The gym I have a membership at opened a shop with t-shirts, drinks, etc... Of course I had to cancel my membership right away because... well, because $$$ and stuff...
The gym I have a membership at opened a shop with t-shirts, drinks, etc... Of course I had to cancel my membership right away because... well, because $$$ and stuff...
It's simple:
Blizzard wants you to pay what you can. If you can only afford the base monthly cost, so be it. If you can afford more, they would like you to pay more. It's like a movie theater, you buy the tickets, and you can either go in, or buy popcorn, candy, soft drink, ect... first instead.
8 million players are ignorant then. We've had in game pets and mounts for 5 years which could be purchased from the Blizzard web store. The only difference is it's easier to access by clicking in game now. If they were going to add the ability to buy loot then it would have happened a hell of a long time ago.
If any company understands the effect on B2W games it's Blizzard. They've been able to watch other companies rise and fall due to transaction models that caused players to crucify them with subscription losses. Blizzard isn't desperate like these other F2P games.
K.
Well then you incorrectly set your expectations, by no one else but yourself. I'm sorry that when you picked up this game that advertised its subscription fee and "always online" requirement, that you thought "I WON'T HAVE TO PAY A SUB FEE OR PLAY ONLINE ALWAYS, I'LL BE ABLE TO PLAY WHENEVER I WANT SINCE I ALREADY PAID FOR IT."
I don't need your opinions or thoughts. Facts (which entails facts and documented sources) or stfu.
They don't need a cash shop; but people have been asking for micro-transactions, so Blizzard gave them micro-transactions.
I don't see how this is relevant.
And this is just fucking retard tinfoil hat bullshit.
Last edited by Boogums; 2013-07-16 at 11:47 PM.
"So my advice is to argue based on the reasons stated, not try to make up or guess at reasons and argue those."
Greg Street, Riot Developer - 12:50 PM - 25 May 2015
Still - you forget that those other games you are talking about are F2P games... not sub based games. They are BUILT around selling power related microtransactions. WOW is not - never has. Not in Asia and not in US or EU.
Thats the point here that even you should start to understand now. PPL in Asia are still paying sub for WOW. It might be different model - but its still a sub. Blizzard somehow is acting like WOW is free to play in Asia and thats why they can add extra items that sell power in cash shops. Its not. And if you could understand Chinese or Korean you could go and see the exact same argument there where SUBSCRIBERS are not happy to be charged extra in ingame shop for a power that should be part of the sub.
Sadly - so few ppl actually have friends in Asia or talk any of the language that they eat up what Blizzard is saying. The fact of the matter is that its just not true. There is a big movement in ASIA as well as US/EU that does NOT want to see cash shop on top of subscription. They want to see a hybrid model that offers either F2P or sub. Not both.
Actually Funcom tried a cash shop full of cosmetic outfits and the like with The Secret World. It didn't exactly have the most fantastic of launches ( albeit there were other reasons but the cash shop+sub was definitely a major factor). This was a game built up from the ground up and launched with an infrastructure of bleeding money from it's consumers through two pay walls until that was no longer sustainable. It lasted exactly six months before changing it's business model to B2P. Even with a base of die hard supporters,I don't really see a way in which Blizzard can expect a fully stocked cash shop and a sub unless they really are after a last minute cash squeeze from the old girl. Should a fully stocked cosmetic and "convenience" item shop come (which I expect it is) I totally believe Blizzard will change WoW's business model; my only fear is they will try the Funcom trick of trying to double dip us for us as much as possible before they do so. This "phasing in" of item selections doesn't exactly fill me with confidence that I'm wrong, but who knows.
I'll reply to this, since I think I should have been a bit more clear about what I mean subscribe.
I'll tend to subscribe every time a new content patch comes out, if that patch looks interesting to me. I'll never likely stay subbed for more than a month at a time. Blizzard clearly wants people to never-ever unsubscribe. That's not going to happen in my case as I'll just play through the dungeons/LFR raid maybe once or twice and stop subscribing again.
If Blizzard wants me to keep paying month after month, then by adding in content once every 6 months that you can normally complete in a day, if not a week, is not the way to do it.
I'm perfectly fine with just buying a single months subsciption time and then not coming back to the game for another 6 months and really Blizzard should be too. There's no way they could churn out content fast enough unless they were making an exspansion every month for someone like me to keep paying for it. I'm certainly not a typical player as I'd consider an 8 hour gaming session "normal".
But for every person that's completed all the dungeons, raids, maybe done some pvp, pet battles and crafting, why would I keep on paying Blizzard to keep playing? The answer definately (at least for me), isn't to put some fancy new items in a cash-shop, behind a subscription wall.
I have to keep paying my membership fee or I can't get to my locker which I pay extra for. I can't use the tokens I bought to use a golf cart at the local course if I don't pay the green fee. There's a ton of places that allow you to pay extra for something additional in addition to what you normally pay.
I am certain that every MMO has been able to ban players. Banned players run into the same problem of no longer being able to use the items they bought. Therefore, every single MMO that allows you to purchase anything ingame for real money is guilty of this (including SWTOR).
I'd also like to mention that ending your sub is your decision and you can reopen your account when ever and still have your items. I can buy dlc for a single player game and stop playing the game; the company hasn't wronged me in anyway I simply decided to stop.
No body is going to pay a gym membership just so they can have a storage locker. You'd go and buy a box, or a trunk or something else. Or instead of paying to play WoW you buy a different game that dosn't have a subscription.
Did you own that golfcart though? No, you merely rented it. Buying tokens or any other kind of Disney Dollar is irrelevant, you paid cash in some way to rent that cart. You're not going to want to rent that cart in the first place if you're not going golfing anyways, much like you're not going to buy those firey horns in the cash-shop if you're not going to play WoW.
It's true that there's places with a subscription that offer other services, but they're not the sole way of getting at those services. I can go buy popcorn at the cinema with or without a membership. I can't play with those firey horns in the cash-shop if i stop paying a subscription.
They are the same damn thing. Making it more convenient for the user doesn't make it different. Blizzard has been continuously adding convenience by letting players stay *IN* the game. Dungeon Journal, Help System, Ticket System and now the In Game Store. All these steps allow you to never leave the game.
Why should I as a player find it necessary to alt-tab, login to a website (with my authenticator) after I'm already logged into the game, then open my email client for the code, return to the website again and input the code, then wait for up to an hour in the game for my item?
Don't you see how ridiculous all that is when I could just click it in game? Blizzard is evolving...you should try it.
- - - Updated - - -
You weren't required to spend a single dime in Diablo 3 nor did the loot you purchased have any effect on another player.
Banned players have broken the code of conduct in the game. They no longer have right to play it.
But its very good point that you should mention that you have a choice to end your sub. Thats exactly the point here. WOW is NOT just the current group of players. Its also new players that will just laugh at you and Blizzard if you say them they are going to have to pay for the box + the expansion + the sub JUST to get into the ingame cash shop that is offering the same as F2P games are now offering.
If you thought WOW was loosing sub fast now.. just wait if you think this will be reality.
Who says they have it in cash? If anything, it's most likely in very east to liquidate investments. Interest rates are FUCKING terrible right now, why would Blizzard put 4.3bil in a way2save with .01% interest?
We can say for certain. You see, Vivendi fucked themselves over, and now need to dig themselves out of that hole. They asked ATVI if they could gut them, ATVI said "fuck no" but then their agreement where ATVI had a say ended so it can happen regardless of whether or not ATVI wants it to.
Also, most of the 1/3 of the playerbase they lost was mainly in a part of the world where those 4 million people WEREN'T paying $15 a month.
QUOTE=Pann;21778374] Why do you need the conversion rate? 29.99 is 50% greater than 19.99 do you think that inflation is high enough to account for such a rise? I bought TBC shortly after it was released and Wrath at midnight the day it was released, these are the actual rather than anecdotal prices I paid although I do believe that Wrath had a RRP of £24.99 but most shops sold it at £19.99 and still managed to make a profit. Thus the £29.99 Blizzard received, for Cata and MOP, less bandwidth costs is much higher than the £19.99 less box and DVD production, physical distribution, point of sale, the shop's profit margin, etc it received from Wrath and TBC.[/QUOTE]
I need the converstion rate because if in 2004 39.99USD = 19.99GBP and then in 2010 39.99USD = 29.99GBP, then the price didn't go up at all. Again, I'm so ignorant to this, that that's why I'm requesting it.
On top of that, your prices don't take into account tariffs and international trade taxes that may have exited in 2004 and 2007 but were changed or removed in 2008 (Look at Brazil and Australlia's game prices today, if those retarded laws were abolished in 10 years, games would still probably be cheaper than then they are now) that caused things to sway; and you've still yet to source a GBP MSRP for the game. (Here's mine: http://www.ign.com/articles/2007/01/...crusade-review)
"So my advice is to argue based on the reasons stated, not try to make up or guess at reasons and argue those."
Greg Street, Riot Developer - 12:50 PM - 25 May 2015
I'm not even going to bother replying to you any more, as I think you're trolling. I'm sure you just said that Blizzard is free to spend it's cash how it wants on other products because it's a business, so you don't need me to back up my points with "facts" if you belive the same as me that my £9 a month get's spent on things other than WoW.
I'm still not even sure what your point is. That it's okay for Blizzard to charge for the cash-shop items twice? That it's okay for DLC to only be accessed if you pay for the privilage to play it?
As for having incorrect expectations about WoW, no, I know you've got to pay to play it online. If that's the case though, then the exspansions should be free, or the subscription should be. MoP will be the last WoW related product I buy from Blizzard untill they make it free to play. I've already spent more than enough money on it, as I mentioned each year I've played WoW that's 7 other games I could have brought.
Is the content that WoW receives once a year worth 7 other games? To me it isn't any more.
Player will still have to alt tap to buy in game currency. Real question should be... why should a player that is ALREADY paying a sub then have to add real money into special currency account IF this was about Convenience? You know it has nothing to do with convenience even when you wrote these lines. PPL will STILL have to pay the sub and ppl will STILL have to alt tab.
And the real difference here is EXTRA ingame currency that will be directly connected to real money outside of the game. Thats exactly what Pardo said they were trying to avoid with WOW. But if you can not see the difference... .then I can't help you.
Last edited by Duster505; 2013-07-16 at 11:53 PM.