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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsZarhym talks premium WoW services
by Mathew McCurley 
May 4th 2011 at 2:00PM
Zarhym first makes the point that these features and premium services are in no way made to be needed to play the game. In fact, I'd take things a step forward and say that so far, Blizzard has been exceptionally good at providing only cosmetic and quality-of-life premium services, where other games could have already cashed in on a playerbase like WoW's. These optional services can improve your own personal quality of life, be it race-changing to an obviously superior blood elf or transferring servers to be with a new guild, but they are not tied to the core gameplay experience.
Zarhym's full statement, after the break.
Why do we need to be nickeled and dimed?
These are premium services added to better accommodate the wants and needs of players. They do not factor into what you get for buying the game/expansions and paying monthly for access to the serers. By no means do you need any of these premium services to enjoy World of Warcraft gameplay to the fullest extent. Should you desire to take advantage of some extra services to enhance your enjoyment of the game though, they're certainly there for you... if you feel it's worth the price.
We've made countless quality-of-life improvements to the game in terms of content, UI, data storage, character profiles, etc. We've expanded upon what you get for your monthly subscription by leaps and bounds since the game was first released, but the subscription price has not changed.
Everything we do and every service we add costs more money than you might realize. So, if we do occasionally add some premium services which are purely to give you more options for enjoying the game how you want (changing your realm, faction, race, name, physical appearance, etc.), we need to make sure there is an appropriate value added to those services so we can sustain them, sustain our business, and keep focusing on making this the best game possible. :)
We've made countless quality-of-life improvements to the game in terms of content, UI, data storage, character profiles, etc. We've expanded upon what you get for your monthly subscription by leaps and bounds since the game was first released, but the subscription price has not changed.
Everything we do and every service we add costs more money than you might realize. So, if we do occasionally add some premium services which are purely to give you more options for enjoying the game how you want (changing your realm, faction, race, name, physical appearance, etc.), we need to make sure there is an appropriate value added to those services so we can sustain them, sustain our business, and keep focusing on making this the best game possible. :)
There is always the issue of cost, and Zarhym freely admits that every service costs the company money, from support to implementation and more. Services also need value; otherwise, they would be seen as rights or privileges that you could take advantage of at any point. Also, it seems that the cost associated with name changes, server transfers, and the like force players to keep their attitudes and behavior in check in an online world, lest they totally ruin their reputation and have to change servers and identities. Premium services are about options being optional.
The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new Tier 12 armor!Filed under: Blizzard
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 4)
AROD May 4th 2011 7:27PM
I totally agree with your comments but I have to say that you can learn the class at high level. A friend of mine was sharing an account (yes OH THE HORROR!) and he was playing a max lvl character and he learned it by reading forums and guides (granted he didn't start by raiding or running heroics but rather took baby steps). It is no different than playing a moonkin all the time and then want to learn how to tank the spells are different, the roles are different but with a bit of practice you can learn it. The issue that you have to watch out for is abusing it when blizzards nerfs a class and everyone starts rolling new classes. Maybe put a time limit on how often you can do it (maybe 3 months, or 6). Also comes the issue of gear. The new class should also start with out any gear (no conversion of gear because it becomes problematic). If you agree to those 2 options I think the service would be viable.
coville May 4th 2011 2:58PM
I would like to start an account that my kids could use to play with me instead of using my account and we can not be on at the same time together. But I am required to buy World of Warcraft vanilla, Burning Crusade, Wrath and Cataclysm in order to have the licenses for them to play at my level. That is $120 or so, just to get them up and running.
I would like to see the ability for someone to have full cataclysm access on a second account, attached to the same Battle.net account, for a more reasonable price... maybe in the neighborhood of $50 or $60.
Drakkenfyre May 4th 2011 5:09PM
Keep an eye out for sales.
Last year, for Black Friday, Blizzard had the first three games for $20 combined.
tharveyyorkshire May 4th 2011 6:52PM
black friday...
/shiver
Shinae May 4th 2011 3:25PM
As someone who's been playing WoW since before premium services were available, I think some players don't realize that transferring or altering characters is a luxury. If you want to play on a different realm, faction or race, you can do that WITHOUT paying a fee. It's called rerolling.
Sure, it'll take time to get the new character leveled and geared to extent of the old one. Like many things in life, it's a trade-off between spending your time or your money. If you want instant gratification, it'll cost you. (I've paid for a few race changes, so I'm no stranger to it.)
Besides, leveling is so easy and quick these days, even without heirlooms. If you truly enjoy your class of choice, why wouldn’t you want to level one again? I mean, man, look at Rossi!
Noyou May 4th 2011 6:11PM
I agree it is and should not be something you be able to do over and over. But guess what? You can as long as you pay. You could literally re-customize/faction swap every 3 days or so as long as you shell out the cash. Some people have money to burn. I also think that there should be some substantial reward for paying for a game for 3-6 years with no break. you shell out $180 a year x3 = 540 right? 10% of that would be $54? A free customization on one toon would be $20-30. So that's less then a 10% discount for continuous loyalty. Seems fair to me.
nonentity May 4th 2011 3:45PM
REGION Transfers please.
Thanks.
sheyki May 4th 2011 3:53PM
Eridian, server community pretty much died with the dungeon finder. Other than the more famous traders(the guy who sent gifts to the people who bought pets from him, anyone?) and the people who first capped their professions(and we're past that point anyway) people generally don't know/care who is on their realm. And PvP balance is not even an issue, even now when you transfer it's said that some realms may be closed to one of the factions so nothing stops it from being like this again IF the prices get lower. Virtually they have no excuse not to lower the prices(on at least some of the paid services) other than that it might desolate the low-pop servers. And EVEN then there is the solution of letting such realms get free realm changes. Happened before, no obstacles for doing so again. So...can you guess why they don't lower the prices?
Deathtram May 4th 2011 4:02PM
"By no means do you need any of these premium services to enjoy World of Warcraft gameplay to the fullest extent."
Blizzard has recently devoted a great deal of effort to making guilds a requirement of "enjoying gameplay to the fullest," especially for raiding. As this is a social game, and many people desire to play in a guild with friends they know in the real world, many of us have had to transfer our characters multiple times. For those of us who are unable to devote enough time to have an end game raid level character on multiple servers, this poses a serious problem. A problem that I feel Blizzard has exploited.
A real world example:
I started playing in a guild with my roommate on server X as Alliance. Long after he stopped playing, I was stuck on a server with no one I knew. Years later, an opportunity arose to play in a guild with some coworkers, but there was a problem... not only did I have to pay to transfer my character to their server, I had to pay AGAIN to transfer to Horde. About a year went by and people left the company, left the guild etc... Then came the opportunity to join a friend's guild, which was unfortunately on another server... and Alliance.
I fully understand their desire to prevent people from frequently server or faction hopping, but a more reasonable solution (or price) needs to be found. Right now this just feels like a way to exploit players for more money, when all the players really want to do is keep playing the game they love, when circumstances have driven them to change server/faction.
That said, I do feel that blizzard has done right by keeping subscription fees at the same level over the years.
perderedeus May 4th 2011 4:16PM
The premium services, I have no problem with. Well, aside from the character transfers - I think there should be a flat fee for a transfer, and you can transfer as many of your characters from one realm to another as you'd like. Not per-character, as it is now. These 'server moves' can even be necessary for some players, if a server's population dwindles or the environment becomes otherwise undesirable, and Blizzard does not wish to address it or admit to it. Don't point at "dungeon finder" or PVP matchmaking and say servers no longer matter, because raids are still server-level, as is the server/faction economy and availability of items on the AH.
The subscription fee, however... well, they shouldn't use the 'quality of life' improvements to justify the subscription cost. Those should be purely to implement features that were missing since Classic. Dungeon Finder is not a bonus, but something that should have been a part of the game since day one (and in some ways, it has, as iterative versions that have never quite 'cut it.'). Cross-server battlegrounds, better inventory management (the mount/companion system)... these should come naturally as features to make the game better, and not be a 'perk' of the subscription price, or a justification of it.
Really, the price should go down - not by much, but a little - as the game is aging and we are only receiving content updates. There haven't been massive rewrites to the engine or entirely new character models, etc, etc. We still pay a fair sum for each expansion, and it's not like you can play without them.
The Avatar of Blue May 4th 2011 4:30PM
The argument that they need these "premium" services to "sustain" their business is bogus. Just look at the profits Activision made from WoW last year. I don't advocate them being free, but don't lie about it being about sustainability. it's pure profit-grabbing.
P.S. The ability to faction change & server transfer in one transaction (With a discount would be lovely) would be most welcome.
garetjax.ironman May 4th 2011 4:33PM
OGM...when I read comments like this
"@Devin- you are forgetting about the impact of inflation. Because Blizzard hasn't raised the subscription fee since it started, they are in effect earning less money per subscription now than they were five years ago. Blizzard needs to make up the money somewhere"
I want to reach through the digital world and start slapping people.
Blizzard is making so much money off of wow that the numbers are ridiculous. They could lower the monthly subscription fees to 5$ a month and still make a killing.
Let me preface this by saying I'm a Senior Software Engineer with over 10 years of experience in the field.
A dose of reality that no one from Blizzard will ever admit. The cost of transferring your character from one realm to another is ZERO dollars. Well actually could be pennies. Look at it like this. Let say worst case it took one database engineer a week to write the script to do that, a web developer another week to wire up the web pages to initiate the process and collect the CC info to process the order, and a extra week of testing this process. Lets say that was 100.00 an hour. That is $12,000 dollars of cost. It doesn't take very many server transfers before that cost is fully made back. Everything else is pure profit. And that process is completely automated. There is no one pushing a button or monitoring a screen. Every time someone pays for another transfer the cost to Blizzard per transfer drops. It's most likely don't to 0.000000009 cents about now.
So this guy posting that comment trying to make us all believe that Blizzard has to make money to cover costs of continuing to improve content BLAH BLAH BLAH.
All that aside they have the right to charge what they want, just don't try and patronize people about it. Sure there is a lot of people who might by the BS bu there are many intelligent players of wow that know the truth.
Caliyen May 4th 2011 5:39PM
Haven't you missed his point a bit there?
The subscription fees have stayed steady since release while inflation has continued, making them less profitable over time. Regardless of how much money the game makes, a relative fall in profits isn't something a business wants to report to shareholders. Blame capitalism or something, rather than handing out digital slaps.
iceveiled May 4th 2011 4:46PM
I'm not a huge fan of the realm I'm on now, but I don't want to cough up hundreds of dollars to move all 10 of my toons off it (I have all professions maxed out across all toons) and to another server.
I feel like a realm transfer should cover any toons you have from server X to server Y..whether it's 1 toon or 10.
Bart May 4th 2011 4:57PM
I'm a-okay with faction changes etc. But the server change price is a no-go for me. The fact is WoW encourages you to play with your friends but charges you to play with them? I can't stand starting on an entire new realm with no gold or characters and neither can my friends, the change price too high itself AND it serves as a barrier in being able to fufil what Blizzard wants us to do.
garetjax.ironman May 4th 2011 5:42PM
I understand what he is trying to say, but this "Blizzard needs to make up the money somewhere" is not really true. The fact is that Blizzard has not change their subscription fees no, but they also have taken a completed project and simply enhanced it. The amount of development time to enhance a product vs creating it is drastic. So even though inflation has increased and Blizzard has not increased it's subscription fees does not mean they are making less money.
Caliyen May 4th 2011 6:08PM
But inflation says that they will make less profit (per subscription) year after year, unless sales go up. Since subscriptions seem to have peaked, that isn't the case. As for development costs, these have surely gone up rather than down as well. The original team of developers is still on board and churning out expansions (which admittedly pay for themselves) and content patches while the customer service side of the business has presumably had to grow greatly in order to keep up with the millions of players.
ToeTag May 4th 2011 6:15PM
Do you really want people moving their entire accounts of 10 players from realm to realm at their leisure, bringing with them an inventory full of various items that they bought low on a random realm and plan to sell high on your realm?
datgrl May 4th 2011 6:26PM
I'd love to see a 'family membership'. Knock a few dollars off for multiple accts on the same credit card and address.
AROD May 4th 2011 7:26PM
I totally agree with your comments but I have to say that you can learn the class at high level. A friend of mine was sharing an account (yes OH THE HORROR!) and he was playing a max lvl character and he learned it by reading forums and guides (granted he didn't start by raiding or running heroics but rather took baby steps). It is no different than playing a moonkin all the time and then want to learn how to tank the spells are different, the roles are different but with a bit of practice you can learn it. The issue that you have to watch out for is abusing it when blizzards nerfs a class and everyone starts rolling new classes. Maybe put a time limit on how often you can do it (maybe 3 months, or 6). Also comes the issue of gear. The new class should also start with out any gear (no conversion of gear because it becomes problematic). If you agree to those 2 options I think the service would be viable.