Would you play the season 4 if it is free to play?

[Skildar]

If the game is free to play for season 4 only, will it be a good opportunity for you to come back or get invested in its content?

[klaps_05]

That would be massively detrimental as everyone knows the final patch/season is when the game is actually playable, and now you get to do all raids too as relevant, why play anything before it at all?

[arkanon]

No one i personally know who stopped playing, did so because of the cost. The stopped because they no longer enjoy the game. $15, $5, Free, doesnt change that they dont enjoy the game.

[m4xc4v413r4]

No one i personally know who stopped playing, did so because of the cost. The stopped because they no longer enjoy the game. $15, $5, Free, doesnt change that they dont enjoy the game.

Truth.

I haven't payed for anything in this game pretty much since the token exists, but the reality is, 15 bucks a month is nothing for a hobby or just any kind of media one can consume for countless hours. But once you reach a point where you aren't having fun or whatever, why would you keep consuming it?
I take breaks from the game, I'm about to take one in the next few weeks, just finishing some stuff I want to finish and then I'll be out for however long it takes to make me want to come back again, I've done it for weeks, months and once even for years (skipped an entire expansion and part of another).

[Skildar]

I'm with you, that's why I thought of doing this poll and ask the question here, try and check if other people share different state of mind regarding the game price.
I was having this discussion with a friend who was feeling like we've chased a lot of achievements in the game and been doing so for years. So naturally there is little left for us to do in the game. But it's absolutely not the case for a new player.

The thing is that it's quite hard to put yourself in someone's shoes that has left the game, has still some things to do in game but feels like the last content patch is really season 3 and that season 4 is replay time in a way. I know that I'm not sharing the opinion on the expansion of a majority of vocal players, so it's even harder to put myself in others shoes.

[Shadowferal]

It was never about the monthly cost to me.
Had they tacked on a buck or two during MoP, I would've grumbled but I would've paid. I was having fun playing.

[afishman]

Definitely as i cant afford to pay for sub

[Lochton]

I'd rather not see it go free2play. The term worries me in general as it also invites more aggressive store development, as we've seen with other games.

As for the answer, I'm already playing, and therefore, season 4 or not, wouldn't be on my verdict.

[Mic_128]

I might, but only for RP purposes. Heck, if free accounts could talk/emote, I'd be using one.

[Makaloff]

If the game is free to play for season 4 only, will it be a good opportunity for you to come back or get invested in its content?

i would just get KSM and then go over to classic again like i do currently so for me it wouldnt matter

[Starfals]

No one i personally know who stopped playing, did so because of the cost. The stopped because they no longer enjoy the game. $15, $5, Free, doesnt change that they dont enjoy the game.

While i mostly agree with you, a lot of people DID quit the game because of the cost. No joke, i lost around 50 guild members because of that and around 15 real life friends.

Heck, even i did a while ago (this year) because 10 years of WoW, (and actually its close to 13... but i won't count that into the cost) monthly $15 and yearly expansions that cost $60 (that's the price here)... it ads up.

I don't think ANY game should cost that much, and also have some form of microtransactions/in game store. Even if we forget about the store, what current (or any game for that matter) cost $2,280? WoW did for me. Actually, it did cost even more as i said above... This is exactly why i quit, even if i do enjoy the game. I got too many other awesome games that cost $30-60 and i never think about spending a dime on them again. Buy once and forget.

If Blizzard were to sell a one time subscription for $500, i think id buy it lol. Cus if i were to play regularly, it would add up to another $2000 eventually....


P.s. Just to make myself clear again, NO GAME SHOULD COST MORE THAN $100, and this is why this subscription model is not for me. No matter how much i enjoy the game, i also like other games. I wont die without WoW. My current plan is to just get expansions (if they seem cool) see the lore, do some pvp/pve for a few months and quit. No more serious WoW for me.

[ceall]

Voted no because for f2p to be sustainable, there would need to be heavy incentives to spend money elsewhere in the game. Even for just 1 season.

Let's check the facts:
A Shadowlands season has lasted roughly 7 to 8 months. Let's go with 7 for math reasons.
We know season 4 will be shorter than season 1 to 3. Let's say it'll be 5 months. That wouls bring the entirety of shadowlands to 26 months.
Let's assume there's 2 million active subscriptions (doesn't have to mean all 2 million are being played, some people just can't be bothered to cancel).

So 2Mx$15=$30M
$30Mx5months=$150M.

150 million dollars will be missing if the game went f2p for just that 1 shortened season. How is any game company (not only blizzard) supposed to compensate that?
Expanding the cash shop. Overflowing it with cosmetics.
However, not everyone of the 2M subs will be interested in cosmetics. Earning would still be less than subscriptions.
Whats the next step? P2W. Sure, only few people would use that. But combined with the cosmetics crowd, income would go up.
Those that use p2w will be happy because they win, those that don't will leave out of frustration. Likely for forever, since only a fraction of people inform themselves and think the game would be like this until it ends.

That leaves the game with less people than before going f2p. Once again lowering income through micro transactions. And the spiral goes down and down and down until the game has to be shut down.

The best way to handle everything is to leave it as is.

[Iain]

No. But I wouldn't mind if there was a F2P mode in the game where people could play mini-classes, like a Murloc Oracle, or a Virmen tank . They couldn't do quests or anything, but they could enter into battlegrounds, raids and instances to fill missing role slots.

They don't have a wallet, can't hold gold or find items, instead they have their own loot system where they can find resources that they can trade in at their own vendor somewhere in a swampy town that's their capital.

Maybe they can have their own mini world quests where they need to travel and gather stuff while any player, horde and alliance, can gank them.

You get the idea. Content that's free to play for people who genuinely aren't willing or able to pay for subscription, but who nonetheless add value to the subscribed player's experience and ideally are fun enough for subscribing players to play as well.

[Alydael]

While i mostly agree with you, a lot of people DID quit the game because of the cost. No joke, i lost around 50 guild members because of that and around 15 real life friends.

Heck, even i did a while ago (this year) because 10 years of WoW, (and actually its close to 13... but i won't count that into the cost) monthly $15 and yearly expansions that cost $60 (that's the price here)... it ads up.
No more serious WoW for me.

That calculation isn't really accurate though. You have played this game for years, literally ten years. It would be more accurate to look at it per hour.
For example: some game take 40 hours to beat, then the game is done. That costs 60$ That would be 1.50$/ hr

WoW is 15$ a month. Now if You play WoW 30 hours/ month; you pay: 50 cents/ hour

I went to the theater last month. It was 15$ for a ticket for 2hrs.: 7.50/ hour$

Took my girl out to eat 90$ for 2 hr. That's $45/ hr

Then played mini golf 20$ each for 2 hours. That's $10/ hour

WoW is an extremely cheap form of entertainment. Less than a dollar a day. Once you pay- you can play as many hours as you want. The fact that you have been playing for ten years is a testament to what a great job they are doing on the game. Think how much it would have cost you to do some alternate form of entertainment, like going out to eat once a week or going to the movies once a week; for ten years......

[kamuimac]

If the game is free to play for season 4 only, will it be a good opportunity for you to come back or get invested in its content?

no those dungeons are complete garbage that i already did in past . mount is just another recoulor of 3 that we already have - its a hard pass for me till 10.0

the more people dont play the more chances they revert this garbage philosopy of reusing old assets instead giving us real new ocntent.

[craigw]

prob not im just sick of these dungeons, raids, and zones. the only thing season 4 is doing is inflating the item level for 10.0. so now instead of rolling in around 265-275 ilvl you gonna be rollin in around 305-310. a 40-50 ilvl difference. are we forced to do season 4 or are we fucked if we dont and putting our selves that much behind everyone else who will be facerolling starting zones with a 310 ilvl.

[MrLachyG]

this is a pointless thread because wow is not going free to play in season 4. could well go free to play in the distant future when no more content is coming out, but that won't be for 10 years or so at the earliest

[Unlimited Power]

If anything, I'd likely stop playing if the game became f2p, whether temporarily or not.

Given the playerbase of MMOs, especially WoW, already have a penchant for toxicity, inviting f2p players with no investment in the game to incite at least a basic level of decency, would be catastrophic for the paying playerbase.

If a game is entirely free, even a ban isn't much of a threat. It's why you'll see smurfs griefing less capable players all the time in games like LoL and other f2p PvP games.

[Mendzia]

The price for this game was never a reason i had breaks or when i quit even as a kid almost 20 years ago.

[Shadowferal]

Well, when I heard that the game has changed to the point where the game isn't the same one I enjoyed, then it seemed to me Blizz wanted a different player base.
ftp would again be big change.