Maybe it's "our" fault the Blizzard Store exist ...

[Deleted]

That's correct. I unsubbed at the end of WotLK.

Yet you still care enough to follow the game so many years later, despite not even playing it.
Blizzard really must have gotten you hooked.

[Punisher069]

Fair point. I might be wrong, of course. The thing is, I have principles in life that I stick to and one of them is 'never bend over to a corporation' (more or less).

If the things were mandatory I would understand your point, but with what we know so far it's just TCG type crap. Now if they start selling heroic level gear then that would be an issue.

[Deleted]

Yet you still care enough to follow the game so many years later, despite not even playing it.
Blizzard really must have gotten you hooked.

I expected such a nonsensical, completely irrelevant reply You have a problem with that or you don't believe me? Want me to link my battlenet profile or something?

[Raelbo]

No - it would be fault of Blizzard if they came out talking about paranoid irrational people acting like they didn't care one bit.

Blizzard are in a bit of a bind here. They announced a cool new feature and got a reaction they didn't expect from a small, but vocal, minority. Blizzard's failing is that they didn't anticipate this irrational, paranoid response. Nor can they rebutt it properly, because doing so would simply add more fuel to the fire. I think from a PR perspective they probably just need to ride this one out and hope that the voice of reason eventually triumphs on the forums.

The real fault of course lies with the knee jerk response of a small group of people who never thought this through before opening the throttles on their flamethrowers. It would be a sad day indeed if paranoia was to win over reason and logic.

[Dyminator]

Blizzard is more or less soulless now. They are literally a machine that blindly chases money. No "thought process" required. Just crunch the numbers and pick the one that is the largest.

I'm not using the term just as rhetoric.

Yeah and that's why they're pumping out more content/features in the next patch than ever before? i'd say alot of the money goes back to the consumer in form of new content or future games, you think they're "blindly chases money" just to gather one big pile? and not using it to make more content for the consumers? right...

[Raelbo]

How does it not ?
Sure, you cant buy level 90....just yet.... keep being intrigued and you'll see in 6 months

Levelling faster during the first (few) week(s) of a new expansion would be pay2win. The ability to level faster at the moment is nothing more than a quality of life upgrade for people who, for whatever reason, have sub-level 90 characters they want to get to level cap.

Ultimately, the term winning implies some sort of a contest, and if you haven't hit level 90 on your main 7 months ago already, you were never in this contest to start with.

[Duster505]

Blizzard are in a bit of a bind here. They announced a cool new feature and got a reaction they didn't expect from a small, but vocal, minority. Blizzard's failing is that they didn't anticipate this irrational, paranoid response. Nor can they rebutt it properly, because doing so would simply add more fuel to the fire. I think from a PR perspective they probably just need to ride this one out and hope that the voice of reason eventually triumphs on the forums.

The real fault of course lies with the knee jerk response of a small group of people who never thought this through before opening the throttles on their flamethrowers. It would be a sad day indeed if paranoia was to win over reason and logic.

If reason and logic are to win this... Blizzard needs to admit like very other F2P game out there has done - that having both ingame cash shop and mandatory sub is not acceptable way to treat consumers.

I am actually very surprised how civil the debate about this cash shop is on both official forums and other fansite forums. We have always seen armies of fanboys defending whatever actions BLizzard takes and using totally un-logical arguments. There is plenty of them here as well. But there are ppl that do understand how these things work and are realising like you say - that Blizzard can not do whatever to make money and think the subscribers will just keep paying.

To me Blizzard is not in any bind. WOW has ALWAYS been sub based game. If few % of the player base is demanding in game cash shop... then Blizzard should come out and simply point out what WOW has always been built around. But if Blizzard wants to add ingame cash shop they simply will have to change the entire business model of the game... with ingame currency that is directly connected with real money like all the F2P games are doing. That is a big step and acting like the BLizzard Web store is the equal in range and scope is just a joke. We all know that.

[glowpipe]

By over using the other paid services we told blizzard its ok and they explore new ways of earning money. Ofc its our fault.

If we never used realm transfer, name change and faction change. Or never bought lame ass pets from the store we wouldnt end up with a p2p game with a f2p store. Which is were we are headed now

[Lumineus]

Well.. Exp boost interact directly with the gameplay so.. I'm not sur this isnt P2W

Experience boost is also something you can earn in the game, through heirloom armor and farming Krol the Blade. As a store item it's kind of a waste for anyone but new players who don't have a max level main. Remember those? Would sure be nice to see some again...

[Xucuroz]

The Bliz store is just the naturally evolution of what all MMO games are doing these days. I honestly doubt it had anything to do with players buying mounts from the store. If anything, they've been extremely slow in joining the party with their own store.

That and they want more money from us.

[Duster505]

Experience boost is also something you can earn in the game, through heirloom armor and farming Krol the Blade. As a store item it's kind of a waste for anyone but new players who don't have a max level main. Remember those? Would sure be nice to see some again...

True... we will not see many new players coming in if WOW will go: Buy the box + buy the expansions + pay the sub + buy ingame currency for real money + Welcome to the ingame shop. To act like that is some sort of convenient for players... just lol.

- - - Updated - - -

The Bliz store is just the naturally evolution of what all MMO games are doing these days. I honestly doubt it had anything to do with players buying mounts from the store. If anything, they've been extremely slow in joining the party with their own store.

That and they want more money from us.

Blizz store is natural evolution ye. Ingame cash shop in WOW is not. Unless BLizzard goes the same way as the other games have gone with "natural evolution" and removes mandatory subs when they add ingame cash shop.

[Boogums]

... if people hadn't enthusiastically bought those mounts and half a dozen pets, if people hadn't abuse RAF with wild abandon, if people don't buy 4 additional accounts just so they can "pwn" in BGs. But "we" did, convincing Blizzard that all that is financially very profitable.

The only way to shut down the store is to stop buying ... ya, good luck with that. LOL

So what next?

Haircuts?
Beards?
Eyebrows?
Faces?
Tattoos?
Skin colour?
Spell effects?
Improved animation?

Heck, feel Alliance/Horde isn't "winning" enough? Buy a "vote" for the next Alliance/Horde victory/defeat! Only $1 at the Blizzard Store. Why not? Blizzard has shown that everything is for sale, everything has a price. It's not like it "affects" gameplay.

Welcome to Capitalism I suppose. Ideals, integrity, "having a vision", screw all that. The "God" that is money is all that matters. In the words of the Lich King, "In the end, you will all serve me.".

I thought we'd make it at least 10 posts before someone dropped the "i" word (new swear against Blizzard, integrity) after reading the title. Good thing I'm not a betting man.

[Elexo]

Although the OP didn't word it quite right, a lot of the posts here prove his point.

We're the consumer, it's our job to ressist and haggle so suppliers don't take advantage of us.
Yet I see posts here akin to cats in heat rubbing their butts in Blizzard's faces just begging to be ravaged.
A gross over exaggeration of course but I believe my point is clear.

Personaly I've given up the fight against these fanboys who seem to not only condone but WISH to throw every last penny at Blizzard, completely throwing away their responsibility as consumers.
For me it's just a bit sad that sometimes the coolest mounts and now some of the best looking helmets are only obtainable through real money transactions.

Not too long ago a bat mount came out, finaly I thought, something fitting for my Forsaken characters, I bet it's some kind of difficult raid achievement or some such though. Haha, how naive. I suppose I always knew inside that it would be sold for cold hard cash.
I don't pay for these things, I find the store and other paid actions such as transfers an insult to their customers.
Maybe one day the majority will agree and we'll be able to make a stand, but that day is not today.

[Raelbo]

If reason and logic are to win this... Blizzard needs to admit like very other F2P game out there has done - that having both ingame cash shop and mandatory sub is not acceptable way to treat consumers.

If reason and logic are to win this, people need to constrain their arguments within the bounds of reason and logic. Issuing a blanket statement that "having both ingame shop and mandatory sub is not acceptable way to treat consumers" is neither reasonable nor logical.

Surely there are parameters within which having an ingame shop in a subscription based game is acceptable?

If you think their actions are unacceptable, you need to identify the consequences that make is so. Having an ingame shop cannot in and of itself be a bad thing. Things that would probably be unacceptable would include:

1) Advertising spam detracting from the game
2) Players feeling pressured into buying stuff from the store not because they want the items, but because they feel they need them.
3) Related to 2) above: A situation where the majority of the playerbase is using the store because it simply makes for a better default gaming experience.

Having a sub based game with a shop makes a LOT of sense when the items on the shop are targetting minorities within the game. Once a significant majority of the playerbase elects to buy an item from the shop, then that feature should really come standard with the subscription. But as long as there are still significant numbers of players not buying a certain item, then it makes no sense to charge them extra on their subscription in order to get that item.

At the end of the day, Blizzard want to achieve a certain profit margin. They can either raise the subscriptions across the board, or offer optional extras to those who are willing to pay for them. Which would you rather have?

like you say - that Blizzard can not do whatever to make money and think the subscribers will just keep paying.

I did not say that. I said something completely different: There are times when customers will respond unpredictably and overreact to something that is actually rather benign.

To me Blizzard is not in any bind. WOW has ALWAYS been sub based game. If few % of the player base is demanding in game cash shop... then Blizzard should come out and simply point out what WOW has always been built around.

So, because it's always been that way, they should never change or try to adapt to changing customer requirements? Seriously, the objective of any good firm should be to adapt and accomodate it's customers. If customers are indicating that they are happy to pay a bit extra to get xyz, it would be idiotic to ignore that.

But if Blizzard wants to add ingame cash shop they simply will have to change the entire business model of the game... with ingame currency that is directly connected with real money like all the F2P games are doing.

You need to start thinking out of the box. I don't want WoW to go F2P. That would be in my mind a "bad" solution. I also don't think that a flat out increase to their monthly subscription would be a great idea either - can you imagine the outrage?

Sorry, but their "hybrid" approach is far more palatable to me and many others.

[Hipnos14]

Well, 12 Euros in the European Store



http://eu.blizzard.com/store/details.xml?id=221005502

[apepi]

I can not wait until people will have to buy the remodels.

[Deleted]

Brb, porting to OG to see how many people already are running around with them.

[Haytham]

I can not wait until people will have to buy the remodels.

Doubt they will charge money for them. It will piss off way to many people.

[Hipnos14]

Doubt they will charge money for them. It will piss off way to many people.

But is only cosmetic...xDDDDDDDDDDDDD

[Deleted]

I can not wait until people will have to buy the remodels.

I cannot wait until people start to complain that the horns aren't green.