My Dearest Blizzard Entertainment: Fuck You.
- Thread starter Timby
- Start date
I feel kind of like Indiana Jones on that Howard the Duck pinball machine....
Will we get to pay for Diablo III five times so we can play as all five of the classes?
How come it's fine to pay once for an RPG like Mass Effect or Oblivion or even Grand Theft Auto 4, all of which have over 50 hours of content if you're determined to do everything the game has to offer...but Blizzard does a long game so we get to pay for it multiple times? They can say it's going to be a long campaign, but YOU KNOW each campaign will be 10-15 hours or so. TOPS.
Meh. I don't pirate software since I got out of college and got a goddamn job but I may very well buy the Human campaign and outright steal the Zerg and Protess levels unless they're very, very fairly priced. I'm thinking, 30 bucks for Terran, 10-15 each for Zerg and Protess.
Will we get to pay for Diablo III five times so we can play as all five of the classes?
How come it's fine to pay once for an RPG like Mass Effect or Oblivion or even Grand Theft Auto 4, all of which have over 50 hours of content if you're determined to do everything the game has to offer...but Blizzard does a long game so we get to pay for it multiple times? They can say it's going to be a long campaign, but YOU KNOW each campaign will be 10-15 hours or so. TOPS.
Meh. I don't pirate software since I got out of college and got a goddamn job but I may very well buy the Human campaign and outright steal the Zerg and Protess levels unless they're very, very fairly priced. I'm thinking, 30 bucks for Terran, 10-15 each for Zerg and Protess.
I'm hoping that these'll be $20 a pop, expecting that they'll be $30 a pop, and dreading that they'll be $40 a pop like the WoW expansions.
I still play StarCraft, too, but if ActiBlizzard thinks it can get away with charging full-price -- or near-full-price -- for three packs that on their own would comprise a complete game, the company has another thing coming.
This, along with the announcement that Battle.net is moving from the free service it's been for more than a decade towards a fee-based model, reeks of Activision management taking hold of Blizzard's direction.
I'm always puzzled by this notion that people think can demand particular prices on items. That's now how capitalism works, folks. They company charges as much as they estimate people will pay, and in this case, Blizzard clearly thinks people will pay three times over for SC, so that's how they're pricing it. If they're wrong, and nobody buys the game, believe me, they'll lower the price right away.
I'm guessing, however, that most people will fork over the dough, and Blizzard will be vindicated in their pricing model.
I'm guessing, however, that most people will fork over the dough, and Blizzard will be vindicated in their pricing model.
Yeah... that's how capitalism works. If a company charges too much for a product, then less people buy it. This is, in essence, people demanding particular prices on items. So I'm puzzled that you understand the relationship between prices and demand, yet don't think popular opinion on pricing matters. Even if they make a profit on this... which is pretty much assured, really... that doesn't mean that people don't have the right to be disappointed in this pricing model.
Wow. This is a kick in the nuts. Multiplayer better be done and freely usable on the first one they release, because I won't be buying the other two.
An excellent example of this is the PS3. Sony set the price point too high, now it is at the bottom of the sales charts.
Rii
Rear Admiral
Given that each release is set to include a campaign of similar length to that of Starcraft and Brood War, I can't say the pricing particularly concerns me. What does concern me is the narrative implications of such a structure.
So the campaign order:
Terran (SC Demo)
Terran (SC)
Zerg (SC)
Protoss (SC)
Protoss (BW)
Terran (BW)
Zerg (BW)
Terran (SC2)
Zerg (SC2)
Protoss (SC2)
In other Blizzcon news, the Wizard class in Diablo III looks fucking awesome and WoW Live is patching to v3.0 next week. Patch looks to be coming in at around 1.5GB.
So the campaign order:
Terran (SC Demo)
Terran (SC)
Zerg (SC)
Protoss (SC)
Protoss (BW)
Terran (BW)
Zerg (BW)
Terran (SC2)
Zerg (SC2)
Protoss (SC2)
In other Blizzcon news, the Wizard class in Diablo III looks fucking awesome and WoW Live is patching to v3.0 next week. Patch looks to be coming in at around 1.5GB.
I saw the news yesterday but I couldn't work up the will to care. It's a really odd rationale - we can't finish the game on time so we'll just release it in pieces. But, I guess we know what the expansion packs will be. 
Rii
Rear Admiral
The releases share a common multiplayer client with all races, technologies, etc. available. It'll likely be updated between each release but you won't need to purchase those to receive the updates. Similar to the distinction between WoW 2.0/BC and 3.0/WOTLK.
I recently read that Chromie, the dragon in my avatar disguised as a Gnome, will be in WOTLK as part of the Caverns of Time: Stratholme instance that recreates the "cleansing" of Stratholme from Warcraft III, I can't wait.
Same here.
I do feel bad for Starcraft fans though, especially if each game is priced at $40-$50.
I think a lot of the outrage can justifiably traced to the fact that everyone was expecting to get all three campaigns in one game like the original. Any leftovers would have been moved to an expansion. Now we're being asked to pay possibly full price three times to get what was originally promised to be in one game. I'm sure the diehard Blizzard fanatics will be willing to pay through the nose to get the complete SC2 experience, but I think Blizzard runs the risk of alienating the bulk of gamers by going down this route. Chances are that this latter group (myself included) will only buy the first edition and not get the rest just because we'll (allegedly) get a good Starcraft experience with the first release with little incentive to keep shelling out $50 for the next two, especially with the money crunch we're all in these days.