Should WoW Go Free To Play?

[Deleted]

How many threads like this one has already been there? A lot. No, WoW shouldn't go F2P, and it wont - because USE the search.

[Evil Inside]

F2P is the future you're going to have to learn to embrace it sometime soon.

It may be the future, but wow is not at that stage yet.

[Pann]

it's funny how some people praise SWTOR after switch to F2P, since that game is biggest failure in history of mmo, and word TORtanic says a lot to former players.

Why shouldn't they? From a business point of view it was absolutely the right decision to make which would the same decision be right for WOW is the point of this thread.

[Deleted]

F2P is the future you're going to have to learn to embrace it sometime soon.

not really. There can always be a niche where players wants to pay monthly fee for quality product

[zaface]

No tnkx!!!

[Deleted]

Why shouldn't they? From a business point of view it was absolutely the right decision to make which would the same decision be right for WOW is the point of this thread.

A'm not saying it was bad decision (hell it was best decision they could make), but game is crap now as F2P how it was with subscription. All you F2P fanboys want something for free without any care of quality.

[ati87]

F2P is the future you're going to have to learn to embrace it sometime soon.

Not for MMO's like WoW, for MMO's its nothing more then a temporary boost in profits at best.

F2P works for grinding games the ones you can find of facebook and smarthphones but not for MMO's. Just look at all of those ''WoW-killers'' that where forced to turn f2p because of low number of subs, how many are still actually active or even available?

WoW probably the most profitable game ever, having paying customers for 9 years is probably the wet dream of every game developers including the ones that develop f2p games. WoW could have 2M subs left and game developers would still be envious of Blizzard to have so many active subs.

[Deleted]

Eve Online ?

Eve online is a niche game already, not because of payment model but gamepley. How many space sim mmos you have on market.
Stop being silly, seroussly.

[whatthefudge]

Eventually, yes. Right now, no.

[Kaleredar]

Ah sorry I misunderstood what you wrote, however MOP sold in similar numbers as GW2 which is able to survive on box sales alone.

I'm sure they make a substantial amount of money on new expansions, but they've been consistently rolling old ones together... WoW, BC, and WotLK are now buyable for 20$, and I'm sure Cataclysm will be lumped in with that when the next Expansion comes out.

I'd hazard a guess that blizzard's entire monetary plan is based largely around subscription income from WoW.

[MOEEEE]

noooooooooo.

[Deleted]

Nah WoW shouldn't go free, money is what's drives them. Although i wouldn't really say no to cheaper gametime, it's too expensive now. Ive been playing since late 04 and hell that's lots of money on game cards..

[klaps_05]

as long as the game has at least 400k subs it wont be f2p

[Deleted]

the day wow goes f2p is the day wow dies, so no thanks

[Chireru93]

@op: if you don't see how it's declining, why are you listening to the thousands of pointless threads about it?

WoW's quality would go downhill if it went F2P, gauranteed, just like all the other mmos. they have to cut developement from content and make stuff to sell in the store, to remain profitable.

also, people are only going crazy because a large number of chinese people decided to quit WoW for one of the thousands of F2P mmos in their country. people see the number "1.3 million active accounts lost" instead of "8.3 million accounts, 8+ million more than most F2P mmos".

[Deleted]

F2P is the future you're going to have to learn to embrace it sometime soon.

Yep is the future for dying MMOs which desperately need to hook in players, it's not the future for a quality MMO and not in the best customer's interests.

[Msi]

Hell no, I would stop asap if that happens. meh f2p games suck IMO

[Deleted]

Its already technically free to play up to level 20, what would be nice to see would be for the trial level cap to be raised to 40 or 60 or something like that. Also maybe removing some of the restrictions on trial accounts, like not being able to use the auction house or join guilds.

I remember seeing a comment by someone at Blizzard saying they were considering doing just this.

Edit:

also, people are only going crazy because a large number of chinese people decided to quit WoW for one of the thousands of F2P mmos in their country. people see the number "1.3 million active accounts lost" instead of "8.3 million accounts, 8+ million more than most F2P mmos".

Why do Chinese players not count as much as western players?

Also, losing 16% of your customers is a big deal, regardless of whether or not you're market leader.

[Wynnyelle]

I'd play if it was F2P. I do not spend enough time on the game to justify spending 15 dollars a month, but if it were free I'd totally play.

[krou]

Yet people don't realize the game still has 8mil+ players, it's the middle of the expansion, and a lot of the subs were lost in Asia. In my eyes, the game isn't dying. There's too many servers, and so adjusting a fix needs to happen. Anyway, going F2P? I don't like this mentality, and I don't like the idea of cash shops that come with it.

this .... i dont think that it will go f2p anytime soon it still got over 8mill subs.