Blizzard is a colossal company, they can obviously afford this move. I say let BfA be subscription based since there will always be some minimum amount of interest and thus revenue from retail no matter how abysmally it performs or how insultingly it's designed, and have Classic be free. Maybe have some restrictions like no professions, no leading groups or no mounts or other QoL features but have the leveling content (1-59 quests and instances) be completely free. I can't see why this shouldn't be an option unless you're some sort of contrarian.
What's slowly killing WoW isn't Blizzard's lack of funds. Most of the passionate devs and designers already abandoned ship long, long ago and now Bl*zzard is wholly controlled by soulless businesspeople who only see videogames as a quantifiable source of revenue. Other games that were on the edge of dying out and being forgotten (Everquest, Runescape..) were saved and culturally immortalized by going free to play.
Between you and me I stopped playing Classic because I don't have the time to grind like I used to this summer. Paying $15 a month for about an hour a day feels like an utter waste. I didn't suffer this problem on private servers or playing other free games because I know I can comfortably level my characters at my own pace and take frequent breaks, and pay for premium when I know I have the time to go all-in. I'm burnt out and I don't have the energy or spare time to fire the XP engine on all cylinders and grind all day but when I'm not grinding I'm constantly feeling stressed that I'm not getting my money's worth from my subscription.
Yes, it worked when we were 10 year olds with empty schedules seven days a week and it worked with retail where you can farm twenty levels per hour without breaking a sweat but now that we're adults struggling to find time for any type of activity at all a subscription model for a game as slow paced as Classic World of Warcraft starts to seem archaic and outdated.
Who knows, maybe it's just me. Even if you don't relate I hope you at least get my point of view.
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A Movie ticket for a 1.5hr movie is prob $15. WoW Sub is the best value for money entertainment available, even if you only play 1 hour a day, thats 30 hours of entertainment for $15.
While I agree they probably could change to F2P and somewhat separate the retail and classic payment models, they wont. $15 to cover all WoW games is simple and easy and inclusive.
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I'm so glad you said this. This is how I have ALWAYS felt. If I go to the movies with my significant other, its a 60$ date. If we go out for dinner thats an extra cost. If I go out shooting with some friends for the day, im in for at least 100$. This is the cheapest form of entertainment you could possibly pay for.Selexin wrote: ↑4 years agoA Movie ticket for a 1.5hr movie is prob $15. WoW Sub is the best value for money entertainment available, even if you only play 1 hour a day, thats 30 hours of entertainment for $15.
While I agree they probably could change to F2P and somewhat separate the retail and classic payment models, they wont. $15 to cover all WoW games is simple and easy and inclusive.
2000 IQg0bledyg00k wrote: ↑4 years agoNever making a single investment again until I 100% know it pays off.
Have to agree with Selexin on this one - it really isn’t a lot of money for most people with disposable income.
As for making the game F2P well it’s an interesting enough subject when it comes to monetising games made nowadays or even discussing BfA but perhaps with Classic it is fitting that it also reflects the old vanilla in the sub aspect too.
I don't play free to play games. The monetization scheme to make that model profitable leads to obnoxious mobile games. I'm not interested in paying $5 for 1,000 wow crystals or paying $10 for bonus PVP points. That kind of stuff is cancer.
$15 a month is the cheapest form of entertainment that I know of. A track day with my bike costs ~$500 for track time, hotel, fuel, etc. Going to the shooting range runs about $100 for ammo. A road trip is a couple hundred dollars for fuel and hotel. Date nights are like $50+ at least.
I'm playing about 35 hours a week. That's 140 hours per month. I'm paying an effective rate of about $0.10 per hour.
Even if I played half as much, just a couple of hours a night, it's 56 hours a month and $0.25 per hour.
Wow classic is the cheapest entertainment I have and is an absolute bargain given how much enjoyment it brings me. Games don't go free to play in a vacuum. The monetization changes that a free to play model would bring would turn me off and I'd lose interest. I'd happily pay my 10 cents per hour to keep paid cosmetic mounts, paid appearances, paid anything out of the game. I want to paid a fixed monthly subscription and receive the service of a stable server.
Think of all the scumbag players you encounter who are paying $15 a month.
Imagine how many you'd encounter if people could just log in for free.
Would love to agree with you, but nothing you said made sense.
14€ a month for a game I can play at least 14 hours each month is worth every cent if it's not controlled by p2w schemes.
If they want to, it can make sense to make retail a F2P game. Because you got a cash shop in already and you can just declare a subscription as 'WoW Premium' that offers boosted XP, transmog and void cache and QOL service like that.
On classic or tbc ( don't know much about wotlk design ) F2P don't work without fundamental game design changes. So nope, that won't work at all.
It's not about whether Blizzard needs the profits or not. It's about appeasing shareholders. They don't care about how much money is needed. They care about growth on their investment. WoWClassic just tripled the subscriber base. No way will they not take advantage to show the growth that brings and try to maintain it/increase it.
That will just give the Acti-Blizz Execs an excuse to ram microtransactions down our throats. With a $15/month subscription the WoW team can at least appease their profit-seeking overlords. If Classic becomes F2P, there's going to be pressure to somehow turn a profit (understandable), especially since they need to maintain the Classic servers. I want Blizzard to continue taking my $15/month for as long as I'm active so that they can focus on fixing bugs, maintaining the servers in perpetuity, and staying the fuck away from microtransactions of any kind.
Wisdom
I'll gladly pay 15 bucks a month not to see ads for 5 minutes before you can even play a game. Since I've been back in WOW the ipad is never used and i'll never watch another ad in a game again. I hate commercials and the free to play games have become so ad laden it's ridiculous. Not to mention wow only costs .50 cents a day, not bad for an hour or two of game play a day. I can't even begin to remember how many quarters I spent in an hour at the old school arcade when I was younger, but it was much more than .50 cents a day. I guess some people just think everything in life should be free.
I'm sorry, in what world did it work to convince your parents to pay 15$ a month for you to play an online game when you were 10?
Are you some kind of commie or something? Just because someone can afford something doesn't mean they have to do it to please cheap guys who can't afford 15$ a month and lose millions in revenue.
What's keeping Blizzard actively producing content is the funds. Also what the fuck do you know what is or isn't affecting Blizzard?
So you're one of those kinds who would rather support intellectual property theft and pay to have advantages in a game simply because you don't have time to grind but we should somehow give a shit about your stupid opinion on how retail should monetize their content?
Man, kids these days.
I'm happy it has a monthly cost:
- less kids
- less multibox
- less throwaway accounts
As others have stated, 15 dollars (or 13 euros in my case ) is nothing compared to other entertainaments.
I don't see this happening while they are still going through the phases. Also $15/m is not a lot of money for entertainment, IMO if I get 6 good hours of playtime in a month, I think it has earned the sub.
I personally think it is an interesting idea to consider post Nax release though. If they choose to not do a classic+ type of thing, I can see them opening classic up to be f2p up to 20 or something, similar to how they have the retail starter edition. 6 months after Nax release, if no classic+.
I personally do not like the experiance of starter edition due to the over bearing restrictions, but it would be tough to make sure it doesnt get abused by gold spammers and the such.
idk, am I and OP the only one who thinks this isn't a 100% terrible idea?
I've seen too many F2P models go down to a dark place.
It's not too far from cosmetic crap and player houses to XP boosts to speed boosts to extra bank slots and bag slots and crafting bags and whatever!
See SWTOR for reference.
That is how a free to play business model generates revenue. This is what a free to play business model would bring to Classic. I do not play free to play games and I would not play classic if it went free to play because it would necessarily start to absorb this kind of crap. I am happy to pay my $15 a month to keep microtransactions away from this game.Sheogoroth wrote: ↑4 years agoI've seen too many F2P models go down to a dark place.
It's not too far from cosmetic crap and player houses to XP boosts to speed boosts to extra bank slots and bag slots and crafting bags and whatever!
See SWTOR for reference.
hahahahahahhaha, i loled irl..Nymis wrote: ↑4 years agoSo you're one of those kinds who would rather support intellectual property theft and pay to have advantages in a game simply because you don't have time to grind but we should somehow give a shit about your stupid opinion on how retail should monetize their content?
Man, kids these days.
Going F2P always changes the playerbase (not even speaking of the pay-to-win aspect it almost always introduces) I would gladly pay $15 (which hasn't changed in 15 years mind you) just for the convenience of not playing with the general F2P public. It's also goddamn cheap if you do the $ spent per hour math.
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I was fully onboard the Microtransaction Hate Train back in the day but these days happily whale on gacha games. It's not really appropriate for WoW though; F2P means dailies, and not the innocent Isle of Quel'Something kind but the relentlessly boring kind . I don't have time for any more dailies in my life as a matter of fact so I'd probably drop F2P WoW like a rock.
I think people tend to overanalyze what they spend online. I literally bought a $12 lunch today that I could have cooked at home, in the span of 10 minutes I bought and consumed what could have been a month of WoW.Stfuppercut wrote: ↑4 years agoI'm so glad you said this. This is how I have ALWAYS felt. If I go to the movies with my significant other, its a 60$ date. If we go out for dinner thats an extra cost. If I go out shooting with some friends for the day, im in for at least 100$. This is the cheapest form of entertainment you could possibly pay for.Selexin wrote: ↑4 years agoA Movie ticket for a 1.5hr movie is prob $15. WoW Sub is the best value for money entertainment available, even if you only play 1 hour a day, thats 30 hours of entertainment for $15.
While I agree they probably could change to F2P and somewhat separate the retail and classic payment models, they wont. $15 to cover all WoW games is simple and easy and inclusive.
I don't even really have any disposable income, but just taking a step back and realizing what we physically spend on a daily basis makes the $15 a month seem totally reasonable.
I fully agree with this. I played a bit on pservers before Classic came out and holy hell the community was terrible. You think some people are toxic in classic right now, imagine how terrible they act when there is no financial incentive to not get your account banned. 1-30 was just constant spamming the n-word in world chat, and those who made it to 60 were the hardcore-minmaxers who spat people not playing the "optimal" spec in the face.Gallow wrote: ↑4 years agoGoing F2P always changes the playerbase (not even speaking of the pay-to-win aspect it almost always introduces) I would gladly pay $15 (which hasn't changed in 15 years mind you) just for the convenience of not playing with the general F2P public. It's also goddamn cheap if you do the $ spent per hour math.
Having a subscription improved the community in an incredible way, and I am saying that as someone playing on the most toxic EU PvP server (Gehennas).
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