Every MMO that has failed, and in some cases eventually shut down completely, started to rely on predatory tactics for in-game purchases when trying to improve an obvious upcoming disastrous bottom line. They stopped attempting to improve the game because they realized they didn’t know how, or couldn’t, and that they’d have to be reliant on a few passionate whales for profit.
Replace “predatory in-game tactics” with “nerfing fun” and you get the other half of their failing game design: nerfing fun by removing the players solution to Blizzard-created problems versus fixing the problem. Case in point: attempting to disallow players from halting XP on lv110 twinks that they used to power-level other characters instead of making leveling past 110 more interesting and engaging instead of a boring slog that people don’t feel like doing more than once.
Blizzard wants to tell us how to play, and tries to manipulate us to pay. The true “See you Later” package is our mouse cursors combined with the unsubscribe button. The game has gotten too big, and the mechanics and balancing aspects have gotten too arbitrarily complex for Blizzard to handle - which is why they avoid tackling those issues honestly and focus on micromanaging the way players play the game.
It’s digital content. These items aren’t wasting space in a warehouse somewhere. And, yes, it’s predatory because they’re baiting people with the fact that these items will never be attainable again but also sliding in “they may return in the future”.
The small print literally says they can come back. So… >.> Not sure how that’s baiting.
And people complain about the store. They try to get rid of old junk no one is buying so the store doesn’t get too big and tick people off more… yet y’all still find a way to twist it.
I would call it, “really bad optics planning that takes a bad situation and makes it worse”.
I really don’t care that they grab a little cash for mounts/toys especially when heavy players can buy them with gold.
However, when BFA is lacking the engine / drive that makes people want to play it, we aren’t all distracted by all the fun we are having to not care. We cry for fixes and get the same cash mounts and think… Blizzard sucks because they are asking for money when they gave us a bad expansion.
The ‘nerfing fun’ angle doesn’t get very far with me because more often than not it sounds like players crying about some shortcut being foreclosed to them.
It really doesn’t seem like players actually want an improvement to the leveling process and are just going to call it boring no matter how long it takes.
I also find it to be pretty dishonest because I think the world and quest design teams are the only ones who are doing anything good and when players fail to distinguish the good efforts from the bad ones, it just comes off as a portion of the player base that is simply impossible to please.
So where are your solutions? What would you do to make leveling more engaging? And I don’t just mean faster, since that doesn’t change anything about the zones, the quests, or how you play through them. Without some feedback on improvements to the quest experience, it sounds like players just want a method of leveling that is as fast and effortless as possible.
Personally I feel like the leveling issue and the in game store issues are completely separate. I agree with your sentiment that people really only want to level normally once but I feel that is sorta resolved with incursions provides some deviation but not nearly enough.
First, you’re assuming there is a disastrous bottom line. Flat out wrong. I’m pretty sure this game still rakes in billions.
Second, who cares if people decide to spend their money on the soon to be phased out (and likely to return at some point) store items? You can only control you. If you truly believe what you said in your post, then don’t buy the store items.
Third, I don’t think you can bring any similarities between the marketing department and the game developers. Not the same ball game, not the same ball park, not even the same sport.
Exactly! Though I don’t feel there’s a store issue. It’s small. They’re keeping it small. I don’t find it a big deal. It’s not like a f2p game store, so I don’t find an issue with the marketing department. They don’t develop my game content or my gameplay. The devs do. And it’s them I blame for this mess of an expansion.
Blizzard is the very first company who has ever inflated demand in a good in order to sell more. Hopefully someone reports them to the authorities forthwith.
Saying the sale in big bold letters for items that are going away creates an artificial demand for them.
Then they cover their butt by saying but we reserve the right to maybe bring these back in the future.
all three of these things put together is a predatory sale technique to goad buyers into thinking something is limited or special and there is little to know chance of getting these items again.
oh and 4) It’s a digital store there is literally no need to retire anything…
Even if the items do come back, the price for that bundle is worth it for the mounts alone, everything else is just extra.
I don’t see this as predatory, but just “Hey, these are the oldest mounts in the shop almost, we know their not super popular, but some people do want them for their collections, so while we are retiring them, here’s a huge discount to get em all at once, plus some extras if you want”
Yeah sure, corporates probably just thinking of their bottom line, but this isn’t like loot boxes where you spend 50$ to have a chance at getting something you want.
It’s $50 (Minus a bit depending on what you already own) for a bunch of cosmetic options your going to get from purchasing the bundle, and when they come back? They’ll be at full price, which buying them individually will be more expensive.
This isn’t a “Predatory” practice. Your literally getting a discount on just a large selection of goods if bought all at the same time, and your getting exactly what you want. And it’s not mandatory.
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