Blizzard, I think it’s great that you’ve added rewards for players who can subscribe for six months at a time. It’s really cool, and a good incentive to keep people subscribed.
I think you need to expand the program though to ensure that players who can only purchase three or one month subs get recognized as well though.
For players who are on the six month plan we get every item that comes out that is tied to the six months. I just got the sprite darter set today even though I’ve got four months left before my renewal comes up. Cool. No complaints.
I think it’s fair that players who are subscribed for the same six months (whether it’s monthly or three months at a time) should be able to pick at least one of those rewards too once they hit the same amount of time. Make it either a shop token or something akin to how RaF used to be where they were prompted in game to pick their reward for staying subscribed for that six months.
But you are missing the reason for the gift. It’s not a reward, it’s incentive. Blizzard needs revenue right now for whatever reason. Probably right before they need to give a report to investors. So they need our cash NOW.
I like this idea a lot. I understand they’re incentivizing to ensure funds for the next 6 months. But those of us who have subbed month after month for years (since 2008, in my case, plus paying for 3 other subs in my house – you’re welcome, Blizz, for my kids wanting to play it because I do, btw) never see a freebie or reward of any kind. It doesn’t do a whole lot to foster goodwill.
I do not disagree but the purpose of the reward is to get you to lock yourself into playing WoW for 6 months. If you are a month-to-month player than you can quit at any time whereas they want you to be locked in for 6 months.
Is it a little manipulative? Yes, but they want people to be locked in.
My thought its that you need 6 consecutive months of subscription to get the option. So even if you play monthly you need to play 6 months straight to get the option.
You are right though. The idea is getting you on a 6 month plan.
There’s another MMO game that started in about 1997-98. Has a very smoler fanbase. But they make bank still.
They have a loyalty system. For being ‘subbed’. Which adds smol bonuses to skills and other things in the game, that give very smol, over time noticeable increases. You also get an increasing title of sorts as well. For longevity.
So, here is how this works. Bliz wants the cash up front. Money today is more valuable than money tomorrow. The concept is called “The time value of money”.
Bliz doesn’t want to incentive 1 month at a time subscriptions.
This has nothing to do with fairness, just basic economics.
This is made clear by the fact that they couldn’t even get it out to all pre-existing subs before they put it on the store.
Sure they don’t “owe” it to anyone, and that’s the reason they didn’t do it. It’s not a “loyalty” reward - it’s incentive for other people to buy into it.
The only reason they give it to pre-existing subs is to avoid the backlash doing otherwise would bring. They aren’t “thanking” anyone with “free” gifts lmao.
A little manipulative? The entire point is manipulation.
The one thing we know is Blizzard is not exactly short on cash. They, like a lot of corporations right now, have a LOT of money that they are just letting sit there (presumably investing it or doing something with it but for all intents and purposes think of it as sitting there). They have generally always had large sums of cash on hand and the quarterly reports always highlight that.
Edit: My theory is they just want you locked in for 6 months.
Ya, I agree I don’t really understand why it has to be the big 6 month block.
Why can’t it just be 6 single month blocks?
I imagine the issue is not enough people do that for Blizzard to believe it matters to their marketing strategies, because obviously buying the 6 months upfront is cheaper.
I don’t have a problem with people getting it with the other subscription options. Maybe they could bring back the old contract deal from cataclysm for these things.
And I’m not saying that you are wrong. I’m saying that there are business reasons for creating incentives. Business sometimes have a need for a large influx of cash. Even though you might think they have “large sums of cash,” what’s large to you might be small to them depending on their needs at the moment.
Additionally, having your membership money now gives them money to invest. The return they get might be higher than the additional $2 per month they would get from a monthly sub.
My biggest gripe is they do this EVERY 6 MONTHS and REFUSE to let me use bnet balance. I got 2 years of game time but they force an additional purchase to get the reward so when the heck am I supposed to be able to use game time i got for gold? never? why is the millions of gold I put in other players hands to get less value from it in tokens than we used to with straight back-ally trading in older expansions(different account in wod) because they get a cut have less value? they get even more $ because of that cut yet I don’t get a mount(or in this case pride month wings) unless I give up grocery money? even though I got 300$ Bnet balance? wtf is this shot.
This being brought up every half year and they ignore us is a spit in the face like us telling them about azurite gear, socket pearl gear, and covenants. they refuse to Liston to our pleas for any sense of fairness or sensibility.
Their publicly stated cash on hand is a lot by any standard. It is enough that if they had zero income for several months they would be able to handle it.