Blizzard Zoomerang Survey

[Svpernova09]

I got this email,

Joe,

Our goal at Blizzard Entertainment is to make the most epic gaming experiences possible, so we want to get your feedback as a registered user of World of Warcraft®. We invite you to participate in an online survey where your responses will help us determine which areas to focus our attention in the coming months. You must be 13 years of age or older to fill out the questionnaire. The entire survey is expected to take about 15 minutes to complete.

If you would like to participate, click on the following link:

< Link Removed >


We really value your opinions and hope you'll make the time to participate. If you have any questions, you may contact us at blizsurvey@blizzard.com.

We look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Blizzard Entertainment Research

Sounded suspicious, but all the grammar and such was correct and the links checked out ok so I went for it. Pretty interesting survey with hints at some interesting possibilities.

Here's a few of the questions (copying from what I was linking the people in IRC)

Most of the questions you had to choose *Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neutral, Agree, Strongly Agree

I don't mind paying for extra services or in-game items

Buying in-game gold with cash isn't a big deal

I would consider purchasing additional items or services for my character or account if they were available from Blizzard and I liked them.

For each of the following statements, please say how interested you would be in using that particular feature if it were available via a web browser or on a mobile device such as an iPhone or Android smartphone.

General Vendor + Repair: Buy and sell goods from a general vendor and repair your gear

Mobile Daily Quests: Mobile mini-games that would allow you to earn gold or in-game rewards or level up associated skills

Mail: Read and send in-game mail mesages

Guild / Friend Chat: Ability to participate in guild chat and whisper with people on your friends list using any of your characters

Talent/Glyph Spec: Respec your talent/glyph build on web/mobile and then export to your character in-game for the same gold cost

Flight Path: Travel from the flight path node nearest to your character to any flight path node, at the same in-game gold cost

What do you guys think of these? Could be pretty interesting if some of this stuff actually happened.

[Starbuck_Jones]

The first 3 sound like free to play models.

Next set sound like out of game hookups. Like the mobile apps for facebook games. So you can sit at work and play web/phone app games and cash in when you get home.

[Maxion]

They have already started testing guild chat from mobile armory now included with the mobile auction house optional paid thing. Might include guild chat from web browser soon too.

But yeah, many of the ones (from free play game models) I would consider very bad for wow and should be avoided.

[Fat Tire]

Let me be the first- atleast on this site.

WoW will go FTP. For sure the next blizz mmo will be ftp from the start. DLC/FTP is the wave of the gaming future.

Edit: They had these kinds of surveys in EQ2 and Lotro also before they went ftp. However, lets be honest, all they have to do is look at blizzards store revenue to base the decision upon.

[Svpernova09]

Let me be the first- atleast on this site.

WoW will go FTP. For sure the next blizz mmo will be ftp from the start. DLC/FTP is the wave of the gaming future.

Edit: They had these kinds of surveys in EQ2 and Lotro also before they went ftp. However, lets be honest, all they have to do is look at blizzards store revenue to base the decision upon.

Yeah, I'm not doubting this at all. And I'm not sure how I feel about it going FTP.

[DrChaos]

Has Blizz ever used an email with only one "z"?

blizsurvey@blizzard.com.

[Shodokan]

From my friend.

"We currently have no plans in the immediate future to go F2P. Don't get me wrong though it is something we discuss very often and with the release of some of the items to the store which were such a hit there is a lot of consideration. Unless our user base drops substantially though the money made now that is guaranteed seems to out-weigh the move. It will happen, as to when...not soon but don't be shocked if it happens by the end of next year."

as to your survey "

We do all surveys internally and will ask a player to take it from their battle.net account, we do not deal with any off-site survey company such as zoomerang"

[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.

[Lyonheart]

From my friend.

"We currently have no plans in the immediate future to go F2P. Don't get me wrong though it is something we discuss very often and with the release of some of the items to the store which were such a hit there is a lot of consideration. Unless our user base drops substantially though the money made now that is guaranteed seems to out-weigh the move. It will happen, as to when...not soon but don't be shocked if it happens by the end of next year."

as to your survey "

We do all surveys internally and will ask a player to take it from their battle.net account, we do not deal with any off-site survey company such as zoomerang"

I read that exact quote from a game site, someone interviewing.. your friend huh? ok

[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.