Separate subscriptions, please

10/24/2018 02:14 PMPosted by Medeoan
Won't happen. Why? Because it creates a barrier to marketing. It further frustrates customers who won't be willing to pay for 2 subs and wish to play both. It will also frustrate those who are willing, but would rather not.

Finally, I vote no as you have no compelling arguement. You are just borrowing trouble out of fear.


I wonder how many people will actually want to play both. A large chunk of the Classic audience doesn’t care for retail, doesn’t care about playing with people that like retail, and not going to want to listen to retail players wanting “QoL” changes.

I could be wrong but the retail people, I mean the ones that like retail, are not going to be happy with Classic.

I see that as two vastly different and incompatible target audiences.
10/24/2018 03:00 PMPosted by Skjaldbjorn
Anyone that truly loves vanilla will have no problem paying for the game and a sub. Could honestly care less about everyone else. I would rather play with people that appreciate the game.

Give BFA players a separate trial server where they can quit after an hour. We all know 99% of them wont make it past lv5 anyway.


Says the 120 bfa Pally!!! LOL
Guess we wont be seeing you @ 60.

Combined sub. Combined playerbases. Easier to manage.
10/24/2018 02:06 PMPosted by Narya
I don't care about having to purchase Classic (one-time fee) or not.

I don't really care what the subscription fee is; I'm pretty sure it's not going to be more than $15 for Classic.

But please, Blizzard, don't bundle Classic for free with Live. Some of us aren't interested in playing live, will never be interested in playing live, and would prefer the character names we wanted weren't grabbed by retail players who just wanted to poke their heads in and yell LOL WHY ARE YOU PLAYING AN OLD GAME WHAT"S WRONG WITH YOU!!!111?

Give Live players a discount if you want. Make paying for either Classic or Retail cost $15/month but paying for both of them cost only $20. Or make them entirely separate, such that paying for both of them costs $30. Or make Classic cheaper because it's not what you care about. Just don't offer Classic free with a Retail subscription.

Agreed 111%!

Separate subs would have the additional bonus that it would be much easier to see how much revenue is generated by Classic, and finance the project accordingly.
1 Like
10/24/2018 03:45 PMPosted by Xargaryen
10/24/2018 02:14 PMPosted by Medeoan
Won't happen. Why? Because it creates a barrier to marketing. It further frustrates customers who won't be willing to pay for 2 subs and wish to play both. It will also frustrate those who are willing, but would rather not.

Finally, I vote no as you have no compelling arguement. You are just borrowing trouble out of fear.


I wonder how many people will actually want to play both. A large chunk of the Classic audience doesn’t care for retail, doesn’t care about playing with people that like retail, and not going to want to listen to retail players wanting “QoL” changes.

I could be wrong but the retail people, I mean the ones that like retail, are not going to be happy with Classic.

I see that as two vastly different and incompatible target audiences.


We will all be "retail" players after classic launches.
Sounds like a large chunk of the player base is a bunch of stuck up snobs who are full of themselves.
Vanilla was chock full of change requests by players. Oh that's right those were retail players asking for those changes. Guess it's pretty authentic already.
1 Like
10/24/2018 02:39 PMPosted by Eilethalua
I'm not the only one who has proposed the idea, but what I would rather see them do is create free realms and "premium" realms.

Free realms would have no subscription fee at all. Great for someone to just try it out. Great for a Retail player to dabble in their content drought or off-time. Great for attracting pserver players who actually do only play because it is free. Great for people who don't see a value in paying for a 15-year-old game.

Premium realms would have a normal subscription fee (whether they decide it's the full US$15 or a lower amount like US$10 or US$5). Great for those who feel a sub results in players who feel more committed to the game, or reduces the number who would play just to troll.


I would be happy with a $5/month separate classic sub with or without a initial purchase (Say $59 for argument sake). Furthermore a compromise such that current retail subs getting access to specific classic-free/bundle servers at no further cost to what they are currently paying, while those paying a separate $5 sub getting access to specific classic-sub servers as well as the "free" classic servers. (This idea would imbue the "pay" classic servers some protection against waves of retail players who are not committed to classic and would just play it when bored or just want to try it out. Only the free/bundled servers would be effected by it.)

People who would want to play both games would be wise to choose the BFA route, as they would have access to both BFA as well as the bundle/free classic servers. The ones choosing a Classic-only sub would be limited to the sub and bundle/free classic servers, not BFA.

If they chose the BFA route up front and decided they preferred classic only, they could simply change their sub choice and their classic characters would still be accessible on the servers they were on.

My idea would help to take the wind out of the sails of PSs, as the BFA players who also play on private servers for classic, would have no further need for the PS for their fix and character perpetuity. It would also provide the needed protection for those players who want to be on servers that will be unaffected by retail trolls and population tsunami.

BFA players would be able to play Classic for just the up front cost on the free-classic servers.
Classic only players would be able to play on all Classic servers, but would have a $5 sub and initial purchase cost.
10/24/2018 03:53 PMPosted by Stiffhorn
10/24/2018 03:45 PMPosted by Xargaryen
...

I wonder how many people will actually want to play both. A large chunk of the Classic audience doesn’t care for retail, doesn’t care about playing with people that like retail, and not going to want to listen to retail players wanting “QoL” changes.

I could be wrong but the retail people, I mean the ones that like retail, are not going to be happy with Classic.

I see that as two vastly different and incompatible target audiences.


We will all be "retail" players after classic launches.
Sounds like a large chunk of the player base is a bunch of stuck up snobs who are full of themselves.
Vanilla was chock full of change requests by players. Oh that's right those were retail players asking for those changes. Guess it's pretty authentic already.


So far “retail” is the only label that has stuck for the product with the expansions. Using “current” won’t work either when they are both released.
they will bundle it with live to make it look like live is alive. They will mix the subs for classic with retail subs when reporting numbers.
10/24/2018 02:20 PMPosted by Nightsëa
10/24/2018 02:17 PMPosted by Nicho
My knee jerk reaction is to say have it be separate but then I think.... the more people who play... the more classic wow succeeds...the more of a chance they run with this system.


More chance to ruin this system, more chance to ruin gameplay, more chance to create void realms because toruists, etc...


Classic is such a different game from retail though, the type of players who love how easy retail is and hitting the level cap in a day, wont like Classic for the most part so the two communities wont mingle much.
EDIT:
Never mind. I just read that Blizz caved in at once to hordies whining about having to "betray Sylvanas", all the while spitting on the face of Alliance players in all possible ways.
And what's even more absurd is that all this is happening while the horde to Alliance ratio is increasing all the time, for obvious reasone.
Blizz never listened to ANY suggestion/request/plea/whine etc. from Ally players. And trust me, they never will.
So, you really hate us Allies, Blizz. I am fully returning the sentiment.
You won't get a dime any more from THIS Alliance player Blizz, not even for Classic, which you will manage to botch anyway. :P
10/24/2018 02:57 PMPosted by Wanta
10/24/2018 02:17 PMPosted by Nicho
My knee jerk reaction is to say have it be separate but then I think.... the more people who play... the more classic wow succeeds...the more of a chance they run with this system. Yeah we will get trolls but they will be dealt with soon enough. Plus its not like trolls are going to take the time to level to actually do any damage.


But then they will be able to troll our forums requesting changes.

simple fix make it so you need a 30 or higher character to post
10/24/2018 03:31 PMPosted by Kiyrin
You think Blizzard wouldn't be able to do this without charging separate subscriptions?


I think it likely. Bundling it with the retail subscription rules out those who don't want to support retail. It also means there's no real way to tell which people playing retail are only doing Classic because it's free.

Separate subscriptions removes a lot of gray areas as far as demographics go.
10/24/2018 03:37 PMPosted by Brockthorn
No sub. Buy to play as there is no new content or content changes.

The only view on this matter that makes sense.
1 Like
10/24/2018 04:17 PMPosted by Anaramth
10/24/2018 03:31 PMPosted by Kiyrin
You think Blizzard wouldn't be able to do this without charging separate subscriptions?


I think it likely. Bundling it with the retail subscription rules out those who don't want to support retail. It also means there's no real way to tell which people playing retail are only doing Classic because it's free.

Separate subscriptions removes a lot of gray areas as far as demographics go.


Blizzard wants you to play Live. Why? Because you get access to their CASH SHOP!!!!!

So it is in their interest to link the subscriptions. Because while you may not play the live version, someone may. And they may spend $25 on a mount or other cash shop goodies.

A shared subscriptions gets more people in front of their cash shop for more money. Blizzard is a business and not a charity. A shared subscription is a better business decisions as it allows "returning" customers to spend more money.

Again.... yes, you may not spend more money. But someone will.
10/24/2018 03:26 PMPosted by Narya
Sure. Those'll be people who want to try Classic, which is wonderful. Or people who want to spend BFA gold on trolling, whatever. Not people who see no reason not to troll since they can do it effortlessly for free.


Considering how easy it is to get gold on retail, and how much people HAVE on retail compared to how dirt cheap wow tokens are, expect people to troll for "free" so to speak.

Separate price or the same price, people will troll no matter what and keeping it in one payment works for both sides. It can get people interested in Classic and keep their subs open instead of cancelling, or it could get people bored of Classic might go try retail, with the same result. Their account remains opened.
100% with the op
10/24/2018 02:06 PMPosted by Narya
I don't care about having to purchase Classic (one-time fee) or not.

I don't really care what the subscription fee is; I'm pretty sure it's not going to be more than $15 for Classic.

But please, Blizzard, don't bundle Classic for free with Live. Some of us aren't interested in playing live, will never be interested in playing live, and would prefer the character names we wanted weren't grabbed by retail players who just wanted to poke their heads in and yell LOL WHY ARE YOU PLAYING AN OLD GAME WHAT"S WRONG WITH YOU!!!111?

Give Live players a discount if you want. Make paying for either Classic or Retail cost $15/month but paying for both of them cost only $20. Or make them entirely separate, such that paying for both of them costs $30. Or make Classic cheaper because it's not what you care about. Just don't offer Classic free with a Retail subscription.


Please blizzard bundle classic with live. The more people the better. I want full servers, maxed out, 10k+ people online every day. More players online = more world PvP
10/24/2018 02:17 PMPosted by Wanta
I too would like a separate sub to minimize the trolling and spam.


Hahahaha.

Oh wait you're serious. Let me laugh harder.

HAHAHAHA
I think one shared sub is the best move for Blizzard, not because of the cash shop or anything, but just because of sub revenue in general. It's clear from expansion launch numbers that there are still a lot of people interested in coming back when it grabs their interest, but then the numbers fall off rapidly. If there is zero barrier for players to check out the other side of the fence whenever they get a little bored of what they're currently playing, they're more likely to stay subbed continuously for longer periods where they might have unsubbed otherwise. My guess is smoothing out those dips would mean more to Blizzard than a few extra cash shop sales or something ever would.

10/24/2018 04:02 PMPosted by Xargaryen
So far “retail” is the only label that has stuck for the product with the expansions. Using “current” won’t work either when they are both released.


How about "Battle for Azeroth" and "World of Warcraft"?
10/24/2018 03:49 PMPosted by Stiffhorn
10/24/2018 03:00 PMPosted by Skjaldbjorn
Anyone that truly loves vanilla will have no problem paying for the game and a sub. Could honestly care less about everyone else. I would rather play with people that appreciate the game.

Give BFA players a separate trial server where they can quit after an hour. We all know 99% of them wont make it past lv5 anyway.


Says the 120 bfa Pally!!! LOL
Guess we wont be seeing you @ 60.

Combined sub. Combined playerbases. Easier to manage.


I haven't been subbed for a while. I gave BFA a try and was bored within weeks. Leveling this guy was the only enjoyable part of BFA for me.

As I already stated, a combined playerbase will be bad for Classic servers. Vanilla wasn't a single player lobby game like retail.
10/24/2018 04:17 PMPosted by Anaramth
10/24/2018 03:31 PMPosted by Kiyrin
You think Blizzard wouldn't be able to do this without charging separate subscriptions?


I think it likely. Bundling it with the retail subscription rules out those who don't want to support retail. It also means there's no real way to tell which people playing retail are only doing Classic because it's free.


Of course they'll be able to tell, by how many hours a player spends on one server type versus another server type, at what point in the patch cycle, and whatever other metrics Blizzard has available, which will be far more than just "pays subscription for."

Separate subscriptions removes a lot of gray areas as far as demographics go.


Even if Blizzard wouldn't have those metrics, what would it matter? Classic is not going to get further development beyond bug fixes after launch. Maybe a progression raid rollout up to Naxxramas, but that would be it.

It's not going to be a reboot/2nd MMO.