• rickdg@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Take your money and spend it somewhere else. That’s the only sound corporations can hear.

    • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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      11 months ago

      You’re taking about wow. That’s like telling a junkie not to buy their next fix.

      • PM_ME_YOUR_ZOD_RUNES@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        Tell me about it. This was a long time ago but I remember one of my friends couldn’t even go a day without doing his dailies. He wasn’t even interested in WoW anymore, he was playing a bunch of other games. But he absolutely had to login every day just to do his dailies then log out and play the game he actually wanted to play.

        This went on for months. When we asked him why, he would just say he didn’t want to miss out and fall behind. Bro, you aren’t even interested in the game anymore…

        • Neil@lemmy.ml
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          11 months ago

          When i was a teenager I played for legitimately 15 hours at least per day. I wasted my life for two years on that game. It was absolutely all I cared about. I missed being there for my grandfather’s death. I decided to play instead of sitting with my dog that had a herniated disc in his back (had to be put down the next day) and plenty of other life events. I feel like a piece of shit looking back on it, but it was a real addiction.

          Then one day my stupid little character was standing in Orgrimmar and I realized I had nothing left to do, and it was all just a waste of time. I don’t play games anymore. To some people they are fun time wasters, but to people like me they are a disease.

          • Jerkface@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            I just wanted to show some appreciation for sharing your experience. Speaking candidly about difficult subjects really can help people.

          • Fungah@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            I don’t game much either there’s days.

            I want to though. Nothing holds my interest like it used to. When a fromsoft game or a deep crpg comes out that isn’t made by Larian I love every minute of getting sucked in but it’s all over too quick and I’d rather play checkers with the wall than pull the lever on another digital skinner box. It doesn’t appeal. It never did. Fuck off.

        • _dev_null@lemmy.zxcvn.xyz
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          11 months ago

          This is what I’ve been doing with Eve Online for about 10 years. I login every couple months just to make sure my training queue isn’t empty. I don’t even know how to pilot any of the ships I’m trained in now.

      • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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        11 months ago

        Hey, I finally kicked my WoW habit.

        I mean I started FFXIV right after, but it’s a start!

        • Evotech@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Just keep it to one character. FFXIV gates your reward endgame. You can’t just farm as much as you want. So you don’t have to spend too much time keeping up.

          But if you start running multiple high level characters you have a problem.

  • Yewb@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I didnt fall for it with diablo 4 this time, all my friends that blasted through it in a week are no longer playing and I can buy it when its $20 if at all.

    Tired of anything from Activision blizzard at this point.

    • ramblinguy@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      I had such hopium for diablo 4, but they just made the game worse with every patch. It was decently fun when it launched, but they introduced more tedium into everything each patch. Plus when the new season started and you had to do everything over again, it killed my enjoyment of the game

  • Metal Zealot@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    Poor Blizzard, they must be failing on hard times, after being bought for 69 billion dollars

    • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      If they didn’t stop from abusive micro transactions, half-ass launches, mocking players about mobile phones, overworked devs, a sexist frat boy culture, women leaving over sexual abuse, or a employee who committed suicide (!)… then nothing will.

      • Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        The average player doesnt know about any of this. The average player doesnt think about these things. The average player is not you or me.

        • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
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          11 months ago

          WoW has micro transactions, including: level boost, several exclusive cosmetics (mounts, armors, weapons), exclusive pets.

          You can also buy game time with cash and resell it for gold, so an indirect and limited cash for power, too. I know these have been around at least since BfA, dunno if Legion already had them

    • William@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Not only that, this is by design. They want their early testers to be a small group of people who are heavily invested in the game, both mentally and financially.

      Sure, a lot of people are going to be mad about being “excluded”, but how many of them are going to actually boycott the expansion when it releases because of it? The ones are maddest are the ones who most want to play it and are unlikely to walk away.

      There was always going to be a small group of players that got to play it before the majority of the playerbase. The only difference is the $90, and that price is well worth it to a lot of the big fans.

  • JokeDeity@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    What I don’t get is what made 2023 the year of the cut brakes? Seems like every corporation has decided to just go full fucking tilt on pushing their consumers to the edge of what they’re willing to put up with and they have ZERO shame about any of it.

    • kandoh@reddthat.com
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      11 months ago

      High consumer spending keeping the economy afloat against the predicted recession that never materialized. Companies figured they could start charging more and get away with it.

            • Paradachshund@lemmy.today
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              11 months ago

              The company will, but from what I’ve seen the decision makers find ways to ensure they still get paid just as much or nearly as much, usually by laying people off and screwing over customers even more.

              These companies are purely short term focused. They don’t look to the long term and they don’t care about the company’s stability far into the future. It’s all about hitting the next financial target no matter what.

              • im sorry i broke the code@sh.itjust.works
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                11 months ago

                Yeah but if you enter a recession, your earnings will be much less. Even if you fire most of your staff, you won’t earn shit anyway.

                So causing a recession seems like a very dumb idea

                • Paradachshund@lemmy.today
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                  11 months ago

                  I agree with you, but from what I’ve seen large corporations don’t. That’s all I can say, and this is all just anecdotal.

    • 1984@lemmy.today
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      11 months ago

      Profits going down I guess. People save money when inflation is crazy, and if the company profits go down, their stocks go down also. If that happens, leadership may be replaced etc etc.

      Ive cancelled most of my subs because they didn’t even provide enough value before the price hikes.

      So the people who remain and who are fine with paying YouTube or Netflix, they will have to pay more to support higher profits.

      Probably in 2030, people will both pay and watch lots of ads since that gives maximum profits. Pretty much how cable TV went.

    • Kurros@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      I agree with regards to other studios but, activision blizzard has had no shame for a while, not a new thing at all.

  • Smokeydope@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Can’t wait for them do do it anyways and all the fans cave in because ‘muh social escapism’ gamers have some of the weakest spines, the most important point of boycotting g isn’t being loud and whiney its to NOT BUY THE PRODUCT FOR FUCKS SAKE.

  • eoddc5@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I’m not defending it, or blizzard, and reading the title sounded yucky

    But my quick understanding:

    Expansion costs $50

    Next level is $70 which comes with digital stuff, mounts, etc

    Top tier expansion is $90, which comes with even more stuff

    So a $40 difference from base or $20 from mid tier

    It also comes with 30 days of game time, so that’s $15

    Now we’re looking at $25 difference between base game. Or $5 difference between mid and top tier.

    So it’s really like $5 for more digital stuff and early access, right?

    It would have been better to just make two tiers. Charge $75 for everything including early access and don’t include game time. Cause subscribers are going to pay for that anyway. I guess because a month of access is hardly worth $15 operationally, it’s a nice way to up charge

    I haven’t bought anything wow related in like 8 years. So I don’t have a horse in this fight. The title is just a little click bait (I don’t think anyone thought it’s $90 for only early access, and assume it’s part of a $90 game cost)

    • Gerbler@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      It’s not early access. It’s late access if you don’t pony up the extra.

      • eoddc5@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Release date is whatever. It’s irrelevant what the date is. It’s set by the company.

        If you can play on X date and everyone else on y. Then you’re playing earlier than the rest

        Arguing otherwise is pointless

        Essentially it’s $5 for early access over the mid tier. Or $15 more over the base tier. Plus a ton of other stuff included with that up charge.

        • Junesong@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          I think the point they are making is a game like wow, if you start days later then everyone else then you are behind them. It’s not like a single player game, if you’re friends are doing end game and your stuck leveling, it sucks. Therefore everyone feels foreced to get early access.

  • VintageTech@sh.itjust.works
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    11 months ago

    I 100% understand the need to charge for these services, but how much profit this IP has generated should have secured all funding for future expansions and more economical pricing.

    Subs should drop to $5mo with expansions starting off at $20ea. Hell make the “Classic” servers F2P.

    I’m gonna make my own mmo, with a TCG and Furries.

    • mindbleach@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      I’m almost disgusted by the people insisting ‘it’s expensive, they need the money.’

      They’ve made ten bucks a month, per player, for twenty straight years. Plus the price of a whole new game for every incremental expansion. How much more money does another expansion need?

      • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
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        11 months ago

        It’s not about reinvesting into the quality of future games, it’s about getting a good financial quarter to please the shareholders. Welcome to infinite growth.

  • jcdenton@lemy.lol
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    11 months ago

    Why do mmo’s always have the best trailers but the shittiest graphics?

    • Squirrel@thelemmy.club
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      11 months ago

      So it’s more accessible. You don’t need to upgrade your PC regularly to play an MMO.

      Beyond that, WoW is very stylized, and it’s far from ugly. No, it’s not realistic looking, but it is nice looking.

      • jcdenton@lemy.lol
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        11 months ago

        You know what age is beautiful stylized and can run on anything? The greatest game every made Deus Ex

    • tilgare@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      11 months ago

      I’m not sure if you have checked out WoW lately, but it’s actually a pretty beautiful game. I think generally they want the tech specs to be a low barrier to entry for a game where they want millions of players playing concurrently. It also cannot be super heavy or things like raids and battlegrounds would chug.

      • medgremlin@lemmy.sdf.org
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        11 months ago

        One thing that Blizzard has always been good about it making games that can run on a potato. It’ll look like crap and your view distance will be obnoxiously short, but you can run WoW on a potato of a laptop and still participate in the core gameplay. Obviously, there’s lots of options to crank up the graphics to 11/10 if you have a powerful computer, but I really appreciate that they lower the hardware barrier to entry where they can.

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      EvE Online used to win Best Graphics of the year frequently. I dunno if they still do. They’re also the only MMO that I know of to use in game footage for their trailers. It would be nice if the gameplay was decent.

    • warmaster@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      So they can run on toasters AND spend the least on making the game?

      “It’s win-win” -shareholders

  • Bricked@lemdro.id
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    11 months ago

    Who pre purchases this early? The release date is “on or before December 31, 2024. Lol

  • qwertyWarlord@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Oh who cares anymore. Blizzard is going to do it, the players are going to lap it up with a smile. Just let it be and move on if it’s not for you

    • Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      Yup. Stop playing Blizzard shit, you assholes. They don’t care about you, in fact, they don’t care about anything but money.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    World of Warcraft: The War Within was announced alongside two other expansions as part of the Worldsoul Saga at BlizzCon 2023, and first impressions from players seem to be pretty positive, with one notable exception: nobody’s happy about the idea of paying $90 for three days of early access to the new content.

    There are three ways to purchase The War Within. You can get the $50 base edition, or you can upgrade to the $70 heroic edition if you want access to a bonus mount and transmog set. Or, if you want even more digital goodies, you can grab the $90 epic edition, which includes some other tchotchkes, plus 30 days of game time, guaranteed access to the beta, and three days worth of early access to the expansion itself.

    It’s three days early, and the $90 includes a bunch of other stuff.

    If you don’t want to pay it, don’t.

    The only downside in the article is other people might get it. The less people who buy it the less it matters

    So just have guilds boycott it

    • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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      11 months ago

      Three days headstart if you’re playing competitively is huge. Is this preaccess going to allow people to start leveling? If so literally all hardcore guilds will require it from their raiders.

      • Sydius@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        If they do things like they have for the last few expansions, neither raids, neither ranked pvp, neither mythic+ will be available in the first 2 weeks or more.

        Realistically you will have more than enough time to level a character to max, maybe even two.

        It still doesn’t make it right, or acceptable, but it’s more than enough to bash Blizzard for being greedy.

        • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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          11 months ago

          Gotcha, I haven’t played for many years by now so didn’t know, back in my days the race started the moment the xpac released, from what I remembered. That still leaves things like realm first top level achievements and stuff like that, no?

          • Sydius@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            I think the last time realm first achievements were a thing (for anything other than raids) was in Lich king, but I might be mistaken.

            Since I wrote my previous comment, I thought about it, and there are advantages for starting earlier. Reaching max level gives you access to world quests, which can be a source of gear and reputation. It also leaves you more time to complete the weekly objectives before the next reset. If I recall correctly, last time (the launch of Dragonflight) you got an item you can use to increase the power of a piece of crafted gear.

            For the average player it doesn’t really matter, but for the world first racers, it might.

    • Lemmygizer@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Yup. Headline is a bit misleading. But I guess saying $40 extra which includes a $10 game time voucher and guaranteed beta access doesn’t grab attention the same way.