Blizzard is Raising Prices for WoW Account Services in the UK and EU

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

That was not what I was suggesting.
I believe the game's quality has gone down drastically and it isn't worth the huge investment of time anymore.

That is a valid opinion to hold, and I'll not argue with you on it. However, isn't that something everyone must decide for themselves? I haven't played since WoD, not because I stopped having fun, rather I just had moved on from the MMO experience. I might play it again if they're going to shut it down at some point, just to go through the content I missed and experience the final moments, after all I did invest over 10 years into the game.
Here's the thing, anyone who still plays it more than likely sees value in their investment. I don't see any situation (except maybe those horrible gold farmers in China) where someone is trapped playing WoW. I'm fairly certain if anyone who plays WoW right now found it to not be worth their time, they'd walk away... with a few very rare exceptions.

 

[Alma Mare]

Let me get this straight. The pound plummets, therefore all Euro-using countries get their price raised?

Slowclap.

The departure of a country that was heavily tied into the European Union is going to have a large impact on Europe.

No, not really.

http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=EUR&to=USD&view=5Y

http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=GBP&to=USD&view=5Y

This before we consider that the services in question are completely worthless. It's a simple database update. They could have been made available automatically from the client. Blizzard just decided to monetize them because why not and decided to bump them up because lol why the fuck not. It's their prerrogative, as is mine to refuse to contribute to it.

 

[cthulhuspawn82]

Race change in Skyrim: Open console, type code, done in seconds.

Race change in WoW: must pay 25 euros.

I cant explain how awesome it would be if someone payed me $30 to type "player.changerace". Heck, I just did it for free.

 

[Tiamat666]

Race change in Skyrim: Open console, type code, done in seconds.

Race change in WoW: must pay 25 euros.

I cant explain how awesome it would be if someone payed me $30 to type "player.changerace". Heck, I just did it for free.

If tens of thousands of Skyrim players started asking you to change their race with the console, you'd start charging for it too.

 

[MHR]

Not 'Murica, don't care.

Also it's WoW and I quit for well thought-out reasons, so I care even less.

And it seems like that's for mostly cosmetic crap where if you planned your character and realm correctly, you wouldn't even want, let alone have to justify such an amount of money for such small things, so I care EVEN LESS.

 

[Alma Mare]

This before we consider that the services in question are completely worthless. It's a simple database update. They could have been made available automatically from the client. Blizzard just decided to monetize them because why not and decided to bump them up because lol why the fuck not. It's their prerrogative, as is mine to refuse to contribute to it.

*Sigh* Economics goes deeper than the value of the Euro. And it's something that I can't be bothered to debate. I just simply don't care enough about this. Hell, if you want to tell the world you won an internet argument, go ahead. Go masturbate over your victory or something.

And the services are monetized to stop abuse in an MMO game. Simple as that. If you don't value the services at the prices they are, then just don't use them. I don't. And guess what? No one's forcing us to buy them, and no one gives a shit that we don't.

Thank you, I don't tend to masturbate over internet debates. That's more along the lines of fanboys. Like the people who'd defend this kind of monetization.

How deep economics go is completely irrelevant. This is not a service that's tied to any real world comodity. Not gas prices, not the Dow Jones, not the yen, not even manpower. It's literally code that could have been automated. If gameplay balance was a concern, they could have hardcoded a limit for these events.

Happy masturbation.

 

[Jandau]

1. The services were overpriced to begin with. Seriously, the price of a brand new AAA game gets you a few quick database changes. There's not much in the way of cost to Blizzard, the only reason these cost as much as they do is because Blizz says so. These services shouldn't be free, I agree on that much, but the prices were too far too high, and are only getting higher.

2. Don't give me the bullshit about it being because of the Pound dropping. If that were the case, Euro prices would stay the same. It's a flimsy justification, at best. And you can bet prices won't be going down if the Dollar drops or the Euro rises. So fuck that noise. Yes, they are a business. Yes, they can set their prices to whatever they damn well please. No, I don't have to cheerfully swallow every PR excuse they throw my way.

3. It's basically down to Blizzard raising prices on their stuff (Hearthstone packs went up as well recently if you recall) because they feel they can leverage their brand into squeezing more money out of their customer base. They feel that the amount of money they'll lose due to customers leaving is smaller than the amount they'll gain due to the increased prices. It's a business move, nothing more. I for one have no intention of purchasing any Blizzard products in the foreseeable future. Granted, that's mostly down to there not being much in the way of actual products to purchase, but that's a different argument...

 

[laggyteabag]

The mere thought that it costs ?9 to change the text that floats above your head, or ?19 to change the server that you log into, or push you through the character creator again, is absolutely baffling.

But then again, this is World of Warcraft, where you have to buy each expansion, pay your subscription fee, and then Blizzard dares to include Microtransactions anyway. Nothing like good old triple-dipping.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

I cant explain how awesome it would be if someone payed me $30 to type "player.changerace". Heck, I just did it for free.

Not according to my lawyer. Pony up the money

OT; Instead of paying money, why not just design and play a new character?