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Blizzard Entertainment money hungry?
Aseenus
Member UncommonPosts: 1,844
Allright mods i think we have had enough little kids flaming me.. please close topic asap!
all i hear is "your a nub" "wow is a great game and i love it and who ever made this game i love them too" Big Fact: I will pwn any of you in pretty much any game and thats a fact!
get over your selves! yes its a business but there ripping people off! you idiots are too blind to see it! i know there ripping me off but still play it! I was jus stating the obviouse!
Comments
You know who you have to blame for all this? Well, it all started with this guy named Adam Smith. He had this crazy idea of a free market. He had this notion that if people didn't like what was going on in a free market with a seller then they wouldn't purchase his product. This creates this clever balancing effect called supply and demand.
But seriously, all the companies release expansions like that. Look how many Everquest has. And there are still a bazillion people playing that game (that's about one player for every expansion they've put out.) So they must be doing something right. I admit I've bought them all. And will probably buy the WoW expansion too.
Your grammar is horrid.
All corporations [not just Blizzard] have the goal to make money. Almost every mmorpg has some type of pay-to-play expansion, so why do you think World Of Warcraft is any different? Considering that they have some 30-40 servers [I lost count], they have massive bandwidth fees, hence the monthly charges. Also, if they gave everything for free, they would end up losing money due to the fact that they need to pay programmers to code the new content, hence the 30 dollar expansion you will have to buy. Lastly, you don't have to buy the expansion. It is not necessary and Blizzard has said that the expansion will only add to upper-leveled players, in terms of content. So, unless you want to play as the Blood Elves, or you want those extra 70 levels, you don't have any reason to purchase the expansion, therefore, the expansion is not a necessity and Blizzard is not "money hungry".
"Whoever controls the media controls the mind..-'Jim Morrison"
"When decorum is repression, the only dignity free men have is to speak out." ~Abbie Hoffman
This entire game was one big cash grab. Blizzards priorities: 1. MONEY! 2. Everything else. Blizzard does not care about their game, they care about making maximum PROFIT
! Just like every other company in North America. The funny thing is that companies or people for that matter never realize that after a certain amount of money, you have enough, but "enough" is not good enough. They must have MORE than anyone else! Horde everything to themselves!. If I was Bill Gates(or any other rich horder) I would give all my money away, except enough to live good for the rest of my life. How could they make their precious Forbes richest list though? 
Money does you no good in the afterlife. So why not give it away while your alive
!!!
Food for thought!!
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Science has never proven that what we see in front of us is in fact real.
sure hes whining... but he does have a little bit of a point... I realize everyone makes pay-to-play expansions... but cmon. Last time they announced, they had hit 4 Million subscribers... thats $60 Million USD/Month... you dont think thats enough to pay for their servers and programmers... even the investors must be looking at them sketchily... come on now.
no... but you would buy the car, because all your friends have one, and you wouldnt want to be left out
1. take every idea on market
2. drop some "harder" ideas, so even most stupid man can play it, or even kid under 8,9 years
3. pay men to make it
4. put a lot in marketing
5. if possible continue story and game from some hits from past
6. use your capacities much more on graphic and sound, not gameplay (just see 1. and 2.)
7. use present price from market, doesnt metter how many copies u ll sell
after this u get:
1. wonna-be-game (game read as: strategy, rpg, mmorpg)
2. soulless but pritty game that ll become Britney Spears of game entertainment
3. game that is in main stream and earning a lot of cash
4. 90% of ppl that will admire your work and like your game and 10% that ll see what monster you create (but who cares about them...there ll be always some other games if they dont like yours)
present plans:
1. use as less money for support as you can
2. use as less money for game balancing, feautures,updates, as you can
3. use most of programmers and others for makeing expansions
4. make good "hot" stories about expansion, make ppl to be interested in it
5. figure out how much expasion will costs
future plans:
1. endless pay-2-play expansions
2. searching new ideas on market, and thinking about how to start another cirle of these above.
TRUTH NOWDAYS ISNT OUT THERE BUT @ CNN
Why don't we take a look at it from the other side of the fence.
Let's say you are the owner of Blizzard or one of its shareholders or whatever and you realize that you can introduce more content and call it an expansion and many many people will buy it creating many million of dollars for you.
So you are aware of something that is capable of making you huge portions of money without really screwing anyone over as it's not a necessity. Knowing all of this, would you release the expansion for free or charge $30 for it.
Essentially the original poster is asking blizzard to purposely lose money so a few kids don't complain about $30. If you're complaining about $30 for something that gives you 100's of hours of enjoyment then you are either a high school (or less) kid who should be focusing on school or immacutely cheap.
This is capitalism, if you don't like this country nickle and diming you for everything then go somewhere else. Capitalism is the American way. Remember the line, "If you build it, they will come". Well capitalism says, "If they will pay for it, then offer it, and offer it for the price that maximizes profit".
Cryomatrix
You can see my sci-fi/WW2 book recommendations.
I don't mind the pay 2 play expansion, but what I do mind is a company that won't release all of the details about the expansion, because they probably don't have it all worked out yet, but they dont want to admit that.
I do think that content should be added free of charge, but I understand how much people want to make money, so I dont *mind* it.
But take a developer like CCP. Free expansions, Free updates, and they tell you everything that they will/won't/would like to/can't right now put into the game. Not saying EVE is the greatest game of all time, but the developers are the greatest developers I"ve ever seen. Players are actually friends with the developers through the forums and dev blogs on the site. That's something I've never even heard of before.
They're in it because they love making games that people love, not because of money, and they're not leeching off of their previously made games for content and storylines.
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I live to fight, and fight to live.
What YOU need to understand is this:
Blizzard employed a team of devs to make the game, and invested several million dollars, 30 plus I hear, to create the game over 4-5 years. They had to SELL the game to recupe some of that investment, and get the rest back from the monthly sub, whilst at the same time using that sub money to cover the cost of running the servers, employing CS, techs, reps, and a dev team to keep updating the game, fixing bugs, balancing characters and and new content.
Blizzard does NOT have 4 million subscribers, that was company spin. About 2 million people pay to play the game in the far east, China, Korea, Taiwan, but things work differently over there. Firstly they don't buy a box, but a CD key, because they ALL play in Internet cafes, using the SAME game software, but their own login. The cost of the CD was a fraction of what US/EU players paid, about $5 I think. Secondly, NO-ONE pays $15/ month on a sub out there, you have a game card, and money is deducted per the hour you play, 5 cents per hour. If you KNOW anything about those countries you'll understand that spending lots of time in an Internet Cafe is often NOT possible, due to the cost, lifestlye, and availability. More likely, most players play an hour a day before getting booted, due to a queue, in which case, thats 25 cents weekdays, who knows at weekends.
I very much doubt Blizzard makes $15/month from the 2 million subs out there, in fact you cannot even prove that ALL 2 million regularly play. Accuratley calculating far east subs has always been difficult. The 4 million quoted by Blizzard is marketing spin.
Thirdly, Bllizzard employed a SEPERATE dev team to work on the expansion, possibly members that helped MAKE the game, whilst a new team comes in to run it. This is common practise, just look at other large, successful games, EQ for example. So Bllizzard have TWO sets of costs to manage, and remember, those that buy the expansion will be the SAME that bought the game, so no NEW subs to bring more money in. Hence Blizzard recupes it's costs on the expansion, through a fee, since you don't pay a sub for the main game, AND the expansion content.
Finally. You want a REAL example of greed. Look at SOE. There were numerous missing parts to the game, such as a map, customisable UI, armor dyes, LFG tool, the Bazaar and many more basic elements that the game REALLY needed. SOE should have added them for free, but did not, they put them in the expansion to make you pay for them. GOOD business, but also cynical money grabbing, exploiting the addiction of it's customers.
dude, your an idiot.
everygame with an expansion is bought not dled for free...........they need money for the peopel running and fixing the game, people for patching and services, they need money to run the buildings to operate the game, and money to run the servers.
jsut becasue they have money doesn't mean they couldn't use alittle more.....like any of us......
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WoW
-Rhalon 85 B.E. rogue
-Rhalon 81 UD Mage
-Doneski 85 Orc death knight
"Everyones life has a beginning and an end, No one can change that."-Hiko
"If you wish to taste the ground, then feel free to attack."-Kenshin Himura
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Please go take a basic economics class.
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I live to fight, and fight to live.
didn't recall paying for the Dire maul dungeon. Didn't recall paying for the zul'gurub dungeon either. So let's stop saying that you pay for your updates, shall we? cause you don't.
Many games out there (and 100% of the mmorpg) have expansions. Most of the time they also have updates. The two things are pretty different.
Regular monthly updates (or weekly or whatever) are ususally free. Expansion, though, have a much bigger scope than updates, they add whole new world or huge chunks of lands, they add races and classes, things that changes the game pretty radically.
Not only it would be unfeasible to download a whole expanion pack (think good 800 mb of stuff), but it also took months or years for the devs to make it, plus it give additional shelf time to a product.
What is shelf time? the time a retailer keep that product box there. You do not ususally see 3 years old game on display at EB, right? and that is what would happen without expansions to MMorpgs as well.
To date, EVE is the only game that had a free expansion (i do not count the DAoC PvP revamp as an expansion but as an update), but that's because of their unique business model. They do not need 100000s of players to survive, their own base is enough to cover their expenses, fund some development and pay for their monthly pay. CCP is a quite small company and they do not need shelf space either as EVE is distributed by internet and has on internet their best source of advertisement (just look up and chances are you see a EVE banner).
CCP is also completely dedicated only to EVE. they have no other products coming out or nothing else a company ususally have.
So you see? we don't pay for updates, just for huge massive expansions.
Have a nice day.
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
sorry double post, dunno how it happened
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
Funny to see that people still believe developers make games not to make money.
amm, okz!!! i didnt know by posting this i was going to be flamed by a dozen or so little kids. If you all want to pay extra for an expation of a game ur allready paying for then be my guest, im pointing out that this isnt the way it should be!
guild wars for example u pay once for the game and dont pay anymore monthly! if guild wars bought out an expantion we had to pay for i wouldnt mind because im at least not paying monthly!
Everytime I see someone complaining about captialism and someone making money I would like them to talk to the leaders of the FORMER Soviet Union and ask what they think now that their empire has been consigned to the dustbin of history.
Support Bacteria, its the only culture some people have.
Resorting to insults is the last refuge of the incompetent.
Did you ACTUALLY look at the faqs for Guildwars? There whole business model is based upon 0 monthly fee, but releasing chapters, expansions, which you DO pay for. EVERYONE knew that long before it came out. Their model is unique, and so far it is unknown whether is has been a success. Time will tell on that one.
With few expceptions ALL mmos release expansions for a fee, to cover the production cost, ALL of them. Let me ask you this, how much does it cost to run WoW? How much PROFIT are they making? How much of the monthly fee has been put into developing an expansion? How much has been invested in FREE content? How much does it cost to make this expansion? How much content will there be in it, compared to ALL the free content added so far?
Don't know? Then what are you whining about?
It sounds like YOU are the moany kid who wants everything for free. In the grown up world, you get what you paid for.
The best proof that Blizzard is money hungry, they keep changing staff.
A company that care for it customers would keep the same staff, especially when they are successful. Changing staff is not done for gameplay reasons in the case of Blizzard, it is done for economic reasons (when the dev team who already cost 15% to much insist on some features, Blizzard fire them, rather than argue or consider why the staff think a feature or two is critical for the gameplay).
Guild War, has ex-Blizzard staff is overeacting on the other side. A company can make some profits in order to deliver more games and spoil us more with quality and great stuff. Don't read me wrong, I don't play GW nor WoW, those games don't meet what I expect in a game as an ultimate Carebear. They both have incredibles flaws inserted into their gameplays, and to top that they are proud of those flaws (be it PvP or Raiding).
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
lol okz n00bz0r haha if you worked a day in your life you would understand earning money isnt easy. Grow up, get a job then come back to me with your veiws + dont try and use words you dont know the meaning of
dont people that flame usually get suspended/banned from forums like this?
whats with people bringing economy + USSR into this convo?
Guys like this really crack me up. First its "they dont have 1.5 million people", then its" they dont really have 2 million people its a marketing gimic" , third its "they dont have 3 millon people its a marketing gimic" ,fourth "its they dont have 3.5 million people, its a marketing gimic", Now finally "they dont have 4 million people its a marketing gimic".
Seriously if you logged in or even saw how many servers they have to run.....you would believe. Not to mention , that many servers and people are still complaining about having problems logging in cause of server load. YOur littel interent cafe story was hilarious also......that statement would mean Lineage 2 probably has only 20 active subscribers as opposed to 2 million.
Also on SOE adding content to SWG.....then calling it an expansion. They added SPACE , they also added new planets in rage of the wookies. These arent patches guys and expect to pay for them. It cost them time and money to develop these expanions. And if you werent paying for it...you would get patches any monkey could come up with.