Blizzard Zoomerang Survey

[Bigfish]

Hmm, interesting. Sounds like the player base stabilized and some suits are upset that the ever increasing stream of revenue finally tapered off to a more or less steady flow, so they need to come up with ways to keep the money flowing. I don't know that WoW will go FTP any time soon. Whats more likely is the consolidation of Blizzard properties in to the battle.net accounts where in you recieve "discounts" for subscribing to various games.

Certainly we're going to start seeing the fruits of the erosion of developer morality. Its been happening for a while now, and in not too long the game will fall prey to "those with the most money buy the biggest advantage".

Personally, I think that's going to be the point of falling in to a death spiral, where subscriptions decrease, so more and more superfluous add-ins get tossed in, which just pushes more people away as they get tired of dropping X dollars every time a new tier of gear comes out. It will continue to be a revenue stream, but not in the way Blizzard wants. I mean, its not going to continually grow like they apparently think revenue streams should.

Cue Blizzard's next big thing, an MMO designed for the "hardcore" (courtesy of Jeff Kaplan) where Blizzard promises they won't "repeat the direction we went with WoW". Of course, the reality will be just another attempted cash cow, but we'll have to see if their PR-fu picks up or the players are savvy enough to catch on.

But mark my words, in the not too distant future, a battle.net account will cost between 5-15$ a month, and with that you get a subscription to a game of your choice. For every game after, you'll be paying between 3-5.99$ for extra subscriptions.

[Fat Tire]

Certainly we're going to start seeing the fruits of the erosion of developer morality. Its been happening for a while now, and in not too long the game will fall prey to "those with the most money buy the biggest advantage".

I think they could make wow ftp without going down the path you described. For example, wow goes ftp (yay!) no one is paying anything. Now they release a bunch of pink glitter ponys or hello kitty themed vanity pets for 15-25$ respectively every month. Even a "Hey! Did you just loot the Great 2hander of Noobsauce?" Dont like the look? Well for 5$ you can design the look yourself. Really endless possibilities and much more profit potential.

In those alone I believe they will make more revenue than with subscriptions alone with out disrupting class balance thru who pays the most is the most powerful.

I am sure Activi$on is pushing hard for ftp. Its only a matter of time, how much is the question.

[Jafula]

Dont like the look? Well for 5$ you can design the look yourself.

Yay, swords that look like male genitiala. Great!

Please note that sarcasm was intended.


I hope WoW does not change, couldn't care less what happens with their new MMO.

I watched my wife starting to play FrontierVille that other day. She was complaining she couldn't do anything due to lack of resources. Paying $ would have solved that problem. It was not a fun game.

If we wanted to throw arbitary amounts of money away*, we'd do it a the casino where there was a least a slim chance of getting something back again.

* I like the fixed subscription amount. I know how much enjoyment I am getting for my money.

[Souca]

* I like the fixed subscription amount. I know how much money they are getting for my enjoyment.

Fixt.

Not sure how I feel about the game being F2P or Sub based. Guess it really depends on the motivation it. If it's done with a fair exchange intended between the customer and the business, then I'm fine with it. I just have issues when customers or businesses start believing they are entitled to something just for showing up. In other words, greed.

- Souca -

[Svpernova09]

I think they could make wow ftp without going down the path you described. For example, wow goes ftp (yay!) no one is paying anything. Now they release a bunch of pink glitter ponys or hello kitty themed vanity pets for 15-25$ respectively every month. Even a "Hey! Did you just loot the Great 2hander of Noobsauce?" Dont like the look? Well for 5$ you can design the look yourself. Really endless possibilities and much more profit potential.

In those alone I believe they will make more revenue than with subscriptions alone with out disrupting class balance thru who pays the most is the most powerful.

I am sure Activi$on is pushing hard for ftp. Its only a matter of time, how much is the question.

I think the only way I'd continue to play if it went FTP is if they managed to avoid "more money = best everything". That just wouldn't hold my interest.

Reading the Blizz link above makes me think. Having multiple wow's on your battlenet may increase your chance at receiving this survey. Trying to max cash per customer?

I setup a battle.net for my stepson to play with only one wow on it. He didn't get the survey but my 6 account battle.net did.

Maybe, I have 5 WoW accounts, PTR, and Beta accounts. My 2nd Battle.net with my 4 inactive accounts did not get the email. (probably because they're inactive, although 3 of my 5 on the main account are also inactive)