Originally posted by keyson89

 

 

Holy f*** WOW has a cash shop...

No it dosn't.

I don't have a problem with Blizzard selling stuff to WoW players.  They've had RMT for services for a long time.

The number one priority of a corporation is NOT customer satisfaction.  That's a falacy.

The REAL number one priority of a corporation is to fleece as much money as possible from players while maintaining the illusion of customer satisfaction.

Of course they'll sell anything they possibly can.  It's not a game, it's a BUSINESS.  Why would anyone expect otherwise?

Ken

Originally posted by keyson89

 

 

Holy f*** WOW has a cash shop... Whoever decided to add this feature is responsible for the future ruination of this game. No game with a cash shop ever survives.

Yeah Eve Online is hurting

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Originally posted by keyson89

 

 

Holy f*** WOW has a cash shop...

No it dosn't.

Actually Blizzard has had a cash shop for a LONG TIME.  You can buy shirts, hats, mugs, their limited edition Steins.  They also have partners that make really cool products like the Character statues using your in-game character to make a real-world item.  If that isn't RMT I don't know what is :)

Originally posted by Newt

Actually Blizzard has had a cash shop for a LONG TIME.  You can buy shirts, hats, mugs, their limited edition Steins.  They also have partners that make really cool products like the Character statues using your in-game character to make a real-world item.  If that isn't RMT I don't know what is :)

Right, you don't.

RMT means real money for something in-game.

Originally posted by Frobner

Blizzard is no longer the gaming company it was.  It is now only buisness.

If you want to see what true indy gaming companies are doing then try out games like Trine, torchlight and Hinterlands.  Pure gaming experince - game made by gamers - for gamers.  That was the BLizzard of old.  Now you will have to look for it elsewhere. 

I do not plan to buy any products from BLizzard again.  Cause now I know its no longer about the games - Its all pure buisness.  

My money will continue to support gaming.  NOT buisness.

Yep! Nasty old profit never did anyone any good... Its well that the three games you mention above are being done *only* for the sake of the Art of gaming... I'd really hate to see them tangled up in all of the slimy business aspects of the pursuit of dirty profits...<rolls eyes>...

Originally posted by MMO_Doubter

Originally posted by Newt

Actually Blizzard has had a cash shop for a LONG TIME.  You can buy shirts, hats, mugs, their limited edition Steins.  They also have partners that make really cool products like the Character statues using your in-game character to make a real-world item.  If that isn't RMT I don't know what is :)

Right, you don't.

RMT means real money for something in-game.

actually RMT is 'virtual economy'.  In the case of the FigurePrints, its taking something you've earned in-game (all the cool gear you're wearing), and realizing it in the real world as a statue.

Originally posted by Newt

actually RMT is 'virtual economy'.  In the case of the FigurePrints, its taking something you've earned in-game (all the cool gear you're wearing), and realizing it in the real world as a statue.

 

No. That's not right. 'Virtual economy' is in-game money for in-game items and services.

The character statues are merely a simple real world purchase - real money for a real item.

Originally posted by Newt

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Originally posted by keyson89

 

 

Holy f*** WOW has a cash shop...

No it dosn't.

 

Actually Blizzard has had a cash shop for a LONG TIME.  You can buy shirts, hats, mugs, their limited edition Steins.  They also have partners that make really cool products like the Character statues using your in-game character to make a real-world item.  If that isn't RMT I don't know what is :)

Then you dont know what RMT is because that's just the blizzard store. The same store where you can buy the new pets.

Its is not the same as what is commonly referred to as a "Cash shop".

Meh, I couldn't care less.

Start selling items with stats, honor/arena points, exp etc and I'll get upset.

WoW is a very well run game in every way, the whole customer experience is great and better than anything I've seen anywhere else. If they get more money to continue making great games with great customer service from selling these pets, then more power to them.

Dont give me a conspiracy theory about this being the end of the mmo world yada yada.

I always thought that someday I might return to WoW, but after this news, I will probably not, it is clear that Blizzard is slowly introducing microtransactions into the game and that is not how I want to play my mmorpg.

If this is an isolated thing, then I have no problem with it, but I forsee this as the first step towards full fledged microtransactions on top of a monthly sub ...

1. Buy the box
2. Pay 15/month to play
3. Buy expansion packs
4. Buy in-game items.

Vote with your dollar people, put this garbage on the curb where it belongs.

"Charging players 2/3s of the monthly sub fee for a single pet is absolutely ridiculous."

-Euphoryk

"Wow Jon, good job at bringing up points such as how this affects the MMO industry as a whole, or how this decision may be just a way to slowly soften people up so that, in a few years, they can start selling other things like increases to stats or XP or weapons."

-streea

Above posts quoted for emphasis.

Greedzard just wants to think of some new way to make more money from what player base they have left, after China banned their game. Paying $10 for a pet is ridiculous.  Your average game costs ~$60 and it has hundreds of models and textures in it. You cannot justify that 1 model + 1 texture could possibly cost $10...

Even if it is only optional to buy, Greedzard is basically holding game content for ransom. If everyone was fine with this, they could start charging for all kinds of optional extras - which would obviously start to be the coolest / most desirable stuff. Imagine they did this with the Worgen pet and what-not. Everyone would want one.

In a full priced subscription based game all of the content should be accessible to everyone without paying extra.
Gamers expect micro-transaction based MMOs to have such aesthetic items for sale. No one wants game breaking god-items in micro-transaction games at all. What Blizzard is doing is indeed "double-dipping", because they are adding a micro-transaction mechanic to their full-piced subscription model (no matter if the item mall sells game-breaking items or not).

Originally posted by RealmLords

I don't have a problem with Blizzard selling stuff to WoW players.  They've had RMT for services for a long time.

The number one priority of a corporation is NOT customer satisfaction.  That's a falacy.

The REAL number one priority of a corporation is to fleece as much money as possible from players while maintaining the illusion of customer satisfaction.

Of course they'll sell anything they possibly can.  It's not a game, it's a BUSINESS.  Why would anyone expect otherwise?

 

Ken

 

Seems odd to me that anyone even cares. If your game suddenly DOES fail, this means you have to find a new game. Shame there aren't other games (and other forms of entertainment) in the world.

Not that I agree or disagree with item shops, but essentially all entertainment is wasted time anyway. The fact that you pay for it in any way is a choice you have to make. Fun for money. It's the way of all entertainment business.

And this means that customer satisfaction is often the number one priority of all companies. It is not the number one priority of the people who run those companies. This is the dichotome. Companies like Blizzard are composed of many divisions, and each division has its own goal and direction. The goal of the entire company as a whole is to satisfy the customer (provide entertainment) and make a profit while doing so.

It CAN be an illusion, and be revealed as such. In such a case, we call that a crappy game or crappy game company. See Vanguard: Sage of Heroes for an example of just that. This game failed miserably, despite marketing and a clear focus on making money, because the product was not satisfying at all. To investors or consumers.

But for a non-crappy game and non-crappy game company, the scale upon which we cast judgement is based on the results of the game itself. If a product satisfies customers, and the company does everything it can (within reasonable business practice) to continue satisfying those customers, how is that an illusion? It doesn't matter if the company doesn't "really" want to help people deep down in it's subconscious or some such area. If the result of their actions is customer satisfaction, we are arguing semantics over what they "really" want. 

It is not a fallacy to assume that businesses (especially entertainment businesses) should satisfy their customers. It is therefor not a fallacy to assume that businesses, having now an incentive to supply for that demand, will attempt to supply satisfaction to their customers. Yes, a business will sell anything. But this does not necessarily mean they will sell something that does not make sense for that business to sell. For instance, I don't see Blizzard selling sheet metal anytime soon to online gamers. Why? Because there would be no demand for it. Because essentially, customers would not be satisfied with large partitions of sheet metal, and so no profit would be garnered from such a sale. Hence, customer satisfaction fuels profit. Profit is the bottom line to those at the top, and therefor customer satisfaction finishes a close second only when a distinction between the two must be made by the company. But the company as a whole still must put customer satisfaction ahead of the need for immediate profit or they risk losing cash flow and shortening the life of the company.

Profit is not the antithesis of customer satisfaction. Nor is customer satisfaction some "illusion" built strictly for the creation of profit except in the most cynical of views, and even then, it is not necessarily true.

---

Originally posted by reserected
This is designed as way to get people used to RMT , while i m not against them donating to charity in fact i m all for , what they are doing is plainly sugar coating the pill . Its a PR stunt plain and simple .
Not so much the boy who cried wolf but the wolf in sheeps cloathing .
Its a slippery slope and one i myself forcast would happen starting with pets .

---

This has got to be one of the best threads I've read on MMORPG.com in a long time... it's frickin' hilarious.  Everyone trying to outdo one another with bizarre metaphors and hyperbole of doom.  Love it.

This is award winning stuff and i am absolutely loving it. My hats off to MMORPG for accumulating so many pessimistic bottom feeders from the internet, and credit to the op to get them all in one post. 50 pages of pure win and counting! 

Originally posted by Skudd

This is award winning stuff and i am absolutely loving it. My hats off to MMORPG for accumulating so many pessimistic bottom feeders from the internet, and credit to the op to get them all in one post. 50 pages of pure win and counting! 

Says the optimistic guy with a blindfold.

This is the beginning of the end for the game I have grown to love

Originally posted by Ruyn

Says the optimistic guy with a blindfold.

Looks like my bottom feeder comment hit home. But don't mind me. I am just the blindfolded optimistic guy adding some fule to this ever growing fire, and it appears that my brand of fuel works really well =)    

Remember that arena tournament over the early summer? Cost you 20 bucks i think, per person. How many of the thousands of people do you think did that entirely for the murkamus pet? I know 4 people who did the tourney, 3 of us were competitive, but my wife being one of them, really just wanted to have fun, and kinda wanted the pet. The 4th person, was a friend of ours who just wanted the pet. We all took turns helping her get her matches in so she could get them. While doing so, our rating tanked on that team, and we saw dozens of other teams full of 3 naked players, or even one or two teams that was just one person playing all 3 chars (one at a time, presumedly alt-tabbing on one PC) So he too just wanted the pet.

The only difference here is, it's a lot less work, half the price, and half of that goes to a good cause. So if you dont want one, or dont want to pay for one, shut up, move on and find something valid to complain about, ffs people. I'm in complete agreement with Jon Wood on this.

If any of this was mentioned already (which i have a feeling it probably was) I havent combed through the 400+ comments and i have no intention of doing so. Just wanted to throw this out in case nobody had.

Originally posted by Newt

Originally posted by Frobner

Blizzard has sold out - and at the same time changing the face of WOW forever.  Before WOW was a game where the GAMER could while playing get everything in the game.  This fundemental thing has now changed.  Some ppl are talkin about the card game pets beeing exactly the same.  Thats simply not true since ppl that bought the Card game were not nessiserily WOW players - they were buying a card game.  

You missed the bus buddy.  You can't get 'everything in game' just by playing.   The first collector's edition had an in-game EXCLUSIVE item, if you want to get that item NOW, you are looking at hundred's of dollars for a mint original WoW collector's edition.    Most people buy collector's editions and pre-order packs just to get in-game vanity perks.  Everyone does it, getting a perk from BlizzCon or the BlizzCon DirectTV stream is no different from buying a vanity item outright on their website, which is no different from buying TCG codes, which is no different from any other game that has 'pay us extra money and get an in-game bonus'.   The big difference here is ANYONE can buy the vanity pets in the store, you have to be in the right place at the right time, or pay extra money for exclusive items like Grunty, Mini-Diablo, etc.

 

You do know that Collection box is a hands on item dont you ? 

You do know that Blizzard are not starting item shop for just  2 vanity items ? 

Lets see... 50 vanity pets ... 500 $ or 500 Euros.    Are ppl paying that for collection boxes ?  50 collection boxes ?

This is buisness -  Making these vanity pets does not cost Blizzard anything more than the Subs. 

And how dare you say that everyone can get these pets ?   I didn't know that everyone had a credit card.   Find better argument than saying BLizzard didn't do this JUST for EXTRA profit.  

Buisness is buisness - and gamers are fools....

P2P games that open item shops = fail.

I wonder if the item shop will make up for the lost subscriptions

Originally posted by Wraithone

Originally posted by Frobner

Blizzard is no longer the gaming company it was.  It is now only buisness.

If you want to see what true indy gaming companies are doing then try out games like Trine, torchlight and Hinterlands.  Pure gaming experince - game made by gamers - for gamers.  That was the BLizzard of old.  Now you will have to look for it elsewhere. 

I do not plan to buy any products from BLizzard again.  Cause now I know its no longer about the games - Its all pure buisness.  

My money will continue to support gaming.  NOT buisness.

 

Yep! Nasty old profit never did anyone any good... Its well that the three games you mention above are being done *only* for the sake of the Art of gaming... I'd really hate to see them tangled up in all of the slimy business aspects of the pursuit of dirty profits...<rolls eyes>...

  Play these games and see.  YOu do know that these games are all half prized compared to the games from the "big boys"?  They are not perfect when it comes to cutschenes and graphix - but they are built on gameplay - gameplay - gameplay.  Exactly the same as eraly BLizzard. 

You wanna bet how many Starcraft maps will be sold extra on battlenet ?  Or Diablo ?  

What is now happening at BLizzard might be something that happens to all.  But ppl then need to realise it.  They need to realise that Blizzard IS no longer a company of gamers - doing games for gamers.  And I think that its EXACTLY what many ppl are realising now.  

Originally posted by xtr3m3dude

"Charging players 2/3s of the monthly sub fee for a single pet is absolutely ridiculous."

-Euphoryk

"Wow Jon, good job at bringing up points such as how this affects the MMO industry as a whole, or how this decision may be just a way to slowly soften people up so that, in a few years, they can start selling other things like increases to stats or XP or weapons."

-streea

Above posts quoted for emphasis.

Greedzard just wants to think of some new way to make more money from what player base they have left, after China banned their game. Paying $10 for a pet is ridiculous.  Your average game costs ~$60 and it has hundreds of models and textures in it. You cannot justify that 1 model + 1 texture could possibly cost $10...

Even if it is only optional to buy, Greedzard is basically holding game content for ransom. If everyone was fine with this, they could start charging for all kinds of optional extras - which would obviously start to be the coolest / most desirable stuff. Imagine they did this with the Worgen pet and what-not. Everyone would want one.

In a full priced subscription based game all of the content should be accessible to everyone without paying extra.
Gamers expect micro-transaction based MMOs to have such aesthetic items for sale. No one wants game breaking god-items in micro-transaction games at all. What Blizzard is doing is indeed "double-dipping", because they are adding a micro-transaction mechanic to their full-piced subscription model (no matter if the item mall sells game-breaking items or not).

Said well I hope people read and understand.