Why is Exclusive content a bad thing to some people?

[Blur4stuff]

sub loss doesn't mean a game is getting worse. who ever believed that WoW would gain subs forever? i thought everyone understood how this works. a game gets old and people gradually stop playing. even if the game is great.

anyways, the only people who believe exclusive content is good are the ones that assume they'll get to see it. take that away and their opinion changes fast.

[Osmeric]

anyways, the only people who believe exclusive content is good are the ones that assume they'll get to see it. take that away and their opinion changes fast.

Maybe not 100% true, but close enough. The ponzi scheme of exclusive content only works as long as there are fresh suckers who think they'll be up for it.

[melodramocracy]

Picture this. You own a bakery. Most of your money goes into making X cake. You get 300 customers a day, and only 3 customers eat X cake, while others eat other types of cake.


Would you justify making the same X cake over and over again where only 3 customers eat it? Or would you change things around so that the same ingredients used in X cake would be used in another cake that 280 customers would eat? While keeping X cake?

This is a bad analogy because the price of cake X would be adjusted to either make it worthwhile, or not. WoW and all its content is a flat fee.

A better analogy would be this: You can walk into any Guitar Center, and you'll find that the majority of the guitars for sale are actually quite cheap. However, there's always a small wall section reserved for guitars that cost several thousand dollars.

Why do you think they'd allot the retail space on a section that so few will want to put forth the effort to earn a product from?

Why does Nissan, the company that makes the Altima, (which sold over 35,000 units in March) also make the GT-R, which world-wide sold less than 2k units in all of 2012?

---------- Post added 2013-06-24 at 10:19 AM ----------

It is just as likely (in fact I would argue more likely) that people left the game because it got hard.

This game is easier than it's ever been. Ever.

What subs vs raiding should show anyone is that across the general population, raiding is considered far less important than it is on the forums. BC and Wrath certainly had fewer folks raiding than there are now that LFR is in play, yet subs flourished under the "content for the elite 5% or so" days.

This would indicate that the rest of the content is no longer up to par, for whatever reason.

[Fagatronics]

I was skimming the Blue posts and thought this was funny. This is Zarhym's response to a question regarding the rarity of the summer pet:

Why? What benefit is served by having open world pets be so difficult to find?

There are hundreds of pets out in the world, most of which are easily caught. Rarity is a big part of what makes some pets more valued and desirable than others.

Follow-up questions:

Do you need this one? Should everyone be entitled to obtain any pet in the world with ease?

If it's a pet that spawns during a 3-month window, what percentage of people who try to get it in the first 24 hours should succeed? Even if it's 99%, would this thread not still be filled with complaints from the 1% who keep failing?

It seems exclusivity is still relative to Blizzard's philosophy but where they pick and choose their battles is a bit disconcerting.

[Holtzmann]

It seems exclusivity is still relative to Blizzard's philosophy but where they pick and choose their battles is a bit disconcerting.

The point of the game is gearing up. Pet Battles are a prestige/fun thing that people do in their spare time that doesn't affect their gear acquisition beyond slowing it down by taking up time that could otherwise be spent grinding Valor or the like. Gear progression must be available for most players, but if it's an optional thing it can be as exclusive as they'd like to make it.

You don't see a lot of people out there with full Brawler's Guild ranks either, and that's precisely what Blizzard wants to happen.

[Glorious Leader]

U keep using the phrase "no evidence" and yet there is "no evidence" to suggest that it ISNT in any way to blame for recent sub losses.

The truth is that the entire subject of subs losses is open to discussion. And everyone connected to Wow has different opinions to why these subs r in decline. Like it or not its perfectly reasonable to suggest that the direction of the game since Wrath is just as reasonable to discuss than every other theory.

That's true. It could be the monkeys flying out my asshole caused the sub loss. Or it could be sopa and pipa. it could be the gay shrimp killing themselves off in the ocean. It could be any number of the virtually infinite number of logical reasons and possibilities. However I think it's fairly safe to dismiss the internet fairies and boogey men in this case. I see no problem dismissing "exclusivity" as the same boogey man.

---------- Post added 2013-06-24 at 02:29 PM ----------

It seems exclusivity is still relative to Blizzard's philosophy but where they pick and choose their battles is a bit disconcerting.

Whenever a developer uses the "entitled" argument a player somewhere drops his sub.

[Floopa]

Whenever a developer uses the "entitled" argument a player somewhere drops his sub.

And whenever a state or country legalises gay marriage a religious person complains. I fail to see the point you're making.

[Glorious Leader]

And whenever a state or country legalises gay marriage a religious person complains. I fail to see the point you're making.

The current state of World of warcraft is not a political, moral, religious, or ethical issue. The point is that telling a player he isn' "entitled" to something is really just a way to disenfranchise and disempower that player (usually based on some utterly babaric and ignorant world view that doesn't belong in the game) and if you do it often enough people will say sayanora sam. The developers can ill afford to do exactly that in the age of f2p gaming.

[Floopa]

No-one's entitled to anything. Just because you sport the 'Method' guild tag doesn't mean your character does 100% more damage.

[Seefer]

So let me put this in perspective, do you all think that every person who picks up a chess game should win big money tournaments, or everyone who picks up a baseball should be able to beat the Yankees, or picks up a basketball and beat Michael Jordan? I mean after all..........they ARE just games.

[Glorious Leader]

T

This game is easier than it's ever been. Ever.

Nope. Not in terms of raiding or in terms of time to get anything done. Everything is far more complex and far more difficult and challenging for newer or weaker players.

I agree that the rest of the content is no longer up to par but theirs a fairly easy way to explain that. Raiding was saved at the expense of everything else in the game.

[khalltusk]

So let me put this in perspective, do you all think that every person who picks up a chess game should win big money tournaments, or everyone who picks up a baseball should be able to beat the Yankees, or picks up a basketball and beat Michael Jordan? I mean after all..........they ARE just games.

No, but you can play chess against an opponent of your level and have a chance of winning. You just select who you play. Thats what the difficulty levels do.

You can try and play a chess master (heroic) but you will not find it easy to beat him. (Heroic Raid)
you can try and play a chess average player, hes a bit easier than the master but no push over. (Normal raid)
You can try and play the chess novice, hes pretty easy to beat after a few goes. (LFR)

There you go hows that for some logic. - Edited for further clarity.

[Glorious Leader]

No-one's entitled to anything. Just because you sport the 'Method' guild tag doesn't mean your character does 100% more damage.

And that's a fine position to have for you the guy on the forum. Now if your the developer or their mouth pieces and you keep telling customers with grievances that they aren't "entitled" what do you think their eventual response will be? The market doesn't have to obey your fickle notions and whims about who gets what in warcraft. In the end the developers are the ones who are least "entitled" to my 15 bucks.

[Seefer]

No, but you can play chess against an opponent of your level and have a chance of winning. You just select who you play. Thats what the difficulty levels do.

You can try and play a chess master (heroic) but you will not find it easy to beat him.
you can try and play a chess average player, hes a bit easier than the master but no push over.
You can try and play the chess novice, hes pretty easy to beat after a few goes.

There you go hows that for some logic.

5 mans, scenarios, heroic scenarios
Normal
Heroic

See how I turned that around?

[Deleted]

I see no problem dismissing "exclusivity" as the same boogey man.

I am glad u have admitted that this is simply your OPINION on exclusivity.

But as u can see from this very busy thread, there are alot of people who believe the change in game design towards a much less exclusive content model is very much a factor in the decline in subs.

[khalltusk]

5 mans, scenarios, heroic scenarios
Normal
Heroic

See how I turned that around?

No not at all what is your point?

You just reinforced mine, we have difficulty levels and you can select your level of play. If you want to try the hardest setting it may not be for you. LFR - Flex - Normal -Heroic raids offer just that. Different difficulty to see if you can over come it.

Normal - Heroic - Challenge modes, for dungeons (or probably just heroic - challenge mode at 90)
Scenarios - Heroic Scenarios are more casual but ones slight harder than the other.

All of them back up what I said. You can play the game and at what difficulty is up to you. Also edited the original post to provide clarity in case you misunderstood.

[Glorious Leader]

I am glad u have admitted that this is simply your OPINION on exclusivity.

But as u can see from this very busy thread, there are alot of people who believe the change in game design towards a much less exclusive content model is very much a factor in the decline in subs.

I would hardly classify them as "alot". They are certainly a loud bunch (concentrated on this forum perhaps)but calling them "alot" is rather generous. They can believe whatever bone headed, regressive, stupid ideas they want. That doesn't mean WE should be held up by such ignorance. If they all believed fairies were the cause of the subscriber loss would you accept that opinion as valid?

[Itisamuh]

So let me put this in perspective, do you all think that every person who picks up a chess game should win big money tournaments, or everyone who picks up a baseball should be able to beat the Yankees, or picks up a basketball and beat Michael Jordan? I mean after all..........they ARE just games.

Raiding isn't competition, though. If we were talking about gladiator level arena you might have a point, but as it is, you don't. Raiding is supposed to be about seeing story content and cooperative play with other people, not competition. It's only a pseudo competition to the people who don't like others being able to do it as well.

[Seefer]

Raiding isn't competition, though. If we were talking about gladiator level arena you might have a point, but as it is, you don't. Raiding is supposed to be about seeing story content and cooperative play with other people, not competition. It's only a pseudo competition to the people who don't like others being able to do it as well.

It's not? So all the guilds competing for world and server first AREN'T competing? Blizzard holding the Heroic Rag tournament weren't holding COMPETITIONS?

[Deleted]

I would hardly classify them as "alot". They are certainly a loud bunch (concentrated on this forum perhaps)but calling them "alot" is rather generous. They can believe whatever bone headed, regressive, stupid ideas they want. That doesn't mean WE should be held up by such ignorance. If they all believed fairies were the cause of the subscriber loss would you accept that opinion as valid?

And you can believe that its just a coincidence that the biggest subloss ever happens when the game became as inclusive as possible and everyone can see everything without the slightest social interaction. Of course there are still exclusive titles and mounts that nobody cares about and better gear thats only usefull in normal/heroic raids... but everything else can be done without ever interacting with another player.

Everytime a new "wowkiller" was released millions of wowplayer bought it... but they came back to wow after a while, not because wow was so much better but because in wow there already was a strong community that they missed.
LFD and LFR pretty much erased the need for social interaction! Are there any people on your friendlist that you met in LFD/LFR, people that keep you subbed even if the game is boring sometimes?