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WoW should follow GW2's B2P model
TheScavenger
Member EpicPosts: 3,321
Pandaria isn't going to save WoW and the drop in subs (though I'm sure people will come check it out for a month or two). They need to go B2P and drop the sub. Price it at $29 with occasional sales at $15-$20. No way it's going to keep subs with GW2 around and other free to play and freemium games. WoW has already lost millions of subs, granted, yes...its old...but that is just a bigger reason to go buy to play. Think of how much more money Blizzard could make, not just on the box, but increase the cosmetics of the cash shop...and Blizzard would be swimming in money. I know many in the guild I'm in (while large, I know not the whole player base) in GW2 have spent hundreds in the shop already. That is more than a years worth of subscription time. Besides, Blizzard seems to already be going down that road...but hopefully buy to play, and not freemium (I despise freemium, but buy to play/free to play are fine).
They already have a cash shop, so why not go the extra step further? Increase box sales, increase cash shop revenue (but not going pay to win)...total success. I know a lot of people would come back if they didn't need to pay 15 dollars a month. It would definitely bring back a lot of players, and just be a benefit overall to Blizzard. In fact, they may get more players than they could ever have dreamed of having.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
Comments
Why would they want to do that? They already have a large player base willing to pay monthly.
They would just lose profits.
GW2 is losing active players fast, and MoP is not even out. Freemium is the way to go, like swtor in a few months, Lotro and AoC, so you can play the game for free with a cash shop or just pay $15 for a premium account. WoW dont need that yet because they have the Asian market, like 80% of the wow subs come from there.
A good example: They put up a buy to use cosmetic pet on their cash shop (it was what? a year ago? or has it been two now?)...MILLIONS of sales.
They might as will just go the whole way and go buy to play, they wouldn't lose profits as they made more money on one cosmetic pet than their whole monthly subscription fee...but they would need to put up new cosmetic items quite frequently, like any other cash shop game.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
It's nice wishing wow would go f2p, but it won't for a long time,
subs. would have to be under 1-2mill, still don't think it would happen.
Maybe a cheaper monthly rate in a couple years be best blizz will do.
WoW couldn't compete with GW2 on the B2P model. People play WoW because they have to play Wow to justify their subscription to the work they've put into the game so far. Notice I didn't say subscription to play the content because people don't pay to play, they pay to keep their stuff. B2P or F2P would completely kill WoW because then people would only have to log in to actually have fun. There is NO way that WoW could compete with GW2 on that.
I think they've already got this part covered, bro.
Probably, they have some qualified person(s) going over their financials and revenue stream and stuff like that, so you don't need to worry about Blizzard.
And character transfers = BAM $25, faction change = BAM $25, etc. You see where I'm going with this. They are raking in millions on sparkle ponies etc. AND they can get away with a monthly $15. Dude, it's precious. No, you don't have to worry about Blizzard. They are awesome. There's a customer born every minute.
Just go buy MoP and play it if you haven't already and every panda you see = at least $40. I don't know if 30 days is included in the MoP purchase or not. If it's not, then every panda you see = at least $55. Not too bad for Blizz. And they won't be releasing any new content for quite a while, so seems like they are going to keep swimming in money for a while.
I'd pretty sure blizzard made more profit in aug-sept then anet did and that is without even counting MoP.
If it aint broke, don't fix it.
P2P can be just as much of a scam you know, considering the constant claims of "we need to maintain our servers" or "we need to be able to make constant updates" and yet they usually don't do jackshit, or at the best case scenario (not including the few who do make good on their word) develop content at the pace of a snail.
The fact that people use the detail of being P2P as an inherent sign of a game's superiority regardless if it actually is has got to be the most annoying thing on the damn planet.
Ummm....what? How does it show that? I've spent only money on the box fee. I've earned enough gold in game to buy my 3 character slots and extra bank space. Still haven't spent a dime beyond the initial box fee. Game is only a month old....so where is your logic and reasoning on it being a "scam"?
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/innovation
WoW is doing just fine with a subscription fee. Blizzard is in no way hurting from WoW sales/subs - the hopeful claims of "it's dying!" notwithstanding. Plus they can sell the occasional cash shop item on top of that and guarantee themselves millions above that. They have absolutely no reason to switch to B2P or F2P.
On that note...
"B2P" is the new "F2P" I see.
Used to be every MMO "should go F2P! It will be hugely successful!" when that model first took hold in the Western market. Now all of a sudden it's "It should go B2P! It'll be hugely successful!"
Not surprising, I'd say of all the suggestions I see for MMOs lately, 80% of them - or at least a significant majority - are based on "what GW2 does". Tons of people want jumping puzzles in their MMO now... because GW2 has it. Tons of people want "vistas" in their MMO now because GW2 has them. Tons of people want "insert feature here" in their MMO now, because GW2 has it.
Folks, how about we say 'Okay, GW2 did "x", "y" and "z" things that are pretty new and interesting for that game. What can other developers come up with that might be equally interesting, if not more, to make their MMOs better?"
How about asking for developers to continue expanding and creating and diversifying, instead of "copy what "Insert Currently Popular MMO Here" does!" That's how you end up with a stagnant and repetitive genre over-populated with "me-too" clones.
Bots, gold spam and How fast the active population is droping.
I realize people are happy about how this B2P/Cash Shop model has turned out so far, but I do see this as a probelm for the model in the near future. No one seems to be thinking about the future prospect of what will happen in this game when this cash shop fails to earn enough money. I just don't see NCSoft keepig their hands off approach for long. And I know I've heard that 2M boxed sales makes it successful, but I don't think they'd be cutting corners so deeply in the customer service area where they need it most if they had no concern for finances after selling 2M boxes. Aslo, we have seen an example of what happens to an AAA title that sells 2M boxes but can't maintain it's revenue after that.
Wow will be the last game to go B2P simply because they dont have to..
GW2 is a far superior game compared to WoW flatout however anet seems to lack the the same vision of a fun game that they had when they made the game and they are already making kneejerk decisions that are hurting various portions of the playerbases progress, loot and even playstyles..
Its a great game by a company that doesnt have the expertise to handle the big boy end of the game..
If they dont fix diminishing returns on DEs and stop breaking more than they fix with their kneejerk stealth nerfing and if they dont seriously focus on actually banning the botters instead of insanely punishing the players with diminishing everything the game will soon have nothing playing it but bots..
Playing GW2..
What your saying makes zero sense if you're Blizzard. Like you said, they have a cash shop. People spend millions of dollars in there. Why would they go f2p when they can just continue the sub, which people obviously will pay (they still have more subs then any other sub game) and add more items to their shop. People will pay the sub and continue to buy shit from the shop...
See.. this is why you're not in charge over there...lol
THANK GOD you dont run blizzard, YOUR an idiot beyond belief.
I see no reason why they would do this either...These companies are out to make money.....They wouldn't gain enough box sales to make up for the sub loss.
I really wonder if some people realize how absolutely dumb they sound. WoW generates more revenue in a month than GW2 will in a whole year, and that would remain true if they lost a few million more customers.
Seriously, stop playing videogames and go take a Common Sense 101 class. You need help.
@ OP
No Thanks!
Methinks he's doing this deliberately, since if anyone recalls, this guy posted a "GW2 is amazing" topic, only to post a "GW2 is horrible" topic 15 minutes later.
Or he has a bipolar disorder.
WoW should follow GW2's B2P model
With that logic
GW2 should follow WoW´s P2P model and everybody leaves and goes to WoW ?
Let's internet
Agreed, far too many people already own the boxes anyways.
Going F2P might increase the profit though but a game either launches as B2P or dont go for it at all.
And F2P would mean pay2win or at least very close to it.