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Pollux7777
join:2010-02-16
Saint Paul, MN

Pollux7777

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Free-to-play World of Warcraft "makes sense" eventuall

Taken from Gamespot

"Lead designer Tom Chilton says MMO may "at some point" switch to free-to-play model; game would have been in "bad shape" without casual-themed Mists of Pandaria expansion.
A free-to-play version of Blizzard Entertainment's chart-topping massively multiplayer online game World of Warcraft "makes sense" eventually, lead designer Tom Chilton has said.

Speaking with Polygon, Chilton said Blizzard Entertainment is not against the idea of morphing the subscription-based game to a free-to-play model, but continues to have issues with such a business mode switch.

"For Blizzard, it makes sense [to go free-to-play] at some point," Chilton said. "But a lot of the risk is in making that transition. You hear stories about developers going free-to-play and getting double the number of players, but you don't always know it works out that way and how long it stays that way. We really don't know what the rate is before people drop off and lose interest."

World of Warcraft is the biggest subscription-based MMO on the market. It launched in 2004 and had 7.7 million subscribers as of June 30.

Earlier this week, Bethesda announced that its upcoming fantasy MMO The Elder Scrolls Online will carry a $15/month subscription fee.

Elsewhere in the interview, Chilton said the casual-themed Mists of Pandaria expansion for World of Warcraft, released in September 2012, has proven "very successful" for Blizzard Entertainment. So much so that the game would have suffered if the company had not launched the expansion, Chilton said.

"We would have been in bad shape had we not done that," Chilton said.

He acknowledged that many fans saw the expansion as a departure from World of Warcraft's roots, but said it was necessary to grow and expand the game.

"People who played Vanilla always say 'if it had stayed the same, I would have the same fun now as I did then.' But that's not true. Audiences always evolve," Chilton said.

World of Warcraft's next major update, Siege of Orgrimmar, will be released on September 10."

Gork
Ou812ic
join:2001-10-06
Bountiful, UT

Gork

Member

Re: Free-to-play World of Warcraft "makes sense" event

And once again they miss the mark...

Thanks for the post though.

Cat5
join:2013-04-26

Cat5 to Pollux7777

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to Pollux7777
WoW won't go free to play anytime soon. It's still the best MMO in the market and 7.7m is a lot of revenue. Plus if WoW was free, it would spell certain doom for other free MMO's.

Personally I like the direction Mists has taken. There is plenty for casual players to do, yet there is still some hard content out there for the hardcore. Storywise it fell a little flat, but it's a new tale, not based so much on Warcraft lore.

Whilst Mists doesn't live up to the BC/WotLK era, it is much better than the horrific Cataclsym.

DarkLogix
Texan and Proud
Premium Member
join:2008-10-23
Baytown, TX

DarkLogix

Premium Member

said by Cat5:

Whilst Mists doesn't live up to the BC/WotLK era, it is much better than the horrific Cataclsym.

WAT?

Cata was good, you must be remembering it wrong. (OK DS was lame)

Snuffbox
nice irl
Premium Member
join:2011-04-15
Milwaukee, WI

Snuffbox

Premium Member

said by DarkLogix:

said by Cat5:

Whilst Mists doesn't live up to the BC/WotLK era, it is much better than the horrific Cataclsym.

WAT?

Cata was good, you must be remembering it wrong. (OK DS was lame)

Cata was their largest downfall yet.

DarkLogix
Texan and Proud
Premium Member
join:2008-10-23
Baytown, TX

DarkLogix

Premium Member

I liked cata, you be crazy.
Ok not DS, DS was total crap.

But FL, BWD, BoT, ToTFW were good.

Immer
Gentleman
Premium Member
join:2010-01-07
Evans, GA

Immer

Premium Member

Cata raids had some good moments, but as an expansion, it was a flop. I do appreciate the reset/revamp of the old world... just too bad it had to eat up half an expansion.

Cat5
join:2013-04-26

Cat5 to DarkLogix

Member

to DarkLogix
Cata sucked.

1. Dungeons were tuned far too high, even on normals. Whilst I would liked to have seen a more CC and teamwork based excercise than the faceroll of dungeons in end WotLK they were damn near impossible, even with CC. Healers were constantly oom, tanks took too much damage, and the group wide AOE was stupidly high with no wiggle room. I.e. your a second late moving from the chains on Blackrock's first boss and your dead.

2. If you didn't raid you had no content for the majority of the expansion. I was lucky enough to be raiding in Cata up until a few weeks before Firelands launched when the majority of my social guild wasn't. They quit as 4.1 had 2 troll dungeons (again stupidly over tuned) and then 4.2 bought them nothing except a daily hub. Even I got bored with troll dungeons and I spent the best part of the 4.1 on the 4.0 raids.

3. The stories made no sense. Vas'hir had that big octopus and Neptulon which was never followed up as the raid got cancelled. Bastion of Twilight and the Four Winds place made it appear like you should know these people, but nothing was explained as to why they were siding with Deathwing.

4. Re-used content. Yes the old world needed a revamp and it's nice to run newer versions of old dungeons but there was very little actual new content. An entire patch was just 2 troll dungeons which were re-hashed raids and the majority of Dragon Soul was a rehashed Dragonblight.

5. Dragon Soul lasted a blooming age. Raid itself was OK (cept I was doing LFR now), but it was current content for 9 months during which time many players were tied into the Annual Pass (something which has strangley been dropped now we are getting content again). If it wasn't for the Annual Pass I'd have had 3-4 months off, but instead I was paying for a game I was barely using. Dirty tactics by Blizzard.

DarkLogix
Texan and Proud
Premium Member
join:2008-10-23
Baytown, TX

DarkLogix

Premium Member

1. I enjoyed the Cata dungeons pre-nerfs, it made the group work together more, to bad about them taking away one of beauty's pups. (really got ticked about the nerfs it made them into facerolls)

2. you have the 5 factions to rep grind, thus plenty of dailies, then you had the molten front dailies.

3. The storied were good, you just didn't pay enough attention.

4. The troll dungeons were done because BLizz thought people weren't progressed enough, they were ment to come with Firelands, as well as another dungeon that got scrapped.

5. DS was total crap I'll agree there, I did like how long it was out, gave me time to get back in and see it on reg.

(I had stopped around 4.1 (or maybe it was early in 4.2) because the guild I was in fell apart and the server I was on didn't really have many options for a good guild, I bit the bullet and came back in 4.3 and managed to do all the molten front dailies, and gear up again and get into some DS10 runs, before it was over I even got a few heroic kills)

That said I do want to do the DS meta and do a full heroic run (maybe I'll look on OQ this weekend.)

Firelands had been meant to be 4.1, and there was another dungeon that was supposed to come out with it (IIRC the abyssal Maw) but people rages about the throne of tides so much they scrapped it) (IMO they shouldn't have given in, I'd been looking forward to that dungeon)

Skittles
Premium Member
join:2011-03-31

1 recommendation

Skittles

Premium Member

Cons of Cata:

1. DS was forever and a big let down as the final boss was clipping DW's toenails.
2. Quests were on rails
3. Healing/tanking at the start was quite difficult causing queues for LFD to be very long. (admittedly, this improved with patches).
4. Having to do all of deepholme on every alt for a fucking shoulder enchant.
5. Storyline was boring until the end of the expansion.
6. Deathwing lands on SW at the opening of the xpac...why the hell didnt he just destroy SW while he was there?
7. ZG/ZA rehash for a patch

Pros:
1. FL
2. bringing cc back
3. tmogging
4. rogue legendary quest (they should have more class quests)

DarkLogix
Texan and Proud
Premium Member
join:2008-10-23
Baytown, TX

DarkLogix

Premium Member

I'll admit DS was a crap raid, but I did like the length it was current (I wish more were current that long)

Adalicia
Om Nom Nom
join:2009-10-13
Lincoln, NE

Adalicia to DarkLogix

Member

to DarkLogix
Cataclysm is probably the weakest expansion by leaps and bounds. There were some good things in it but as a whole Cata basically killed WoW for me. I've played off and on since then but not even close to the way I used to durning Vanilla, TBC, and Wrath.

Immer
Gentleman
Premium Member
join:2010-01-07
Evans, GA

Immer

Premium Member

said by Adalicia:

I've played off and on since then but not even close to the way I used to durning Vanilla, TBC, and Wrath.

and this forum has been poorer for it. /beersalute

DarkLogix
Texan and Proud
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join:2008-10-23
Baytown, TX

DarkLogix to Adalicia

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to Adalicia
Well I started in late Wrath, so I didn't really have the hang of it and wasn't geared.

so I missed out mostly on LK and RS, I did near the end manage some LK kills just as I started to get it, so I had more fun in Cata possibily due to knowing what I was doing by then.

Heck I was running around with leg armor enchants for awhile back then because I didn't know what all enchants there were.
DarkLogix

DarkLogix to Immer

Premium Member

to Immer
said by Immer:

said by Adalicia:

I've played off and on since then but not even close to the way I used to durning Vanilla, TBC, and Wrath.

and this forum has been poorer for it. /beersalute

#Bring-Adalicia-Back

Cat5
join:2013-04-26

Cat5 to DarkLogix

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to DarkLogix
said by DarkLogix:

Heck I was running around with leg armor enchants for awhile back then because I didn't know what all enchants there were.

My very first toon was a druid. I reckon I'd have been running about with a mixture of agility/intellect cloth/leather gear. I certainly struggled to play it that's for sure.

DarkLogix
Texan and Proud
Premium Member
join:2008-10-23
Baytown, TX

DarkLogix

Premium Member

I discovered these +40 armor (I think) leg enchants, and for a long time I thought that was the only leg enchant.

eventually I maxed my profs and learned what stats were good for me and used my tailoring enchants

Adalicia
Om Nom Nom
join:2009-10-13
Lincoln, NE

Adalicia to DarkLogix

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to DarkLogix
said by DarkLogix:

Well I started in late Wrath, so I didn't really have the hang of it and wasn't geared.

so I missed out mostly on LK and RS, I did near the end manage some LK kills just as I started to get it, so I had more fun in Cata possibily due to knowing what I was doing by then.

Heck I was running around with leg armor enchants for awhile back then because I didn't know what all enchants there were.

Wrath wasn't a bad expansion. Ulduar will probably forever be my all time favorite raid. That said the golden age, rose tinted bullshit, that is TBC was the better expansion at the time. There have been tons of quality of life improvements since both but jumping into WoW at the end of Wrath and proclaiming Cata to be the best thing since sliced bread is a bit off.

DarkLogix
Texan and Proud
Premium Member
join:2008-10-23
Baytown, TX

DarkLogix

Premium Member

Didn't say it was the best but it was great.

Ya I missed out on ulduar, but ya its #1 (I want more raids like it) (long detailed and fun)

Ghastlyone
Premium Member
join:2009-01-07
Nashville, TN

Ghastlyone to Pollux7777

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to Pollux7777
I quit right when Firelands released. But my experiences with Cata up until then were positive for the most part. I can't comment on Firelands or DS, etc.

The revamping of the old world was something I think that sounded great on paper, but after it was actually implemented, ended up falling flat on its face.

Cat5
join:2013-04-26

Cat5 to Pollux7777

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to Pollux7777
WotLK was just about perfect in terms of casual / hardcore. The dungeons were a little bit too faceroll, but the raids were simply awesome, even ToTC wasn't that bad if you only did it once a week.

The game also allowed for more customization as the three talent trees were not rigid and that always felt a bit more epic to me.

Adalicia
Om Nom Nom
join:2009-10-13
Lincoln, NE

Adalicia

Member

No one who raided only did TotC just once a week. Fuck that raid. Talents were also about as cookie cutter as they could be as well.

DarkLogix
Texan and Proud
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join:2008-10-23
Baytown, TX

DarkLogix to Ghastlyone

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to Ghastlyone
I'll say this, if they'd kept to their design ideas they had talked of at blizzcon it'd have been even better.

1. that each tier would have 3 raids broken up onto 2 longer ones and a mini-raid (there was talk about the Firelands patch coming with a single boss raid) (you know how there was BWD, BoT, and ToTFW well throne was the small raid for that tier and FL was supposed to have a small raid too so raiders would have some little raid to knock out)

2. the dungeon that never made it into the game, it was supposed to be elemental related to tie in with FL

3. then making 4.1 as they made it, BAD, 4.1 was supposed to be FL with 3 dungeons ZA/ZG/and AM but people weren't progressing enough so they instead made 4.1 a stepping stone to help with 4.0 stuff.

Cat5
join:2013-04-26

Cat5 to Adalicia

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to Adalicia
said by Adalicia:

No one who raided only did TotC just once a week. Fuck that raid. Talents were also about as cookie cutter as they could be as well.

The fact raids did TotC lots per lockout doesn't detract from it as a raid. I liked the story and the encounters.

Talents were also only cookie cutter as people googled "best mage talent spec". My old guild leader ran as a Frostfire mage and blew almost everyone in cookie cutter spec out of the water. I liked experimenting with builds and doing things a little differently, nowadays there is no chance of making a mistake at all.

Immer
Gentleman
Premium Member
join:2010-01-07
Evans, GA

Immer to Cat5

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to Cat5
said by Cat5:

The game also allowed for more customization as the three talent trees were not rigid and that always felt a bit more epic to me.

There were more choices but they weren't good ones. The "cookie cutter" spec was far and away better than any other spec for the intended role. The rest was just smokescreen. What we have now is much better... real options for talents that shift by raid and for some classes/roles by boss.

The old world revamp really improved the leveling experience for gnomes and dwarves, IMO. Changes made me not really want to level up another NE... don't care for the changes in northern kalimdor, but in the south it was pretty cool to see those changes.

The biggest failure was in how often we saw deathwing... and how puny his dragon form was... until the end of DS... pitiful.

Cat5
join:2013-04-26

Cat5

Member

said by Immer:

There were more choices but they weren't good ones. The "cookie cutter" spec was far and away better than any other spec for the intended role. The rest was just smokescreen. What we have now is much better... real options for talents that shift by raid and for some classes/roles by boss.

I disagree.

Cookie cutter builds were often only useful when raiding or if you played exactly as you should. Frostfire mages are the best example of a 2 spec class which was able to perform at max level level. You could tweak tanking classes to be awesome for solo play, you could add a load of self healing into dps spec with healer trees. Even as a warlock I could spec for pure DPS or I could spec more into affliction for some nice self heals.

I'm not denying there were lots of filler talents, but it was still nice having a bit of control in where your points went.

Adalicia
Om Nom Nom
join:2009-10-13
Lincoln, NE

Adalicia to Cat5

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to Cat5
Story? TotC has a story? Shit. As the old lore guru I feel ashammed I didn't read between the lines of "in order to prepare the horde and alliance for the assault on Icecrown Citadel, I, Tyrion Fordring, have created a tournament in which you can kill one another or die trying to reach that point where our champions would fight because thinning our numbers will obviously increase our chances of laying seige to the Citadel and--oh shit Anub came back, boy wouldn't that Azjol Nerub raid been a shit ton more interesting?"

Immer
Gentleman
Premium Member
join:2010-01-07
Evans, GA

1 edit

Immer to Cat5

Premium Member

to Cat5
said by Cat5:

Cookie cutter builds were often only useful when raiding or if you played exactly as you should.

Precisely.

edit: I bucked the system for a long time as a druid healer. There was one... one thing that I did that wasn't cookie cutter. I took living seed over swiftmend (before efflo existed) because in my gear and in the raids I healed living seed did more healing overall than swiftmend for me. boy... we (drew and me) had some lively debates where I was called a bad for it.

And, you can go wrong now... but its in how you play where people go wrong, not in picking a talent that had no business being an option for your spec/role. Back then, you picked a cookie cutter spec and then learned how to play. Now... you learn how to play and then pick talents that support your style of play... and then you learn how to play better by learning when to use a better talent for a given fight.

DarkLogix
Texan and Proud
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join:2008-10-23
Baytown, TX

DarkLogix to Adalicia

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to Adalicia
said by Adalicia:

boy wouldn't that Azjol Nerub raid been a shit ton more interesting?"

Yes

Snakeoil
Ignore Button. The coward's feature.
Premium Member
join:2000-08-05
united state

Snakeoil to Pollux7777

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to Pollux7777
I've played a few free to play games.
D&D online, DC Universe online, Defiance, and Rift.

Out of all of them, I like Rift's free to play model better.

Here is why. Anyone at any time can become a "Patron". You can become a Patron for 3 days, a week, or a month.
What it gets you is:
A mount [you keep it]
boosts to XP, faction, loot [currency looted].
A daily reward item mailed to you. A weekly item if a patron for a month, and a loyalty bonus for logging in on a daily bases [I think that is monthly].

The kicker is, all the items for sale in the rift store, aren't "Pay to win". They have mounts, outfits for wearing around town [they have no armor bonuses], stuff like that.
So the only real edge you have is the speed at which you climb up the level ladder.

Now, IMO, if WOW went free to play, and offered an xp boost to paying memberships, I think they would gain a few more paying players. At least until those toons hit max level.
Then you sell stuff like larger bag sizes, recipes in the store.