Well if they had purchased maps, the way I could see it working
If you are playing in a party you can select the map as long as at least one of you has it (if your party selects random map, paid maps can be selected as long as at least one player has it)
If you are matchmaking, you cannot Select the map if you do not own it, but if you select “Random map” you can play the map as long as at least one of you owns it.
So if you bought the map, you could
play it on matchmaking with other people who selected “Random map”*
play it in a party
*This could lead to people not buying the map and “Quit-reloading” whenever they didn’t get a partner with it… but it would allow people to occasionally play the map for free (like up to level 5 commanders)… and you would only have a good chance of getting a partner with the map if a lot of people had it, so you probably aren’t going to get to play it if a lot of people don’t have it already.
Blizzard would face a rough time selling co-op maps if they suddenly add prices to them, be it as single maps or as a package, given that every map so far has been released for free.
Yes, but they CAN run patches now to set the groundwork to implement new stuff announced in blizzcon so that we spend less time patching afterwords. It would not be great if blizzcon came with a sudden 6 GB download or something.
For mutations that use an unpurchased mission, that could be an exception.
I would be inclined to believe this, but Coop’s been out for almost 4 years. Things change. Things HAVE changed since it’s been 1.5 years since we got a new mission. FWIW, newcomers have a selection of 15 maps to play with if they don’t want to spend any money on that.
The game’s age would be part of the problem. Game popularity naturally declines over time. If that’s the case with co-op, and I suspect it very much is, Blizzard would be trying to sell maps to a slowly shrinking audience. How many of them would be willing to pay up for new maps? Would there be enough to justify the cost of such a move? How many who have quit would even see paid maps as a reason to return?
Selling maps might give co-op a jolt to some degree but I can’t see it being a major turning point.
Players already know what they are getting with co-op; selling maps may add new co-op content but doesn’t change the design or structure of the game mode.
I have no problem with paying for quality content. Doesnt matter if it is new commander, or maps. I understand all the development takes time (=money). It just must be worth it.
The big problem with paid for coop maps is that their value directly relies on having a large amount of the playerbase pay for them. Release a new commander, and you can enjoy it no matter how many other people have bought it, but try and sell a map, and unless all the other coop players buy it too, youre still never going to see it.
Selling a product that adds no value hurts people’s willingness to buy from you again.
The money sunk in making a new map is made up by players being more willing to buy a new commander when there’s also new maps to play the commander on. If people have to pay for a new map and can never use it, then they’re likely to just stop playing Co-op entirely, which means they’ll never buy a new commander again.
people are not suggesting making all maps pay to play here. they are suggesting releasing new maps that can be purchased. they have already done so for other modes.
And? How does that make the problems go away? I have lots of maps already. I like seeing new stuff, but im not going to pay for a map that I might not even see in game even after paying.
The idea was that if you have the map or maps or map pack people will be able to play with you even if they don’t have it. Similarly to how PAYDAY 2’s (numerous) paid content worked. If the host had the map anybody could play on it.
So the game could pair you with people who do not have the maps, or you with people who have them even if you yourself don’t have 'em.
Given numerous threads and posts wondering when we’ll get a new mission, I’d beg to differ.
Again, remember that one approach we’re suggesting here is if one person owns the mission, then another player who doesn’t can still get in on it. And if it’s a Mutation, then everyone gets to get in on that regardless of ownership.
In case this isn’t a rhetorical question, then “you’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t”. Some people are quitting anyways since they’ve exhausted the number of plays they wanted, without having had any new missions for the longest time now.