That might very well be the case, I hope ! ^^
Even though I despise early access etc in general. Especially if it comes for a price. I am against this tactic to grab into impatient peoples pockets. But that is a different story.
My answer above was only about in game advantages
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That doesn’t sound like fun.
You deliberately playing in a not fun way to try to prove (a rather irrelevant) point.
Even before Early Access Players could drink Monster Engergy drinks and stay up for 3 days straight and be slightly ahead of players who played a normal more fun way.
but fill your boots…
No need, i haven’t even purchased TWW. Launch doesnt excite me like past expansions did.
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Well then that explains why you do not understand you cannot craft weapons and armor for those 3 days. You cannot even advance your profession skills.
You get profession skills, you don’t get specialization points, they are 2 separate things
Exactly.
People forget this game isn’t their reality. It’s just an escape from one.
While i dont condone early access as a sales scheme, i do think people get a bit dramatic about it, we faced the exact same issue when D4 launched, and 1 week after launch, it was never mentioned again by anyone. It will have absolutely zero impact on the game in the long run, what are 3 days out of a 2 year expansion? All will be forgotten soon enough.
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Well then it will be time to play another game until they decide they want to make money again. I see no issues here. Plenty of other games out there. I’ve been quite enjoying FFXIV recently as a matter of fact. Their newest xpac costs 40€. No heroic or epic editions. Just plain 40€.
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To much wrapped drama , i personally don’t care because i don’t know what i’m going to do that week-end .
I don’t see how can players be affected unless your planning on doing some world 1st stuff .
My concern is not the advantage players can get right now, my concern is that this is a “trial run” for even more future store goods that can give players an advantage.
Like: “We do this and let’s see how the community reacts, if most people don’t care we can up this a notch”
I also gave the example of the pre purchase mount, which I believe is something similar.
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This one that has two different editions?
Or am I looking at the wrong thing?
They also do a box version collectible edition like WoW does CEs
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What advantage is there exactly?
First week of launch is riddled with network issues and bugs. You got some people that payed premium to experience that crappy experience before you.
And then what? They get 3 days of questing before you do?
WoW… such advantage… such unfair…
Look. Lets be honest here :
Blizzard has not increased its monthly sub for 20 years. It was 12E in 2004. Its 12E in 2024.
From ECB data, the cumulative inflation in the EU since 2004 has been 40.65%.
Which means sub price should be ~ 19E rounding up. Lets say 20E because im not an economist.
And that is assuming costs remain the same (server costs, power costs, taxes, ect…).
So that 8E difference has to come from somewhere. Making people that have the extra cash instead of everyone across the board…
For absolutely no advantage from a gameplay perspective. Is fair.
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It comes from token sales and 6- and 12-month subscription bundles and other cash shop promotions, of which there were more than during any other expansion in Dragonflight. Because casual gold making from emissary quests (or similar) and world quests (reduced reset frequency) has dwindled and professions are no longer reliable for many players in terms of gold, more and more people buy tokens with RL money as well.
I think they are very happy with their business side of things in the WoW department.
The early access inclusion is rather just following a trend in the gaming scene in general, during a time in which more and more talk among the gaming community has been about the lackluster AAA titles and how preordering is a self-inflicted malady, etc. The awareness how preordering can lead to less than minimum viable product deployment has increased. So in order to keep preorder numbers as high as possible, they had to offer more than they did usually. Which of course, further exacerbates the problem and does not solve anything. But gamers are easily hyped and impulsive for the most part, so it is easy money once again.
Edit: I would also imagine there are a lot of people who are just used to buying Epic editions (or any higher edition) because of loyalty to the brand. They do not care about what the “general consensus” (if there even is such a thing, which I doubt) is, they are just “epic edition collectors”. I think that is fine and even cute in a way 
Yeah ok. So turns out Blizzard is a business and will try to squeeze every penny from you.
SHOCKER !!!
Because Early Access will give ZERO advantage (gameplay wise) to those individuals… You are all complaining about the “philosophical” aspect (feeling of fairness) of these policies.
Meanwhile we all live in a world where some drive a Ferrari while most are driving their Honda.
If you, or others, want to complain… atleast do so with the actual impactful things.
What REALLY matters is how much of that money is re-invested in the game, and how much is given to shareholders so they can buy their 7th mega yacht in Porto Fino Italy.
Because if I told you that blizz made 100M extra $$ with this “early access”. What matters is : What do they do with this extra 100M?
- Hire 50 more devs and make more dungeons/raids for us?
- OR, give dividends to shareholders.
Up to you to decide.
EDIT : And all the problems you mention from the gaming industry is EXACTLY that. Squeezing every penny from us, while using the profits to buy share-buybacks for the benefit of shareholders.
Its what AE has been doing. And that is why AE games suck. They don’t re-invest in their own company.
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I think you’re missing one point here.
I think the real issue isn’t player advantage, I think the real issue is that this is a prelude for something that will ACTUALLY give player advantage ln the future.
They slip this into the store and see how people react, if we are all passive they go up a bit next time, until one day this game becomes just another game riddled with micro transactions for player power.
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Yes. Late-stage capitalism. I think we see this type of thing in WoW before 2030.
Yes justifying 3 days earlier w is totally the same a months free reign to do all the content
Nope, because they can’t be bothered to actually read up on the Early Access.
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You know the kids story of the kid and the wolf right?
Save your outrage for when player power actually appears. Its more effective.
A second thing is that Micro Transactions affect gameplay. And because of that, it affects subscription numbers.
Its basically saying : I want profit NOW at the expense of future profit.
Its tied to the “what do they do with the money”. Re-investing in the game is future profit. Profit NOW is increasing share price of Blizz.
So if they reinvest it in the game, the natural conclusion is not ruining gameplay and keep us paying our sub like the good sheep we are.