Blizzard doesn’t hold on to any extra money because it’s not money, it’s Hearthsteel. Once you’ve bought the Hearthsteel the purchase has been made. That’s one of the reasons they are using the virtual currency instead of Battle Net balance. Blizzard doesn’t want to be a bank. There are legal and probably tax ramifications when they are holding your real money. Hearthsteel avoids that.
I inferred it from you saying that it already wasn’t fair and then quoting yourself using an example of unfair pricing. No stretching required.
It is not being stripped out of the game. You do realise that right? It’s virtual pixels. And if they want to resell a different colour chair, why is that a problem? Them selling said chair does not mean you can’t get the free version of it. And if they want to sell a completely new unique piece of decoration for real world money, again, so what? It will have zero impact on your gameplay, aside from the POSITIVE effect of it creating more money for Blizzard
People do realise that MORE money for Blizzard helps everybody here right? They make more money with stuff in the store means it’s less likely they will need to increase the sub rate.
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Ok reddit,
You make it sound as if Blizzard is a indie game running on a commodore 64 by a couple of high school students in their mom’s basement. “Oh they need the money!” You cry.
Activision/Blizzard/Microsoft is a massive company conglomerate. With billions in revenues at their disposal.
Blizzard has made tons of money already off of the price of the game, plus subscriptions, plus expansions, plus paid services, plus character boosts, plus the cash-shop. Plus the Wow Token. As well as charging a monthly fee. Now they are also including predatory monetization systems to the game.
All that people are asking for is fairness in Blizzards business dealings with it’s customers.
Maybe someone should create a spreadsheet that outlines how much they are permitted to make. How else will they know they have reached the limit?
Yet no one has offered any evidence as to how exactly they are being unfair.
It’s not a question about how much Blizzard is allowed to make. It’s a question of how Blizzard makes money off it’s customers. People have paid plenty to play Wow. They just want fairness. And that Blizzard keeps to an ethical path.
Have you not been reading this entire thread? People have posted a lot of information as to how and why virtual currency is a bad move Blizzard is making for their customers.
You might be interested in this video:
It’s not really relevant how big or small they are. The point remains. If they make money, it’s good. For people who are playing their game. This anti corp attitude is getting old.
So what if they make it from multiple sources. The ONLY source that is mandatory is the sub fee. And the simple fact that this ONE mandatory requirement has been the same price for over 20+ years is something people keep forgetting.
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Oh is it? Really. You think the corporations are innocent of any wrong doing? Really?
So over the past 20 years. We have paid Blizzard close to 5,000.00 each to play Wow. We have not forgotten that. We just don’'t want to feel like we are being scammed, cheated. It’s pretty simple.
Dark patterns are involved. Here’s a video that explains it:
I guess the simply answer if you don’t like what bliz is doing, is to vote with your wallet and don’t buy anything in the cashshop.
Oh, really? Did I say that? Where exactly did I say they were innocent.
Whereas I CAN see multiple times where you have just spouted out negative anti corp attitude simply for being a corp.
Yes, and so what? So if we pay more then x amount over the years, that means we are entitled to freebies from forever onwards? Gee, I would love to see how that works out as a business plan.
As for being scammed. AGAIN, please explain to me how OPTIONAL microtransactions are in any way a scam. IF some of those things in the MTX store were mandatory or even semi mandatory for the game, I’d agree with you. Like if Bag space was only available via MTX. But it’s not. Who cares if they want to charge more money for different coloured Hats. HOW is that a bad thing? Who does it hurt.
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I’m confused. Wasn’t OP asking about the new housing currency?
How is the new housing currency any different from gold, or bronze or whatever the twilight ascension coins are? How does having another in-game currency affect monthly subs? I think I missed something…
Edit: P.S. This is Maijoon.
Edit #2: Answering my own question. From the full Blizz article:
Before diving too far in, it’s important to define what Hearthsteel is. Hearthsteel is a new virtual currency for World of Warcraft being added in the Midnight expansion. It’s purchased with real money using your Battle.net balance and used in turn to buy Housing items from the Battle.net shop and in-game shop.
Edit #3: Ok, so now knowing that Hearthsteel must be purchased with real money… my question is, “Why?” Why add the extra hoop? Why not just sell housing decor directly from the shop like everything else they sell for real money? What’s the benefit to Blizz?
I think the question of it being “fair” or “unfair” is moot. They’re making bank from micro-transactions, and will continue to do so. Those who have the money to spend on those sorts of things will continue to do so.
IMO, having a small amount of decor available for purchase with real money is no more “unfair” than any of the other stuff they sell for real money. For example: Is it unfair that some people could afford to buy the Brutosaur mount, but not others? Personally, I think everything in the Battle.net shop is a rip-off, a way to milk extra money from players.
Again. Read the thread. People have given plenty of information. Oh wait, is it possible that you have not read the thread through? Hmmm… I think that’s it.
And not one person in the thread has answered the actual question.. They have done pretty much what you are doing now. Deflect and deflect.
Why don’t you prove me wrong. Just answer the question. Or point to the actual post that answers the question. How are OPTIONAL microtransactions a scam. It’s not hard unless you don’t have an actual answer.
Explanations, reasons, even videos have been posted, hundreds of them. But for you. None of them are good enough. Regardless of anyone’s opinions, you refuse to accept everyone’s. It’s impossible to prove anything to someone who refuses to acknowledge what is being presented. You are like the person that can’t see the forest for the trees.
In case you don’t understand the idiom. Here’s a short explanation:
Well possibly because NONE of them have been posted by you here. If you have, just prove me wrong. It should not be hard.
Really WoW is behind the times here. Popular MMOs like World of Tanks and War Thunder, have had virtual premium currencies for a decade. The world didn’t end.
Its about psychological barriers. Having a virtual currency instead of directly charging in dollars has been shown to reduce “the pain of paying”. Plus, its like gift cards, Blizzard gets your money when you buy the virtual currency, all of the ingame currency “float” has already gone into their revenue. In addition, in games where a lot of players are <18 years old, parents are more likely to give their kid “10,000 hearthstones to play his game” then $20 to buy a “virtual house”. See the shift in that?
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World of Tanks and War Thunder, are free-to-play games. World of Warcraft is pay-to-play via monthly subscription. There’s is a distinction there.
Just read through the threads. It shouldn’t be that hard.
They’ll start including the virtual currency that you get every month as part of the subscription, trust me. They’ll add more and more things you need the currency for…. Eventually you don’t subscribe for gametime. You subscribe for “trader tendies” / “wow credits”.
Pyscologically, they’ve already started this. The base game is free to play. WoW tokens can technically be earned in game to unlock the latest content….
Yeah, that’s such a waste of time and sad.