I agree, after 9 month this patch is not great. With 9.0 we have 4 different stories, one for each covenance - now there is only one story. Not even motivating for players with many twinks.
And the quest design is … - kill thia, kill that und look the balk being filled.
Well I have no choice but to believe you, considering I know very little about business and financials in general.
However, I’ve seen what games that are F2P look like and it’s quite lame. While their costs may be covered without subscription, that won’t prevent them from getting greedy and locking certain features behind paywalls and giving unfair advantages to people who are willing to ditch cash for it.
Yeah but if you’ve been subscribed to WoW since Shadowlands was released, then you’ve already given Blizzard €70 worth of subscription money. And they’ve given you patch 9.1 in return.
If Blizzard wanted to sell their content upfront with a paywall, then they would struggle to get €70 for it. So what would happen then? Well either the price would go down or they would actually make more content to validate a €70 price tag for it.
The WoW Token already exists.
And bots have never had a hard time operating in WoW. The only limitation on bots is how many players are willing to buy from third-party sellers.
That’s cool, I equally take some tiny vicarious pleasure in mocking people who have the presumably adult ability to make their own financial choices, then complaining about making those financial choices. Might have come with working in banking…
No worries. I enjoy reading replies to my posts that make me feel intellectually superior because I can recognize the nuanced dilemma of a person who is fond of WoW but finds the cost associated with it excessive, versus taking a simple-minded viewpoint that deals with absolutes where the only acceptable options are to shut up or quit.
That seems sensitive. This patch would not be worth a premium price.
You know, that actually is a good point.
When you actually have to sell a product, you put the effort to make it worth the money. When the money comes in anyway, why bother? If you can get away with it, you might as well settle for mediocrity.
I think your idea would work great both for the customers and keeping the game in good shape. I like it.
Considering boosting and the BoE trend, I tend to think you’re right on this one as well. We’re probably at a pay to win stage anyway so I guess it’s only a psychological difference between buying items from cash shop versus in game with gold from tokens.
I yield to your superior skills. You’re very eloquent in your arguments and it’s hard to debate when the facts are crystal clear.
I guess it’s just a pathological fear that we, customers have, that somehow removing the subscription will take the game down. I guess it’s time we give up that mentality.
I think it’s easier to question why Blizzard introduces more and more price points into the game all the time.
Initially you pay for the game and the subscription.
Then you can pay to transfer server.
Then you can pay to change your features.
Then you can pay to change your race.
Then you can pay to change your name.
Then you can pay to change your faction.
Then you can pay to buy a mount.
Then you can pay to buy a pet.
Then you can pay to buy a transmog.
Then you can pay to buy a toy.
Then you can pay to upgrade a game version.
Then you can pay to transfer a guild.
Then you can pay to buy a boost.
Then you can pay to buy a token.
At some point it’s worth asking when enough is enough and when it is too much.
If we just shrug our shoulders every time, then it’s easy to see that Blizzard will just continue the trend of adding more price points to the game. That’s what they’ve done so far.
Then the cynics will say that if you think it’s a problem, then you can just quit. Vote with your wallet.
And lots of people have voted with their wallet and quit the game. But that’s a pyric victory, because it just leaves the remaining community with less players to play with. That’s not a desirable outcome for an MMORPG.
Blizzard says people have become “cyclic” and it’s just the way it is. But why is it that way? It wasn’t like that in the past, so what’s changed?
At the end of the day, then either the game collapses because players are slowly but surely opting out of it, or Blizzard turns their short-term business strategy around in favor of one that’s more healthy for the game in the long term.
And the subscription is definitely something one can point at as being an issue. But looking at all the other price points the game has, it might also be some of those. The sum of it all is really what feels excessive.
And what’s the solution other than… voting with the wallet.
Staying in game means subscribing. Subscribing means, well, a quiet nod to the direction of the game, or at least that’s what Blizzard takes from it.
We can scream and kick all we want, that really doesn’t help much these says. This company is vegetating in their own den and won’t be bothered fixing their game.
I don’t know if they’re just greedy or simply don’t care about WoW anymore.
I mean I find it hard to believe they would give up on a game that brings so much revenue and publicity for the company. When you say Blizzard you automatically say WoW and Diablo, because these two alone have made them who they are.
Publicity, press, reputation, and so on, have value as well. The Blizzard brand is worth a lot. It sells games. People associate it with quality.
Take the Diablo community.
They got really angry.
They weren’t actually paying Blizzard anything, but Blizzard still did something.
Diablo III that hadn’t received a single update for years started getting regular Seasonal updates again.
Why? To appease the community so they stop dragging the Blizzard brand through the mud.
So the Diablo players get more now from Blizzard, even though they’re not paying a dime for it. But they’re clearly worth it to Blizzard. They’re a huge asset when they speak positively about Blizzard, like they do with Diablo IV now. They add value to Blizzard’s brand.