Originally Posted by ArrchDK
Look behind you; something flew over your head.
People who buy gold may or may not care, but people that don't are watching Blizzard flirt with the fine line that separates vanity from advantage, and aren't going to be pleased when they're told that not only is time a factor for staying ahead in this game, but money as well.
I'm not going to go as far as claiming over 50% of their subscribers will drop, but do you really think Blizzard is interested in decreasing it's player base in order to get a higher APRU? That's just too detrimental to the game experience.
|
The people that don't usually just like to voice their opinions but seldom act on it.
I'll go back to EA as a perfect example. When EA bought the rights to EVERY NFL licensed football game people vowed to never buy a Madden game again .. yet it still sells out every year.
When EA started selling "Easy upgrade micro transactions" for their games people claimed they would never buy EA again yet these transactions are STILL in their newest games. They actually sold "early unlocks" for games like Tiger Woods and Need for Speed. These unlocks could easily be obtained through actual game play but if one wanted to spend REAL cash to get it easier and faster they could.
When EA stopped updating buggy games cause the games where older people said they would stop buying EA yet games like the Battlefield series is still on top of the charts.
In the end people will bitch, whine and complain that this is a bad idea, that micro transactions will hurt the game,that if they do this they quit. But chances are no matter how much they voice their opinions about this they will not leave the game.
The end result for any company is money and if they decide that adding a item shop for real cash will not hurt the game but increase revenue (which will most likely be the case) then there is a chance it will happen. Maybe Blizzard will be less greedy than the other companies and realize that they do not need to go this route but no one really knows. I just found out that besides for the iPhone version they actually charge .99 to purchase the Mobile Authenticator for their games. Why??? Should this extra layer of security be free?? I mean come on does Blizzard not make enough money that they can afford to take the small loss on the sale of this app??