would WoW going f2p be fair to the games industry?

[Just Passing through]

My point is WoW already got away with mtx that affect gameplay (commodites and progression - indirectly endgame progression too). Can it get worse, sure it can, but my point is they make over 40 million a month just from subs, that's a very high number to ditch and hope to make more via mtx. It might work for a couple of months but it will just become a shothole.

Yeah - I'll also go with the (cynical?) assessment that they have done the numbers and in the end feel, they can make more money by NOT gooing f2p and staying as it is while slowly adding more stuff to the shop.

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Wow I can smell your le tumblr sass from here. Once again didn't say dead said dying good job reading

Semantics. Everything dies the moment it is created. Obviously WoW is not dead, was never dead - it is just hyperbole (and still somebody will claim "Oh, but it is dead to me" - even if you said "dying")

But if it makes you happy I shall amend my post to "People have been saying that WoW is DYING since 2008, when I joined this forum." - Anecdote from back then: Petition to make subforums for Aion and Conan, because those are now the next big thing and people will not play WoW anymore. (Yes, there was a time here when you could get infractions for discussing other games)

So..whatever...WoW is dying. As are you and me...

[Mysterymask]

Yeah - I'll also go with the (cynical?) assessment that they have done the numbers and in the end feel, they can make more money by NOT gooing f2p and staying as it is while slowly adding more stuff to the shop.

I think the big problem with these threads is folks think Blizzard is in a fantasy country where top executives and shareholders look at the chart and says "you know I think we are making enough money"

[Just Passing through]

I think the big problem with these threads is folks think Blizzard is in a fantasy country where top executives and shareholders look at the chart and says "you know I think we are making enough money"

Well, there are enough ppl saying "Blizzard is greedy" - but that is just putting a derogative word on how pretty much every company at least in capitalism works (within the ethical boundaries they set themselves - meaning, even a company that produces in the USA and might only use ecological means of production etc etc - try to be fair, environment friendly and all that - they still will get as much money for their product as the market allows.)

...and in many cases they will even cry for subsidies and help from the government, once they fucked up and lose money. Which I think is the disgusting thing - but I can't blame them, if politicians and tax payers let them get away with it.

[NineSpine]

Well, there are enough ppl saying "Blizzard is greedy" - but that is just putting a derogative word on how pretty much every company at least in capitalism works (within the ethical boundaries they set themselves - meaning, even a company that produces in the USA and might only use ecological means of production etc etc - try to be fair, environment friendly and all that - they still will get as much money for their product as the market allows.)

...and in many cases they will even cry for subsidies and help from the government, once they fucked up and lose money. Which I think is the disgusting thing - but I can't blame them, if politicians and tax payers let them get away with it.

When those companies then use their financial resources to buy off politicians and manipulate the tax payers, then yes you can blame them.

[Mysterymask]

When those companies then use their financial resources to buy off politicians and manipulate the tax payers, then yes you can blame them.

I mean it's more an issue with the system than the company

Yeah I mean they are fucked for doing it but the system in general encourages it like I said your gonna be hard pressed to find a company these days that's going to say we have enough money

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Well, there are enough ppl saying "Blizzard is greedy" - but that is just putting a derogative word on how pretty much every company at least in capitalism works (within the ethical boundaries they set themselves - meaning, even a company that produces in the USA and might only use ecological means of production etc etc - try to be fair, environment friendly and all that - they still will get as much money for their product as the market allows.)

...and in many cases they will even cry for subsidies and help from the government, once they fucked up and lose money. Which I think is the disgusting thing - but I can't blame them, if politicians and tax payers let them get away with it.

Honestly if you look into any major corporation hard enough your gonna find a warcrime or 3

[NineSpine]

I mean it's more an issue with the system than the company

Yeah I mean they are fucked for doing it but the system in general encourages it like I said your gonna be hard pressed to find a company these days that's going to say we have enough money

Corporate interests are what mold the system. It was not always the case that companies were this concerned with unrelenting growth.

[Nitrax]

Why would I play WoW or any game if it went F2P? Why would I not play other games if I play WoW? What is the OP smoking? So many questions... I play the games that I like, costs are very secondary.

[Magistrate]

Does WoW need subs at this point to be highly profitable? Probably not.

Will subs be removed? Not without replacing them with something that makes more money because massive corpos are not interested in making less money for the sake of it. So really, what would they replace it with that would make more money? You guessed it, really really shitty MTX that would make the $90 bruto look like some amazing deal. So with this in mind, it's probably best to just keep the sub.

I'm not asking what would be best for us, I'm saying what is logical (ie, responding to the topic of the OP). They already have ridiculously profitable MTX in the game. They made millions on the Brutosaur alone.

[Tech614]

I'm not asking what would be best for us, I'm saying what is logical (ie, responding to the topic of the OP). They already have ridiculously profitable MTX in the game. They made millions on the Brutosaur alone.

And once again like I told you, corpos are not in the business of losing money so if they got rid of the sub there would be far more obnoxious MTXs than the fucking brontosaur which still did not even make them what they likely make from a single month of sub revenue on average.

[Beuargh]

The normal customer doesn't waste time on forums. Blizzard said that themselves in past.
Forum like this one are largely a collection of social rejects giving demands that will drive away real customers.

you noticed I was responding to OP saying studios developing new games don't have access to player feedback. if it's feedback Blizzard can't/don't use, then there is no feedback anybody can use and OPs point still don't make any sense at all...

[Ombree]

wow is too powerful.. it would not be responsible for the gaming industry to let it loose.. you are right..

[Stylia]

Im fully aware blizz wont go f2p as that would be just burning money but that's beside the point. The argument was about what shapes community.
The most hardcore communities were full loot open pvp mmorpg's with subscription. That's where people wished you to rope after you killed them. And these games were tiny compared to pve themeparks so its not popular game = bad. GW2 is much bigger than the full loot games and still going strong with xpacs. So its serves perfectly fine as an example that game design where you can only help other people and not drag them down leads automatically to a friendly community. WoW is sitting in between those 2 examples because you cant kill&loot people but you can harm them which leads to a mildly aggressive playerbase.

I understand your point, it's just... Every game that's fully F2P, is full of idiots, emo children, toxic people, etc..
The sub/price based games, were somewhat more cleansed from these behaviors... Just feels that way to me, could be otherwise for others.
The 13$ sub is nothing for WoW's target player base, which are... Dads

[czarek]

1st of all never goin to happen. Ok maybe not never but not in near or quite far future. Player base is still huge. It will be fair? I dont know what do you mean to be fair to the industry. All they need is to be fair against investors.