WoW moving to Freemium model?

[taolurker]

Found this new snippet on Next Gen Biz

Blizzard Entertainment becomes the latest developer to adopt the increasingly popular freemium model, with World Of Warcraft now available for free until players reach level 20. Limits are also in place on gold and trade skills, while the auction house, mailbox, trading, chat and guilds are unavailable. Should players wish to subscribe when they reach the level cap, the game and its Burning Crusade expansion are available at a discounted price.

I have no idea if this is only a rumor, or speculation, but it definitely sounds like something possible. Hopefully there will be more complete (and concrete) news soon.

[Mrbloodworth]

Sounds feasible. Not what I would call F2P though.

[Malakili]

When did having a demo for a game become a switch to free to play.

[Yegolev]

[taolurker]

I was still looking for confirmation and posted this quick... but yeah putting F2P in the thread title was probably not correct. Edited title to correctly reflect snippet's info.

[Rasix]

How is a trial "freemium"?  I think they're misapplying the terminology here.

[kildorn]

So they have an unlimited duration trial coming?

That seems.. like barely news?

[taolurker]

So they have an unlimited duration trial coming?

That seems.. like barely news?

That's probably why the only mention I could find was a tiny snippet. I still have no idea if this is confirmed as true though.

[Merusk]

It's a general tech blogger misunderstanding a specific segment tech release and throwing buzzwords at it to generate page hits.  As they usually do.

Though, to be fair to them, the MCV article they cite as a reference has it TOTALLY wrong, also in the interest of page hits, as their headline is "WOW now F2P"  The meat of the article covers as much as our thread covering the topic. "OH, trial is now forever and you canget up to level 20 but then have to buy."

[Sheepherder]

They lifted the time limitation on the demo they've had running for at least a year, and now it's freemium?  Wat?

[Mrbloodworth]

Relevant:

World of Warcraft Starter Edition Account FAQ

[SurfD]

Yeah, they aren't going F2P, all they did was change the "trial account" (caps out at level 20, lots of restrictions to prevent Spammer / Farmer abuse) so that it has no expire date on it.

[Ingmar]

Yeah, they aren't going F2P, all they did was change the "trial account" (caps out at level 20, lots of restrictions to prevent Spammer / Farmer abuse) so that it has no expire date on it.

They also unlocked TBC for everyone who only owned the base game, and lowered the price of base game+TBC to $20.

[LK]

It's OK. People fuck up what a Beta is all the time, I'm sure Freemium is joining the ranks.

[sinij]

I kept wondering what Bliz going to do to mask account drop due to Cata and 4.2 cancellations... well now we know. They simply stop closing trail accounts to get "growth" .

Circling the drain.

[kildorn]

I kept wondering what Bliz going to do to mask account drop due to Cata and 4.2 cancellations... well now we know. They simply stop closing trail accounts to get "growth" .

Circling the drain.

Err, aren't account numbers usually listed as "paying subscribers", which doesn't include demo users?

I mean, not to rain on your parade or anything.

[caladein]

Err, aren't account numbers usually listed as "paying subscribers", which doesn't include demo users?

Yes, at least right now.

From http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/press/pressreleases.html?id=2847812:

World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules.

[Ingmar]

They also unlocked TBC for everyone who only owned the base game

This part has apparently caused a number of level 60 twinks to accidentally level to 61, causing wailing and gnashing of teeth.

[proudft]

That is hilarious. 

[caladein]

I assume that they hadn't actually XP locked and instead just relied on not having the expansion to keep them from leveling?  Or am I missing something?

[Ingmar]

I assume that they hadn't actually XP locked and instead just relied on not having the expansion to keep them from leveling?  Or am I missing something?

Yep. And when they go to the NPC where you turn off leveling, they're dinging from exploration XP. 

[Nevermore]

Zero sympathy.  They were doing that so they could twink and still be in the same pool as the XP-on people.  Fuck 'em.  Their tears sustain me!

[Amaron]

Zero sympathy.  They were doing that so they could twink and still be in the same pool as the XP-on people.  Fuck 'em.  Their tears sustain me!

No they basically fixed that a little bit ago.   All the battlegroups were merged and the brackets were re-arranged so they started at 60 instead of ending at 60.    I'm a bit confused what they are miffed about.

[Kail]

I'm a bit confused what they are miffed about.

Especially since, at 60 and without the BC expansion, they're going to get their asses kicked by anyone with Outland gear.  I guess you can hunt down some BoE Outlands gear on the AH, but it seems to defeat the point of twinking when you have to put in way more money and effort to gear up to match the lowest level of gear available to your opponents, and you still end up weaker than someone who's run Ramparts a few times.

[Nevermore]

60s in full vanilla epics can easily beat 64s in BC greens.  There was this one guy I saw when leveling up sporting a legendary.  The health pools especially of the twinks were pretty crazy.

[Fordel]

The level 60 Field Marshal/Warlord PvP gear will take you all the way to 70 pretty much and it's VERY affordable with the current honor/price range.

It will also make you a God among mortals in any level appropriate BG.

[Lantyssa]

Since they couldn't level, I'm guessing they were in the general PvP pool instead of the locked twink pool?

Making them level off the exploration xp going to turn it off is delightfully funny.

[Amaron]

60s in full vanilla epics can easily beat 64s in BC greens. 

Before the change all the twinks wore BC greens.   I guess the point is more that any attempt to pick well thought out gear for PVP is going to be better than leveling greens.

Making them level off the exploration xp going to turn it off is delightfully funny.

That makes no sense still.   If they have to go past 60 then they might as well go to 64 and turn off XP.   There is zero reason to stay 60 with the XP turned off.

[Ingmar]

There are some vanilla raiding guilds around on a few servers, maybe the complainers were coming from one of those? I dunno.

[Lantyssa]

Making them level off the exploration xp going to turn it off is delightfully funny.

That makes no sense still.   If they have to go past 60 then they might as well go to 64 and turn off XP.   There is zero reason to stay 60 with the XP turned off.

Well, their first thought is probably "oh gods, turn xp off" because they're more scared of leveling than the realization that turning it off keeps them out of the general PvP pool.  They can't really win either way, but panic and rage tend to make people not think.  Their helplessness is what makes me laugh.

[Zetor]

At least in the 70s and 80s, leveling from x0 to x4 gets you a lot of hp, some talent points, some skills. However, it seriously nerfs your crit, ap, and I think resil. It's probably still worth it, but there's a tradeoff...

Depending on how arena and RBGs work, the ladders may only work for 70/80 as well. I remember some random level70 priest getting gladiator in WOTLK and the gnashing of teeth that followed.

I also find the xp-on 60 twinks dinging a bit of poetic justice :p (they used to converge in AV before cata, since the bracket was x1-x0 there still)

[WindupAtheist]

Wait, I barely know how the stats work in this game anymore, but what do you mean leveling nerfs your crit? Isn't the % shown your chance of critting something your own level, and thus it's not the crit going down but the level going up?

[Sjofn]

The higher level you are, the more rating you need for 1% of whatever, basically. So you'll go up a level, and your rating didn't, so your crit goes down.

[SurfD]

The higher level you are, the more rating you need for 1% of whatever, basically. So you'll go up a level, and your rating didn't, so your crit goes down.

This is it, essentially.

It is compounded somewhat by the fact that at different level "blocks" the rating requirements for 1% of a stat (crit, haste, hit, etc) jump signifigantly.  For example, leveling from 79 to 80 might see a change something like going from needing 100 crit rating to needing 105 crit rating to get 1% crit.  However, level 81-85 is a completely new tax bracket, and leveling from level 80 to level 81 could see you going from 105 crit rating to 150 crit rating per 1% crit.

I remember my boomkin (in pretty much full ICC gear with a few heroic pieces) lost almost 7 to 9% crit per level up going from level 80 to 83 ish before i started heavily replacing stuff with dungeon / quest rewards.

Started out at something like 50% crit, 40% haste, ended up at like 15% crit 20% haste by time i was level 84ish.

which is often why you saw decked out level 80's smokeing level 82 / 83 players in the early dungeon pugs on the damage meters, because the level 80's hadnt been bitchslapped by the rating hit of leveling up once or twice yet.

[Malakili]

The higher level you are, the more rating you need for 1% of whatever, basically. So you'll go up a level, and your rating didn't, so your crit goes down.

This is it, essentially.

It is compounded somewhat by the fact that at different level "blocks" the rating requirements for 1% of a stat (crit, haste, hit, etc) jump signifigantly.  For example, leveling from 79 to 80 might see a change something like going from needing 100 crit rating to needing 105 crit rating to get 1% crit.  However, level 81-85 is a completely new tax bracket, and leveling from level 80 to level 81 could see you going from 105 crit rating to 150 crit rating per 1% crit.

I remember my boomkin (in pretty much full ICC gear with a few heroic pieces) lost almost 7 to 9% crit per level up going from level 80 to 83 ish before i started heavily replacing stuff with dungeon / quest rewards.

Started out at something like 50% crit, 40% haste, ended up at like 15% crit 20% haste by time i was level 84ish.

which is often why you saw decked out level 80's smokeing level 82 / 83 players in the early dungeon pugs on the damage meters, because the level 80's hadnt been bitchslapped by the rating hit of leveling up once or twice yet.

Yeah, same thing with healers.  At level 83 suddenly the spells are way more expensive and your regen is shit, so its harder to heal the same dungeons at 83 than it was at 82.  At least that was my experience, and I heard some other people in my guild saying the same thing.   

Its been this way since Burning Crusade actually (or more accurately, patch 2.0), because they released leaving flat % on items was going to cause serious inflation. It just seems that this expansion was one of the more brutal curves in terms of the rating needed, possibly because its only over 5 levels instead of 10?