Hi,
recently I have followed the crowd and have canceled my subscription (after 14 years of playing). Beside many different reasons my main reason was low quality story (especially toward mine favorite Night Elves since BfA).
But before I have clicked cancelation button, I asked my self a question - what can Blizzard do to hold me in? I mean what can they do in this concrete second with current game quality?
And I have caught myself thinking that the main problem is Subscription. If there were no subscription than there would be no reason for me to cancel it! I would continue to play in this game.
I think that can actually save the WoW. By removing subscription system they definitely will bring back a lot of players. Like players who love just to chat in game, or who play just to farm some pet battles. Why not, if you have already bought the game (I mean current expansion)?
This subscription system is pretty old and stupid. It has many minuses like the fact that you can’t stop the time. Like for example if I want to play 1 day in the week (on weekends), I have to buy full month anyway. Or if I’ll buy 6 months but will got sick and will go to hospital for 6 months, all my time will just burn out for nothing…
I think even if Blizzard will make expansions more expensive to compensate (like +20$ / +40$) that will bring anyway more benefit to the Blizzard. Because those many many many people who have canceled their subscriptions will definitely will buy every new expansion just to check how the story went e.t.c. playing as casual (because why not if you can play whenever you wont, instead of rushing pushed by subscription time)…
8 Likes
Software as a service is the direction of a lot more than gaming.
Subscription models are anything but obsolete.
They also are what keep the game running on something other than the kindness of whales, or else actual pay to win systems.
22 Likes
If they reduced the monthly subscription cost they’d see more subscriber retention. There’s a point where tolerance for the game dips below the cost of paying. I don’t think they’d need to go F2P, but they definitely need to work on things to make the game more inviting.
8 Likes
You know that Blizzard is not a charity, right? That they are in the business of making money? And not having subscriptions would significantly cut into their bottom line?
It isn’t the number of players that count, it is the number of dollars that count.
And a regular monthly fee far outweighs what a an irregular patch charge would yield.
5 Likes
If there was no subscription there’d be microtransactions at every turn and the free play crowd. I’m happy paying to keep both away.
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OP TLDR: I want the game to be free.
And to that…absolutely no. I don’t want a game with massive micro transactions constantly in my face. 15 dollars a month is nothing and I am fine with that fee.
14 Likes
Going free to play subscriptionless would be the death of WoW. Ultimately Blizz is a company. The sub is a major source of WoW’s profits, the money they need to keep making and supporting the game.
Slashing that out means Blizz has to make up the difference from somewhere else. F2P tactics are notorious for microtransactions. The store would explode in size, things that actually affect gameplay and aren’t just cosmetic. The game would be littered with small purchase options to motivate people to buy them.
No one wants that, even Blizz doesn’t want that. $15 is more than fair and is standard for all the big MMOs. 
6 Likes
They have been reducing the subscription cost. They’ve been doing it over the entire history of the game.
Reason is inflation. By not changing the cost of the game, the game has been getting progressively cheaper to play.
11 Likes
It costs a company money in the form of overhead and manpower to produce a game, extend content via expansions, and maintain the service. They’re not going to give it away for free.
That being said, consumers will have one of two choices with most games. Either they’ll pay for the base game plus a monthly subscription, or they’ll have a “free to play” game and then have shop mini-transactions to purchase things like extra bag space, access to certain specific content like holiday events or even raids, armor sets, etc. It won’t just be cosmetics in the shop anymore and will become more Pay-to-Win.
I actually prefer the subscription model. I’ll pay my $14.99 / month for access to everything. You can’t get a full month of entertainment with 24/7 access anywhere else.
1 Like
Its not free, you will still need to buy a game (like every 1,5 years you will have to pay 100$).
Just like this new MMORPG “New World”, or the game “Guild Wars 2”, they don’t have subscriptions. You just buy expensive game + expensive expansions once, and you play whenever you want.
It’s $15. It might as well be free. The alternative would be buying every raid and dungeon as it dropped individually, or having “m+ energy”, where you can only try so many m+ in a week unless you buy a season pass!
Thanks, but no thanks. The amount of value out of just 3 fivers is astounding.
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Its not mandatory to be like that. Again this new MMORPG the NEW WORLD as example - this game does not have a pay to win system. And yet, this game is in “buy once” model.
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Give it time. It’s possible that it won’t go that way, I guess, but it would be the first.
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….and when they added the 6-month sub it got even less expensive saving you $2 per month.
btw current modern world prefers “Pay As You Go” model. Which could be also more logical for players.
Like instead of buying 1 month, you will buy 720 hours. And that amount of hours will decrees only when you are in the game.
I stopped reading at “fallowed.”
Anyways!
I don’t get why people are happy spending $50-70 on a triple AAA game that lasts 10 hours…but complain about $15/month for hundreds of hours of social activity.
2 Likes
tnx fixed.
Because that 10 hours game is yours 4 ever. You can play it whenever you wont. But for WoW you buy a game but you cannot actually play it…
Also not everyone wants to overpay 4 nothing.
For example I have played WoW for 14 years. But my real time in game is only 902 days. Imagine how much money I have payed for nothing.
Well, then it’s on you to evaluate if the cost is worth the value you receive.
I play an hour or two every day…well, try to.
For me–I can justify the cost.
Unless they have extended idle time due to work, kids, life, etc where they aren’t engaged 100% of the time, or are waiting in long queues. I’d rather just pay a flat rate and not worry that every phone call or trip to the kitchen is costing me money.
1 Like
Could you imagine buying game time in blocks of hours? My play times tend to be in off hour times. I would lose so much time sitting in queues or waiting for groups to form for a key run. Yuck.
2 Likes