Well the other thing is - if the original dev team had wanted a cash shop in their creation, is it not reasonable to assume that they would have added one?
I strongly doubt they would have been given any pushback from Blizzard, given that it would have made money for the company?
It’s far more likely that, back then, during the pre-Activision days, the dev team had a strong vision for TBC, and it was a much purer vision that Activision’s ‘monetise everything we can monetise’ cash-grabbing vision.
In the video I mentioned in my post above, I distinctly remember the ex-dev saying something like: “TBC was my baby and stuff like this ruins it, I hate the idea of it”, or words to that effect.
Do you mean the video of staysafe, joker and Kevin?
Yes I saw that and imo it’s clear that Kevin had his views on things and while him saying it is 1 thing, he cant speak for the whole business as it was back then.
Personally I got the feeling he maybe has a slight grudge about the past and i wouldnt be surprised if he said mostly negative things about the game. But that’s my take on it.
If the ex-dev did have a grudge, I can hardly blame him. I suspect I’d have had one too in I’d been in his shoes.
An analogy would be me writing angry songs for a punk band back in the late 1970s, and, fast forward to present day, some corporation picking one of my songs and using it as the backing track for an advertisement for Barclays Bank. You probably wouldn’t blame me for being a bit cheesed off.
Sure he can’t speak for the whole dev team, and maybe there was a dev called Kevin who designed Black Temple, but dreamed of a day when players could buy their way to the raid for real cash - but honestly I don’t think it’s all that likely.
I don’t understand why people here are defending the 58 boost. What good can come out of it? I only see bad stuff. Then again, I’m strongly against dungeon boosts, cleaves, AoE farming, and gdkp/gbid. Because in my opinion they all make the game less fun. But some people don’t see the beauty of achieving something by putting in work. I think that’s a very imoprtant part of a mmorpg. Effort pays. Because all those cleaves and boosts etc. Only further push people to buy gold and take shortcuts. Shortcuts damage your gaming experience greatly. It’s easy to be blind to this. But trust me, it does. We wanted classic because of retails degradation. And now you want to inject the same poison that killed it the first time? Foolish i say!
He shows why he thinks they shouldn’t be in old WoW. It’s a matter of taste and personal preference. And yes, there are certainly cash-shop options in Retail that I wouldn’t like to see in classic either.
But the statement “The game wasn’t designed for this”, doesn’t follow from that.
Modern WoW works quite well despite all the cash-shop options. You may disagree with that, I don’t like Shadowlands either, those are our opinions, our preferences, but fact of the matter is: Millions of people play it, and it’s a financial success.
A financial success that recently lost 41% of their players. It may be a financial success, but it is not the same access it was back in the days before cash shops. The turnover rate of players has become enormous, from what I hear and read. So it’s a successful game, but not a good game.
Now what do we want? A successful game, or a good game?
It’s also true that the game is 17 years old, and the content is becoming, frankly speaking, somewhat repetitive.
Both, because we are talking about an MMORPG. WIthout financial success its server shutdown & goodbye game.
Look, I get where you are coming from. I understand the trepidations about the boost. You know from the DE forum, that I do not agree with the slippery-slope, but I understand why people like you make that argument: You love the game for what it was orignally, and don’t want to see it slide down the same path as retail.
That’s understandable.
But maybe, just maybe, hold these trepidations for a moment, and at least give Blizzard a chance to do the right thing. The boost doesn’t have that big an impact, we both know that, and Blizzard doesnt have to introduce anything else into the game. They have already shown commitment to classic being classic, even going so far as to agreeing to things like re-creating technical limitations (leeway, spellbatching).
Don’t you think there is a chance that they will really just introduce this thing, and then leave it at that? I mean, you and me, we are paying customers, who likely leave if they mess up. Do you think they want to risk that for no good reason? Do you think classic would be a financial success without people like us, who are here because this game ISN’T retail? They know that!
I promise you: The moment they announce anything cash-shoppy-ish going beyond the scope of this boost, I will protest it on the forums alongside you. How does that sound?
I’m ok with the 1 time, once per account boost, its not the sort of thing that can be repeated in the normal sense of a mtx.
If they add the token i’d be here with a string word to say, thats something that players can repeat purchase and has a direct effect on what they can achieve in game.
I did. I did when Blizzard said one year ago there won’t be boosts in classic. Now boosts are coming. We aren’t standing at the edge of the slippery slope, we are already in motion. So please let’s try to stop this now, because once this stuff is in, it’s here to stay.
And once this stuff has driven people like us away, the only one left are the short-attention-span-retailers that will leave as soon as the streamers leave, if not earlier.
But there are no boosts in classic.
Era Servers will remain boost-free.
Boosts become available with TBC, and they cannot be used to skip any of the TBC content, up to the point where they won’t even let you boost a Blelf or Smurf.
I know, this is stretching the definition of “not in classic”, but it is true nevertheless.
That is a possibility, yes.
But so what?
Should that come to pass, if they drive us away, then good riddance, generation-fortnite can wallow in what’s left of WoW, and we will find better games.
My point it, it’s not something to get worked up about before that even happens, not if there is a very good chance that it won’t
Exactly. This seems more like semantics to me, and just because someone “technically” didn’t lie, doesn’t mean I should trust them. Or their vision.
Yes. That will happen then. But I don’t gain anything from Blizzard losing my business. But I gain something from having a wonderful and very unique game to play. And let’s be honest… there is nothing like classic around anymore.
If this is true, you should be against the boost and all similar services. Because we all know the service is greed driven, not to help the poor new players. Because if that was the case, they could make it for free. They will still gain money from it from players subscriptions that only play because of the boost. Unless they don’t think the boost brings in players.
Exactly. Greed is why I am so critical of Activision-Blizzard. We just know they are greedy. And greed doesn’t stop. After a few months they will open the boost up to Bloodelfs and Draenei. Then they will raise it to 70, then people will complain that attunements take too long, so they will either implement a service for that, or try to keep those boosted players, by taking away the requirements to enter raids. All in the name of greed.
Because all these things are possible opportunities for a greedy company to make money. If you really trust greed, you can be sure this will happen.
What you call greed, business world call business decisions and profit. That doesnt mean I like all their decisions, but enough to still be satisfied player. You dont seem satisfied, so what are you still doing here?
If you were in their shoes and not wow player, you would do exactly the same.
That’s the point. I am still satisfied, but see blizzard making decision that will change that. I will probably still play when the boost comes, as it is just the first step. But if my predictions are correct, and so far my predictions regarding blizzard were correct, this is just the first step on a road to a destination I won’t enjoy.
I don’t believe there will be more bots than without the boost. There is money to be made. They are here now, they have been from the start, the same names since the start too. They will level and not get banned just like it is now. I don’t believe there will be a influx of cheating either. It’s a case of supply and demand, and if supply outweighs demand prices drop and make the business less attractive.
I am in favor of the cash shop btw, probably not a surprise. I don’t mind server transfers, race and gender changes, mounts and pets. And I sure don’t mind the token if that would reduce the amount of bots, because that would reduce the amount money to be made hence reduce the incentive to farm wow classic gold.
If for one second you think Cashtivision isn’t going to milk the cow untill it’s dry, you won’t enjoy it for sure. Personaly I don’t care. I play my game, with my guildies and as long as we enjoy our journey together honestly, I don’t care if they boosted their char, or ride a store mount, I don’t even care if they buy gold for whatever reason. Everything I have on my account was farmed for fair and square because I enjoy it that way. But I’m not going to stop people from enjoying the game in another way as long as it doesn’t bother me.
