How could Classic be monitized in an acceptable manner to encurage investors?

[therealbowser]

Given that classic basically doesn't have any development going on, the subscription alone is more than enough. People playing on Classic are literally just paying for vanilla to be playable on modern machines and to play on the server. That $15/mo covers less than 10% of the cost of the servers IIRC. It's pure profit, and people aren't even expecting updates. It's a cash cow and Blizzard would be extraordinarily foolish to try and get greedy with it.

That said, this is Activision we are talking about, so be wary...

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Oh my, I see some people are dense enough to fall for that crap. The reality is that the "PROFITS NEED TO KEEP GOING UP ALL THE TIME!!!!1!" is how you end up with crap games in the first place. It is the very obvious flaw in the shareholder system, they will never be content with a profit, it always needs to be bigger.

Ultimately he had a strong point. Businesses are never happy with just being profitable. They want profits to go up, not continue to be successful at the same rate they are. That stock value has to rise, it's not enough for it to merely retain its value and offer decent dividends. Greed has killed off too many MMORPGs to count. It's not unfathomable it could happen to WoW Classic, and frankly, the people who would let it happen do not care if it hurt (or even killed) Classic if it benefit them in the short term.

This isn't the Blizzard of old we're talking about. It's Activision. And activision is both greedy and foolish with how it handles its franchises. A sane person knows it would be a bad idea for the game, but many businesses only see things in $'s, and only in quarterly statements. They'll do anything to push the margin and hope they can fix shit later. They don't have a rat's ass whether WoW classic died. This is especially true if they felt they could squeeze more money out of it by doing something underhanded than gaining money over its natural lifespan... or even get a similar amount of money immediately instead of waiting that long.

And I guarantee you, that as little as Activision cares about any of its franchises, the investors will care even less. It's all about the money. In short, don't underestimate corporate greed.

[Relapses]

Good to see this thread is now identical to MidgetMan's topic about the same thing. People don't really want extra monetization for Classic, they just want to justify Classic+ content so they can feel secure in their smug opinion that their preferred version of WoW is getting new content over retail.

[RainBoi]

Got anything to back those "facts" up? Or just random thoughts projected out as undeniable fact?

What exactly do you need to have "backed up with proof"? There is no need for developers to sit and brainstorm ideas for future patches etc. The game is already done and complete. There were obviously costs associated with wages to tech dudes figuring out how to run it on the old client, but now it is done and the same tech can be applied to potential TBC realms if they want to continue the sequel of Vanilla + TBC + Wrath progression. If you think running classic is even remotely close to the same costs as having retail running you are insane.

There are plently of people that only play WoW due to Classic. Loads of private server players will gladly play Classic on repeat for years to come if they reboot or make new realms every few years. The "fresh feeling" of starting on a new server is huge for lots of players. Now they have classic running there are close to zero costs associated with the game beside server maintaince and GMs (likely shared with retail tbh).

[arkanon]

Opinion Snip.

I wanted you to back up the claim that profit has been calculated, and random forum members know what that number is. You do not. Its just random jibber jabber with ZERO proof.

[RainBoi]

I wanted you to back up the claim that profit has been calculated, and random forum members know what that number is. You do not. Its just random jibber jabber with ZERO proof.

It is common sense - Rational thinking. If you don't think they are making bank from classic moving forward you are just crazy.

[arkanon]

It is common sense - Rational thinking. If you don't think they are making bank from classic moving forward you are just crazy.

Common sense and rational thinking dictate that you would need to know all the financial details of something before declaring it a financial success.

[RainBoi]

Common sense and rational thinking dictate that you would need to know all the financial details of something before declaring it a financial success.

No you really don't need to know every little detail. Please supply proof that classic is an economical burden for Blizzard. Hint: It isn't.
I'll agree that there have been a start-up cost for techies to apply the 1.13 patch onto the current engine etc., but now the job is done and moving forward they will only make money. They even said themselves that they have laid the foundation for introducing oldschool TBC servers if thats what people wanted. The job is done, and now it is just maintaince, no further development as of now.

[arkanon]

No you really don't need to know every little detail.

This is called a strawman; no one is saying you need to know "every little detail" - i am saying that to calculate profit, you would need to know what had been invested. Its really not a difficult concept.

[Freighter]

hahahah alright now show me an actual one.
cause vanilla wow had both store pets and store mounts in the way of collectors edition and the TCG cards.
so again, show me an mmo that doesent have a sub? especially one in the last few years, as this is 2019, not 2004.

What? There are a lot of mmos out there with no sub.

[Muajin76]

We all know many things in Classic are completely off the table. Mount shop. Transmog shop. Pet shop. gold Tokens...

But to an investor, a game with "only" a monthly fee is not as profitable as Retail. If it is not as profitable, it will not be concidered a financial success and will not be pushed to further development with the same design principals.

I, as a player, would LOVE to support and push the Classic design forward, but how can Blizzard ask for money for this, and me give this, without "ruining the game"?

Were the collector pets (Diablo, Murloc and Panda) acceptable? They were "pay for the pet".
Were the TCG card codes for Spectral Tiger OK? They were certainly "pay for the mount".

What about for instance giving "bundles" of gametime? "Pay for 6 months, get 7 months playtime"?

Is paying for server transfers OK?

Is increasing the monthly fee OK?

If no on all the above, what IS ok?

You forgot *Add toon only special costumes resembling some boss/mob/famous npc that was around during vanilla, that would be bought only from the blizz store*