No, it’s not the Cataclysm, it’s the latest nerdragestorm about Blizzard’s cash cow. For reference:
Blizzard Introduces Microtransactions (via Tobold)
and
Subscription Game Item Shops are the Third Trammel (via Green Armadillo at PvD)
So now Blizzard is TEH EBIL for taking another step into a larger MMO market, one where not everyone pays their $15 door fee and competes for epics and ego via state-sanctioned grinds. This is the proverbial “straw” to break some camels’ backs. (Never mind that the Refer-A-Friend program had a more significant impact on the wallet *and* gameplay.) Yeah, democracy and the free market certainly suck. (Must be why Bush and Obama tried to strangle them. *rimshot*)
As Green Armadillo notes, markets change. I’d say they mature, but too many gamers think that means boobs and blood.
What gets lost in the hyperbole is that in a mature market, savvy salescritters find ways to cater to all sorts of different customers. Trammel didn’t destroy the “old school” servers where you had to walk to town uphill both ways with gankers stabbing your squishy bits and stealing your shinies every two steps. The players voted with their feet and went elsewhere, yes, but those nasty, tricksy old servers were there for those who wanted them. (Of course, with fewer “sheep” to prey on, wolves started on each other, and it’s never fun for a serial ganker to be on the receiving end. Boo. Hoo.) The choice is still there, but now the market has a better way to get feedback from the players who are paying the bills. That’s a Good Thing. (Just like the increased granularity of the microtransaction model is a Good Thing for player-dev feedback design cycles and tight feedback loops.)
In the new, mature MMO market, there will still be subscription-only games. There will be microtransaction-only games. There will be hybrids. There will be companies that offer different models on different servers, while offering the same game. There will be companies who do a great job and companies who pull jerk moves. Thing is, you can’t map “microtransaction” to Jerk and “subscription” to “Great” (or vice versa) any more than you can map people by their skin color or political affiliation (it doesn’t stop people from trying, of course). No, there’s a whole range of business going on out there, and all sorts of Good and Bad game design that may or may not be directly related.
The democratization of the market (maturation, remember) should be embraced. It fosters an open meritocracy where games can be judged by the content offered their characters, not by the color of their business model. Customers can make decisions based on what they want to play and what they want to pay, and will have to look past whether a game is on “your team”, whether you’re with the “Hardcore Subbers”, “Casual Carebears”, “Mercenary Micros” or “RMT Raiders”. Of course, that also asks something of the players.
It means players have to grow up, too.
If you like a game, play it. If you like it enough, pay the devs for it. If you don’t like it, leave it alone or vent about it to the world. Whatever the case, stop letting the Joneses dictate whether or not you’re having fun.
To be sure, I can understand the hurt feelings that come when a game changes direction and goes where you don’t feel welcome any more. I do have to wonder, though… if we’re constantly paying for these MMO things, always expecting them to use our money to work on the game, can we really expect it to always be the same as it was in the Old Days?
Games change. People change. It’s inevitable that some of those changes will not be in harmony. When those moments of discord come, it’s actually OK to move on… and sometimes, it’s better to do so before you spend more money and emotional investment. That way lies bitterness and continued resentment, which ultimately does absolutely nothing to the party who is the subject of ire. Bearing a grudge is a burden on the bearer, not the target.
Witness the occasional blogger who just can’t seem to ignore reasons to hate a game they once loved, or who can’t leave a company alone, always waiting for them to make an error so they can pounce on it. This is true in all things; the divorcee who gets lost in bashing their former soulmate, the apostate who denounces their former church, the spiteful ex-employee who burns bridges.
Life is change, as Remy of Ratatouille might note, and those who can’t learn to adapt and move with the changes are hurting themselves. If the wave you’re on doesn’t suit you, find another one. The ocean doesn’t care. Life moves on. Don’t get left behind, crying over changes that you had no control over. Rather, take control of yourself, and do something else.
So pope Syp gives people permission to quit if they do not like the change to more and more MT on top of subscription games? :>
Life is change… come on. That’s pretty pathetic and just telling people to shut up if they do not like this trend.
Longasc, read closer. I wrote specifically, if you don’t like it, complain about it. Raise hell if it tickles your fancy. (It’s not like I toe the party line around here, you may remember.
)
I’m not particularly fond of this change either, as it happens, but I’m not naive enough to think that the market listens to me. If enough people complain about it, though, things *can* change… but remember, WoW is not a democracy.
I just see too many writers who are too attached to what they think the game is (or was, rose-tinted or otherwise), and are too emotional about it. Life does change. Roll with it or fight it, either way, change happens, and most likely, all you can do about it is change how you react.
Perhaps more to the point, if what you like to do is still in the game, whether it’s raiding, slumming Ironforge or exploring, *that hasn’t changed*. Just PLAY the game, and stop worrying about how OTHER PEOPLE play the game.
And I called you Syp because I read BioBreak earlier and you have the same layout. hum. :=)
It’ll certainly be interesting to see in which way the players vote with their feet. My instinct is that they’ll be both angered by the store items and at the same time will purchase them anyway because of the peer pressure inherent to the game.
I guess that means they’ll have feet voting in opposite directions, which could be painful.
Melmoth, I expect a fair dose of fuss, all accompanied by sending in the $15 as usual. Players might have painfully mixed reactions, but as long as that money keeps coming in each month, Blizzard won’t care. That said, if Blizzard doesn’t surf the wave of player sentiment well with an eye on the shore, they have nobody to blame but themselves for the clash of player expectations and subsequent fallout.
To be clear, I think that a sub game *shouldn’t* have external purchase options or services like WoW has… and has had for a while now. That’s what Muckbeast was calling out with the Champions Online store, calling it triple dipping. Even so, Blizzard knows their players, and will make a killing off of people for whom “$15/month is nothing”. It’s a habit by now, both to pay it and to justify it. The number of people ragequitting over slippery slopes just isn’t likely to make a difference.
It does make me wonder if the Cataclysm will also bring about a tectonic shift in the business model, though. Wouldn’t that be fun? What we’re seeing now may well simply be the temporally confused aftershocks; the monetary midgame moves that set up a bookkeeping checkmate.
Heh, I figured something like that, Longasc. One of these days I really need to spiffy up the place.
No offense intended (or taken) by the way. I really do think that people are overreacting on this, just like many overreact over the microtransaction model in general. I wholly agree that there are some jerk moves out there (Hellgate London’s business model, Champions Online’s store, this further wedge in the great Blizzard money laundering scheme). I just think that we should be reacting to the specifics, not the hyperbolic end of the slippery slope, and quit thinking that the subscription model is the patron saint of All That Is Good in MMO land.
I see! I am also do not want to put black and white schemes on certain kinds of payment options for MMOs.
Some studios have already shown how NOT to do micro transactions, you named them. I wonder if they really see MT’s as a business model and not just as EXTRA $$$ for actually nothing. Or to make people pay extra for not really that optional stuff.
DDO is usually the best example how to do it right. My only gripe is that unlocking the max pts builds costs money, but as this alternatively required playing through with another char before to gain extra fame, I see this actually more as a general issue I have with the design, not with the MT itself.
I am also a bit concerned about LOTRO: I reserve Judgement till I see the Mirkwood till I can say, yes, this was worth some extra cash. Because earlier updates like Evendim, Forochel e.g. were free of charge and also quite huge.
I am a bit burned by the Fallout 3 DLCs. Except Broken Steel they were rather lackluster, Point Lookout was the only one besides BS (not bullshit… Broken Steel plz) that was actually worth the money. The others were buggy and compared to the price I paid for Fallout 3 totally overpriced.
BTW, you are very right about one thing: people need to vote with their feet. I know a lot of people who are concerned about the new vanity pet sale in WoW, but I guess only a very minor fraction will really quit the game because of this early development that is frightening a lot of players.
Nice article
I think I make the term “life is change” my new motto 
I need to learn to adapt to life more and relax a bit. I’m too uptight!
“I wonder if they really see MT’s as a business model and not just as EXTRA $$$ for actually nothing. Or to make people pay extra for not really that optional stuff.”
Longasc, I think you’re right; I do think that some devs (or more likely, accountantcritters) see microtransactions that way. It’s unfortunate and damaging to the guys who do get it right. Too many people see the bad apples and think the tree is cursed.
Hey Tesh.
I’ve only just stumbled upon this blog due to your enlightened comments on The Pink Pigtail’s recent musings. I follow Larisa because I disagree with her on a lot and it’s awesome to see the other side of the argument. Conversely, I find myself agreeing with a lot of your points.
I’m not an economist, but I do think the way we’re paying for games is changing and it’s silly for commentators to victimise developers based off that. My two first MMO experiences were Ragnarok Online and Conquer. These games alone were miles apart in terms of what how they got the player to hand over money. One was subscriptions-based and the other dealt with microtransactions. They were appropriate to the game type and audiences they were dealing with. Why can’t a game as old as WoW also adjust itself depending on how it’s key audiences has changed?
The big thing here is consistency. People are up in arms about WoW’s new fees because they’re… new. Much of the playerbase has failed to recognise that times change and it’s necessary for a good business to adjust to their own financial standing, alongside measuring what people are actually willing to pay for.
At the end of the day: Blizzard aren’t taking away any content – just releasing new stuff and restricting access.
PG
Thanks for stopping by, PG!
Funny thing is, I can totally understand the emotional investment and feeling of betrayal when a company looks like they are baiting and switching. In the end, though, these *games* really aren’t worth getting all that worked up about. Also, it may even be possible that without throwing open the doors to more ways to monetize the game, it wouldn’t last or be as high quality as it is. Then everyone loses. (And I really am curious as to what they have in store for the business model of Cataclysm. That would be the perfect time to install a permanent trial and some other hooks to get players buying in.)
Indeed, the game has aged, and has to keep up with the market. The relatively recent losses in China may have something to do with the changes (especially since I can’t see the panda pet getting past the content ministers in China).
There’s also the “elitist” or “classist” argument, which I’ve never agreed with. As it is, subscription MMOs already are very classist, it’s just that the coin of the realm is time, which is easier to ignore since it’s more abstract and invisible to other users.
I really should look up RO and Conquest. Thanks for the reference points!
I think the strong reactions are because this is seen by many as a violation of the unwritten agreement. As written at The Pink Pigtail Inn (which Pierre references above):
Most fundamentally I see RMTs a betrayal of trust by Blizzard. I began my hunt for a new MMO more than a year and a half ago by specifically eliminating any game that featured RMT or micro-transaction of any type. I joined Warcraft and invested my time in the game predicated upon the expectation that Warcraft was a subscription game and would continue to be so. The game had been a subscription game for the last three years; there was no indication in would not stay that way.
Now, you can say that people had no right to expect this unwritten agreement. I think a lot of people assumed that the majority agreed with them that microtransactions are bad, and only crap Asian import MMOs used it. Now, the mighty Blizzard has adopted this “horrible” business model and surely it’s the beginning of the end. The game is changing, in some opinions for the worse. This is essentially the economic equivalent of SWG’s NGE; the change isn’t bad, but it’s generally not what the current enthusiasts wanted.
At any rate, I think the pet store is a real watershed moment. Many of us saw this coming, or weren’t completely surprised to learn of it. To me, this shows two things: 1. WoW isn’t a young, vibrant game anymore, and 2. Money, while important previously, is much more important at Blizzard… sorry, Activision Blizzard these days.
Not depressed enough yet? Here’s something to think about: given EA’s current problems, how do you think that fares for any EA/Bioware MMOs coming out in the future?
[...] — they know that we’ll pony up additional cash for extra niceities, and that means that there isn’t a power in the universe that’s going to stop them now. In fact, it’s probably going to get worse from here on [...]
I bounced on over from Pink Pigtail Inn, too, and just wanted to say — thank you, for being a voice of reason. WoW is my only gaming vice so I generally don’t read multi-game blogs (which I assume this is, although I’m off to work so I don’t really have time to /poke around), but I’m going to add you to my feedreader under “Daily Dose of Sanity.”
Brian, while I’ll readily concede that WoW isn’t young and vibrant any more, I also contend that the maturation of the game and the market is a Good Thing. Perhaps I’m prejudiced since I’ve not been a teenager myself for a while now. I’m not depressed at all about the maturation of these things. I’ve been asking for it for a while now.
You’re right, though; the EA troubles may prove to be… interesting… for the Bioware projects.
Elleiras, thanks for stopping by! I make no promises to always be sane (at least, from the majority view’s standpoint), but I do always try to make sense.
I’ve blathered more than my fair share over at the PPInn, but really, it’s not because I want to argue with the lovely hostesses. No, I’ve found that while I don’t agree with them all the time, they are articulate and interesting. It’s unfortunate to see people I respect get worked up over trivialities, so I try to offer a voice of stabilization. Perhaps that makes me a nosy sermonizing jerk… but I take solace in the fact that I’m trying to be helpful, not hurtful. There’s always a balance there, and I’m not sure I’ve struck it properly.
The only thing I see in that pink pigtails link and comments is the deconstruction of the slippery slope/sky is falling argument.
Fine with me, and frankly long overdue. Perhaps this means those who play the game in order to feel better about their own life will focus on the important part…life.
Or, if you are a pure entertainment gamer, be willing to spend the money and really get into it. Sounds logical.
@Teshytesh!
“If you like a game, play it. If you like it enough, pay the devs for it. If you don’t like it, leave it alone or vent about it to the world. Whatever the case, stop letting the Joneses dictate whether or not you’re having fun.”
<3 !
… I'm having ever so much more fun exploring now that I'm not playing WoW anymore. XD
Not that WoW is a bad game… just not the kind of game I want to play anymore. =)
(This seems tangentially related to the 'wah if everyone can kill the dragon then my killing the dragon is meaningless!')
Yeah well, and everyone can read that book you just bought. Is the book now worthless? Everyone who bought Baldur's Gate (and finished it), did follow the same branching path of the storyline, whatever branch they DID follow, does that make BG worthless?
…I've never *quite* understood the 'this is meaningless because other people can do it too' argument in a virtual environment, when it comes to storyline and mobs.
Tesh wrote:
…I also contend that the maturation of the game and the market is a Good Thing.
I think you’re confusing getting older with getting more mature. The two are not identical.
On a personal level, I’m quite pleased this has happened. It’s woken a lot of people up that the flat-rate subscription model won’t last forever. Even the biggest game is seeking revenues outside of expansions and subscriptions, so the smaller guys are going to be able to do the same without some of the derision.
I think for a lot of the people bitching about not playing MMOs anymore if games have any sort of microtransactions won’t really quit playing. They will likely keep playing with their friends, but will rage anew every time something else comes out to try to earn a bit more money.
But, I think it is important to note that this is a huge moment, and not everyone will quietly accept it. The unwritten rules was “subscription = all I can eat!” It’s important to understand what players believe, if if the times will change around them.
No, I’m not confusing terms. I’m well aware that maturity is a very different thing from getting older. WoW is maturing along with the market, finding that the old assumptions just don’t work any more. That maturation has come with age in this case is incidental.
Players will have to adapt. Yes, this is a significant moment, but it’s about time. Past due, in my book.
Oh, and nugget?
You and Robert are spot on; live life and stop worrying about how others live theirs. Especially *in a game*.