Blizzard jumped the shark

[RD]

I think that's pretty standard these days: I believe EQ packages all previous expansions with their latest expansions.

[Alaris]

Well, in Blizzard's case, only the races are included (and their starting areas). Which means you still need to pay for the expansions to get access to higher level content or the new classes (monk & death knight).

[Raye]

I'd just say that blizzard is likely just afraid of gw2's likely success. They're just trying to make folks linger in WoW for a bit longer.

Delaying the inevitable imho

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus.

[Alaris]

I remember Blizzard congratulating SWTOR for a well-made game around the time it launched. I think they knew it would tank, and so their praise in retrospect might have been sarcasm, and a way to re-affirm their position.

I don't hear them praising GW2.

[nkuvu]

So, Blizzard. What's up with all the free stuff lately?

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/08/17/wo...r-all-players/

Not a bad marketing move for Blizzard if you ask me. They had already bundled Burning Crusade in with the vanilla game, but if you wanted to play as a goblin or worgen you'd have to have Cataclysm. And to get that, you'd also need to have Wrath of the Lich King (whether or not you were interested in playing a Death Knight).

So someone who doesn't have the game says "hey I want to play as a goblin because they're awesome!" Not only would they be correct as that's the best race in WoW, they'd have to buy the game and two expansions plus the monthly fee. That's a pretty cost prohibitive barrier to entry. Contrast this with someone who either didn't care about race, or wanted to play a stinky human. All they'd need to buy would be the base game, plus monthly fee, and they could go pretty far just with that.

I can easily see a lot of people wanting to pick up the game for the first time just to play a panda. But the cost for that... base game, three expansions and the monthly fee... oof. I can see a lot of people holding off on that decision.

You still have exclusive things like professions and areas and level cap, so there's still reason to buy the expansions. Win all around for Blizzard, provided that people are interested in the game in the first place.

[Alaris]

Meanwhile, death knight still requires you to by up to WotLK, *and* level *something else* to 55.

[Смерть]

I remember Blizzard congratulating SWTOR for a well-made game around the time it launched. I think they knew it would tank, and so their praise in retrospect might have been sarcasm, and a way to re-affirm their position.

I don't hear them praising GW2.

Hahaha

[nkuvu]

I don't think that's a huge detriment.

If someone walks into the game and wants to play a death knight, they will be a little disappointed because they have to level to 55 first. But given the way the death knights start the game, I think it'd be a very large rewrite to try to bring them back to starter areas.

I don't know if you ever did play a death knight (and I suspect that many others here haven't) so I'll just mention that they start at level 55. They have a special instanced area where they go through a number of quests, until they're level 57 or 58, and then they go back to the capital city of their faction. Starting a death knight at level 1 wouldn't make sense for the lore (these are fighters chosen by the Lich King to be champions in his own army) and they'd have to re-work a large number of skills, and... not much benefit for the time and cost involved.

Locking the professions per expansion still makes some sense for Blizzard, obviously they want people to buy the expansions.

[Alaris]

I got bored before I ever hit level 55, so yeah, no death knight for me. I understand why they did that, but I still find it meh.

[sorudo]

i just don't get why they limit free players to lvl 20, they can just as much make limits within the max level cap.
besides, they have more money per month then any game company has per year, it really doesn't hurt to much to make it like a proper freemium game.