What do we pay subscription for?

[Deleted]

It is a serious question: I don't mind paying a monthly subscription, but why do we actually have to pay it? (apart from giving lots of money to Blizzard)

I read somewhere that the money goes towards servers' maintenance, providing the highest level of services etc. etc. Which is cool.

But then again, how comes that subscription-free Guild Wars 2 ( buy to play) manages to keep all the servers nice and running AND they provide regular updates in the form of patches (just like Blizzard does).

I'd like someone to precisely point out things which justify 15$ of monthly subscription. And I don't mean 'because WoW's content is good and GW2's sucks, because these are disputable matters. The truth is that the patch content of these two games requires more or less the same effort from both developers, and I assume that the costs of running servers must be comparable as well (both games are basically lag-free + high server capacity)

I guess that GW2's revenue comes from micro transactions. But now that Blizzard's shop is up and running, won't they make even more money from micro transactions than Arena Net?

And to add something to the discussion, I have got a quotation from IGN's article titled: 6 of the biggest game reversals, which is about gaming companies changing their mind. Here's a developer's quote about Star Wars Online, when it was still subscription based:

, I think it's fair to say that there will never be a free-to-play game of the scale or size or complexity of Star Wars: The Old Republic. What you get for your subscription is an incredibly rich, premium quality experience, you have guaranteed customer service, if you need help we have people waiting."

Needles to say, they went F2P soon afterwards. Is Blizzard's argumentation behind subscription the same as the one of Star Wars Online developer? Because if yes, then it is flawed, as the company could perfectly profit from micro transactions, just as Guild Wars 2 and Star Wars do. The only difference is that people ARE paying the subscription, so why make little profit if you could earn much more? Or is there something more to it?

Once again, I'm paying the subscription and I'm fine with it as I simply find WoW to be the best MMO out there. It's just this question: Is the subscription really necessary? Looking at other MMOs, I say: No. That's my opinion. What's yours? Please keep the thread constructive and cultural, I don't mean to offend anyone and I don't want to be offended.

[Kalcheus]

It keeps out the riff-raff

[Conspicuous Cultist]

You're pretty much going to get this
1. To get access to the servers
2. How dare a business make money
3 While keeping that cash shop garbage away used to be a thing you could say, that's no longer the case so what you'll get is "It's all cosmetic and doesn't effect you. It's just 90s." or "It's all optional".

[Deleted]

You're probably right but never in a million years will they remove the sub fee. I could totally see them increasing it though.

[Deleted]

You're pretty much going to get this
1. To get access to the servers

That's really all we need to say Blizz decides what we pay for, so they could in theory say just that and then call anything else a bonus.

[Deleted]

It keeps out the riff-raff

Sure, it may deter some, as you call them, riff-raffs, but since WoW's launch the Internet and online gaming have become significantly more popular and hence there are many trolls anyway e.g. immature kids or simply adult trolls for whom 15$ a month isn't really a fortune. Personally, I don't believe that there would be much more trolls were the subscription to be lifted. 10-20% more is my guess. And thank you for your reply

[Detheavn]

I think the number one reason is because F2P probably wouldn't be as profitable as a subscription with this big a player-base.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Access to a product that isn't exactly free to produce and maintain...?

Yes, the sub fee is needed and tbf, not high. Everything in the cash shop is entirely optional.

[ACES]

Your subscription allows you to log in to your account and access all of your characters and all in game content up to and including that in the most recent expansion that you've purchased. Nothing more, nothing less.

Also, the sub fee keeps out the F2P crowd, which is a good thing.

[Deleted]

You're pretty much going to get this

2. How dare a business make money

I get you write this as irony and in normal circumstances it's true As long as players will be paying subscription, Blizzard will be making lots of money. They created a tremendous product and they can profit from it as long as people pay money. But if my assumptions as to the real costs of running servers etc (GW2, SWOTR - free) are true, then it means that they are making 15$ a month on each of us just so they can, not because it improves the game. Which once again is cool. For them But the players don't really get anything for it (provided that my assumptions are true)

[Daswolfen]

You bring up GW2 but there is a big difference. There is no real end game content in GW2, so they can do all those little patches with the events. There are no raid tiers or even PVP seasons to deal with. Once you get your max level gear, the only thing you ever worry about is cosmetics. As far as how they can afford to keep their server up, well they have a fraction of WoW's players as well as fewer servers. They make most of their money in the gem shop because people buy all that crap or they want gold and you can buy gold (gem conversion) in that game.

[soulzek]

content patches

[Kalcheus]

Sure, it may deter some, as you call them, riff-raffs, but since WoW's launch the Internet and online gaming have become significantly more popular and hence there are many trolls anyway e.g. immature kids or simply adult trolls for whom 15$ a month isn't really a fortune. Personally, I don't believe that there would be much more trolls were the subscription to be lifted. 10-20% more is my guess. And thank you for your reply

It's not just trolls to be concerned about. Post-merge, the servers are no longer capable to handle every returning subscriber if the game goes f2p. Not to mention gold-sellers, etc.

Understand that the infrastructure of Rift, SW, GW2, etc., were designed with f2p in mind as a possibility. WoW was not.

[Sainur]

What do we pay subscription for?

We pay so that Bobby Kotick and Mike Moneyhaime can inject liquid money right into their veins.

[RoKPaNda]

Blizzard has a long way to go with their shop before they can make as much as GW2 does off of microtransactions. GW2 is CONSTANTLY adding new stuff to their shop for people to buy. Most of it cosmetic. Within the first six months of GW2 one of my dearest friends and an otherwise sensible person had already spent $200~ on the shop in GW2.

GW2's content patches are nice, I like them quite a bit, the content is fun, but it doesn't compare to something like a raid tier in WoW.

[Aquamonkey]

Why isn't World of Warcraft free?
The fee is used to support the costs associated with the high-quality levels of service, support, and ongoing content creation that go into World of Warcraft. (Source)

[Sainur]

high-quality levels of service, support, and ongoing content creation that go into World of Warcraft

I lost my shit at this point.

[Queen of Hamsters]

I lost my shit at this point.

You might be one of the negative people, but doesn't change the fact that what they do isn't done from a couch at home over the course of an afternoon. And they don't stop producing between releases.

[Saxtorph]

I get you write this as irony and in normal circumstances it's true As long as players will be paying subscription, Blizzard will be making lots of money. They created a tremendous product and they can profit from it as long as people pay money. But if my assumptions as to the real costs of running servers etc (GW2, SWOTR - free) are true, then it means that they are making 15$ a month on each of us just so they can, not because it improves the game. Which once again is cool. For them But the players don't really get anything for it (provided that my assumptions are true)

Your assumptions are not accurate. You argument is inherently flawed. You seem to living in some fantasy world where servers, bandwidth, and all the rest of the overhead of a company as huge as blizzard is just made available for free. The relative incremental content updates of GW2 and WoW are not even remotely the same.

[Deleted]

I lost my shit at this point.

That's why I posted a quote from Star Wars Online developer: same argumentation, yet the game went free