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As I was suspecting, there was article not too long ago on Blizzards intention to deliver expansions at a faster pace, so it doesn't occur the same mistake they've done few times now and losing big chunk of subs in the process.
Lead Game Designer Ion said that the team is pushing to increase the pace of expansion development: "Our goal is certainly to release expansions a little faster than we have been... we've increased the size of our team, and we feel like we're in a place where we should be able to move faster than before."
So, this means only one thing and one thing only. You'll be receiving new expansion every year or so and paying that $50 much more often than before for new content. So, in your opinion is this a wise/good strategy by Blizzard or not?
How will this affect your decision with getting involved with WOW:WoD, especially those who have been more patient and undecided. World of Warcraft was already the most expensive MMO, employing B2P, P2P+Cash Shop+Fees for services, now it will be the only MMORPG charging $50 every year or so for new expansions (content/raids)
Personally, if I was a WOW player, already decided to spend $31 CAD to enjoy the game for the first 4 months if I was already getting "milked" might as well get milked to the limit so I keep playing the game consistently, but to lure the lost subs as well as the new market, I believe reducing the cost of the game plays a significant factor in that, which Blizzard doesn't seem to be interested in doing.
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But you are not a WoW player... but you certainly are concerned about those who are.
More comtent updates, free and payed is what the game needs, i guess they have a whole titan team to employ..
if they would also manage to make all the old 1-90 content viable again for max level chars, they can have my soul
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
I'm not sure why anyone could possibly think this is a bad thing. And the fact that Titan got scrapped leads me to believe that Blizzard will be able to follow up on this promise since they are once again "all in" on WoW.
It's a good thing. Second-guessing a developer for bringing more content at a faster pace is just arguing for the sake of arguing.
Obviously it depends on the quality of the expansions.
However the OP acts as if this is just price gouging, when in reality it is a choice between having "significant" amounts of new content always coming out or having currency grinds/low percentage drops and other methods MMO's use to slow down progression when they have nothing new coming out.
I'll pay $50 extra a year for that, because new content is often enjoyable whereas extended grinds are the worst aspect of post expansion/launch endgames.
I don't think I've ever actually enjoyed an MMO that I didn't hope for a new expansion to come out after a year. Expansions are almost always good news unless you are playing a game that has mini-expansions and other DLC packs like EQ2 had which were definitely overpriced (but even then they weren't even needed as they didn't contain important content in terms of progression).
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More content is never a bad thing. And as far as I can tell the WoW fans are more than happy to spend money on it. I don't see how this can be considered 'bad' by anything who follows the game.
You pay Blizzard for their ability to give you a game that is popular. The game constantly is doing well that has to have a price tag. Other games cannot guarantee you a good population or ensure you will have people to play with ,Blizzard can. In the MMORPG world the fact that you invest time,effort and emotion into a game should carry with it the expectation to see a game continue and often it is wasted because the game gets shut down. WoW goes on and you should have to pay for that stability.
The fact that they know people will buy the game with no discounts or a reduced price is because of their success. Like it or not take it or leave it. Every product that is popular is overpriced. Look at apple products.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
Please Link your achievement from vanilla. We will judge how much "challenge" you actually "love" after that. And if you don't know how to link your achievement and/or armory then you don't deserve to play WoW anymore.
Boobs are LIFE, Boobs are LOVE, Boobs are JUSTICE, Boobs are mankind's HOPES and DREAMS. People who complain about boobs have lost their humanity.
So bring back massive class imbalances, easy as hell raid mechanics (compared to now), get rid of any new races and classes, handful of mounts, no pet battles, only a few BGs, etc.
So...what challenge do you want to supposedly bring back? Leveling wasn't hard, elite quests weren't hard unless you tried to solo them, dungeons weren't all that hard you just needed to go slow and use CC, raid mechanics were completely dumbed down compared to now.
As a WoW player who started in January of 2005 and have only taken a few months off during MoP, I can say that game is drastically better than it was in Vanilla.
For the OP:
I hope they increase their dev cycle. 12-14 months of no new content isn't fun. Of course, Blizzard has stated that they've wanted to increase dev cycles since 2008, so we'll see if they can actually manage it.
For a wow player hooked to the game... it just means their committed time is rewarded with more content.
I think by the 7th expansion... the appeal of the game at that point really is just the endless grind for the remaining players. Sounds ridiculous... but so does how many hundred of hours it takes to go to lvl 90.
However, if I were a returning player after stopping before the first expansion was released... and starting from scratch since I gifted my account... I would be more concnered on playing quality content and having access to all kinds of variety of content.
So lets say, im lvl 20 out of 100. I want to play pvp. I do not want to feel like I have 1000 more hours to play before I have access to certain kinds of content. That's just me as a pvper, and someone really not interested in the quest mechanics of WoW.
I was a WoW fan mostly because I am a WC fan. However, I feel I have given WoW a pound of flesh and gotten little in return. So I have very little remaining to give WoW before what ever will remains... withers and dies with the idea of me playing WoW.
So in other words... to me as a new player... WoW has too much grind to reach end game. However it would not be a problem if I had access to all kinds of content early on. Such as player housing, pvp, etc and their future content of more mini games being accessible early on.
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
If there was any statement that showcased the elitist foul attitude that pollutes wow, this is it. Vanilla did not have achievements BTW.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
God no, I was a raider in Vanilla, as fun as that all was... I just don't have 8 hours a day now to spend grinding content for progression. The game is in a good space, its an enjoyable game with plenty to do it doesn't need a ramp in difficulty for it to be fun.
Why on earth would you want that haha.
While i do not play WoW, and while i think Blizzard made some bad moves in the last decade or so, and while i generally do not look favourable on subscription + box + expansion + cash shop, and while Blizzard is not exactly the "cheapest" and tends to keep the price up for long....
..they didn't say anything about the price tag of future expansions. Maybe they'll lower it so the overall price/year stays the same. And if the amount of content is the same as before, just delivered faster, the same price tag *should* be okay for those that bought the previous expansions.
I'll wait to the day's end when the moon is high
And then I'll rise with the tide with a lust for life, I'll
Amass an army, and we'll harness a horde
And then we'll limp across the land until we stand at the shore
No thank you.
The reason I quit during Cata was because when a new expansion came all my progress would just be meaningless. It finally got to the point where I kept asking myself "what is the point?" When I saw pandas were coming it was pretty obvious a break was needed.
2 years later I am thinking of coming back... I guess tonight... but still on the fence. The time I sunk into WoW the most was during BC and I have nothing to show for it. I just fear it will just be the same. The only reason I want to come back is to do some rogue pvp and make people whine on the forums about stealth.
I love the whole "make it challenging again" comments when comparing vanilla. The only "challenge" vanilla had over the WoW of today, was the time it took to reach max level. The dungeons of today (WoD) are harder than they were in vanilla....and the raids today are vaaaassssssttlllyyy harder than they were in vanilla. I'd take the raids of today any day over the mindless, almost mechanicless, raids of vanilla wow. Seeing as classes are also vastly more balanced today than they were in vanilla, one could argue that PVP is also harder now that players have to rely more so on skill rather than the brokenly OP classes of vanilla.
No but he did infact completed any of the raids or such back in vanilla now he would have shit load of "unique" achievement only available to vanilla players. and he can indeed link those. and i am not elitist, the elitist one is the one who said "bring back vanilla, make it challenging again". challenging vanilla..pfft,,,
Boobs are LIFE, Boobs are LOVE, Boobs are JUSTICE, Boobs are mankind's HOPES and DREAMS. People who complain about boobs have lost their humanity.
Even on official forums people throw around 'vanilla wow' a lot just to act cool when it turns out they never even played the vanilla wow. lol
You forget the biggest "challenge" of all : shouting for 10 hours to find 40 players to form raid. then finding out half of them are undergeared or don't have attunement to raid. if waste of time = challenge then indeed vanilla wow was challenging.
Boobs are LIFE, Boobs are LOVE, Boobs are JUSTICE, Boobs are mankind's HOPES and DREAMS. People who complain about boobs have lost their humanity.
Maybe cause I am old and I have lost touch with the world but what is wrong with paying a few cents a day for entertainment?
Have so many people been jaded by the so called "free to play" market that they cannot see the value of an entertainment dollar anymore?
If you spend 50 bucks a year on expansions and kept your 15 dollar sub going the whole time you would spend 230 a year on your game.
I do not play the game a lot, more than some but not a lot. I would say I play about 5 days a week, 3 hours a day so 15 hours a week. Multiply that times 52 weeks a year and it comes out to 780 hours a year.
230 dollars divided by 780 hours comes out to 29 cents an hour for my play time. 1 dollar a day is what I average for that.
The more I play it the less it costs.
Compare that to other forms of entertainment and I seriously doubt you will find much close to that cost.
Stop with your logic math....you are frightening the masses....