Considering the little ways that Blizzard is content to ratchet up the pricing of their flagship World of Warcraft, perhaps it’s time again to float my Five Dollar Vanilla article, or a new variant: the Ratcheted Subscription model. (Note, expansions will still need to be bought separately from the main game, and all other optional services for a charge will continue to operate as at present. I might add a new Battle Chest SKU, though, where the original game and the now-three expansions are sold in one box for $50.)
Baseline Perpetual Free Trials. Take the existing ten day trial and extend it to an indefinite time. Keep the restrictions on level, chat and money if you must, but know that other games do it better, and that free players are more of an asset than a liability.
$5/month Choose one: PvE, PvP or raiding.
$10/month Choose two: PvE, PvP or raiding.
$15/month PvE, PvP and raiding.
$20/month PvE, PvP and raiding, free minipet per quarter, remote Auction House access, cross-server raiding
$25/month PvE, PvP and raiding, free minipet per quarter, remote Auction House access, cross-server raiding, free quarterly server move or character race/gender/class change
$30/month PvE, PvP and raiding, free minipet per quarter, remote Auction House access, cross-server raiding, free quarterly server move or character race/gender/class change, guild housing
$35/month PvE, PvP and raiding, free minipet per quarter, remote Auction House access, cross-server raiding, free quarterly server move or character race/gender/class change, guild housing, player filter (automatically mutes and hides players who pay less than $20/month)
$40/month PvE, PvP and raiding, free minipet per quarter, remote Auction House access, cross-server raiding, free quarterly server move or character race/gender/class change, guild housing, player filter (automatically mutes and hides players who pay less than $20/month), epic purple poster name on forums
$45/month PvE, PvP and raiding, free minipet per quarter, remote Auction House access, cross-server raiding, free quarterly server move or character race/gender/class change, guild housing, player filter (automatically mutes and hides players who pay less than $20/month), epic purple poster name on forums, exclusive emote (“Heroic Hero” pose; all other players within 15 yards immediately bow toward player and grovel)
$50/month PvE, PvP and raiding, free minipet per quarter, remote Auction House access, cross-server raiding, free quarterly server move or character race/gender/class change, guild housing, player filter (automatically mutes and hides players who pay less than $20/month), epic purple poster name on forums, exclusive emote (“Heroic Hero” pose; all other players within 15 yards immediately bow toward player and grovel), gold-plated WoW-specific keyboard, mouse and authenticator (will be reclaimed by Blizzard enforcers in the case of a change to a lower subscription rate)
$70/month PvE, PvP and raiding, free minipet per quarter, remote Auction House access, cross-server raiding, free quarterly server move or character race/gender/class change, guild housing, player filter (automatically mutes and hides players who pay less than $20/month), epic purple poster name on forums, exclusive emote (“Heroic Hero” pose; all other players within 15 yards immediately bow toward player and grovel), gold-plated WoW-specific keyboard, mouse and authenticator (will be reclaimed by Blizzard enforcers in the case of a change to a lower subscription rate), RealID immunity
A fitting last comment by you: “I do really wonder if we’ll see a business model change with Cataclysm.” Brilliant.
I’d like to point out that the current trial restrictions would make for a really awful baseline. No going past level 10 (is it higher now?), no trading, no chat… They’d be like gold sellers without anything to sell, just little nothings flitting about taking up space. But that’s tangential.
I’d rather just have the $5 vanilla. Or maybe $10 BC. Or $10 vanilla and $5 BC. Cataclysm would have to be a low-paying job if they expect me to tank.
Unless they changed it the WoW 10-day Trial has a char level limit of 20.
Other restrictions are the ability to join parties, but not create them (cannot invite players); no trading; no using the AH, neither to buy nor sell; cannot chat in any Chat channels, and cannot whisper anyone unless they whisper you first.
There might be other restrictions, but it’s been a long time since I did a Trial account.
Love it that the top perk is RealID immunity. Which ironically I have simply by not playing their games.
Guess if I pick up Diablo 3 Donald Duck will be opening a Real ID account.
I would go for a 10$ a month thing. 🙂
Or not play WoW anymore. Too many games.
I don’t think they’d do this, because I think customers would see themselves as a $10 customer with the $50 customer being of a higher caste than them.
That’s my estimate – alot of people want to be up there with the important Jones’s and can achieve social movement up the ladder not in the weird nebulous way it happens (or more often doesn’t) in real life, but by a concrete killing of monsters. This system takes that away.
I might be wrong on people wanting social mobility. Probably needs some sort of survey to get more data on that.
Hehe! This article made me think a few days ago, forgot to reply because of that.
I wonder when will Blizzard become bold and daring when it comes to pricing models, or if they have become a big, inflexible company that won’t touch a running system as long as the hen is still laying golden eggs.
The strong counterpoint against changing anything from a player perspective is that games like LOTRO an STO show that a pure subscription is sometimes better than a sub+shop or free+shop option. STO is damn expensive, and LOTRO also cost me a lot more than in the time when a subscription was the only option.
But well, you see where this is leading – F2P makes Turbine with LOTRO&DDO and apparently Cryptic with CO more cash than subscriptions. So why should Blizzard not jump on the band waggon.
Blizzard added the new premium service to play with real id friends, people already blogged in detail about that. Where will it stop?
Instead of the constant milking that is going on they *could* be bold and offer people really something special for money!
Like being the host of their “own”/rented 100-200 slot server/world – people would still have to pay a WoW sub but would play on their “own” WoW-RP Server. Or Oldzeroth, pre-Cataclysm Azeroth. A full PvP server, a quest-free server, an all-level 80 hardmode raid server.
They could also start slowly and make “AZEROTH” minus expansions free to play – pay to raid and access the AH.
I doubt they will. See above, the hen is still laying golden eggs. I’m afraid we will see more of the SUB+PREMIUM model where more and more things become “premium”.
This is not only related to WoW, but to the entire industry.
“Heroic Hero” – zomg, need!!! 😀
You might have written this in jest, but this would SO work, plenty of people would pay extra for this kind of stuff.
the list makes me shudder, but it really is only one small step away now from the fast-food cookie-cut experience blizzard is already offering their players, throwing more and more goodies at you lest you tire too fast and figure out how little actual MMORPG content there is left…
/bad monday morning mood
If the purpose of raiding isn’t to trigger the camaraderie of team-building through shared experiences, then why not just sell raid gear? In fact, why even have raid gear? Just sell cool looking armor directly.
This whole thing about using groups and raids to enhance your single player experience — with other players essentially being somewhat unpredictable NPCs which you must use to get stuff for yourself — makes me despair for the future of the genre.
Well basically because the design tries to force people together (otherwise they miss out on content like runnning dungeons or raids), you don’t get camraderie, you get mercenary attitudes because people were forced together in the first place.
People don’t have something in common just because they play the same game – and without a social tie, if you force enough people together, you just develop an overall mercenary culture.
In one game I played (I think it was EQ2, but it’s been so long that I can’t be sure), mobs who were sufficiently low level would cringe away from you, rather than attacking pointlessly. It’s was great for my ePeen.
Your “heroic hero” mode is genius. However, I’d like to suggest an enhancement. Make the amount paid voluntary: anyone who pays less per month than you is affected by your aura. Watch the bidding wars commence…
@Stabs: I’m playing WoW, I have deactivated RealID. So I guess you’ll be able to play Diablo 3. Friends tell me I’m loony, but I don’t want that crap.
Tesh, I’d love such a model :). Especially the troll enforcers for the gold plated keyboard.
I like this 😉