

Wrath of the Lich King breaks day one sales records






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RE: First
By superkdogg on 11/21/2008 1:30:31 PM , Rating: 5
Obligatory "FU" response.

RE: First
By FaceMaster on 11/21/08, Rating: -1
RE: First
By CZroe on 11/22/2008 11:20:03 AM , Rating: 5
I don't think people realize that you were responding to yourself. Upvoted.

RE: First
By quiksilvr on 11/22/2008 3:54:47 PM , Rating: 5
I steer away from games that charge me just to play the game online. I've already bought the game, bought the console/PC I'm playing it on and paid for the monthly access to internet in general. I DON'T need another monthly bill just to access your precious servers.

If that was the only option available I'd stick with it but with the thousands of games on PC that let you play for free online and and the hundreds of games on PS3 (and I guess Wii) that let you play for free online, I fail to see the reasoning behind consumers that encourage this behavior from game developers.

And because of this, we all know Blizzard is going to have monthly fees for Starcraft 2. "Oh, but this is an MMORPG whereas that is an RTS. They don't need to charge us because they aren't storing as much data." BULLSH*T! They already divided the game into three, do you really think they won't take advantage of consumers' stupidity and slap a monthly fee onto that as well? Hell, I'd do it too if I've convinced 11 million people to do it for WoW.

This is why people boycott things, so that companies can be pushed to either stop doing things or just crash and burn (Circuit City). So I know that this will fall unto deaf ears, but I urge people to do this: if Starcraft 2 will charge you for online play, then boycott it. FORCE Blizzard to realize that enough is enough and stop double, triple, quadruple and fu*ktuple dipping on consumers.

RE: First
By mcturkey on 11/23/08, Rating: 0
RE: First
By jonmcc33 on 11/24/2008 8:22:39 AM , Rating: 3
...paying for the constant updates, maintenance, and new content...blah, blah, blah.

Heard that all before and it only seems to be the MMO junkies that are convinved of it. That stuff is moot. Blizzard is making mass profits off of MMO junkies with that monthly charge. $15 per month? That's $180 per year. Multiply that by the "millions" playing WOW. Sorry, doesn't cost that much for updates and maintenance.

You are filling pockets and need to accept that. Should get outside and see some of that sunlight too.

RE: First
By EODetroit on 11/24/08, Rating: 0
RE: First
By menace on 11/24/2008 1:35:57 PM , Rating: 2
I don't get why mcturkey was voted down as all his points were on the money.


If you think you can create a MMPORG that is as continually entertaining to play without an online fee or for a more "reasonable" fee and still turn a profit, then go for it. Currently 11 million WoW players do feel the fees are worth the entertainment value. If you don't like paying fees, look elsewhere for your gaming entertainment. What do you want the government to step in and start regulating what they can charge? Or perhaps you think they should fund "twelve step" programs for us MMO addicts? Or establish mandatory per-day play limits so we can "see the sunlight"?

RE: First
By callmeroy on 11/24/2008 3:58:17 PM , Rating: 2
How come of all the topics on games i've ever seen its only a huge deal with the game is WoW that people get their panties in a bunch.

Since when its is "wrong, evil, bad, immoral" for a company to charge for their product --- oh wait don't answer that...I know the mindset -- if you are a small time operation making say $1 million an entire year ...let's not critique that but if you happen to make a hit that is wildly successful so you make droves and droves of money off it -- THEN its open season? This is the same logic why folks ORIGINALLY started hating Microsoft...there's a complex in this world that folks are fine if you do "ok" for yourself but if you do "extremely well" then its not cool -- even if its completely legal and not harming anyone...well except for egos.

BTW I play the game and I agree some folks play too much and should see the real world more often.....I watch VERY little TV during the week though so my justification is -- some people watch 3 hours or 4 hours of TV on a work night, I play computer games. As for money I justify it as some people spend $5 a day on cigarettes, I spend $12 a MONTH on my hobby.

But let's not talk about that though right? :)

RE: First
By ThePooBurner on 11/25/2008 1:19:28 AM , Rating: 2
One thing you fail to take into account is history. Lets look at some facts that were relevant to the time when the game came out:
1) All MMOs charged 15$/month period.
2) The largest subscriber base ever reached on any MMO was 400,000 subscribers
3) It took 10 years to reach that number.
4) WoW had been in development for around 5 years.

Looking at this information Blizzard decided
1) They should also charge 15$
2) They should plan on having 400K subscribers in around 2 years
3) We have spent a crapload of money on development and servers and BANDWIDTH and want to recoup it while also developing more content, maintaining the servers, and hiring a huge support staff to provide 24/7 support to customers.

When the game came out they had server capacity for 400K people, which they thought would give them plenty of time to expand. They had 250K at the end of the first 24 hours, and 500K by the end of the week and 1 million by the end of the month. The game was wildly more sucessful than anyone could have anticipated. They had to buy more servers, and fast, and hire more support staff fast, and they needed more bandwidth and fast. Getting all of those things, fast, takes a lot of money. For those around at the beginning we all remember the lag and the poor gaming experience that was to be had because the servers could not handle the load at all, the poor response times to problems, and the really long maintenance periods where they had to move their entire infrastructure to a new location that could handle the bandwidth demands. Blizzard also doesn't outsource and does everything in house. This means they also needed more office space. Office space isn't cheap. They have since moved into a much larger location than they used to be.

Also since the game came out they have added even more servers, more locals, more translations, Upgraded the servers to the point where 3 times the previous max load is now considered a light load (that is a very big and costly upgrade), added loads of new content, 2 expansions, as well as started development of 3 new games, hired more and more people, and much much more.

So sure, they may be making a shload of money, but they are also spending a lot of it. Not all of it, that would be stupid to not leave yourself plenty of cash on hand, but still a good chunk of it goes to operating expenses. And they may be making a lot more than they ever thought they would. Does the fact that the product was more sucessful than anticipated (allowing for more freedom to do what they do best, make more games) mean they are obligated to change their profit plan? No. If 11 million people think 15$ (or 13$ if they buy 6 months at a time) a month is worth paying, why should they lower the price? If the product sells extremely well in its current price bracket and continues to set new sales records there is no reason for them to change what so ever. On the contrary they have been enabled to do what they haven't ever before been able to do: making 4 games concurrently. Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, WoW & Co, and the unannounced but confirmed to exist MMO set in a new gaming universe for the company. Previously they had 2 games going at once, max. With the new source of revenue the success WoW has brought they have been enabled to do more of what we want them to. Make good, quality, entertaining games. They still support and make patches for all their other titles still too.

Sure i may be padding the companies pockets, but i do that no matter what product i buy. Also, with them i know for fact that they are going to do with my money what i want them to: Make more games that i love. I can't say the same about many other companies.

What we have here is the laws of economics and capitalism working at their finest. *Everyone* is happy. I get to play great games, the employees of the company get to make great games (which they love to do). It's win win.

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RE: First
All my characters= ~100 days played time.

RE: First
By Pavelyoung on 11/23/2008 9:53:14 PM , Rating: 1
Can you name one other form of entertainment that you have access to 24x7 for the entire month for only $12 per month?

RE: First
By kristof007 on 11/24/2008 4:13:03 AM , Rating: 2
24x7 minus 4x7-9 hours for maintenance every Tuesday :)

RE: First
By spluurfg on 11/24/2008 9:52:55 AM , Rating: 2

Uh, you mean $12 per month plus the cost of the game, right?

Sure -- any other form of entertainment that doesn't require a monthly subscription. Counterstrike, Battlefield, COD4, half life single player, public television, a board game, solitaire, and so on.

This isn't to suggest that WOW players don't get value for money -- I leave that to others to debate. I'm just saying that it isn't the only form of entertainment with 24/7 access at the same price.

RE: First
By callmeroy on 11/24/2008 4:03:29 PM , Rating: 2

COD4,HL, CS -- excellent games and I play them as well as WoW (though rightnow I'm way into Fallout 3).

But are serious with public televesion, a board game and solitaire?

I think examples in disagreements are good and all but only if its valid. If its an example that under normal circumstances then it doesn't count. For instance I would NEVER play a board game or solitare and public TV is horrible -- so there fore those are all weak and moot examples.

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RE: First
By mmcdonalataocdotgov on 11/24/2008 7:47:13 AM , Rating: 1
Players vote with their dollars. You are entitled to your opinion, but you shouldn't prevent other players who see a value in the service from paying for the service. You have voted with your dollars, and they have voted with theirs.

