# WoW to be FTP with an ingame shop



## Ibuuyk (Oct 25, 2011)

Blizzard saw less players played and announced WoW would soon be Free to Play, what'd you think about it?  I think it's a great idea, it will attract a lot of players and ingame shops are always successful.


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## Aetius (Oct 25, 2011)

Any links to prove this?


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## CerbrusNL (Oct 25, 2011)

Oh great.
Like there aren't enough noobs out there.


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## Aetius (Oct 25, 2011)

CerbrusNL said:


> Oh great.
> Like there aren't enough noobs out there.



Look on the brightside, more to grief in Hilsbrad.


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## Smelge (Oct 25, 2011)

I don't play WoW, never wanted to, but this still sounds like an amazingly bad idea.

I can almost guarantee that in order to get those profits from the shops, given the large userbase, they'll end up so you have to buy stuff to progress, or as a quick way to gain levels. Want a decent weapon? Cos you can only get good ones by paying. The ones you find elsewhere are crap.

Bet you anything this is how it goes.


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## Sarcastic Coffeecup (Oct 25, 2011)

Nevertheless the shop idea
I might just try this again for a little while.
But yeah, links please


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## LizardKing (Oct 25, 2011)

Oh _that_ kind of FTP. I thought that seemed a little weird.


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## Schwimmwagen (Oct 25, 2011)

Ingame shops are always successful, but they are successful for all the wrong reasons.


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## Aetius (Oct 25, 2011)

I doubt that this is going to happen, I cannot find any sources confirming it.

(I would have been ultra pissed as I just bought a years worth subscription >:C )


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## Sarcastic Coffeecup (Oct 25, 2011)

Moral of the story: Never buy long time subscriptions


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## BRN (Oct 25, 2011)




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## Ikrit (Oct 25, 2011)

pics or it didn't happen


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## Xenke (Oct 25, 2011)

Micro payments suck.

They're essentially taking a game with a negative reputation, and making it 100x worse.


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## Ames (Oct 25, 2011)

Not surprised, it was bound to happen eventually.

People aren't going to be playing WoW forever.


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## Onnes (Oct 25, 2011)

Except that it isn't happening. If this were even a remotely credible rumor then it would be appearing on the appropriate news sites, which it isn't.


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## Smelge (Oct 25, 2011)

Onnes said:


> Except that it isn't happening. If this were even a remotely credible rumor then it would be appearing on the appropriate news sites, which it isn't.



Fuck off with your sensible points.

People are trying to panic in here.


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## Ames (Oct 25, 2011)

Onnes said:


> Except that it isn't happening. If this were even a remotely credible rumor then it would be appearing on the appropriate news sites, which it isn't.



Not saying that it IS happening now, but WoW isn't going to retain this level of popularity forever.

When their playerbase starts to dwindle, they WILL find ways to slow the fall.


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## Bernad (Oct 25, 2011)

Ibuuyk said:


> Blizzard saw less players played and announced WoW would soon be Free to Play, what'd you think about it?  I think it's a great idea, it will attract a lot of players and ingame shops are always successful.



Sure if people want to stay lv 20 forever.  It is more or less still a trial.  Only difference is the 14-day playtime removal.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/28/world-of-warcraft-goes-free-to-play-until-characters-hit-level-2/


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## Cyril (Oct 25, 2011)

So it's not FTP at all. Cool. Still wouldn't be interested even if it was, but.


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## Verin Asper (Oct 25, 2011)

I'm sorry blizzard I'm too busy with my Korean MMOS to care about you, but enjoy the ingame market being destroyed by cash shop abusers...wait I already have that in my korean mmos


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## Azure (Oct 25, 2011)

And slowly the juggernaut of boredom takes its final few staggering steps towards the pit of oblivion. I hope they do this, it'll crash so fucking hard, there'll be no WoW left. Sadly, there are plenty of MMO's to pick of the slack on what is most decidedly a virus upon the generation following mine. Neckbeards.


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## Aetius (Oct 25, 2011)

Why must you lie to me OP >: (


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## Ozriel (Oct 25, 2011)

Free to play.
*Up to level 20.
Then you have to pay a subscription fee to continue futher. :V


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## Ibuuyk (Oct 25, 2011)

Zeke Shadowfyre said:


> Free to play.
> *Up to level 20.
> Then you have to pay a subscription fee to continue futher. :V



That was before, they're working on making it completely free.  Sorry about the delay guys, I was moving out and unpacking stuff and having technical problems involving Internet not working.

http://www.jeuxvideo.com/news/2011/00054295-wow-en-free-to-play.htm

Sorry for the French, but it's there.  President of Blizzard said to the site Games Industry that they were working on two things.  Porting the game on tactical tablets (iPads, etc) and smart phones, as well as converting the game to an economic free-to-play, including ingame shops and the such.


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## Aetius (Oct 25, 2011)

Seems strange, mmo champion would have had something about it, and there was nothing on google. 

Seems interesting though.


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## Ozriel (Oct 25, 2011)

Ibuuyk said:


> That was before, they're working on making it completely free.  Sorry about the delay guys, I was moving out and unpacking stuff and having technical problems involving Internet not working.
> 
> http://www.jeuxvideo.com/news/2011/00054295-wow-en-free-to-play.htm
> 
> Sorry for the French, but it's there.  President of Blizzard said to the site Games Industry that they were working on two things.  Porting the game on tactical tablets (iPads, etc) and smart phones, as well as converting the game to an economic free-to-play, including ingame shops and the such.



I can't read it due to the comp I am on, so I am going to assume that they are going to do the "Runescape" thing for people who want to play...but charge for things if you want to get involved in raids and other end-game content...Or pay for a subscription if they want to do more without pulling up paypal. if they did FTP, then most of the players that invested time (You know...the people who are afraid of sunlight :V) will move on to another game just because that they have to deal with more people that do not know what a "Hotkey" is. :V


EDIT: From what I've found on google, most are placing it as a rumor.

Like with the whole "Show your name on the forums thing" that they had a while ago, I doubt it will go through. It's just one of those ideas.


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## SirRob (Oct 25, 2011)

If it's anything like MapleStory, you dedicated players are probably gonna be paying quintuple what you were paying to subscribe.


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## Ozriel (Oct 25, 2011)

SirRob said:


> If it's anything like MapleStory, you dedicated players are probably gonna be paying quintuple what you were paying to subscribe.



Maybe, but from what I've dug up, most of the FTP speculation stuff is back in 2010. At most, I would have seen forum posts of outrage on the WoW forums if they spoke of it at Blizzcon. 

They could do it like Gaia, Runescape, Neopets, and other online franchises that have a bunch of adverts spamming their pages, but the userbase would crash their servers several times over before wanting that.


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## lupinealchemist (Oct 25, 2011)

I think I'll stick to "other" servers. Oddly enough, I haven't played in a year, and they recently made ICC 100% playable.


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## Kesteh (Oct 25, 2011)

If they do go free to play they need to make classic and burning crusade free. BC is so neglected on terms of attention. Everything else has stuff right there for powerleveling just to get to the newer Xpacks, but BC got nothing.
I'd like it better if they made the level limit at least 30 or 40 for the free to play portion. 20 doesn't give you much because of the easy experience to speed you along to that point. Honestly the difficulty kicks in way after 20.

For now it's up until level 20 and you can use the burning crusade races. It's also included in a 20 dollar bundle if you decide to pay. You get classic and BC for 20 bucks now. Again, BC is hugely fucking neglected by Blizzard. It's just a roleplay atmosphere or a progression grind until you hit 68 then you can skip to Lich King.


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## Aetius (Oct 25, 2011)

lupinealchemist said:


> and they recently made ICC 100% playable.



My shitty guild still wipes on 25H Marrowgwar.


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## Ozriel (Oct 25, 2011)

Kesteh said:


> If they do go free to play they need to make classic and burning crusade free. BC is so neglected on terms of attention. Everything else has stuff right there for powerleveling just to get to the newer Xpacks, but BC got nothing.
> I'd like it better if they made the level limit at least 30 or 40 for the free to play portion. 20 doesn't give you much because of the easy experience to speed you along to that point. Honestly the difficulty kicks in way after 20.
> 
> For now it's up until level 20 and you can use the burning crusade races. It's also included in a 20 dollar bundle if you decide to pay. You get classic and BC for 20 bucks now. Again, BC is hugely fucking neglected by Blizzard. It's just a roleplay atmosphere or a progression grind until you hit 68 then you can skip to Lich King.



They should at least. The people who are interested in level 70 twink PvP would pay for another account just to do the 70 BG and Arena content. The 70 twink bracket is VERY popular.

If I remember correctly, they also upped the level cap to 80 for Recruit-a-friend. 



Crusader Mike said:


> My shitty guild still wipes on 25H Marrowgwar.



I pity you.


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## Fenrari (Oct 25, 2011)

So basically it's going to be Maple Story with Better Graphics and in 3D?


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## Aetius (Oct 25, 2011)

Fenrari said:


> So basically it's going to be Maple Story with Better Graphics and in 3D?



Don't forget the whiny fanbase.


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## Ames (Oct 25, 2011)

Crusader Mike said:


> Don't forget the whiny fanbase.



As if the WoW playerbase were that much better... :V


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## TechnoGypsy (Oct 26, 2011)

I knew of this a while ago, but thought it was a joke to begin with.

Anyways, my brother is really keen to get this, and the lv 20 cap isin't bothering him. He's planning on trying out every class/race/weapon type whatever in the game, switching to a new character when he reaches the limit.

But damn, this is going to be a replay of what happened to TF2, no?


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## Kesteh (Oct 26, 2011)

TechnoGypsy said:


> But damn, this is going to be a replay of what happened to TF2, no?



This game isn't run by a hat economy.


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## Kirbizard (Oct 26, 2011)

Someone bought me WoW a few years ago. I played it for the free week provided, but never bought a subscription.

I didn't feel like I got the most out of that "week", seeing as I didn't have enough free time to play every single day, so I decided my money was better spent elsewhere. This is the reason I hate subscription based models, so I'd be okay if they went f2p. I might give it another go. :V


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## iTails (Oct 26, 2011)

By reading the comments in this thread.

RIP World of Warcraft: We've been ready to do this Leeeroyyyy Jenkins! thing for a long time.


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## Mentova (Nov 1, 2011)

I don't know what the hell kinda bullshit rumor you guys are trying to spread around, but there is no way in hell WoW is going F2P anytime soon, especially since they just did that "agree to pay for a year subscription and get a bunch of benefits" promo. From what I hear subscriptions have been dropping, but not drastically. The game isn't on it's way out anytime soon.


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## Ozriel (Nov 1, 2011)

Mentova said:


> I don't know what the hell kinda bullshit rumor you guys are trying to spread around, but there is no way in hell WoW is going F2P anytime soon, especially since they just did that "agree to pay for a year subscription and get a bunch of benefits" promo. From what I hear subscriptions have been dropping, but not drastically. The game isn't on it's way out anytime soon.



Like I said earlier...It wasn't.

The whole fiasco was started a year ago, and it was going to be another way to play without doing the 14-day trial....which would only let you play until 20 before your trial was up.
So you can be at your 20's and not pay now, but in order to reap the full benefits of other content, you'll have to pay to play beyond 20.


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## Mentova (Nov 1, 2011)

Zeke Shadowfyre said:


> Like I said earlier...It wasn't.
> 
> The whole fiasco was started a year ago, and it was going to be another way to play without doing the 14-day trial....which would only let you play until 20 before your trial was up.
> So you can be at your 20's and not pay now, but in order to reap the full benefits of other content, you'll have to pay to play beyond 20.


I was aware of that, but from glancing through the thread people seemed to think WoW was dying and it was going fully F2P or something.


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## Sharga (Nov 1, 2011)

This is just a rumor. WoW is not going free to play for a while...but I wouldn't be surprised if they did that when the game is really on it's last legs and project Titan takes over. They are already experimenting with the full cash shop model in Diablo 3 and ingame fluff items such as pets/mounts - I doubt they'll go any further than that in this particular game. 

And even if they did, who gives a shit? Barring certain hard modes, 99% of the high end gear/rare mounts aren't so much challenges as they are treadmills and RNG gambles.


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## Mentova (Nov 1, 2011)

Sharga said:


> This is just a rumor. WoW is not going free to play for a while...but I wouldn't be surprised if they did that when the game is really on it's last legs and project Titan takes over. They are already experimenting with the full cash shop model in Diablo 3 and ingame fluff items such as pets/mounts - I doubt they'll go any further than that in this particular game.
> 
> And even if they did, who gives a shit? Barring certain hard modes, 99% of the high end gear/rare mounts aren't so much challenges as they are treadmills and RNG gambles.


If I recall, D3 doesn't have a microtransaction style cash shop. It has a player run auction house where you can sell items for blizzard spacebucks that you can convert to actual cash for a fee.


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## Ibuuyk (Nov 1, 2011)

Mentova said:


> If I recall, D3 doesn't have a microtransaction style cash shop. It has a player run auction house where you can sell items for blizzard spacebucks that you can convert to actual cash for a fee.



Nope, D3 will have an ingame shop, including weapons, armors, upgrades and shit that'll make a level 1 rich dude kick your level 99 free ass.  Tis' old news, since it was announced months ago.


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## Onnes (Nov 1, 2011)

Ibuuyk said:


> Nope, D3 will have an ingame shop, including weapons, armors, upgrades and shit that'll make a level 1 rich dude kick your level 99 free ass.  Tis' old news, since it was announced months ago.



Given the existence of this thread, I really can't tell whether you are trolling or simply getting your news from the gaming equivalent of a tabloid.


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## Ibuuyk (Nov 1, 2011)

Onnes said:


> Given the existence of this thread, I really can't tell whether you are trolling or simply getting your news from the gaming equivalent of a tabloid.



Uhm, no.  The D3 thing about ingame shops was officially announced months ago.  Tis' old news, dude ='/


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## Onnes (Nov 1, 2011)

Ibuuyk said:


> Uhm, no.  The D3 thing about ingame shops was officially announced months ago.  Tis' old news, dude ='/



Yes, they did announce the real money auction house some months ago, which was what Mentova was referencing. You are talking about a shop where items are created out of the aether for an appropriate cash payment. What's your source?


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## Noobkillerxx (Nov 1, 2011)

I think there will be a lot of pissed off users who played the game for a looong time and paid big money to play.  I think it's not a good idea, nor a bad idea.


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## Internet Police Chief (Nov 2, 2011)

WoW isn't going free to play, that would be literally retarded.

WoW already has the biggest subscriber base of any MMO ever produced and rakes in millions upon millions of dollars every month.

Plus, the majority of WoW players are stupid enough to drop another $25 on sparkle mounts. WoW has a cash shop AND a subscription, and is still the biggest MMO by millions of players.

In other words, there is _absolutely no reason_ for WoW to go F2P. Maybe in another four expansions when subscribers finally start to actually drop to a "danger zone," but not for many years to come.


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## Kesteh (Nov 2, 2011)

Noobkillerxx said:


> I think there will be a lot of pissed off users who played the game for a looong time and paid big money to play.  I think it's not a good idea, nor a bad idea.


You seemed to have skipped the thread to hit the reply button. OP post was just a rumor.
Subscriptions are here to stay for a long time on WoW.


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## Digitalpotato (Nov 2, 2011)

Noobkillerxx said:


> I think there will be a lot of pissed off users who played the game for a looong time and paid big money to play.  I think it's not a good idea, nor a bad idea.




Given how many people complained about how an obstacle was removed, that would pisso ff a lot of users. Remember the shitstorm about removing obstacles to become Jedi in STar Wars Galaxies, when from day one, the board(s) were full of "Where are the Jedi?", "Why can't I be a Jedi?", "Why is it so damn hard to become a jedi?", "Why do I have to do all this crap to become a jedi?" stuff?


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