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Will Battle.net Become a Pay Service

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Zombie Elvis <DELETE-robertocastillo@ameritech.net> - 17 Oct 2008 08:16 GMT
Geek.com is reporting that Blizzard is looking to turn Battle.net into
a pay service. This speculation is based on a Joystiq post which
quotes a Blizzard official saying that they need to "monetize" the
gaming service. I've played Diablo II for years, mostly in single
player mode. But I have played multiplayer games on occasion and would
be pretty upset to hear that I had to pay a monthly fee to play Diablo
III online. Time can only tell I guess. Maybe the service itself will
be free and Blizzard will charge for extra features.

http://www.geek.com/articles/games/battlenet-to-become-pay-service-with-the-bliz
zivision-merger-20081016/

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/11/blizzards-wilson-some-battle-net-features-to-b
e-monetized/

Magnate - 17 Oct 2008 18:05 GMT
<robertocastillo@ameritech.net> wrote
> Geek.com is reporting that Blizzard is looking to turn Battle.net into
> a pay service. This speculation is based on a Joystiq post which
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> III online. Time can only tell I guess. Maybe the service itself will
> be free and Blizzard will charge for extra features.

Yeah - that worked so well for Flagship when they did it with Hellgate ...

CC
Mark Morrison - 17 Oct 2008 22:50 GMT
><robertocastillo@ameritech.net> wrote
>> Geek.com is reporting that Blizzard is looking to turn Battle.net into
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
>
>CC

It all comes down to value for money - Hellgate was screwed from the
start, as what you got for your money was fine, but they immediately
gave a lot of that stuff for free to the non-subs.

And when you unsubbed, you lost the ability to use the sub-only items
you'd just found.

I'd imagine Blizzard will put more thought into it, but I can't see
what they'd offer for Diablo 2, for subscribers - bigger stash ?

I can only assume that they're testing the waters for Diablo 3
pay-for-online-play.
CymTyr - 09 Nov 2008 16:31 GMT
> It all comes down to value for money - Hellgate was screwed from the
> start, as what you got for your money was fine, but they immediately
> gave a lot of that stuff for free to the non-subs.

This was indeed a huge problem. Some of us bought lifetime subs for HG:L to
support the fledgling company only to find that increasingly with each patch
more and more of our "goodies" were being given away for free to entice more
people to sub.  I paid $150 for lifetime sub and got exactly >one< content
update the whole time.  So yes, I'm pretty upset with Roper atm.

> And when you unsubbed, you lost the ability to use the sub-only items
> you'd just found.

Had the lifetime so this wasn't an issue for me, but I can see it being an
issue for people who dropped subs because it really wasn't worth $10 a
month, and I'm being totally honest here.

> I'd imagine Blizzard will put more thought into it, but I can't see
> what they'd offer for Diablo 2, for subscribers - bigger stash ?
>
> I can only assume that they're testing the waters for Diablo 3
> pay-for-online-play.

I think they're being a bit greedy with this one.  They're releasing
Starcraft 2 as 3 separate games supposedly to better tell the story (yeah
tell us another), and they're probably turning b.net into p2p.  This amounts
to increased revenue for them, as if they don't get enough from WoW.

I'm actually pretty disappointed in Blizzard.  I'm still getting D3 but I
won't pay to play online.  As far as the two separate mmos they are
developing, if one of them is related to Diablo I'll look into it, but I'm
not getting it just because it's a Blizzard product.

Saying that, the one thing they do do for you is if you have prepaid time on
your WoW account you can call and have them suspend it till you come back to
WoW.  So some things they will do for you...

Anyway just my 2 copper,
-Cym
Mickey - 11 Nov 2008 01:54 GMT
> > It all comes down to value for money - Hellgate was screwed from the
> > start, as what you got for your money was fine, but they immediately
[quoted text clipped - 34 lines]
>
> Anyway just my 2 copper,

I have a feeling that D3 will NOT be pay to play. I think blizzard
understands that a VERY large section of their Diablo community is
14-18 years old and plays only to duel each other. These types will
not be able to afford pay to play, and to date, Blizzard has never
needed P2P to make money off Diablo. Dispite the success of WoW,
Diablo is still the company's flagship product.

Mickey
Magnate - 11 Nov 2008 13:21 GMT
> "Mark Morrison" <blank@aol.com> wrote in message
>> It all comes down to value for money - Hellgate was screwed from the
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>  >one< content update the whole time.  So yes, I'm pretty upset with Roper
> atm.

Ow. So there was no moneyback clause in the lifetime sub if, for instance,
the company went under in less than 12 months?

>> I'd imagine Blizzard will put more thought into it, but I can't see
>> what they'd offer for Diablo 2, for subscribers - bigger stash ?
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> I think they're being a bit greedy with this one.  They're releasing
> Starcraft 2 as 3 separate games supposedly to better tell the story (yeah

I didn't know this - very interesting. I can't see anyone being excited
about that - except perhaps the pirates.

> tell us another), and they're probably turning b.net into p2p.  This
> amounts to increased revenue for them, as if they don't get enough from
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> on your WoW account you can call and have them suspend it till you come
> back to WoW.  So some things they will do for you...

That made me think - are there any MMOs which operate on a "pay as you go"
model rather than a monthly sub? The only reason I don't play MMOs is
because my gaming is very irregular: one month I'll do a hundred hours of
gaming, but then the following month I'll do five or six hours, and some
months none at all. It all depends what's happening in RL, and I don't set
aside particular times for gaming, so paying a monthly fee doesn't work for
me at all. But I'd consider paying for a set number of hours, or a set
number playing days in a 6- or 12-month period. Then it wouldn't matter if I
went three months without playing, it wouldn't cost me anything.

Just curious to see whether anyone knows of such MMOs.

CC
CymTyr - 11 Nov 2008 17:27 GMT
> That made me think - are there any MMOs which operate on a "pay as you go"
> model rather than a monthly sub? The only reason I don't play MMOs is
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
>
> CC
The closest thing to what you're looking for would be the free mmos with
item shops.  Some ones you could look into would be Archlord or the horror
one that just came out, but I can't think of the name for it.

There are no subscription based mmos which have a pay as you go plan, but
maybe someone will jump on that idea and make one...
Trammel - 12 Nov 2008 22:48 GMT
>> "Mark Morrison" <blank@aol.com> wrote in message
>>> It all comes down to value for money - Hellgate was screwed from the
[quoted text clipped - 49 lines]
>
> CC

Some common free games with item shops can be found at:
* http://us.91.com/ (most known game: Conquer Online)
* http://www.gpotato.com/ (most known game: Flyff)
* http://www.joymax.com/portal/ (most known game: Silkroad Online)
* http://9dragons.acclaim.com/

Then ofcourse you have membership based games where you can play for free
but members pay to use additional content like:
* http://www.dungeonrunners.com/ (3D Diablo2 MMO, basically)

Almost everything available as pay-monthly can be found in one of the free
download games with items shops - another reason why I wont play pay-monthly
stuff... its an antiquated method of forcing money out of people with them
getting nothing in return & all companies that try this deserve to fail and
collapse.
Trammel - 12 Nov 2008 22:55 GMT
>>> "Mark Morrison" <blank@aol.com> wrote in message
>>>> It all comes down to value for money - Hellgate was screwed from the
[quoted text clipped - 67 lines]
> people with them getting nothing in return & all companies that try this
> deserve to fail and collapse.

Oops - nearly forgot this one.
http://perfectworld.com/

This is a great free game where you can do martial arts, use bows, use
magic, fly on animals/swords/with your own wings, etc...
...its got a huge (almost never ending) amount of different quests, huge
playing area, monsters of various levels incase you dont like quests...
safe, consentual and PvP areas... item shop for upgrades, etc... and the
best thing my girlfriend liked is that the male characters can lift up the
females, give them a kiss and then fly with the woman still in their arms
:¬P
(plus my favorite part... I can drop her in the sea ;¬)
Ross (RPJ) - 12 Nov 2008 23:40 GMT
>>>> "Mark Morrison" <blank@aol.com> wrote in message
>>>>> It all comes down to value for money - Hellgate was screwed from the
[quoted text clipped - 80 lines]
> :¬P
> (plus my favorite part... I can drop her in the sea ;¬)

A truly perfect world ;>)
Mickey - 14 Nov 2008 01:30 GMT
On Nov 12, 6:40 pm, "Ross \(RPJ\)" <ros...@nospamshaw.ca> wrote:

> >>>> "Mark Morrison" <bl...@aol.com> wrote in message
> >>>>> It all comes down to value for money - Hellgate was screwed from the
[quoted text clipped - 82 lines]
>
> A truly perfect world ;>)

ROFLMAO... spoken like a married man :)
ald - 13 Nov 2008 06:10 GMT
> another reason why I wont play pay-monthly
>stuff... its an antiquated method of forcing money out of people with them
>getting nothing in return & all companies that try this deserve to fail and
>collapse.

Such as Blizzard? It's my opinion (and only that) that Blizz will keep
Battle Net free, mostly because the success of WoW will allow them to.

ald
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CotSRSig #16
Mephistophilhibbs - 18 Nov 2008 12:50 GMT
> It's my opinion (and only that) that Blizz will keep
> Battle Net free, mostly because the success of WoW will allow them to.

On upgrading to WotLK, one of the licence agreement screens said
something like "I agree to my WoW account becoming a Battle.net
account at some time in the future".

Hoofu, 73 tauren shaman, Argent Dawn (EU)
 
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