How do you feel about Blizz partly funding their esports prize pool with toy sales?

[Tradu]

Great, if anything they're late to the party. Crowdfunding at least part of prizepools is a great way to make people get more into it, and lets them directly support the events.

[Trumpcat]

I don't care. Whatever works.

[Pancreatin]

Expect new "special pet and mount exclusive limited edition bundles" with 0.5% of sales going to children in africa every month from now on.

Hahah that made me laugh and sad at the same time

[Zeek Daniels]

DOTA's international gets funded by ingame purchases. I think its brilliant for the community to front the money for the esport. Its exactly how real sports work. People pay money to see games and players sign with teams who are getting revenue from people who pay to go to games as well as other sources of revenue.

[setsuna f seiei]

Becouse both of those games are free to play? WoW isnt. And what exact portion goes to esport prize pool? 5%? 10%?.

Why does the size matter? This is why they don't share this kind of information... people want to know more when the end result has 0 impact on them.

[Soeroah]

I'm more annoyed with more stuff getting added to the store than I am with proceeds from those things being used to fund esports, but I'd rather the esports get partly funded through an optional purchase than through my subscription.

I'd love my WoW dollars to go toward WoW.

[rhorle]

its nice you seem to not be able to read, i do understand its been done else where but not in wow, and wow players need time to get used to the idea.
Them rolling it out right away without testing the waters is greed, there are far better ways to handle things.

You can't test a new thing out with out rolling it out first. There is no PTR for real life. They tested it out with other products in the company and it was a hit. It doesn't matter if it wasn't done for WoW before. Why do you think WoW players are special snowflakes that need permission for every new thing to be released? That isn't even possible to do yet you want Blizzard to do it just because you want to hate on them.

[burzian]

What's the end goal here, exactly? Is Blizzard trying to drive the prize pool really high to make WoW eSports more exciting and noteworthy? If they were, I can think of plenty of better ideas for that. Why not make it a % of character services revenue to coincide with releasing new Allied Races? Issues with store mounts aside, why not make it a mount so that way more players care? Store pets are likely one of the lowest-traffic sales areas for them, but it's the one they chose to tie to eSports. Maybe maximum prize pool and exposure for WoW eSports isn't the goal, then.

I think the actual goal here is to increase visibility and excitement for WoW eSports without any additional investment from the company. The reason this is a difficult dance for them is because WoW is a premium box-priced game that also costs $15/mo for access. If they're going to have the balls to tie the eSports prize pool to a third revenue stream, their only option is irrelevant cosmetic crap. Which means lower prize-pools and less excitement. Nothing game-breaking about it, but I don't think it's really doing as much as it could be for the eSports communities or the players. Which is a shame.

[tacoloco]

As long as it's not coming out of my subscription pocket, it's all good.

[rrayy]

It's an excuse to expand their shop while using esports to rake in advertisement. At our expense.

How is it at your expense if you don't buy anything? Since you obviously don't like it, you won't buy, so it won't be at your expense.

[dewd]

isnt wow itself a toy and your rant therefore unwarranted?

[Aeula]

How is it at your expense if you don't buy anything? Since you obviously don't like it, you won't buy, so it won't be at your expense.

Already replied to comments of this nature. See those.

[re1gn1te]

I don't mind it. I wish you had the option to chose where your money went tho. I'm not going to buy it cause I don't want to support shitty M+ "esports".

[rrayy]

Already replied to comments of this nature. See those.

None of you answers prove it is at your expense. All they do show is your entitlement and that you want everyone to be like you. You don't buy, it's not at your expense and you shouldn't care if other people do buy and support. End of story.

[Aeula]

None of you answers prove it is at your expense. All they do show is your entitlement and that you want everyone to be like you. You don't buy, it's not at your expense and you shouldn't care if other people do buy and support. End of story.

Okay man. If you want this game to slide into the shitter then that’s fine.

[Nnyco]

If you dont wanna support it, dont buy it. geez

Gotta love these fake outrages lately on this forum.

[rrayy]

Okay man. If you want this game to slide into the shitter then that’s fine.

That is your opinion, not fact. You need to learn the difference. The game is still profitable. You hating something does not = game is dying.

[cronotose]

In a vacuum, nothing wrong with it. In the context of widespread perception that Activision is cutting costs to the bone to the point of cutting the legs out from under their own games, it obviously doesn't boost the confidence score.

- - - Updated - - -

That is your opinion, not fact. You need to learn the difference. The game is still profitable. You hating something does not = game is dying.

That it is an opinion does not make it incorrect. Games start dying before they become unprofitable. He could be right or he could be wrong, but that it is his opinion does not say anything relevant about its accuracy. If you want to contest his position, you have to actually contest his position, rather than just point out that it is his position and pretend that means something.

[Rustykeyboard]

Many Esport games do it that way tbh.
Rainbow Six gets its price pool from its Elite Skins and I'm super ok with that

but for a game with a sub fee?

[Pratt]

I just want to know what the % is. If it was a reasonable % Blizz would tell us what it is.