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What if WoW went completely free to play? What would happen?
nomatics856
Member UncommonPosts: 219
Blizzards first intention with WoW was to make it free to play with advertizements, if blizzard went and adopted a completely free to play method with WoW, do you think it would succeed guild wars 2? It would dominate any mmorpg we have now but in this era of games going free to play and no more pay to play, where do you think WoW would stand?
Comments
It wouldn't bode well for them. People would kill their 8 bosses in the first 2 weeks of a content patch, and go play something else for the next year until the next big content patch.
Free to play with advertisements IS full free to play.
Well, no game is fully free to play. Every game has either cash shop, memberships with benefits etc...
But having only advertisements means the game is fully free to play.
Also, a lot of players would return, cause, after all, WoW is a great game. I would certainly return. + the private servers would be ruined and a lot of players will be basicly forced to go to the retail version.
It won't, at least not for a very long while.
There are too many suckers players who are all too willing to pay $15 a month for access to the game, and still throw money at the cash shop.
I for sure would not play it, I would considder playing it if they payed me $3000 per week.
So you are asking: "If Bobby Kotick was a homeless person would supermodels line up to offer him sex"?
Seriously: WoW is still exthetremely popular even if it is an outdated and a very old subbased game. They have their fanbase very well cornered and have no trouble charging $20-25 for them to get vanity-mounted?
I seriously doubt many true WoW-fans will enjoy GW2. No holy trinity, no addons, no gear advantage just fun pve witout the kill10rats and skillbased pvp. Playstyle and preference differs a lot: If WoW went f2p they would lose the sub-income but retain about the same amount of fans.
(And just for the record: I will be playing GW2 - If I had to choose whether to pay for an Aion sub or a WoW sub it would be a dilemma, a choice between a free but old, gearbased and tired WoW or a fresh, level playingfield GW2 = No choice, I will be in GW2, heck I may even pay for some nice outfits - Something I would'nt do for an 18 polygon electric pony.)
We dont need casuals in our games!!! Errm... Well we DO need casuals to fund and populate our games - But the games should be all about "hardcore" because: We dont need casuals in our games!!!
(repeat ad infinitum)
you wouldnt pay a monthly sub
The US' economy would collapse, but seriously, it's like asking what would happen if KFC stopped serving any chicken related food on the menu? Something which ain't gonna happen. Maybe in 5 years time when loads of new MMOs are out and WoW's population has died down a lot, they might consider it then as a little marketing ploy.
We're all Geniuses. Most of us just don't know it.
I'd play it.. but it wouldn't stop me trying out new games.
You'd start seeing ads for Budweiser in IronForge, and a lot of embarassed Dwarves for having that horse-pee advertised in their town.
Oderint, dum metuant.
They would lose all the players who know "free to play" is a lie.
Probably I'd go back driven by nostalgia, and play for a little while until I realize again that what I miss most isn't the game itself, but the people I played with back then.
What can men do against such reckless hate?
I dont think it will go f2p.
Even with a steady decline it still has alot of subs and bringing alot of cash on the table.
The issue is is that invester/shareholders are used seeing buttloads of cash and want to keep it that way.
Instead of buying 9 jachts, 3 porsh ferraris they see now they have to settle with 6 jachts, 2 jaguars.
I dont know if going F2P would do more harm than good, but blizzard are still raking in millions right now keeping it as a subscription model, I also believe it is a bit late in the day to go F2P as most players are at end game constantly grinding the raid content and is used as a social get together with friends and guildies these days. Blizzard would lose a lot more money going free to play based on the latter.
One reason I can see it going F2P is when their next MMO hits the market, they may offer WoW players free subs on WoW if they take subs up on their latest MMO, eventually killing off WoW themselves, if not free then a cut price in subs to WoW.
As to the OP's question, It would probably draw a lot of players back, for a while, and those that already play paying subs probably wouldnt be online as much as they are now due to feeling they are forced to get their sub fees worth of game time.
"do you think it would succeed guild wars 2"
What does this mean?
Im sure if WoW go F2P it gets ITEMSHOP Real money AH.
I think it would even worse then it already is hehe
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Game cards or codes purchased online would presumably unlock x amount of levels, profession tiers, permanent guild invites and trade chat, etc. Expansions would still have to be purchased and the cash shop would no doubt play a more major role, possibly offering catchup greens if gearscore is low for example.
It would be the END OF THE WORD of warcraft!
All hail the Barn Owl! oh.. and the RED SQUIRREL!!!
I think it would even worse then it already is hehe
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It would be the END OF THE WORD of warcraft!........
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I predict for the first 6 months the population would slowly become 90% gold sellers.
Then the remaining actual players would quit because of the gold farmers.
Then the gold farmers would quit because there would be no one to sell gold to.
Then Blizzard would spend all their resources on TITAN and people in 2 years will view WoW the same way people today view EQ.
Heh , WoW will become the #1 bot haven if it went F2P , and as time slowly passes by , the MMO king will die flat on it's back.
Would't that be their choice though? Or are you one of the people that blame WoW for all the worlds ills?
Personally, I prefer a subscription model but I think that is because I am getting old. Having a free to play with membership upgrades that just add virtual cash to my virtual wallet does not interest me in the least.
That Guild Wars 2 login screen knocked up my wife. Must be the second coming!
I agree with this anlaysis. That I think would make the most sense for ATVI/Blizzard. It would also be the way to get people to move into their next MMO, which I am crossing my fingers is an FPS based MMO. If the Bungie guys are involved as is rumored that would be a good sign...
GW2 "built from the ground up with microtransactions in mind"
1) Cash->Gems->Gold->Influence->WvWvWBoosts = PAY2WIN
2) Mystic Chests = Crass in-game cash shop advertisements
I wouldn't say all world ill, that is the stupid people (with normally is the ones who is killing the genre).
but wow is to blame to bring then over the MMO zone so..., yeah