Pay to play on Battle.net 2.0?

[Zhall]

Im sure this is just a rumor as of late... But just think about paying to play on battle.net 2.0... Blizzard did it with WoW and you know they have the capacity to do it again.

Would you still play Starcraft 2? Or Diablo 3 even?

Now I know this doesnt seem like blizzards style, especially because starcraft 2 will be a trilogy so they will already get 120$ from every non-expansion pirate, But I do beleive that the old blizzard we knew and loved during the days of Warcraft 2 has long ago died and been replaced by a more corporate conglomerate out to get your money, so i wouldnt put it past them.

 

[LordDz]

No.

 

[PurplePoot]

WoW != Starcraft 2. If you don't realize that I doubt there's hope for you.

Also, they're out to get your money. Guess why? Because they're a company. They make good games, so I like them. Really, people need to chill out already.

 

[Steel_Stallion]

I just hate the fact that they are making the 3 campaigns into separate games. I mean, really. Really Blizzard? At full retail, we'll be paying $150 at least if we want to play through all 3 campaigns.

 

[PurplePoot]

I don't think you have been paying any attention to what's actually going on--they're expansions and each campaign is longer than the three combined of previous games.

 

[Zhall]

I know i wont pay for battle.net 2.0, if they do make people pay it will only expedite the push to crack in lan and have a total pirate fest.

 

[Dr Super Good]

It will be free with pay features. Like you can make a custom turniment and stuff if you pay. However they say you will still get the full experience for free after purchase.

 

[Dreadnought[dA]]

That makes sense with the tournament thing

 

[Dr Super Good]

Basically, from what I can tell they are going for a service whereby people can sponsor turniments. These people I believe may be companies wanting to advertise or individuals like clans. In the end however they aim to use it to help fund the servers need to run battlenet. There will also be paid premium accounts I heard with extra features. However as blizzard is not retarded they will logically be eithor improved melee systems for extreem gamers and maybe some helpful organization features or account glitter. I however doubt there will be any shit like unique units for payers, game advantages for payers or even less lag for payers as that would kind of kill the point of free which is not their aim. You have to remember that these expansions are not comming out one month after each other. Infact I would be suprized if they are released yearly. Blizzard could easily release them every 1.5-2 years to refresh the game, each you must remember will have atleast 8 GB of data and multiply the non custom content with an additional same length campaign.

Thus so far it seems a pretty sweet deal, even if you end up spending near 100£ per person. Remember that each campaign is 30 or something missions long, and there will probably be 3 or more difficulties. On top of that you can try different stratergies and orders for another few replays. Lets say each mission is 30-60 mins, which is the average time I suspect people to spend if they are not speedrunning as that was about the time you spent per WC3 mission if you were slow and depending on mission size. Thats about 30-15 hours per playthrough, with serious people being able to get atleast 3 playthroughs to come to a total of 45-90 hours of play per game, which will be the normal price. On top of that if you do not get your hours there, you will have the multiplayer to entertain you, with near infinate custom map ideas being made.

Thus I say they should satasfy everyone totally. Blizard has made quality games, even if you hate WoW, it still is highly popular which obviously means it is not a shit game. WC3 is still alive 6 years after release. D2 is still highly populated after 8 years odd. I predict great things from SC2 as long as they do not devaite far from WC3's battlenet and custom games.

 

[Zhall]

Basically, from what I can tell they are going for a service whereby people can sponsor turniments. These people I believe may be companies wanting to advertise or individuals like clans. In the end however they aim to use it to help fund the servers need to run battlenet. There will also be paid premium accounts I heard with extra features. However as blizzard is not retarded they will logically be eithor improved melee systems for extreem gamers and maybe some helpful organization features or account glitter. I however doubt there will be any shit like unique units for payers, game advantages for payers or even less lag for payers as that would kind of kill the point of free which is not their aim. You have to remember that these expansions are not comming out one month after each other. Infact I would be suprized if they are released yearly. Blizzard could easily release them every 1.5-2 years to refresh the game, each you must remember will have atleast 8 GB of data and multiply the non custom content with an additional same length campaign.

Thus so far it seems a pretty sweet deal, even if you end up spending near 100£ per person. Remember that each campaign is 30 or something missions long, and there will probably be 3 or more difficulties. On top of that you can try different stratergies and orders for another few replays. Lets say each mission is 30-60 mins, which is the average time I suspect people to spend if they are not speedrunning as that was about the time you spent per WC3 mission if you were slow and depending on mission size. Thats about 30-15 hours per playthrough, with serious people being able to get atleast 3 playthroughs to come to a total of 45-90 hours of play per game, which will be the normal price. On top of that if you do not get your hours there, you will have the multiplayer to entertain you, with near infinate custom map ideas being made.

Thus I say they should satasfy everyone totally. Blizard has made quality games, even if you hate WoW, it still is highly popular which obviously means it is not a shit game. WC3 is still alive 6 years after release. D2 is still highly populated after 8 years odd. I predict great things from SC2 as long as they do not devaite far from WC3's battlenet and custom games.

Well said; lets hope your right.

 

[Eleandor]

I just hate the fact that they are making the 3 campaigns into separate games. I mean, really. Really Blizzard? At full retail, we'll be paying $150 at least if we want to play through all 3 campaigns.

Yeah, ofcourse, just like we payed at the very least 100$ for warcraft 3 and its expansion.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Eleandor, count the number of WC3 missions, there are under 10 per campaign and only 4 campaigns. Thus each expansion is still as big as TFT, if not bigger so wheres the problem.

 

[Eleandor]

The expansions won't be 50$ each.

 

[bboy-tiger-]

... So is bnet free or not ? There's been lots of discussions about this. What we will have to pay ? I'm only askin coz I can find specific info anymore. Thanks.
Pls good explanation.

 

[Eleandor]

Bnet 2.0 is free.

 

[Super-Sheep]

... So is bnet free or not ? There's been lots of discussions about this. What we will have to pay ? I'm only askin coz I can find specific info anymore. Thanks.
Pls good explanation.

Bnet 2.0 is free.

No explanation is required.

 

[BlinkBoy]

I just hate the fact that they are making the 3 campaigns into separate games. I mean, really. Really Blizzard? At full retail, we'll be paying $150 at least if we want to play through all 3 campaigns.

man do you fucking know how many people work at that game for 6 years and what's their salary? A programmer, graduated as software engineer/developer, normally earns around 55,000 annually at the beginning, however, blizzard programmers require atleast 2-3 years of experience before working there, so their anual revenue could be 60(perhaps less, game companies tend to pay less). Blizzard has about 50 men working on the project plus all the men they have on marketing, site management, gerency, publisity, battle.net maintainence, old games support(patches) and foreign extentions(translation, international events and support).

Now for a game which has been developed for 6 years, they earn around 20, perhaps less, dollars a piece (you pay 50 dollars, but most is lost on material, the company which produces the copies, transport and the sellsman).

Now in order for paying the budget lost, they would need to sell around 2-3 million copies to recover they inversion (Note: remember that the game took 6 years, this isn't like EA which has a team working for 6 months on a game and they're done).

 

[Dark.Revenant]

Blizzard has to monetize something, I agree. But they must not monetize the wrong things, and that's what I'm worried about here. They have the dilemma of having to create a paid feature on Battle Net 2.0 that both generates good revenue and doesn't piss people off.

Oh, and 60% of the game's cost is not lost on materials. Overall, I'd say it makes a $10-$15 difference. Still, it's enough to make companies insist on online purchases rather than resorting to retailers.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Producing disks by the millions costs like under 1£ per game, if not only 50p, thus the whole thing about online purchase is purly because its easier to do and is easier to keep track of and boss people around.

If there is any price difference between online and physical purchase, then one of the parties is ripping you off.

 

[PurplePoot]

Not at all, DSG. The store gets a cut, the producer gets a cut, etc.

 

[Dreadnought[dA]]

Producing disks by the millions costs like under 1£ per game, if not only 50p, thus the whole thing about online purchase is purly because its easier to do and is easier to keep track of and boss people around.

If there is any price difference between online and physical purchase, then one of the parties is ripping you off.

Why do you think steam is so big?

 

[Dr Super Good]

Steam needs the servers, so the server companies get money. Do not think both ways are without disadvantages.

However may I remind you people that steam at one stage was more expensive than buying the actual disk. Yes this is true and I remember a lot of complaints about it.

Basically the rate they are sold at is based on what people are willing to pay and not actual costs. If steam is cheaper now than the actual disk, that is only due to people refusing to pay more for the convenience. Equally well if people refused to buy the actual disks, then the price of them would also decrease. In the end the cost per game is still minimal compaired to the sales price and so can nearly be ignored. Thus it ends up the whole playoff between production costs VS revenue.

 

[cookies4you]

Why do you think steam is so big?

If starcraft II requires steam to play, i'll give up on the game altogether. Blizzard has something with using its own servers and its own programs. Still, I wouldn't buy it if it was for Steam only. I dont even trust Xfire, even though its 3D graphics have supported me for many many moons.

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

It is free and better stick it up, so that no1 asks anymore... Make logical assumptions basing them on garena for what you gain if you pay. How can you imagine that Blizzard will do extra units or extra anything to make the game unfair for a free vs paid player??

If the missions are much longer than the war3 tft, I'd rather not even finish them. Melee is the real fun, not some boring custom with limited units missions.

 

[Dr Super Good]

SC2 will need a blizzard account to play online I believe. Blizzard has their own version of steam and thus do not need it and it is called their blizzard account / battlenet system.

 

[Razorbrain]

If starcraft II requires steam to play, i'll give up on the game altogether. Blizzard has something with using its own servers and its own programs. Still, I wouldn't buy it if it was for Steam only. I dont even trust Xfire, even though its 3D graphics have supported me for many many moons.

I must say, I have seen my share of randomness, BUT THIS TAKES THE PRICE

Seriously, how the hell could you connect Steam and Starcraft?!

Anyhow, back on topic, the reason wow comes with a fee is because of the servers required to host the world, as with most other mmorpg(there are exceptions, like Guild Wars). Its not because Blizzard was money hungry dogs, they just did it the easy way. This should be a valid enough reason for those even having the belief that Bnet 2.0 will be paid for, considering hosting works from peer to peer and not from several peers to the server. Since blizz isnt doing the actual hosting, they will only require 1 maybe 2 servers(dont know the real number, could be more, but atleast a lot less power in the servers and a lot less of them number wise aswell).

And the other arguments made in this thread also decreases the likelyhood of it actually happening

 

[PurplePoot]

From what I know free for all games are hosted on the Battle.net servers, but AT and custom are hosted by peers.

 

[Dark.Revenant]

Arranged Team? That's surprising, considering they add to your tracked stats.

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

So if you've purchased a game in the past and have bnet account, you can play it. What sucks there is that you can only play the full version if you have the 3 CDs and keys. You can't play the full if you have a key only from CD1 and have CD2 or CD3 from a friend just for installation cause you don't have key for Cd2 or CD3.

 

[Eleandor]

What exactly do you call the *full* game?

Is RoC a full game? Or do you not consider it to be full because there's TFT too...

 

[MGCǂSpectre]

full game yes, meaning all 3 CDs, cause you don't get enough features with only CD1 and cd2. It's not just not having spellbreakers and bloodmage and tavern, although TFT rly is more than just more units.

 

[Eleandor]

uh... you do realise that they're 2 expansions, with the main focus on a new campaign? I mean, have you read *anything* about the trilogy or did you just form an opinion based on absolutely nothing?

 

[Steel_Stallion]

man do you fucking know how many people work at that game for 6 years and what's their salary? A programmer, graduated as software engineer/developer, normally earns around 55,000 annually at the beginning, however, blizzard programmers require atleast 2-3 years of experience before working there, so their anual revenue could be 60(perhaps less, game companies tend to pay less). Blizzard has about 50 men working on the project plus all the men they have on marketing, site management, gerency, publisity, battle.net maintainence, old games support(patches) and foreign extentions(translation, international events and support).

Now for a game which has been developed for 6 years, they earn around 20, perhaps less, dollars a piece (you pay 50 dollars, but most is lost on material, the company which produces the copies, transport and the sellsman).

Now in order for paying the budget lost, they would need to sell around 2-3 million copies to recover they inversion (Note: remember that the game took 6 years, this isn't like EA which has a team working for 6 months on a game and they're done).

LOL

I'll let you in on a little secret, dear BlinkBoy; They made an MMORPG called WoW, and they're swimming in peoples former social life money. The last fucking thing they're worried about is money.

 

[PurplePoot]

Arranged Team? That's surprising, considering they add to your tracked stats.

I think so--each team needs at least one player who can host.

LOL

I'll let you in on a little secret, dear BlinkBoy; They made an MMORPG called WoW, and they're swimming in peoples former social life money. The last fucking thing they're worried about is money.

And a few secrets for yourself:

• Making a profit does not mean the company instantly throws up their hands and starts doing stuff for free.
  
  
• Projects are aimed at paying for themselves, not being propped up by other projects.

 

[EvilKnight]

Bnet will be free but they will charge for "premium" maps selected by blizzard as good maps and charge like a dollar or something for them and give a certain % of that to the mapmakers