Plea from Turkish Community

Community General Discussion
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Hi everyone,
I’m writing to convey a plea from Turkish community. If you aren’t from the crowd, this probably doesn’t mean much for you, but if you’d like to support us, we’ll appreciate it.

TL;DR: We ask for the option to have prices proportionate to our buying power.
We also have this changeorg petition with currently 1000+ signatures (a token number of the community from a single Facebook group more or less). Unfortunately, I can’t include links.

First, I’d like to address some common arguments:
"Why should you pay less?"
Simple, because we earn less. Let me show you how EUR-TRY difference changed over years to give you an idea. xecom can show a 10-year graph, meaning you can see the difference from roughly Cata to today. If you are feeling lazy, let me give you the info: EUR became about 5 times as expensive, meaning for the price that we roughly used to pay for a 6-month sub, we can only get a 1-month sub now. Or rather, imagine that you had to pay ~50€ for one month.

"Why should Blizzard take this into account and decrease prices?"
Well, that’s obviously up to them to decide, but we believe that adjusting the prices will increase the number of people who pay for the game in three ways:

  1. More people who are already interested in the game, but can’t pay constantly (and try to meet ends by farming gold for every other month etc.) will pay
  2. People who can only and only play it “free” (ie buy the game and just farm gold) will start paying
  3. People who don’t even play because they know it’s expensive will be interested

Not only that, but we believe this will actually increase the quality of players’ own time and even the social status for at least some people as they will have to focus less on farming and more on enjoying the game.

Last but not least, this has been successfully incorporated with results by several platforms already, Steam being the biggest example and likewise, regions like Russia also has their own pricing in Blizzard system. This means that Blizzard is able to do it, and this system is doable in Turkey and solutions should exist. It’s purely a business choice.

"Gaming is luxury, don’t play it if you can’t afford it!"
Sigh. I hope we covered this in the initial comment. We recognize this but there are levels of luxury and WoW is actually quite an affordable hobby compared to how much time you sink in it. Not in Turkey though, so we want to change that to an extent.
Let me tell you this way.
For one month of minimal pay in, Germany, you can buy around 100+ months of game
For one month of minimal pay in, Greece, you can buy around 60~ months of game
For one month of minimal pay in Turkey, you can buy around 30+ months of game.
(I used google for numbers)
Obviously better economy means better buying power, but before you compare with buying a car or something, these are digital products with adjustable prices. And before you start lecturing me about it, let me remind you two facts again:
There are other platforms that does this in Turkey.
There are other regions that Blizzard does this.

By the way, if you find prices in YOUR country expensive, consider asking for the same. I’ll back you up buddy.

"Negative comment about Turkish players"
I’m sorry you’ve had such experience. Believe me, I’ve had my share of avoiding Turkish players. That being said, believe it or not, there are more and more players who are open-minded, who care about the game, the lore and behave differently (some of the biggest influencers on wow are very much into lore and people love that!). There are also a lot of people that has been part of the game since vanilla that also suffer from the same situation. We are part of the community and some of us are even more productive than many people from other countries. This isn’t about a particular part of the community.

So, regardless of what you think, experience or feel about some players, we are here as a pretty big community and Blizzard has recently been doing marketing and community management in Turkey. :stuck_out_tongue:

"It’s not Blizzard’s fault that your economy is bad"
We always hear this, it’s funny. Do you think we blame Blizzard for it? But anyway, they might make more money and have more happy customers with a small change.

"They can’t do it "
As mentioned, they can and they do. There are already regions with local pricing.

""
Not the place. And people and politicians are not one and the same. Can you tell me your entire country’s representation can be boiled down to your president? If so, I’d like to know where you live, sounds interesting!

So, whether you are a member of Turkish community or just someone who’d like to support TR players who love this game especially the young people who aren’t yet in the working life, feel free to send a message, upvote, like and subscribe etc.

Thanks for reading.

PS: I’m posting on WoW forums as it’s the biggest title and has a subscription but we have players for all games, including some successful proplayers as well : )

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This topic comes up every month.

Although I would support the cause, as it is told time and time again, it would be unfair toward majority of the playerbase and it would also be a net loss for Blizzard.

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I think they can already do it with separated regions like the US/Asia and so on. Wouldn’t they have to create separate Turkish servers that cannot be accessed from the EU client for the lowered price to become possible? I do remember seeing such an argument when someone suggested we should have cheaper subscription for Eastern European players.

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If Steam can do it and still earn money from Turkey, so can any other gaming publisher. It’s called “Gain from Demand” and it’s an economical win in the long run for both sides.

Basically, if prices are adjusted Blizzard products would reach at more players, normally players who can’t pay for these games would start to play and cumulatively Blizzard will earn a lot more than before.

So it’s not a “loss”; on the contrary it would be a Win-Win.
Ask Steam :wink:

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This can simply turn into a domino effect. If Turkish peps get that they want, then what about Eastern Europeans? They have every right to ask for a lower price too?

And this can also be looked from the other side. The “rich guys” from the “rich countries” has to pay a higher price than you - aka subsidize your subscription…why exactly?

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It’s possible. But the way I see it, as players, we are here simply to voice our concern and distress. It’s up to Blizzard to find solutions and alternatives. I’m sure a lot of people won’t mind that.
That being said - I think Russia gets full localization etc. as well. Turkey currently doesn’t have that.

So it’s probably a complicated situation for Blizz as well. Turkey’s position makes it awkward for everyone all the time : ))

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Your lack of buying power is a result of your countries politics and policies. I sympathise with your dilemma but its a self made problem.

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Nicely written, fully supported! This is a must and if it can be done for Russia, it can easily be done for Turkey too.

Steam did it with a much wider game company base, I doubt they regret that since it’s still been going on and not reverted but only expanded even more :wink:

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I see what you mean but I think that question is way bigger than Blizzard or WoW. There are multiple services and companies that operate this way already.

I mean, look I’ve been living in Germany myself for the last 6 years. Why are we paying more than USA for Netflix when we get less stuff? :smiley:

I don’t have the qualification to explain the details of the economics but as I said, if fellow players from another country have a hard time, I’d be happy to support them. In the end this price isn’t exactly decided by a manifacture cost etc. like a physical product. It’s more or less about the experience vs time vs price triangle and that changes from country to country.

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Well lots not forget 1 crucial detail here. Its a video game, an entertainment choice among million others. Its not a healthcare service or anything, when even a person down on his luck should still receive some healthcare…even if its on my tax money. That can be understood and sympathized.

An entertainment choice is purely optimal and you can chose from many others. I dont go bashing at doors of some ultra-delux club with a 100,000 euro membership, demanding to be let in for 5 euro cause I can’t afford the 100kk one. Same is with WoW. If you have difficulties affording then, I am sorry but you need to look for alternatives.

You can survive without WoW…but you can’t without food or healthcare.

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Like you said, this isn’t healthcare. Nor it is an imaginary ultra-delux club though. So let’s be fair and compare it to similar things.

Digital video game sale: Steam offers this pricing.
Digital entertainment: netflix offers this pricing.

We can also survive without steam and netflix, but they apply this pricing. Some services and platforms apply it on a broader basis, some apply it per country…

So no offense, while we can discuss the concept, I don’t think that’s the part you or I can really comment about. In the end this is a business decision.

It is clear that it’s doable. The question isn’t if this is viable as a concept, the question is if this is viable for Blizzard under the circumstances.

And again: We voice our distress. We voice our thoughts. Not more, not less. Blizzard decides if that makes sense for them or not.

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Competition. To increase sales and all that. Look, I am not a master in business$management. But they don’t do it simply out of the “kindness of their hearts”. Its a business not a charity. Lets not forget about it^^.

So from a business perspective. Offer discounts to the Turkish player base…at the risk of alienating the rest of the player base? (Why do I have to pay more than some Turk? What makes him so special?! - no insult to any Turkish person meant. Simply to illustrate how it would look from an other perspective).

So in the end. Dejarous said it perfectly…

Eastern European guys(who also don’t have the best situation either) also pay the same price as any German or UK player…

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Steam is different, the games catalogue that they have covers games from a very big list of games companies.

WoW on the other hand is one of a small amount of games that Blizzard/Activision produces meaning there will be less demand from the Turkish public.

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Nothing stops anyone from asking for different pricing. I want to emphasize that we are just here to voice our concern.
We aren’t asking for a discount because we feel like it.
We aren’t asking for an exclusive discount.

We are just here to say this:
We are currently paying more (even way more) than some countries when we compare the “perceived value” of one month subscription vs the value of that money.
There are regions Blizzard treat differently.
There are platforms that treat regions differently.

So we ask Blizzard to consider our situation.

Also, I don’t understand the alienation really. Surely some people would react as they do to anything but unless it’s another country that could really benefit from such change, why would they care?
Mentioned somewhere, I’ve been living in Germany. Wow sub really doesn’t cost enough to make me angry about someone paying less.
And if they are in the same situation, they can raise their concerns the same way.

Another detail to remind-emphasize: Blizzard started taking action on Turkey in terms of Community Management and marketing. This already means that they take TR market more seriously now. This is different from, country X, that might have a situation but not the size to make a difference.

Does Turkey have enough players to warrant this change for Blizz? No clue. They’ll decide if this makes business sense : )

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The only way this would make any sense, assuming you pay 5 times more to sub, is if it brings in more than 5 times as many players to the game.
Probably more than that actually as increased players means increased strain on servers and work for staff. That cost needs to be accounted for as well.

Are you confident the subs from your country would go up over 5 times from this?

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Worldwide Licensing.

Steam is a gaming platform that provides developers a place to sell their games + community features. It’s a completely different concept, you can’t say “Oh because Steam does it, Blizzard has to as well”.

Steam gets a % cut of the sales made through the platform.
Blizzard gets money from game sales, subscriptions and in-game shops.

In short Blizzard relies on the sales of their games whereas Steam passively gets $$$ because a good amount of people use Steam to buy games.

So you simply can’t apply the same logic to this situation.

Let’s say for example Blizzard reduces the subscription fee to €2 euro a month for people residing in Turkey, the €2 euro Blizzard receives from you doesn’t magically turn into €12 euro when it lands on their bank. €2 euro is still €2 euro. So they’re making a net loss of €10 per month per player residing in Turkey.

Now you can say that’s unfair, but there’s enough countries in the world where they can’t even imagine playing games like this. If you dislike what is happening, perhaps you should dethrone those in charge and elect somebody that doesn’t destroy the economy and relationships with other countries.

I can already see a numerous amount of people changing their place of residence to Turkey and/or use VPN to benefit from the cheaper subscription + tokens.

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Your going to take this the wrong way anyhow …

If you cant handle paying for your game time, since its too expensive, how about you dont play and instead use the money for bills, living and food.

The prices are same to everyone, and should be the same to everyone.

You cant afford them, then you cant afford them.

It really is that simple.

Would I like to pay less? Ofc I would like to pay less, but thats not how this works.

Where you live should not affect how much you pay, you pay the same as persons A, B, D, E and F you are C, this is how it is, and you are not special compared to A, B, D, E of F, price is not based on who you are, where you live, what sex you are, what sexuality you are, what skin color you are or what religion you are, its the same for all.

Live with it or dont play.

And please everyone stop making this kinda threads, its stupid and pointless.

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Blockquote
Worldwide licensing

How does that explain it? I get less stuff, so “logically” we could be paying less. It’s not my fault if they can’t get licenses to publishing things in Germany. It doesn’t work that way though, because the money I pay isn’t exactly the cost of a service in the same sense as a physical purchase.
First, it’s infinitely scalable once you set up the service (minus costs of servers etc, which are sizeable by themselves, but Netflix isn’t just making ends here) and second, it’s about the experience. It’s a “good number.”
If you actually compare the service, it’s a ridiculous number. If you compare how much do you pay to rent a movie, how much you pay to buy it and how much you pay for Amazon Prime that includes multiple movies, it doesn’t make sense.
Because digital product production, costs and scalability work completely differently than physical products.
Obviously it’s not purely whimsical, but it has a lot to do with the experience.

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Steam vs Blizzard

I don’t see how that invalidates anything. If anything, it adds to my point. Just like Blizzard’s 2€ doesn’t become 12€, neither Steam’s cut nor the developer’s percentage doesn’t increase.
Steam getting a cut doesn’t mean anything, the developer/publisher is also getting the reduced amount.
It’s exactly the same situation: Both sides are selling digital products online. In fact, it’s even easier for a sub-based game because losing sales money for a single game you receive can be more devastating for especially smaller companies that has limited amount of players anyway.
Blizzard’s advantage here would increasing the amount of players and so, making more money in the end.
Again: I’m not claiming that this WILL happen. I’m saying it MIGHT happen. Blizzard is the one to analyze the data and decide.

Also, nice victim-shaming you did there but you gotta realize we, the Blizzard community, aren’t a secret Illuminati cult that placed people in power and can overthrow them. I know, shocking.

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VPN+Changing residence

Sure, and it’s up to Blizzard to find ways to stop this. For example, Steam requires a card from a Turkish bank or a phone from a Turkish provider so it gets really tedious that unless someone’s “desperate,” they won’t try to scam the system.

Blockquote
“where you live shouldn’t affect how much you pay”

Thanks for your input but regardless of how YOU feel about it, this is already being done by multiple platforms in multiple regions. Digital products and services change prices and their prices are set on a number of different reasons.
I don’t have the reasoning behind Blizzard, but I’m pretty sure they are archaic considering how they stayed the same after years and years of change in the game and the service.

Oh by the way, here is another angle that proves it’s not “same service for same price.” Countries like Germany get fully localized games, physical products, customer support etc. Other countries get some or none of it. That’s part of the service, but we are all paying the same. How does that fit with “same service for same price”?

Anyway, I’ll come back to the same point. It’s pointless to discuss this as this is Blizzard’s business and their decision.

We are here to convey the situation. Others are free to do the same. Blizzard decides what to do and if they do anything, how they do it.

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Do you have any idea how many billions of people can only dream about owning decent pc let alone to play subscription based game ?

And here you are living in Germany asking for cheaper wow sub :rofl: :joy: (for Turkey for some reason )

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It would be nice if there were some feasible way to do this… sadly however, I suspect that most of the solutions would cost more to maintain, than the catered for player base’s subs.

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