Why won't they make this game free?

Oprah2

I think they should make this game free.  If they did more people would buy it and more people will like it and it will become even more popular.  If it was free Blizzard would have no competition.  Tell me about your ideas.

Fenrir767

If the game was free then every patch update would be costing you like 30 bucks.

nero0102

They can't make the game free, unless you want to buy expansions every 3 months.

Programmers cost money
Artists cost money
Bandwidth costs money
Servers cost money
Paying a company to maintain them costs money (AT&T, The Nine)
Packaging
Shipping
Customer Service Reps

The programmers and artists are constantly working on new things.  They aren't just switched to another product when they are "done" programming an MMO.

If they made it free and another 5 million people bought the game, they would have to add more bandwidth, servers, CSR's, and produce more cd's and ship them.

At one point WoW was too popular and they had to stop shipping the game in order to stabalize the game.

In short the genre requires monthly fees because they require constant maintenance, unlike console and single player games.  Even when you play on the internet with those games it is often a P2P connection that doesn't cost the company nearly as much money if any at all.

BobCrazyton

I don't even want to comment this post is so stupid...damnit I just did!

Salvatoris

If what you mean is free to install the client and then a regular monthly fee to play, I'd sign that petition... and that's the price it would take to get me to play it

beautyisin

Free? lol i won't even go in to it.

Oprah2

If you guys are saying its bad for it to be free then why is guild wars free

pingofdeath

Guild Wars is almost 100% instanced and thus requires less bandwidth.  That's how they can get away with it.  Plus it's shit.

wowkrazy

There are so many ppl that play the game that they need a whole mess of servers to fit everyone...do you really think that amount of servers can be free? .

Shoal

My idea is that you should go back to school and learn more about business.

pingofdeath

or just eat a .45

Salvatoris

I agree with all the justification for the monthly fee, but I absolutely refuse to pay 50 bucks for the game. This is the only game I can think of to retain the launch price years after it came out.

Edsel

If you go to private server, such as Raiden's WoW website, their gamers play WoW for free but will not have the latest updates available ... they are months behind.

Unknown

If they made the game free they would need to probably quadruple their box sales I would think.  I really doubt making it free would do that.

beautyisin

They dont need to make it free full stop, free games are ones that aren't selling. Besides all the other obvious issues.

milhoan6

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Originally posted by Salvatoris
I agree with all the justification for the monthly fee, but I absolutely refuse to pay 50 bucks for the game. This is the only game I can think of to retain the launch price years after it came out.

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The only reason they didn't lower the price from $50 to say $30 is because there has not been a decrease in sales that is very noticeable.  Most months it is still on the top 10 most sold PC games and I suspect it will be there for a while.  The reason other MMO's drop their box price after a few months is because their box sales drop dramatically after the first few months.  With WoW, this hasn't happened and I don't expect it to happen for 6+ months possibly because when The Burning Crusade is released, people will be buying the expansion and probably more people will buy the original game also.

Nihilis

Honestly I bet WoW could make their game free and keep it running, still pay their artists, etc. Blizzard's pockets are getting deeper and deeper and deeper by the day and I'm more than sure they have enough in their billion dollar reserves to pay some artists and programmers.

Dabble

sheessh

i can't believe this many people responded to this.

i think i'll make a post with the subject being:

Why won't they wash my car?

makes just as much sense

Fade

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Originally posted by Oprah2
If you guys are saying its bad for it to be free then why is guild wars free

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do people think before they post?

Slntasn

hmm, 6million players x 15 dollars a month = 90000000000 (approx)

Would you be willing to give that much money up a month?..... no

therefore: your question is one of the many actual "dumb questions"

Zerocool032

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Originally posted by SLNTASN

hmm, 6million players x 15 dollars a month = 90000000000 (approx)

Would you be willing to give that much money up a month?..... no

therefore: your question is one of the many actual "dumb questions"

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Not even close to 6 million people play WoW, nowhere NEAR it.  People often make the mistake of saying "WoW R t3h best game 6 million subscribers!!111 omfgbbq"

Whatcha gotta understand is that 6 million people have "TRIED" WoW.  There was a post some months back showing us the satistics of how this was caculated.  6 million people have tried WoW, this includes china, and you know how overpopulated china is.

Krma

Hello

Actually Blizzard announced over 6.000.000  ACTIVE SUBSCRIBERS (paying).

Game is in top 10 selling in US from November 2004 every week, so I cant even imagine how many people tried it in US only.

Of course you can deny it, but I believe Blizzard rather then annonymus internet writer.

Nihilanth

That's correct. If you look at the bottom of their press releases that talk about their subscriber numbers, they say that the numbers only include active accounts, and do not include banned, suspended, cancelled, or frozen accounts.

EDIT: Here's the official press release where they reached 6 million subscribers: CLICK

A direct quote from the release:

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World of Warcraft's Customer Definition
World of Warcraft customers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or purchased a prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the installation box bundled with one free month access. Internet Game Room players that have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as customers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired pre-paid cards. Customers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules.

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midevil

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Originally posted by Oprah2
If you guys are saying its bad for it to be free then why is guild wars free

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because guild wars is not maintained is never upgraded and such GW is a piece of crap trust me. WoW is Uber!

midevil

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Originally posted by Zerocool032

Not even close to 6 million people play WoW, nowhere NEAR it.  People often make the mistake of saying "WoW R t3h best game 6 million subscribers!!111 omfgbbq"

Whatcha gotta understand is that 6 million people have "TRIED" WoW.  There was a post some months back showing us the satistics of how this was caculated.  6 million people have tried WoW, this includes china, and you know how overpopulated china is.

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... they didn't make a chinese WoW, it would be funny if they did

Unknown

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Originally posted by midevil

Originally posted by Oprah2
If you guys are saying its bad for it to be free then why is guild wars free

because guild wars is not maintained is never upgraded and such GW is a piece of crap trust me. WoW is Uber!

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Wrong.  Guild wars has had numerous free updates and content adds.  All the stuff after the desert was a free addon.