Blizzard: F2P (Still) Not the Best Model for WoW

[gsxrme]

Please understand Blizzard is making WOW more for casual gamers and not so much hardcore. Blizzard holds to many top sellers to fold an empire and any judgement made is always for the better. granted we don't have a Deathwing or Arthas this time around doesn't mean it's going to suck. The amount of options we have and total mass of the game is HUGE. Everything isn't always about endgame.

 

[proxy711]

[citation][nom]Thunderfox[/nom]F2P exists for games that are too crappy to convince people to pay outright for, so they try to trick them into spending that much or more with nickle and dime content...[/citation]
Its true F2P is where MMOs go to delay death. sure the fan base might increase but the game suffers from nickle and dime content like you said.

When LOTRO went F2P you needed to buy each zones quests packs, so while it was F2P you really couldn't progress without paying.

$15, $10, or $5 dollars a month buys the players a much better game play experience. I wish MMOs that were declining in sales and player base would go to a 5 dollar a month 15 dollar price on the game(including a free month) pay scheme instead of the awful item shop concept.

 

[jl0329]

I would never play a F2P MMO and the reason is simple. The FAKING KIDS!

I seriously hate playing with 8 years old kids. Without a monthly fee, all the little brat can jump in and play as much as they want. It is much much more enjoyable to play with a more mature player base (college and beyond)

On the other side, a majority of these kids don't have a credit card and won't be able to play P2P MMO. (Of course, there are tons of little kids in WOW, but not as much as in those F2P games).

 

[Jprobes]

Wait for it.... Wait for it.... its about to get Wild in here.....

 

[Cazalan]

I'm fine with the Pandas. Gnomes are silly too and no one complains about those. You have druids in Cat, Bear and Moonkin forms. You got Worgen wolves. It's not really that different or out of character for WoW.

SWTOR has a long ways to go to catch WoW. The main thing it has going for it is the star wars universe. That "newness" won't last long though. It really depends on the end game content. I hated the space shooter aspect in SWG.

 

[Guest]

Honestly, I don't see the game being as hard as it was before. It used to be months until some guild was the first to beat a raid instance. I've watched the 'months' turn into weeks, and then (in some cases) even days. Once Cataclysm came out and I saw how utterly easy it was to go into the raid instances and do well, I quit. I've was a hardcore WoW player. It was my second job, and I was always in a top 100 guild. I'm glad I quit, the game isn't the challenge it used to be. The storyline's are boring and ridiculous, and to make things worse, Cataclysm's launch was a complete joke.

I don't see SWTOR taking down WoW, I just don't think they will provide the storyline to accomplish that. But, with that being said, if they do, great. It'd be nice to see something new and fresh that isn't WoW when it comes to MMO's. Assuming you don't need Origins to play it. If you do, I'll continue waiting for something else.

 

[back_by_demand]

Can you imagine the board meeting:-

So, shall we move WoW to free to play or shall we continue to pull $1.5 billion a year? All in favour of keeping the cash say Aye.

 

[GNCD]

[citation][nom]Goldengoose[/nom]Look at guild wars 2. Look at the success from league of legends - it's a very bold statement to say they are all crappy and they rely on tricking; that wouldn't be a good business model so no one would use it. I'm afraid sir you are an idiot.[/citation]

+1 for League of Legends. They basically generate income by selling vanity and convenience items.

 

[FloKid]

WoW just has to implement a mechanic where instead of looting gold, you loot cash, with a weekly limit of course.

 

[RedJaron]

I would never play a F2P MMO and the reason is simple. The FAKING KIDS!

I seriously hate playing with 8 years old kids. Without a monthly fee, all the little brat can jump in and play as much as they want. It is much much more enjoyable to play with a more mature player base (college and beyond)

Right, because college kids that know how to play your character better than you do and want to emphasize it by using expletives every other word are so much more enjoyable . . .

 

[sykozis]

[citation][nom]greghome[/nom]Activision still wants to milk every last penny from their undying zealots...just like how they're doing it with the COD series.....[/citation]
Companies exist to make money....that's their only concern.

 

[RedJaron]

Companies exist to make money....that's their only concern.

Yep, same as gov't, until people use their vote for change ( as in get representatives out of office, not just protests, ) how can you expect different things? Until people vote with their dollars, why would Activision spontaneously change its methods?

 

[zeromikey]

Theres alot more Blizzard could make it did add a F2P version, add-on as it may bring new/old players back and "micro-purchases" are apparently the way to make money nowadays

 

[eddieroolz]

Why put F2P when you could be milking those that play F2P for millions, right?

 

[clonazepam]

I wouldn't jump in if it was "paid to play".

 

[lpedraja2002]

[citation][nom]joe nate[/nom]I don't know what's with all the pandaren hate. Pandarens have been in Warcraft since Warcraft 3. And WoW has never had a "serious" tone to it to begin with, with all the references to things outside the game.[/citation]

I don't play WOW but have read all the outburst against angry fans and am wondering if they've ever played Warcraft III. That Drunken Panda was one of the coolest character in the game ffs!

 

[MasterMace]

Game died a while ago. It's almost bleeding out as fast as Bin Laden did....

 

[Raidur]

Right...

I'm sure blizzard is loving the idea of losing millions of people paying monthly for a game.

Sure.

 

[ChromeTusk]

[citation][nom]lpedraja2002[/nom]I don't play WOW but have read all the outburst against angry fans and am wondering if they've ever played Warcraft III. That Drunken Panda was one of the coolest character in the game ffs![/citation]
Pandeaen Brewmaster FTW! I hope most of its WC3 abilities make it into the expansion.
Back on topic. Why change the business model if it still works? As a current (casual) WoW player, I would like a few changes with the subscription:
■lower monthly rate, even if it is in advance (ie. $9/mo x 9/12 mo)
■return to more challenging content (as stated by darkhawk1980)
■push the graphics quality at the high/ultra end (I like that budget systems can run the game on low/medium, but want better on the other end)
... Just my two cents.

 

[popatim]

[citation][nom]FulmeR[/nom]Id put $30 up that says you lose half your fan base with your next "Panda" expansionFarewell Blizzard, you held my attention for many many hours, alas those days are gone. They didnt come soon enough![/citation]
They already lost mine...and with Sony's f'd up launch of DCUO i'm back to playing Crysis 2 & BF3 while waitng for D3.

Sony - You suck btw, what a bunch of morons you have working for you; I fully expect you to screw up the TOR release too; like every release you do.

 

[feeddagoat]

Quick question...how exactly do you WIN in WOW? I mean if they added a "win" to WOW they would lose soooooo many players it's not even funny. There is NO end in WOW, it just drags on indefinately. All MMORPG's do, I have yet to encounter a single MMORPG that has a point at which you get a screen that says, "Congradulations for winning this game, your time here was appreciated now go somewhere else to play cause there is nothing left to do."

By win, it means you no longer have to achieve anything. you can open up daddy's wallet, get him to buy a nice level 85 and get the top tier armour in arena or cover your toon in epics etc.
Look at the problem wow already has with ebayers, if content is made harder it makes gearing up impossible and you have to spend to "win" ie. complete the raid. If its too easy then any tom dick or Harry could face roll through everything. at least achievements gave you something to do and yes you could endlessly grind x, y and z but what would be the point if some guy earned all said achievements cause he had a larger bank account? or got access to a rare item cause he bought the gear to endlessly grind for it?
Now go throw yourself under a meat wagon you stupid little gonch cause you fully understood what I meant. I didn't think toms had eejit's like ya.

 

[assasin32]

[citation][nom]jl0329[/nom]I would never play a F2P MMO and the reason is simple. The FAKING KIDS!I seriously hate playing with 8 years old kids. Without a monthly fee, all the little brat can jump in and play as much as they want. It is much much more enjoyable to play with a more mature player base (college and beyond)On the other side, a majority of these kids don't have a credit card and won't be able to play P2P MMO. (Of course, there are tons of little kids in WOW, but not as much as in those F2P games).[/citation]

Than you might want to give Eve Online a try, I was considered too young to join a few corps when I tried when I started years ago because I was only 20. And it was their policy to only take people who was of drinking age at bare minium because a decent chunk of their corp would have a beer and BS with other people in corp and they didn't want to be seen as encouraging underage drinking. Majority of the people I knew in Eve was 30+ and had kids, the youngest person I've known on there was in high school. The game is just too complicated to allow kids to play let alone hold their attention. And grinding missions or anything doesn't bring up your skills, your training is time based so you don't need to be online to train.

It's a space ship MMO with a good economy and endless ways to play, the devs will allow you to do pretty much anything you want as long as your not exploiting any bugs and use in game mechanics (and keep it in game, so another words jerks arn't allowed to do death threats). But beyond that you can scam, rob, exploit people for labor with promise of X, and otherwise anything you can imagine.

Figure I give you a heads up on this game, since it sounded like you like avoiding the immature audiance in games.

 

[dark_lord69]

Lets see...
$15 a month X 10 million people = $150,000,000 a month!
$150,000,000 X 12 months = $1,800,000,000

So... 1.8 Billion dollars a year? Yeah, I wouldn't give up on that either.

 

[triny]

I can't see how anyone can endure such dated graphics