Thread Tools Display Modes
11-06-09, 05:28 PM   #41
Bluspacecow
Giver of walls of text :)
 
Bluspacecow's Avatar
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 770
Originally Posted by Laslo View Post
As far as buying gold impacting subscription rates, I don't think it will. We pay by the month, not the hour. I'm sure they would love people to pay them for a subscription and not use it. They still get the money with less strain on the servers.
Forgive me if this has already been brought up in the thread before. I'm very tired from lack of sleep so the words on the page are starting to do that blurring and running together thing. Nap soon I think.

The gold you buy from a gold seller comes for the most part from hacked account according to Blizzard.

So if you accept this as true it would impact subscription rates as some of the people who get hacked may get discouraged to play anymore and might go on to other games. Particularly if some of the items that have sentimental value from years back can't be restored.

My memory is fuzzy on the details of the actual restoration process so don't quote me on that.
__________________
tuba_man on Apple test labs : "I imagine a brushed-aluminum room with a floor made of keyboards, each one plugged into a different test box somewhere. Someone is tasked with tossing a box full of cats (all wearing turtlenecks) into this room. If none of the systems catch fire within 30 minutes, testing is complete. Someone else must remove the cats. All have iPods." (http://community.livejournal.com/tec...t/2018070.html)
  Reply With Quote
11-06-09, 05:33 PM   #42
Bluspacecow
Giver of walls of text :)
 
Bluspacecow's Avatar
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 770
My thoughts on the subject ?

I want the Panda monk pet

They aren't currently doing this for any other things other then 2 cute non combat pets. You don't get achievement points or epeen points if you get one - anyone with $10 can get one. It doesn't magically make you a better player then someone else.

it's been a while but last time I checked an authenicator is about that much. And people are always like "get an authenticator they're super cheap".

It's 75% the cost of the wow subscription. Its a movie ticket. It's a cup of coffee and a bagel. It's a decent home design magazine A3 with full colour photos.It's 2 packs of cigs.....
__________________
tuba_man on Apple test labs : "I imagine a brushed-aluminum room with a floor made of keyboards, each one plugged into a different test box somewhere. Someone is tasked with tossing a box full of cats (all wearing turtlenecks) into this room. If none of the systems catch fire within 30 minutes, testing is complete. Someone else must remove the cats. All have iPods." (http://community.livejournal.com/tec...t/2018070.html)
  Reply With Quote
11-06-09, 06:06 PM   #43
Seerah
Fishing Trainer
 
Seerah's Avatar
WoWInterface Super Mod
Featured
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 10,860
Originally Posted by Bluspacecow View Post
What the heck is this icon meant to be ?

It looks like a grim reaper having an epileptic fit !
That's Snoopy dancing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUQX2B67KL4
__________________
"You'd be surprised how many people violate this simple principle every day of their lives and try to fit square pegs into round holes, ignoring the clear reality that Things Are As They Are." -Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh

  Reply With Quote
11-06-09, 10:09 PM   #44
Bluspacecow
Giver of walls of text :)
 
Bluspacecow's Avatar
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 770
Originally Posted by Seerah View Post
Ahh the Snoopy dance. Well I've had a nap now so I can see it
__________________
tuba_man on Apple test labs : "I imagine a brushed-aluminum room with a floor made of keyboards, each one plugged into a different test box somewhere. Someone is tasked with tossing a box full of cats (all wearing turtlenecks) into this room. If none of the systems catch fire within 30 minutes, testing is complete. Someone else must remove the cats. All have iPods." (http://community.livejournal.com/tec...t/2018070.html)
  Reply With Quote
02-06-10, 07:23 AM   #45
Grimsin
A Molten Giant
 
Grimsin's Avatar
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 990
i know im a few days late but just had to throw my 2 copper in.

WOW is going down the road of vanity? are you blind or was wow your first MMO? its always been a vanity game. Almost all MMO's have been vanity games since EA with Ultima Online found out there was more vanity players then anything else.

"carebears" as those of us hardcore gamers like to refer to them. The people who cry for days on end at the game host because they lost something, or someone just killed and looted their corpse. Or broke into their house.... ahh the good old days of online gang warfare. When leaving the protection of the town guards required some balls.

WOW has been for the carebear from day one. Also dont think for one second that they wont sell gold eventually. This is about greed not about game play.

Although wow has progressed much slower down the path of selling its own virtual items, all mmo's eventually travel that road. Why shouldn't they? There is a whole secondary industry in it, why should blizzard not lay claim to it?

If bliz really wants to stop the gold sellers? who supposedly get all their gold from your hacked account? then they would for sure sell gold themselves. It would be the fastest stop to the rest of the gold sellers now wouldn't it?

if bliz started selling gold at a lower price then the current gold sellers. Those current gold sellers would go out of business from it.
__________________
"Are we there yet?"

GrimUI
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  Reply With Quote
02-06-10, 09:27 AM   #46
Farm Fresh
A Fallenroot Satyr
 
Farm Fresh's Avatar
Join Date: Oct 2008
Posts: 27
Originally Posted by Grimsin View Post
If bliz really wants to stop the gold sellers? who supposedly get all their gold from your hacked account? then they would for sure sell gold themselves. It would be the fastest stop to the rest of the gold sellers now wouldn't it?

if bliz started selling gold at a lower price then the current gold sellers. Those current gold sellers would go out of business from it.
Really? You're actually suggesting that? If Blizzard started selling Gold, not only would they be massive hypocrites, but probably more than half of the people would stop playing. The very reason people play subscription games over free-to-play cash shop games is so that people who are rich (or just idiots) can't spend all their money and have an advantage over them. It's what makes the subscription worth paying to begin with.
__________________
The statement below is true.
The statement above is false.
  Reply With Quote
02-06-10, 03:12 PM   #47
Dreadlorde
A Pyroguard Emberseer
 
Dreadlorde's Avatar
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 2,302
Originally Posted by Farm Fresh View Post
Really? You're actually suggesting that? If Blizzard started selling Gold, not only would they be massive hypocrites, but probably more than half of the people would stop playing. The very reason people play subscription games over free-to-play cash shop games is so that people who are rich (or just idiots) can't spend all their money and have an advantage over them. It's what makes the subscription worth paying to begin with.
They also said they would never allow faction changing.

And back in my day, you had to farm to get those rare pets! Get off my lawn!
__________________

Funtoo - Plan 9 - Windows 7
  Reply With Quote
02-06-10, 05:23 PM   #48
Sepioth
A Molten Giant
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 894
Originally Posted by Farm Fresh View Post
Really? You're actually suggesting that? If Blizzard started selling Gold, not only would they be massive hypocrites, but probably more than half of the people would stop playing. The very reason people play subscription games over free-to-play cash shop games is so that people who are rich (or just idiots) can't spend all their money and have an advantage over them. It's what makes the subscription worth paying to begin with.
So half the people would leave because they now have an OFFICIAL and SAFE and CHEAPER source for their gold??

There buying gold in large numbers from the "farmers" so I fail to see how those same people would leave if Blizz offered it. In all reality it would increase there revenue as those who would like to buy gold may tend to steer away from a site that they have no idea about it's credit card security.

And if anyone where to leave because they are mad Blizzard was selling gold (aka micro-transactions / DLC) themselves (we all heard this argument about EA selling this stuff to and yet they remain on top of the gaming industry) then the extra gold revenue will surely take care of that VERY SMALL loss of monthly fees.
  Reply With Quote
02-06-10, 06:12 PM   #49
ArrchDK
A Fallenroot Satyr
 
ArrchDK's Avatar
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 25
Originally Posted by Sepioth View Post
So half the people would leave because they now have an OFFICIAL and SAFE and CHEAPER source for their gold??

There buying gold in large numbers from the "farmers" so I fail to see how those same people would leave if Blizz offered it. In all reality it would increase there revenue as those who would like to buy gold may tend to steer away from a site that they have no idea about it's credit card security.
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.
  Reply With Quote
02-06-10, 06:49 PM   #50
Bornabe
A Flamescale Wyrmkin
 
Bornabe's Avatar
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 133
If Blizz were to offer anything like that, which I doubt they would, they would put it on specific servers, and allow folks to move to those servers like some other pay-to-play games have done when allowing real-cash purchases.

This is an argument none of us need to be having. Less QQ, More Pew Pew.
  Reply With Quote
02-06-10, 06:56 PM   #51
Bluspacecow
Giver of walls of text :)
 
Bluspacecow's Avatar
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 770
Oooohhhh Drama

/popcorn
__________________
tuba_man on Apple test labs : "I imagine a brushed-aluminum room with a floor made of keyboards, each one plugged into a different test box somewhere. Someone is tasked with tossing a box full of cats (all wearing turtlenecks) into this room. If none of the systems catch fire within 30 minutes, testing is complete. Someone else must remove the cats. All have iPods." (http://community.livejournal.com/tec...t/2018070.html)
  Reply With Quote
02-06-10, 11:47 PM   #52
Sepioth
A Molten Giant
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 894
Originally Posted by ArrchDK View Post
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??
  Reply With Quote
02-07-10, 02:49 AM   #53
Riddrick
A Cliff Giant
 
Riddrick's Avatar
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 72
S**t happens

As long as any company get cash, they sell what ever they can to customer.
And about the payment to buy factions, it both good and bad.
You canīt stop Blizzard and you can stop a glazier to buy
his kid a slingshot.
There is always an opportunity to make more cash for everything.
__________________
Donīt drink and drive they say,
now i lost the counting for the
bad stuff that happen to me.
RUN when you see me becuse
iīam going to be soooo loaded!!!
If you donīt knock on the doors,
donīt expect a good welcome!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya2KR4VQwu4
Now the real killing begins!!

Warsong
  Reply With Quote
02-07-10, 09:39 AM   #54
Republic
Paladin
 
Republic's Avatar
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 277
Originally Posted by Grimsin View Post
WOW is going down the road of vanity? are you blind or was wow your first MMO? its always been a vanity game.
No one said it wasn't a vanity game. The point was that the development path has taken a much more aggressive approach to feeding this vanity, not that the vanity was a new thing. Just about everything in the game's evolution is bringing it down to nothing more than a "fantasy shooter" with cute toys and different ways of looking "pretty".

Honestly though, for those of you out there who were "hardcore" players during the vanilla run, did anyone imagine they would ever see a horde paladin or an alliance shaman? I sure didn't. At one time, it was a horde player's "rite of passage" to make fun of paladins. Same with alliance and shamans.

The time when epic mounts meant something are missed. Know what I mean? If you saw a player riding a kodo, it was a tauren damn it and that's the way it was supposed to be! There's no telling what we might be able to buy this time next year. Scroll of instant max level? Scroll of instant flying mount? Heirloom scroll of "mine's bigger"?

Anyway, once again, the point wasn't that vanity is new. It's that it's too much of an influence and has/is making drastic changes (both planned and unplanned) in the game.
  Reply With Quote
02-07-10, 09:48 AM   #55
Republic
Paladin
 
Republic's Avatar
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 277
Originally Posted by Sepioth View Post
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.
That's more about addiction (both clinical and casual) than it is happiness or quality of game(s). It's not necessarily a validation of microtransaction policy. Think about it a minute. How many people could quit warcraft "cold turkey"? I don't know of many.
  Reply With Quote
02-07-10, 03:03 PM   #56
Dreadlorde
A Pyroguard Emberseer
 
Dreadlorde's Avatar
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 2,302
Originally Posted by Republic View Post
That's more about addiction (both clinical and casual) than it is happiness or quality of game(s). It's not necessarily a validation of microtransaction policy. Think about it a minute. How many people could quit warcraft "cold turkey"? I don't know of many.
I quit cold turkey.
__________________

Funtoo - Plan 9 - Windows 7
  Reply With Quote
02-07-10, 03:28 PM   #57
Aerials
A Warpwood Thunder Caller
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 92
aren't there racing games for 360 that u have to buy some cars and crap like that? people didn't seem to mind that at all, but seem to be mostly against this kind of thing...... really, depending on how the game is made, the racing ones could be selling the way to win (yes, some cars are better than others..... if the game is programmed right, a.... viper or w/e should be able to outrun a model T from 1910 or whenever (don't know cars that well)..... not the best example but u get the point).

these items that their selling have no impact whatsoever on the outcome of battle, other than maybe a cackle from Lil' K.T. their basically RP / E-peen vanity items, and really nothing more.

I also liked the point someone made about the TCG loot, which is basically the same thing but less chance at actually getting anything for your money. also, the re-customization is the same thing.... until blizz makes the females dominate the males with whips and leashes (sorry, couldn't resist).
  Reply With Quote
02-07-10, 08:40 PM   #58
Sepioth
A Molten Giant
AddOn Author - Click to view addons
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 894
Originally Posted by Dreadlorde View Post
I quit cold turkey.
Yeah .. same here ... I haven't played in about 6 months and have no intentions of really returning. I keep my account cause my girlfriend plays it now.

I come here still because I still like to help wherever possible and the community here keeps it fun. HMMM .. I may be addicted to this website now that I think of it....
  Reply With Quote
02-08-10, 03:57 PM   #59
forty2j
A Cobalt Mageweaver
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 232
All generalizations are bad.

That said, speaking for me personally, if Blizzard offered an official legal source to buy gold, my 5+ years of playing WoW will come to an abrupt halt.
  Reply With Quote
02-08-10, 04:07 PM   #60
Republic
Paladin
 
Republic's Avatar
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 277
Originally Posted by forty2j View Post
All generalizations are bad.
I just tripped over the irony.
  Reply With Quote

WoWInterface » General Discussion » General WoW Chat » Microtransactions starting in/for WoW?

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off