Is WoW worth it after all the hype?

[Zarathustra]

I'd have to say the issue of support is a big one for me.



*Warning! Zar is about to utter some blasphemy! Not for the faint of heart!*








The support of D2 left a bad taste in my mouth.

Perhaps I had just misinterpreted during developement, and the full round of betas, but I was under the impression that there would be a lot more added over time in the way of crafting and runewords. What I saw in my years of playing the game was an actual DECREASE in such (anyone remember class-specific crafts?)*

Now, later on they did remedy this problem to a certain extent, adding new runewords (realmside) and basically overhauling the entire game to add the synergy aspect. But there was an overwhelming feeling of "too little, too late."

Don't get me wrong. Anyone who's known me on the Lounge knows I loved Diablo & D2, and I had literally years of enjoyment playing them. But I felt there was more service promised than received. That said, I am still hopeful for WoW since it is a p2p game. Time will tell if that hope was well founded.

*Note: Anyone around here remember my Personalized, Crafted, +2 Druid Skills ring? :D

[--Pete]

Hi,

We are talking about World of Warcraft, right? The MMORPG? I mean, "but you have to play it online", is pretty much a given. But I agree with you about the unfairness of having to pay a premium for the box *and* having to pay a monthly fee. A fair way of packaging would be something like a three month pre-paid subscription plus a nominal sum (say, $10US) for the media and manual. An option for free download of the media and manual with a pre-paid subscription would also be attractive.

However "Blizzard could have increased the original price in order to make it free online once for all." is foolish. A number of people have mentioned that they were disappointed in the amount of material added to D2 over its lifespan. What they are overlooking is tha Blizzard did not *owe* them any additional material (except, possibly, bug fixes). WoW (and any MMOG) is based on a different model. The underlying idea is that there will be a constant influx of new material. It is this new material (and, of course, the expense of maintaining the servers and bandwidth) that the monthly fee pays for.

One can argue (and many have) about what a 'fair' monthly fee is. I doubt that there is any one good answer -- some things, like new content, have an expense independent of number of users. Others, like servers and bandwidth, scale with users, but not necessarrily linearly.

Ultimately, each person has to decide for him/herself what the game is worth. If it is worth less than Blizzard ask, then one is under no compulsion to buy.

--Pete

EDIT: Actually, after thinking it over, I think a premium for the box plus the subscription may be justified. I gave my reasons above for why I think some monthly fee is justified. Largely it was to buy new content. However, if the monthly fee covers operations and new content, that leaves all the pre-release development unpaid for. And it is this development that one is paying for when one buys the box, just as one does when buying any game box. So, while the amounts charged for the box and for the subscription are open to debate, the need for both those charges is, I think, self evident to any rational person. The choice of whether to buy or not is still a personal decision.

[whyBish]

EDIT:  Actually, after thinking it over, I think a premium for the box plus the subscription may be justified.  I gave my reasons above for why I think some monthly fee is justified.
[right][snapback]63052[/snapback][/right]

On pricing, you will note that the monthly prices set are not guaranteed to stay the same, whereas the box price is determined at the time you buy.

This means that those people who work out that WoW is just worth it based on X months/years of playing may kick themselves if Blizzard introduces a price hike (and vice versa of course :) )

[Mavfin]

IMHO, the most likely 'adjustment' to monthly charges would be if the competition was trying to undercut Blizzard's prices. Market conditions and all that......