So how would you steer the Blizzard Flagship?

Hey,

I'm just jotting up my next blog entry where I encourage you guys to share what you would do if you had control of the WoW franchise.

I've already shared my ideas so this thread is for you guys to contribute your own, if they're good enough maybe Stomp could feature them on the show somewhere

Have fun!!

Emeny.

Regarding your first option, I'd actually thought that would be a great idea, but reversed. Still charge the monthly fee, perhaps offering a lowered rate after a year of play or something, but make the game free to download while charging only for the Collector's Edition. I think the potential is there for Blizz to make even more money on that model, because they'd get more people trying the game out and not having to do anything to start their account as a normal account. I dunno. Seems like a good model to tempt a few more people to try the game.

I may add more ideas if I think of some.

While your ideas would make the game "better" for the user, they would make the game much more difficult to maintain and grow for the developer. Game development costs money - plain and simple. Game development for WoW costs a LOT of money. Think about all the new content that comes at no extra charge every time we get a content patch. Ulduar wasn't free. Your monthly subscription fees pay for things like developers salaries, server maintenance, hardware upgrades & repairs, and even things like custodial services & utilities for the Blizzard facilities. That's right - cut out the monthly subscription for WoW and a janitor could lose his job. And for what? So that people like me & you can have an extra 15 bucks a month to blow on lunch at Chipotle instead of leftovers, or another Barbie/GI-Joe for our kids? No thank you.

WoW has charged $15/month to play for over four years now, and they because the most successful MMO ever doing that. They've brought players top-quality product from day 1. I, for one, will gladly fork over my half-hour's wage for yet another month of doing something I really like with people I really like in a medium that I really like.

Now, that being said, your point about Classic servers has a lot of merit. That discussion always has. Many people who want classic servers have even said they'd pay a small premium to do so. I would agree that it would be a totally feasible thing for Blizzard to undertake, and even then I don't think it would really be that much of an undertaking. Unfortunately the only things you can do are those that have already been done - i.e. forum posts, blogs, GM tickets, etc. Maybe someday they'll come 'round, eh?

MOVE FORWARD!

I want to see real story development!

The plot of WoW so far has mostly been fixing issues brought up in Vanilla WoW or WC3.

I want Blizzard to finally make Warcraft 4 and make some serious moves in story development.

What do you think WC2 players thought when they saw the Scourge for the first time? It'd had never even entered their minds! How about a "good" Horde? Or a demon invasion? There were many, MANY, leaps in story development in WC3, and still more in Early WoW. Now we're just fixing the demon problem, the Lich King problem, and soon the Emerald Nightmare and Naga problems.

We need a WC4 RTS to move the story along. Tear factions apart. Perhaps a split between the Theramore humans and the Stormwind humans, or the Orcs that follow Thrall's mindset and the orcs that subscribe to Garrosh's.

But just make some real movement in the overall story. We practically know what's happening for the next two expansions, I want to be hit with something I don't see coming.

Moving the story along is a great idea, wish I'd thought of that!!

The events at the Wrathgate throw up some tempting options to play with. Imagine if the Forsaken broke away from the Horde and became their own faction!

In terms of PvP it would probably suck to be picked on by both Horde and Alliance, but I'm sure something could be worked out. After all, the Undead are likely to be the most popular race chosen on the horde side so they would certainly have numbers to play with.

As for the sub. fees Chavez, this was only my day dreaming nothing more I don't quite buy into the idea though that people at Bliz would lose their jobs if sub fees were scrapped, no matter how low down the ladder they may be. As suggested already, look at Guild Wars. A completely free to play MMO from day one and the game is a huge success. I doubt anyone at NCSoft fears for their job and judging by the continued development of this franchise and other titles under their brand there's plenty of cash left over for innovation.

I'm sure our sub. fees in WoW do fund a lot and I don't begrudge Blizzard the cash (except on days when the servers crash) but it's short sighted to think they couldn't manage if they were put aside. There are plenty of ways for a game to make money and my suggestion didn't rule out things like micro transactions etc.

There are plenty of good reasons not to adopt these things, but hell I was playing with the idea of running Blizzard for fun and if it were me I'd scrap the charges and throw a huge party in Stormwind! (Sorry, no Horde allowed!)

Emeny.