WoW is a subscription game - why employ scummy F2P tactics?

[Accendor]

I'm talking about utter crap like:
-store mounts
-character boosts
-"get this now before it's too late and we arbitrarily remove it"
-purchasable cosmetics
-whale targeting
-cute fox people

I mean yeah sure it allows Activi$$ion Bill$$ard to rake in more money but it damages the integrity of the game. You'd expect to see crap like this in games like League of Legends and all of those billions of mobile "clash of clashes" clones. Not a monthly-sub based game like WoW.

Listen up, Kotick. If you want to suck $$$ out of your hapless victims then by all means do so but do it in a separate mobile game that is clearly designed to bleed the whales dry. Leave WoW alone and let us have our fantasy RPG.

While I completely agree with you about any of the points related to WoW, I have to say that League of Legends has THE most fair microtransaction system out there. Is it perfect? Most likely not,, but its way better than most others. Yes, you can still dislike microtransaction in general, but hating on riot because of "scummy F2P tactics" is really the wrong target.

[RoKPaNda]

I can't even blame Activision for this. Blizzard has always copied whatever the industry does, and these things are standard now.

[Self Inflicted Wounds]

You don't have to buy any of those things to play the game. Just the sub is required.

[Shakana]

they do it because they can and because for the most part it doesn't hurt the game in any way.

Character boost is one thing I always mention when people say that flying hurts the game. What about having the character boost? What's that big experience of leveling on the ground they talk about when they say that flying destroys? When it benefits them it doesn't hurt the game ofc.

[quite an expert in wow]

You don't have to buy any of those things to play the game. Just the sub is required.

yup, only a couple of mounts and pets etc are sold in the store

and some even end up at the BMAH anyways

the real problem is OP not being able to gather gold and instantly wanting rewards without wanting to do stuff for it in return

[erifwodahs]

At least a year if not two. This is a scummy move designed purely to shit on achievement collectors and get them to resubscribe for 8.2 and scramble to get those achievements in a mad frenzy.

Do you know how stupid that sounds? It has been around for years, why would someone who did not care about it for years would care about it now? A year or two Most of common contracts are giving a months notice period before changes and this is purely blizzards IP, your character is rented for a time you pay for and it is not your own.... Do you even real world?

[sam86]

they got away with it
ppl didn't stand against shiny pony who was clearly a reward from Algaron that got removed, now we get token wow where u can literally p2w, not to best gear but still to very high lvl of gear, full hc raid tier without learn anything beside right click to move

[jellmoo]

Character boost is one thing I always mention when people say that flying hurts the game. What about having the character boost? What's that big experience of leveling on the ground they talk about when they say that flying destroys? When it benefits them it doesn't hurt the game ofc.

Those two things don't overlap though. Character boosts only take you to the beginning of the most current piece of content, a place where flying has already been unlocked. You still have to level through that content on the ground until you unlock flight.

[erifwodahs]

I can't even blame Activision for this. Blizzard has always copied whatever the industry does, and these things are standard now.

Agreed. It's saying that it is a good thing, but I am just saying it has became common practice in gaming industries, it's successful and for now it does not affect your game results in any way. Maybe they should add a switch to disable seeing tmogs or sth... but yeah wouldn't it be fun to choose to look like a clown vs loose power?

[Itori]

Microtransactions have become the mainstream thing now, not enough people oppose it so its going to be in damn near every game you purchase. Its the digital age, where companies like blizzard and activision can release half completed games and slap a 60-120$ tag on it and patch fixes or add content in later, and the sad part? People still buy it xD

[czarek]

I'm talking about utter crap like:
-store mounts
-character boosts
-"get this now before it's too late and we arbitrarily remove it"
-purchasable cosmetics
-whale targeting
-cute fox people

I mean yeah sure it allows Activi$$ion Bill$$ard to rake in more money but it damages the integrity of the game. You'd expect to see crap like this in games like League of Legends and all of those billions of mobile "clash of clashes" clones. Not a monthly-sub based game like WoW.

Listen up, Kotick. If you want to suck $$$ out of your hapless victims then by all means do so but do it in a separate mobile game that is clearly designed to bleed the whales dry. Leave WoW alone and let us have our fantasy RPG.

????? There is not that much cosmetics in store and tbh this is just cosmetic. Not a big thing. Character boost ok this affect in game play but only in time used to character lvlup. If you dont have time to lvlup od just dont want to do it just buy lvl boost than uill spend 1 month in game instead of maybe 2-3 = less sub income. Its quite fair i think. Store beeing =/= scam.

[Shakana]

Those two things don't overlap though. Character boosts only take you to the beginning of the most current piece of content, a place where flying has already been unlocked. You still have to level through that content on the ground until you unlock flight.

When a person starts playing they have a boost.therefore they just level 10 levels. They don't even experience leveling besides those 10 levels

[jellmoo]

When a person starts playing they have a boost.therefore they just level 10 levels. They don't even experience leveling besides those 10 levels

Yes, but they are still leveling those 10 levels on the ground. The previous levels they are skipping over are ones where they could have flown as they level. There isn't any overlap between level boosted content, and not experiencing content on the ground.

[Clbull]

Wait, OP got banned for this post?

He's absolutely right, you know. The only reason publishers like Activision, 2K, Take Two, EA, Ubisoft, Jagex, etc still throw microtransactions and cash shops into fully priced AAA games is because people will still sheepishly buy into that crap. This is the future of gaming and as consumers, you all enabled them to do this. I can only hope that regulators around the world catch up to these scummy tactics and start banning loot boxes and cash shops entirely.

[Loveliest]

It's... complicated. I mean I agree with you, but I also buy store mounts and pets. Because that's what companies do - profit from people's needs and weaknesses.
Like... I realize paying 25 euros for a mount is stupid, but I do it because... it's pretty, because I'm in a bad mood and it will make me happy, because it will make me reach my 500 mount target faster, because I'm a collector and I like filling up the grey spots... so in a way or another, I don't have the self discipline to stop and take a stand.

[Clara777]

they do it because they can and because for the most part it doesn't hurt the game in any way.

[Loveliest]

Whale content: wat....i mean other than some of the overpriced statues there really isnt a lot of whale content IN wow.....unless you mean people who drop a couple hundred on tokens which ...who cares

I think maybe the 5 million mount? Not sure that counts as whale content. Or the Black AH and card ones? /shrug

[Soon-TM]

Come to think of it, in a WoW where 60 is the cap again and you're supposed to be able to level 10-50 with a single old expansion's content (or, alternatively, 10-60 in the shadowlands only), is selling boosts even going to be a thing anymore? Or did I completely misunderstand the summary of how the squished leveling is going supposed to work?

Yes, it looks like paid boosts are going to sell less with SL "revamped" levelling. I can only guess that they really aren't selling a lot as of now, or Blizzard would have never given up the revenue. Now, if transfers were slashed by 60/70%...

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Literally the only thing accurate is graphics, talents, and....well...that's basically it. Everything else you listed is the exact same in Modern. Classic plays absolutely no different than Modern aside from using auto-attack way more.

You haven’t actually logged onto classic at all have you? The zones are not the same as the post cata world the quest are not the same in many places, there are abilitys that are not in bfa, some dungeons like sunken temple aren’t not the same post cata, game mechanics and story are not the same post cata.

You are talking complete ignorant none sense.

- - - Updated - - -

Yes it does, are you high? Its amplifies it dramatically....

As someone who has been playing pre boost the quaility of little Timmy’s play hasn’t drastically gone down at all. People who don’t want to or can’t learn how to play properly won’t do so just because they leveled instead of boosted.

[Bhanzai]

Adults understand that they dont need to buy anything from the store to play the game. Adults understand that by not buying anything from the store it doesn't prevent them from enjoying every aspect of the game. Adults understand having mounts or other nonsense in the store is irrelevant.

Become an adult.