Mists of Pandaria sells 2.7 million copies, ten million subscribers
144 replies, posted
[QUOTE=KorJax;37914179]Subscription fees are simply a relic of dial up days where it was quite literally really expensive to run servers that can handle a large number of players (hence the subscription - you pay for their servers and the huge bandwidth it took to run an MMO at the time).
Now that we live in the age of broadband, the subscription fee you pay for in an MMO is almost 90% pure profit. They are totally unnesicary since bandwitdth is so cheap that you can easily support a large number of players on one server in an MMO enviornment. But the reason why WoW still has it, is because people still play it, and people don't care about spending a monthly fee to play the only game they play. Most people who play WoW these days are the massive army of hardcore addicts and fans of the universe who pretty much will buy anything made by Blizzard, and pretty much only play WoW as their main game of choice while totaly ignoring the rest of the game industry - its why they can get away with charging $15/mo, and why other MMO's that try and copy WoW always have and always will fail. Because they haven't really seen enough profit loss to warrent not having it.
Once WoW's subscription base truely drops to low levels, is when we'll see it go. And that probably wont happen until WoW is flat-out so outdated and so overdone that people just don't care anymore. And you bet Blizzard would never let that happen, we'll probably see "WoW 2.0" before that.[/QUOTE]
It's not just server costs, Blizzard develops new content in between expansions which costs development time. People generally accept that this is where the money goes.
GW2 hasn't been out long enough to know if they will be doing free content updates or if they'll go with the GW1 model of only releasing expansion packs for money.
[QUOTE=sHiBaN;37910392]I still think the theme of the expansion is completely ridiculous[/QUOTE]
Pandas are awesome, though.
So likeable and adorable.
Dreamworks is pissed
[QUOTE=Protocol7;37910416]the pandaren were around since before kung fu panda[/QUOTE]
They are still pretty fucking stupid regardless.
[editline]5th October 2012[/editline]
[QUOTE=Pnukup;37918708]Pandas are awesome, though.
So likeable and adorable.[/QUOTE]
Can you seriously imagine a panda, one of the species the most ridiculously slow and lazy in the world, pull out a wooden staff, get drunk and start beating the shit out of everything around it ?
Pandas are just not a good species to put in your series/game/whatever if it's not going to be a comic relief or if your series is not supposed to be directed at 10 years old.
[QUOTE=Ganerumo;37919221]They are still pretty fucking stupid regardless.
[editline]5th October 2012[/editline]
Can you seriously imagine a panda, one of the species the most ridiculously slow and lazy in the world, pull out a wooden staff, get drunk and start beating the shit out of everything around it ?
Pandas are just not a good species to put in your series/game/whatever if it's not going to be a comic relief or if your series is not supposed to be directed at 10 years old.[/QUOTE]
That's kind of a moot point considering the nature of the game. Yes, I can actually imagine a panda pulling out a weapon and beating the shit out of everything around it considering fucking gnomes have been doing that exact same shit since the launch of the game.
[QUOTE=Ganerumo;37919221]
Can you seriously imagine a panda, one of the species the most ridiculously slow and lazy in the world, pull out a wooden staff, get drunk and start beating the shit out of everything around it ?
Pandas are just not a good species to put in your series/game/whatever if it's not going to be a comic relief or if your series is not supposed to be directed at 10 years old.[/QUOTE]
It's a game...
Can you imagine a human, like you or I, ressurect a dead human and make them come back to life?
Can you imagine a dwarf with twice his body weight of armor riding on a humongus dragon?
Can you imagine a blood elf.
Trying to understand here, what is there in Pandaria? I played up to Burning Crusade and fought Illidan Stormrage. Then it was to Northrend to fight the Liche King, then Deathwing. What does Pandaria have that rivals the previous instalments?
[QUOTE=cyclocius;37919353]Trying to understand here, what is there in Pandaria? I played up to Burning Crusade and fought Illidan Stormrage. Then it was to Northrend to fight the Liche King, then Deathwing. What does Pandaria have that rivals the previous instalments?[/QUOTE]
I think they said somewhere they weren't going to go with the generic antagonist story they've done so far.
[QUOTE=Ganerumo;37919221]Can you seriously imagine a panda, one of the species the most ridiculously slow and lazy in the world, pull out a wooden staff, get drunk and start beating the shit out of everything around it ?[/QUOTE]
You can't imagining a panda in a [i][b]video game[/b][/i] doing that, but apparently you have no problem imagining some guy riding on top of a jet using a grappling hook, or a guy running around yelling in some ancient dragon language, or a gun that shoots portals... In case you haven't noticed, WoW isn't attempting to be hyper realistic.
[QUOTE=Protocol7;37910416]the pandaren were around since before kung fu panda[/QUOTE]
doesn't mean they were expansion-worthy lol
weren't they an easter egg in Warcraft III, for fuck's sake ? I don't think they were ever meant to be taken seriously
[QUOTE=Furioso;37919393]doesn't mean they were expansion-worthy lol[/QUOTE]
Nothing is expansion worthy, to be honest. No one will be happy with it because "hurr durr lore broken warcraft dead". Besides, Pandas were the most requested race every Blizzcon anyway.
[QUOTE=cyclocius;37919353]Trying to understand here, what is there in Pandaria? I played up to Burning Crusade and fought Illidan Stormrage. Then it was to Northrend to fight the Liche King, then Deathwing. What does Pandaria have that rivals the previous instalments?[/QUOTE]
The main "villain" at the moment is the Sha. It's like some evil presence that is slowly corrupting everything and there are a bunch of them that you have to defeat that are themed, Like the Sha of anger, the Sha of doubt, ect.
The "final boss" is going to be in a raid set in the Horde main city of Orgrimmar and will be a corrupted Warchief Garrosh
[QUOTE=Furioso;37919393]doesn't mean they were expansion-worthy lol
weren't they an easter egg in Warcraft III, for fuck's sake ? I don't think they were ever meant to be taken seriously[/QUOTE]
there's still plenty of extra content, changes, and a new class in the expack
[QUOTE=Furioso;37919393]doesn't mean they were expansion-worthy lol[/QUOTE]
Yes it does, they are a perfect choice of race for this expansion.
Not sure why you're crying about pandas when the game already has midgets, wide midgets, cow-like animals, trolls and various elves.
[QUOTE=cyclocius;37919353]Trying to understand here, what is there in Pandaria? I played up to Burning Crusade and fought Illidan Stormrage. Then it was to Northrend to fight the Liche King, then Deathwing. What does Pandaria have that rivals the previous instalments?[/QUOTE]
Basically the tensions between the Horde and Alliance are at their highest again, and a horde and alliance ship crash on the shores of Pandaria during their fighting. Now both sides are trying to recruit a much needed ally.
And in general to everyone else, you know there's like tons of WoW books right?
There's more than just pandas in Warcraft 3 to justify this.
Blizzard's train of thought:
We need a new expansion without a generic antagonist, so we should focus it on Horde V.S. Alliance.
We need a new race, and we've got basically everyone possible already, so how about Pandaren? (which were almost a race in Burning Crusade)
At least the theme isn't "Burning Crusade, an ancient evil has awoken." "Wrath of the Lich King, a not so ancient evil has awoken" "Cataclysm, an ancient evil has awoken"
[QUOTE=kapin_krunch;37920079]The main "villain" at the moment is the Sha. It's like some evil presence that is slowly corrupting everything and there are a bunch of them that you have to defeat that are themed, Like the Sha of anger, the Sha of doubt, ect.
The "final boss" is going to be in a raid set in the Horde main city of Orgrimmar and will be a corrupted Warchief Garrosh[/QUOTE]
Huh, sounds like it may be interesting. Where'd...whatsisface, not Gromm Hellscream. Thrall? Wasn't he the boss?
[QUOTE=cyclocius;37921725]Huh, sounds like it may be interesting. Where'd...whatsisface, not Gromm Hellscream. Thrall? Wasn't he the boss?[/QUOTE]
Thrall stepped down and put Garrosh in his place
[QUOTE=cyclocius;37921725]Huh, sounds like it may be interesting. Where'd...whatsisface, not Gromm Hellscream. Thrall? Wasn't he the boss?[/QUOTE]
Thrall had to go back to being a Shaman and help with the maelstrom and all that jazz, but the Horde still needed a leader so he picked Garrosh, which no one on the Horde likes. From what I've heard, rumor and part from Blizzard(iirc), Garrosh is gonna do some major war crimes and both factions are gonna be like yo fuck that guy. Nothing confirmed yet, I don't think.
[QUOTE=Furioso;37919393]doesn't mean they were expansion-worthy lol[/QUOTE]
They have consistently been the most requested new race.
[QUOTE=Raidyr;37923025]They have consistently been the most requested new race.[/QUOTE]
"but raidyr, I don't want it therefore the expansion is bad"
[QUOTE=Chirno;37922915]Thrall had to go back to being a Shaman and help with the maelstrom and all that jazz, but the Horde still needed a leader so he picked Garrosh, which no one on the Horde likes. From what I've heard, rumor and part from Blizzard(iirc), Garrosh is gonna do some major war crimes and both factions are gonna be like yo fuck that guy. Nothing confirmed yet, I don't think.[/QUOTE]
I think they're going to have raids where players can be from both factions so they can team up against Garrosh.
I read that the final raid boss in MoP is a corrupted Garrosh or something along those lines.
Not sure if it's like magical corruption or just mad with power corruption.
[QUOTE=Chirno;37922915]Thrall had to go back to being a Shaman and help with the maelstrom and all that jazz, but the Horde still needed a leader so he picked Garrosh, which no one on the Horde likes. From what I've heard, rumor and part from Blizzard(iirc), Garrosh is gonna do some major war crimes and both factions are gonna be like yo fuck that guy. Nothing confirmed yet, I don't think.[/QUOTE]
I'm hoping that Thrall comes back as the leader of the horde.
I really miss him, he was so chill and stuff, this new guy looks like a fel-orc on steroids.
[QUOTE=PvtCupcakes;37918160]It's not just server costs, Blizzard develops new content in between expansions which costs development time. People generally accept that this is where the money goes.
GW2 hasn't been out long enough to know if they will be doing free content updates or if they'll go with the GW1 model of only releasing expansion packs for money.[/QUOTE]
Buying the actual expansion and the base game is what gets you that
The only thing you could justify the $15/mo fee for in this day and age is for the loads e money and paying Blizzards 3000 or so employee base of tech support/admins/etc they have. And even then thats a bit ridiculous.
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