No free WoW? Then I guess I'll continue not playing it!

Weee!

Atheist Jew

Free accounts just encourage hording of items and Mule accounts.

Gantz: Your Trusted Friend in Science.

@Zeag: well, from what i recall, battle.net was a matchmaking service that connected you to your opponent directly, similar to the wii's online mode. i don't think servers are neccesary if you're only playing with maybe 8ish other people. if you want more, then i suppose you would have to pay, a la xbox live.

thejakeman: visit my site!

@mugido: That's exactly what I was thinking. Blizzard isn't going to abandon millions of dollars - even if it could - just for what would amount to a marketing gimmick.

But let's face it, it's a marketing gimmick that works: ArenaNet has been brutally successful in the "pseudo-mmorpg" market and is branching out into the big leagues. The complete lack of a subscription fee doesn't seem to have been hurting them a whit.

And in reality, I've been suckered in to "free" MMO's as well, just to try them out. There's no harm in it, really. I guarantee that WoW subscriptions would skyrocket if the game went free, but at the same time, maintenance costs would go up and the margins they're currently making would disappear.

For now, probably best to keep things as they are.

antialias02

cuz@Zeag: CUZ DIABO 3 IS NOT A MMORPG LOLOLOLO

Vidunder

If you carefully read between the words, he's actually saying:

"People are willing to pay for WoW, so why not for Diablo 3 since it's essentially the same core game? (collect items and finish quests)"

If we end up having to pay for BNet (Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3) It seems like WoW won't be the only Blizzard game I haven't bought anymore.

Zeag

im not paying a subscription fee for 1 game, and the only people i know that play WoW are Dbags.

npa191

I only play free MMOs as I have no interest in paying a monthly fee on any game I own. Currently I'm enjoying the hell out of Mabinogi.

Razlo

What would be cool is if they wanted to gain new subscribers they could make 1-40 free so everyone who hasn't tried it can try it, and see plenty of content.

Kounji

@Letsgohokies: i'm sure the maturity level would nose dive as all the kids with parents that don't pay for subscriptions would suddenly jump on.

thejakeman: visit my site!

Gamasutra: Hey, Blizzard, you want to stop making all those millions every month?

Blizzard: Um, no.

Strangelove

It may be because I've dabbled in MMOs for so long at this point, but I can't see myself ever playing one of the free ones. To me, they just don't feel real, I guess. It's like the difference between paying to play and finding private servers in UO back when.

Nobuyuki

I can just imagine how annoying Barrens chat would be if it was free.

Letsgohokies

Would you stop if the revenue is in the millions every month?. Its not as if the WoW Players-Union is asking for a cut in subscription fees. Happy campers on both end of the PC.

PsycheE

They won't change unless they are forced to. If a better MMO came along and took a big chunk of their subscribers because it was free to play they would start thinking things over.

mugido

@Spartan1308™: :D

thejakeman: visit my site!

WoW = Cash Cow

Blizzard = Farmer

Would you give up your cash cow for a less profitable way of making money? Evercrack is still around and it was released 10+ years ago.

Thassodar

It will never be free becuase Blizzard LOVE the money they get from merely updating a game.

DanteIX

Paul Sams, set your taurens free, or a plague of DDoSes will blanket your servers, and stuff. I don't know. I got nothing. But seriously, if they're making money (and they HAVE to be making it hand over fist at this point), they don't have to be free.

Salen

So Blizzard like millions of dollars worth of subscription fees in their pocket, who would have guessed?

Sniper_Zegai

There's room for both models. I'm sure there are a multitude of factors that the MMO devs need to consider when choosing either PTP or FTP as the payment structure. Both have their pros and cons, but ultimately it'll be up to the player on which payment type they like, and the games that comes with each type. Of course, right now its pretty easy to know the type of game you're going to be playing depending on whether you pick PTP (WoW, AoC, etc) or FTP (social MMOs, Codemasters, Acclaim, most of the localized Korean MMOs).

SpishackCola

Makes sense. WoW isn't having any problems attracting players and keeping them so they don't really have a reason to adopt a F2P or microtransaction based model.

It'd be awful if you had to pay a toll fee every time you wanted to run into Karazhan...

jihadjoe343

I think the real news here is that WoW is apparently not an "item-based game" anymore.

Xero

Translation: "We currently make millions on our current model. Why would we change it to be free?" They could either let you pay for those uber items, or they could make you pay more to sit there and grind for them.

Saxboy

Free? No Wai ... but what must we think up since millions will flock to Diablo 3 ... hmmm a pay model in that game ala Hellgate London.

You watch!

EnigmaNemesis

In Summary:

So you're making buckets of money, do you want to stop?

No.

Spartan1308™

That would be stupid of Blizz if they did do that....

Sorshha

@Atheist Jew:

A fine idea! I like my money.

Kenninator

I really wish WoW would become free to play. That way, we could always hop back in to experience it without reactivating some account. As a gamer, there's not much left for me to pay monthly for, but if it were free I'd at least keep the game installed on my hard drive.

We all know Blizzard could make the game free right now, and keep it running for 100 years with the profits they have made. They just won't do it. And that's a shame considering how much free online gaming they've given us over the years.

Sushmonster

I could see them making the vanilla WoW (ie without the expansions) free eventually, but not until there's some kind of population dip to justify it. I'd like to think that they would need to change something to keep subscribers up once all of Korea succumbs to Starcraft 2 sickness and most of the other territories probalby see some people switch over to the new and free to play RTS.

KirbyMorph

@thejakeman: visit my site!: Yes but they're talking about a "very improved BNet". To me, improved = costy...

Let's hope they know that charging for BNet will cause an uproar and they'd better keep it free. I wouldn't mind turning BNet into some sort of Steam though.

Zeag

i used to play WoW... i can't believe i did. it became more like a routine than actual fun. not an item based game? my ass. that's where the addiction factor lies.

mbx

I really do see Blizzard as drug-traffickers.

Gestahl

Favorite part from article:
With World of Warcraft would you want to do handheld games, or maybe even a youth-focused version? I don't envision us ever doing a children's-based spin-off. That's not really something I can envision, because we really try to hire our core demographic of people.

We ask, "What is it that you'd play next?" And no one's raising their hand to say, "I want to make a kids' version of it." That isn't something that they're geeked up about.

Our feeling is that if you're going to have people put a number of years of their life, and they're going to put their blood, sweat, and tears into the development of the game, they better believe in it, and want to play it, and it's going to be a passion of theirs. And if it's a kid's game - unless that's what they're really into - then it's not going to be great.

ethic

Let's hope they don't feel the same way as D3... since I want my battle.net to be free ; 3;

Kaizuden

I would never play WoW unless is cost $5 per month at most. $15 per month is completely absurd.

Jorw

Well, I'd like to thank Blizzard for actually CREATING World of Warcraft. I think, it's perfectly okay for them to make big business with it.

The game would never have been as successful as it is, if it was not full of love and creativity (which, of course, can not be said about the updates). But it is still worth the money since there's a lack of really good and in-depth fantasy games out there.

I guess, the only ones able to tackle WoW down from its throne is Blizzard themselves. You hear that, you bunch of game designers? You all want to make the dosh, you all want the success for your creation, but you will NEVER convince any gamer without putting a lot of love into your game.

virtualex

No matter what another MMO does, no matter how much better it is than WoW, it will never pull nearly the same numbers.

That's just the sad state things are in, and that's just how things are.

Just like no matter if a game does something Blizzard does, and does it better, it will not sell nearly as much, nor be liked nearly as much.

PC gamers have one of the largest one track hive minds on the planet. Even moreso than console gamers, and that's saying something!

otimus

I really prefer paying the 15$ a month and having everyone be on even ground, as opposed to being able to pay money to give yourself upgrades. I've tried free to play games before, and always quite when I'm around level 15 because I get sick of not being able to use an item, or access an area. And by the time you factor in the blizzard let's you create 50 characters per account, it evens out with paying for the free to play ones.

ashman512

@Spartan1308™:

lol basically. WOW is their cash cow. SC2 and D3 are just added bonuses.

Majpain007

Guild Wars is free... of course, WOW not, because they're winning money... But form the moment they wouldn't, WoW would be free after one year. It's the most ridiculous thing ever! pay for each DISC and pay monthly. For that, i go to a casino, i pay to play...but at least i can win something back! ...So thats why i only play Guild Wars, even if its not the same thing as WoW.

bubble-bee

Private servers FTW!

Kukuk

@bubble-bee:

If your an MMO player join a guild, play for a few months and sell your account. I bought the game, and expansion, payed for a few months totaling about $200 at most and then turned around and sound my account for $700. World of Warcraft got me a PS3! and I had fun while working my character. And thats just for 1 character~

ninjikiran

I've tried a crapload of free MMOs, and I've tried the private WoW servers, yet it's all sucked too much to keep me interested for more than a few hours.

So, for what they're providing, I don't mind paying the monthly fee of WoW.

Kyuu

Blizzard is the home to very shrewd businessmen and women, so I wouldn't expect any less from them in knowing what to do with their products.

Quins

He's right. There's no need to change the business model because it's working just like he said. Over 10 million subscribers willing to pay $15/month? Especially when cheaper MMO's can't even crack 1 million subscribers?

I wouldn't change it either. Obviously they got the business model right and to go along with the game. Good for Blizzard, they win.

astroblacknesss

if you are the number 1 mmo, why in god's name would you change it?

cephun

They're making buckets of money off of:

1. WoW (Holy crap 12 mill+ users paying like 20$ a month, do the math)
2.Starcraft (Well they did, they're still making money)
3.Diablo 1,2,LOD (Same as Starcraft)
4.Warcraft series (Same as SC)

Imagine,
Even more money from; SC2, Diablo3, Warcraft 4.
That's a lot of money.

HelisPoe