WoW Goes Free Forever (Except Not)

[Jester00]

gonna give it a try.

 

[John Funk]

I think WoW is going to be forced to go free soon enough, I believe one of the higher ups in Blizzard actually once said that if he market changed enough and they got good competition they would likely go free to play.

In the next couple of years the game is going to be bombarded from several different directions by new and decent looking MMOs, I actually didn't even realise how many until a few days ago.

Incoming MMOs:

Star Wars: The Old Republic
Guild Wars 2
Archeage (this one looks very interesting, still not certain about it yet but definitely something i'll be keeping an eye on)
TERA

And of course Rift is already here and doing fairly well for itself.

I doubt it'll go F2P soon, although they'd probably make more money by doing so.

About 8 million of their subscribers are from China which still hasn't gotten the 3rd expansion yet.

The 3 million NA players are a chunk but certainly not the bulk. I think WoW will just slowly deteoriate then stabilize.

It's actually about 5.5 million China, 6.5 million US/EU split.

 

[Jumwa]

It was just before Cataclysm hit that John Funk was interviewing Ghostcrawler and he cockily bragged that he didn't think WoW would ever need to flirt with Free-to-play like those other lesser MMOs.

How things can change so quickly.

 

[Zaverexus]

I'll wait 'til its free to get sucked back into that.
And even then I would never play as much as I used to, if at all.

Sorry Blizzard, the old charm is gone for me now.

 

[Flutterguy]

Level-capping yourelf puts you in BG queues that take days, and you cannot twink without BoA gear anymore its simply not as efficient even if your in all blues a guy w/ 3 BoA's (requires an 80+ to get these on the same account) he will still wreck you. RPers can rejoice I suppose but I mean really who RPs anyways.

 

[OneOfTheMichael's]

Well I've always been an avid WoW player and have been urging my friends to give it a try, so now is a better term that they might accept it on since the aren't always on the computer. But I will wait until a day when WoW is totally free, until then I will continue to play multitudes of games and play wow when i feel the need to.

 

[mrdude2010]

oh god first it was hat fortress 2


now it shall be

WORLD OF HATCRAFT dun DUN dunnnnnnn

 

[twm1709]

Considering all MMOs are going free to play, Blizzard probably expects this strategy + the WoW brand's strenght will lure customers away from the competition.

 

[Reincarnatedwolfgod]

i am not going to even try the game. mmo's are not my style considered i have to pay every month and also i am better off resisting crack in the form of a game even if 20 levels are free

 

[Twilight_guy]

If WoW was free to play I might try it. The biggest hindrance for me on playing games like this has been that I'm a cheap bastard and letting me play while only charging for the good stuff might change my mind. I don't know if Blizzard will ever go for it but then again I never expected hats to turn TF2 F2P either so I could be wrong. Its a strange new world we're in today.

 

[Lyri]

Good job blizz, I hope this hastens the death of the subscription model. Just introduce microransactions and be done with it.

I'm failing to see what's so terrible with subscription models other than people whining that "it's too expensive".
Which is just a terrible excuse all around.
Care to elaborate?

 

[Dr. Pepper Unlimited]

no can do. I fear digital crack cocaine.

Same. I don't dare walk into the beast's lair.

 

[Fursnake]

I played WoW when it first came out (like I do with many MMO's) ansd moved on after three months.
I tried the free trial out a few months ago and was done with it in three hours.

It did and still does look and feel like the Disney of MMO's...no thanks.

 

[DeltaWolfson]

F-ing Hell, about time. I always wanted to try it but not the 14 trial though.

 

[Feralcentaur]

Hmmmm...
I wonder how much content I can wring out of this game for free when there's a 20 level cap?
If I were to make a different character for every class and Race combination... hehehe...

 

[The Great JT]

There aren't enough hats in any game to give TF2 a fair shake.

Interesting little shakeup of the trial service, though, Blizz. Hope it pays off.

 

[tehweave]

I WAS FREE! I WAS FREE YOU IMBECILES! I HAVEN'T PLAYED THE GAME SINCE JANUARY AND NOW I CAN GET TO 20 FOR FREE? NOOOOO!

(cries)

Alright... I'll start up my account again.

Resist it or all is doomed! But seriously your not going to get much this game is still a skinner box in disguise. I'm glad to leave it behind and get onto something else.

I agree in many ways. You can play the game and have a life, but barely progress, or progress, but never get anything else done. It's pretty much exactly like a skinner box with small elements of "a plot" or "a straightforward path from point A to dungeon C."

But... I want to play... That itch...

Minecraft is fun, and I'm building some cool structures, and I keep getting cool games off the steam sales, and I've got some decent handhelds...

But that itch...

It's only level 20, right? Not much there, I would just get to experience the opening areas...

NO. STAY AWAY DEMON!

HISSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Blizzard finally learning the art of handing out free crack

Actually got itchy feet for WoW couple of days ago, so I decided to sign up for a trial and just see whats new, but luckily that whole system is shite, after 2 full days and several hundred update downloads it had over 15G on my hard drive and still going, but atleast they let you start playing at the 15G mark.
So then I hop in and sign on only to get a "this is not a battle.net account", so I go back to their site and apparently a WoW trial account is not battle.net account that you would need to play the trial... what the shit, so you already haveto have battle.net accounts to merge with those before it's playable... so I just said fuck it, this silliness is not worth my time.

And I honestly don't know what I was thinking, this shit obsessed me for years, so thank you bliz for chasing me away.

 

[JMeganSnow]

Between this and the faltering subscription numbers [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111281-WoW-Veterans-Get-a-Free-Game-for-a-Friend]. That the game is still going strong after six years is kind of incredible, but there's serious competition on the horizon in the form of The Old Republic.

IIIII wouldn't be too hasty in calling TOR "serious" competition for WoW. I'm going to hold off on any judgments regarding TOR looking "cool" until it comes OUT.

 

[JohnSmith8976]

They're just trying to milk every last dollar they can from the gaming community before Guild Wars 2 comes out and proves Once And For All that great MMORPG's don't require monthly subscription fees. Suddenly, all WOW users are waking up & saying "Hey! Why can I play this brand new Epic game for free & I'm still shelling out dollars for WOW? WTF!".