Will WoW ever be F2P?

[Ana]

Sitting here and kinda missing WoW but no money to play it and im still unsecure if i have an internet connection at all after the 1st of march ...

but aaaanyway.. this made me think of the question Will WoW ever be F2P? what do you guyes think?

[Sukurachi]

not as long as it has 11 million paying customers it won't.
I certainly don't foresee WoW becoming F2P any time soon.

[Chimera]

not as long as it has 11 million paying customers it won't.
I certainly don't foresee WoW becoming F2P any time soon.

Im also scared to think of the reactions people might have after paying monthly subs, some for just coming onto a year now to 8+ years.. i personally wouldnt be offended but im scared about other peoples mindsets

But yea ._. i kinda sadly have to agree with Suku. /misses WoW as well

[Thorka]

I don't think so, with the amount of paying customers it has at the moment. Besides, I'm sure making it f2p would cause massive player backlash, seeing as how bad CRZ is. If CRZ made us upset, could you imagine a massive influx of NEW players, possibly griefers / etc. also being let in to play?
While I think it's possible, I don't think it'll happen anytime soon.

Besides, we've already got a f2p til' 20 with limited features. I'm sure being f2p would be sort of a same deal like that.

[Sukurachi]

From my (admittedly limited) experience with F2P games, and from reading up on some forums about them, and talking to other friends who do play them avidly, I see a big difference between Blizzard and the companies that make F2P games.

The most recurrent complaint I've seen of F2P games is lack of content, and poor customer service.

Add to that, having to spend real money to purchase in-game items that are "required" (ie: not simply vanity items) to continue playing the game, and in the long run, F2P loses out, in my opinion.

Blizzard charges, they make money, but they pay STAFF who work on the game all year round, and who answer phones, and online tickets, etc... If Blizz. decided to make WoW F2P, in my mind it is an almost assured thing that both service and content would suffer immensely. WoW would no longer be WoW.

[Lisaara]

Not in a million years, no....and I hope they never do. Suku summed it up. It would destroy WoW, long story short.

[Royi]

They would maybe open up more of the game to FTP ~maybe up to level 40 etc, but it would never be FTP itself. Not until its demise in many many years.

[Eternallylostx]

I don't think so, with the amount of paying customers it has at the moment. Besides, I'm sure making it f2p would cause massive player backlash, seeing as how bad CRZ is. If CRZ made us upset, could you imagine a massive influx of NEW players, possibly griefers / etc. also being let in to play?
While I think it's possible, I don't think it'll happen anytime soon.

Besides, we've already got a f2p til' 20 with limited features. I'm sure being f2p would be sort of a same deal like that.

All of this. ^

Also, it takes way too much money to keep this game up and running. Blizzard has money to, almost literally, piss away. They suck 10-25 dollars from people with mounts and pets, and the extra stuff, paid services, and there would be too many... "not nice" people into the game. If they can't pay $15 for a game, and they just show up for advertising, like in wotLK, I highly doubt it.

[Danielfboone]

No, I don't think it ever will be. The only ones that have gone that way have been ones with under a million subscribers. LOTRO did it and their revenues tripled and the subscriber base actually increased.

[Lisaara]

I don't think so, with the amount of paying customers it has at the moment. Besides, I'm sure making it f2p would cause massive player backlash, seeing as how bad CRZ is. If CRZ made us upset, could you imagine a massive influx of NEW players, possibly griefers / etc. also being let in to play?
While I think it's possible, I don't think it'll happen anytime soon.

Besides, we've already got a f2p til' 20 with limited features. I'm sure being f2p would be sort of a same deal like that.

All of this. ^

Also, it takes way too much money to keep this game up and running. Blizzard has money to, almost literally, piss away. They suck 10-25 dollars from people with mounts and pets, and the extra stuff, paid services, and there would be too many... "not nice" people into the game. If they can't pay $15 for a game, and they just show up for advertising, like in wotLK, I highly doubt it.

Blizz doesn't have money to 'piss away'. It's rather foolish to think so. Like any other business, they have to be wise in their investments. Video game upkeep is expensive. Paying the employees and for the top of the line equipment is expensive. They suffer just as much as anyone else in the economy right now. It drives me batty when I see such statements without any source of info other than mere assumptions because Blizz charges for little things(You're not the first. I see it all the time ingame so this is more of a general annoyance than anything) despite the fact they had employee cuts to save money not too long ago during Cata. They suffer the same fiscal cliff we all do. I wish such a statement wouldn't be said anymore unless there's proof to back that up.

[Eternallylostx]

Blizz doesn't have money to 'piss away'. It's rather foolish to think so. Like any other business, they have to be wise in their investments. Video game upkeep is expensive. Paying the employees and for the top of the line equipment is expensive. They suffer just as much as anyone else in the economy right now. It drives me batty when I see such statements without any source of info other than mere assumptions because Blizz charges for little things(You're not the first. I see it all the time ingame so this is more of a general annoyance than anything) despite the fact they had employee cuts to save money not too long ago during Cata. They suffer the same fiscal cliff we all do. I wish such a statement wouldn't be said anymore unless there's proof to back that up.

I should've put some indication of sarcasm. Sorry about that, I realize they have workers, too. It costs money to run computers, power the HQ, pay all the clients, as well. It's a big business, I don't doubt. The employees, I imagine, have a better then average paycheck. I haven't been to the core of it yet, but I can machine blizzard is a big place, with a lot of people, from janitors to the 'top dog'.

[Lisaara]

Blizz doesn't have money to 'piss away'. It's rather foolish to think so. Like any other business, they have to be wise in their investments. Video game upkeep is expensive. Paying the employees and for the top of the line equipment is expensive. They suffer just as much as anyone else in the economy right now. It drives me batty when I see such statements without any source of info other than mere assumptions because Blizz charges for little things(You're not the first. I see it all the time ingame so this is more of a general annoyance than anything) despite the fact they had employee cuts to save money not too long ago during Cata. They suffer the same fiscal cliff we all do. I wish such a statement wouldn't be said anymore unless there's proof to back that up.

I should've put some indication of sarcasm. Sorry about that, I realize they have workers, too. It costs money to run computers, power the HQ, pay all the clients, as well. It's a big business, I don't doubt. The employees, I imagine, have a better then average paycheck. I haven't been to the core of it yet, but I can machine blizzard is a big place, with a lot of people, from janitors to the 'top dog'.

Oh woops....^^; Apologies then. I still get annoyed by the statement with other people fling it around ingame. You obviously understand it quite well then. But yes! You're 100% correct. Not like they just sit on some giant throne of cash or anything.

[Eternallylostx]

Oh woops....^^; Apologies then. I still get annoyed by the statement with other people fling it around ingame. You obviously understand it quite well then. But yes! You're 100% correct. Not like they just sit on some giant throne of cash or anything.

As am I, I apologize, my mind is elsewhere right now.

/done derailing.

[Myrrmi]

I have played several f2p titles before comming to WoW and I don't think I'll ever go back to them. The most vivid memory common to them all are the equivalents of "Giv monnies nao!" signs on every corner (which, of course, wouldn't go away no matter how much monnies you'd throw at them) and complete lack of any customer support. Damn, entire features were rendered unplayable due to heavy bugs or straightward turned off!
And then add a "community" of kiddos who won't pay for a thing they can have for free, no matter how much they loose on quality (wat iz dat?)

[Castile]

I think it will eventually go f2p when the game finally starts to die off/blizz stops making expansions. Not saying that will be anytime soon but it will have to at some point. No game can live forever! Unless your Pong....cause pong will never die!!

[Zhinru]

I think it will eventually go f2p when the game finally starts to die off/blizz stops making expansions. Not saying that will be anytime soon but it will have to at some point. No game can live forever! Unless your Pong....cause pong will never die!!

I would go as far as to say WoW is the Dune (or Pong) of MMOs. By far not the first, but it established the basics of the genre in popular knowledge. As such, it's not gonna die for very long years. Though by the time I'm 40 it might be far from its peak condition, I will still be hearing about expansions or patches to it.

[Castile]

I think it will eventually go f2p when the game finally starts to die off/blizz stops making expansions. Not saying that will be anytime soon but it will have to at some point. No game can live forever! Unless your Pong....cause pong will never die!!

I would go as far as to say WoW is the Dune (or Pong) of MMOs. By far not the first, but it established the basics of the genre in popular knowledge. As such, it's not gonna die for very long years. Though by the time I'm 40 it might be far from its peak condition, I will still be hearing about expansions or patches to it.

While I agree it won't die in like a year or 2, I don't see it lasting another 10 yrs without going f2p esp when theres quality games like GW2 which are just as good (imo anyway) that don't lock you into $14 a month to play. By then Blizz next gen mmo will be out and I think they will put their efforts into that and let wow slide abit down the priority list.

We are already seeing the frame work for this with CRZ (less servers, less maintanence) and making the game more available to the casual player with Raid Finder, Dungeon Finder etc. As much as I love this game too I don't see it being as content packed 10yrs from now Just my 2 coppers.

[Kalliope]

WoW dropped under 10M subscribers recently too.

[Novikova]

Eh, EQ 1 still gets expacs. So it'll be awhile. Honestly, my interest flagging will probably have me putting it down before it closes down. Kinda eyeballing TOR for giggles.

[Nick]

The fact that we have the F2P up to lvl 20 surprises me still; I wouldn't hold out on them making it any more than that unless something big happens.