog, like in Aion, for instance, It doesn't mean they will go on to sell actual progression items, It's not the same thing, and i think more people don't want them to do that, than do, Ofcourse time will tell, but I think they won't sell stat gear, But i hope they do sell more and more cool looking gear for mogging

Oh, and thanks for putting across a well written thread OP, It's nice to see one after the bunch of rubbish we have had already

[Nurabashi]

Honestly couldn't care less, cause the "Store" items will remain purely cosmetic, or be purely for individual bonuses, such as the 100% XP Boost that was found.

[Deleted]

This is the kind of post I can get behind (as it is not "WWAAH WAAH STORE WAAH" )

I don't think they will go with actual in game power. Admittedly even the experience potion even is it a bit pushing it, it's not that gamebreaking especially when you consider that WoW IS a game that is focused around the top level. Most of the people around are 90, a new player that maybe is coming to play with his friend will take a huge amount of time to level up and this may help if they're willing to.

Putting actual power item will seriously piss off *a lot* of people (me included) and I think that the missed revenue in subscription loss from this would definitely not be able to be covered by store revenue

[Eviscero]

...Like a way to buy 1000 valor a week instead of having to grind it... But I am about 99.999% certain they'd never sell items that actually impact the gameplay at all.

You know you can buy current gear with valor, right?

[Deleted]

I'm not concerned about the future of wow. Once Wildstar is out, I'm gone.

Pretty sure you also said this for Tera, Age of Conan, Warhammer online, Lotro, GW2, Rift, SWTOR, Aion, FF14, The Secret World ... after one week in wildstar you will crawl back to blizzard and beg them to let you login on WoW again.

[Rucati]

You know you can buy current gear with valor, right?

You know valor caps at 1000 a week right? Whether you buy 1000 Valor Points every Tuesday, or grind 1000 Valor Points a week, you still only get 1000 Valor Points. There's a reason I used that number.

Pretty sure you also said this for Tera, Age of Conan, Warhammer online, SWTOR, Aion ... after one week in wildstar you will crawl back to blizzard and beg them to let you login on WoW again.

You didn't quote me, but to be fair Age of Conan was amazing in beta and really fun and I thought it did have a chance at catching up to WoW, but then the developers got amnesia or something and forgot what they were doing. Oh well.

[Cybran]

Any premium content or services shouldn't be tolerated in a subscription based game with competitive elements (PvP and even PvE guild ranks).

[lawow74]

Vanity Items, Cosmetic Gear & XP boosts or Honor boosts or something along those lines will be a nice form of revenue for them and it wont change the game from a gaming perspective. If anything it will probably be better as you will have more time to do other things!

Things helping a player get to level cap once the xpac has been live at least a content patch, fine. Things which give you a cosmetic toy, fine. But it's paying to get things usually obtained on a weekly basis, whether it's gear currency or items related to that(such as Lesser Charms)that present a very precarious position. Because the fear(however founded or unfounded you choose to see it)is that it becomes all too tempting to start putting your thumb on the scale.

Now you can buy your Lesser Charms! Well, we're going to increase the number you need to get your raid tokens/nerf how fast you can get them from in-game sources.

Now you can buy your weekly Valor cap! Well, we're going to nerf how much you get from the in-game sources.

And hyperbolic as it may sound, once you're there, it doesn't seem so bad to go down a little bit further. Will Blizzard do it? No one can say for sure. But seeing how other games have done, there are grounds for concern. And the time to speak out is now, before it's implemented. As Blizzard has said time and again, they hate to take things away once they've given them to you.

[Deleted]

Any premium content or services shouldn't be tolerated in a subscription based game with competitive elements (PvP and even PvE guild ranks).

What ?! What do the competitive elements have to do with mounts and skins ?! Might as well say "Any premium content or services shouldn't be tolerated in a subscription based game with such a graphic engine".

[Layuth]

As long as it is all cosmetic, I couldn't care less.

These are the type of responses that scare me. Do you realize it takes time to do the art for these items? That is right, the same time that could be used on updated character models, tier models, npc skins, hell even finally give druids more than TWO races per faction...but nooooo...it is spent on cash grabs. Each and every expansion the decisions get worse and the greed multiplies. The thing I loved about Blizzard for many years is that they concentrated on quality products and less on greed. That has totally reversed and I can see things going from bad to worse, I mean they aren't gaining subscriptions these days.

[Ignatious]

The moment I saw the frontpage, I new the forum would be awash in threads about it (again)

Fair enough..worry about the future of WoW. I worry about my personal future or the future of my country...

That's a pretty pathetic response to be completely honest. No-one has tried to equate this as ranking alongside life with regards to importance. Discussing concerns about a game, on a fan-site for that game is not out of the ordinary, and your dismissive attitude was simply being rude for the sake of it.

There is a third thing you can do: Not buy anything in the bloody store. If nobody buys in there - they stop developing for it. Why be the drama queen and offer the "We can do nothing" or "we can quit in droves"

Yes, I can refuse to buy from the store. But coming back to the 'It's MY MONEY' point, I can't tell other people to follow suit. There was no drama queening, and nowhere in the post did I encourage people to quit in droves. I was merely raising concerns with just how far they are willing to go.