This is completely off topic, but does anyone know how to prevent extreme tech from redirecting my iPad to their awful mobile version every time?
With World of Warcraft fading, what will Blizzard do next?
21–30 of 49 posts
Re: With World of Warcraft fading, what will Blizzard do next?
#22I think the real money auction house in Diablo 3 will work tremendously well. So well that it will change MMOs. Blizzard will make most of Diablo's revenue from it, and competitors will follow. Blizzard will embrace this idea and will apply it to future games, maybe Titan will be free to play with a similar auction house. Which will also move a bit further away from the desktop. The player auctions are extremely scal…
knock knock
"Hello, it's the IRS."
Re: With World of Warcraft fading, what will Blizzard do next?
#23I think the real money auction house in Diablo 3 will work tremendously well. So well that it will change MMOs. Blizzard will make most of Diablo's revenue from it, and competitors will follow. Blizzard will embrace this idea and will apply it to future games, maybe Titan will be free to play with a similar auction house. Which will also move a bit further away from the desktop. The player auctions are extremely scal…
I'm highly sceptical.
Ignoring the auction house for a second, Blizzard makes money once though a large up front sale, and then has no monthly fee. The game is played entirely on online servers with no single player however.
That means Blizzard makes the most money from a customer who plays though the game once (or not at all) and then doesn't play again.
This philosophy seems to be present throughout the games design which, as far as I can tell, is tailored for minimum re-playability and maximising the fun you get on your first play through. Even the auction house itself helps this design goal when matched against their other design decisions.
This kind of design isn't conducive to long term success with the auction house.
I believe that the auction house is primarily designed to kill 3rd party item sales, which it absolutely does, albeit in a way I find personally distasteful. While I'm sure it will be a non-trivial revenue stream, I don't think it will be anything like what WoW subscriptions were.
Disclosure: I work for a company making a competing action RPG.
Re: With World of Warcraft fading, what will Blizzard do next?
#24I wouldn't expect WoW to lose any more players in the next quarter due to some austerity measures they are doing (the Diablo 3 offer, Scroll of Resurrection) but it is clear that see a down trend and are trying to stem the tide. They are not planning any new content until the next expansion which we can assume will be the standard November release (although no confirmation yet). That doesn't bode well since even I, a…
Is Deathwing the current final boss? I used to play WoW back in BC, and I LOVED it (a little too much to be frank, grades suffered quite a bit). The triumph of your guild taking down a boss after struggling with it for weeks couldn't be matched. After Wrath came out, content was getting cleared so quickly that I didn't find it fun anymore. I'm currently having a blast with SC2 though, with a large thanks to the esports scene.
Re: With World of Warcraft fading, what will Blizzard do next?
#25I think the real money auction house in Diablo 3 will work tremendously well. So well that it will change MMOs. Blizzard will make most of Diablo's revenue from it, and competitors will follow. Blizzard will embrace this idea and will apply it to future games, maybe Titan will be free to play with a similar auction house. Which will also move a bit further away from the desktop. The player auctions are extremely scal…
knock knock "Hello, it's the IRS."
What is this supposed to mean? Are you suggesting selling virtual items is illegal in some way? Perhaps you should tell Zynga and Valve about this.
Re: With World of Warcraft fading, what will Blizzard do next?
#26I think the real money auction house in Diablo 3 will work tremendously well. So well that it will change MMOs. Blizzard will make most of Diablo's revenue from it, and competitors will follow. Blizzard will embrace this idea and will apply it to future games, maybe Titan will be free to play with a similar auction house. Which will also move a bit further away from the desktop. The player auctions are extremely scal…
knock knock "Hello, it's the IRS."
This is going to be interesting.
Anybody selling "virtual items" will have a cost basis of "0" if self created, so everything is "profit" in the IRS' eyes.
If Blizzard is collecting the payments they are obligated to track those transactions and report anybody that hits the minimum 1099 threshold.
If you're in CA and sell to somebody in CA will you have to pay the state board of equalization too for sales tax?
Very curious to see how this is all addressed.
Re: With World of Warcraft fading, what will Blizzard do next?
#27I think the real money auction house in Diablo 3 will work tremendously well. So well that it will change MMOs. Blizzard will make most of Diablo's revenue from it, and competitors will follow. Blizzard will embrace this idea and will apply it to future games, maybe Titan will be free to play with a similar auction house. Which will also move a bit further away from the desktop. The player auctions are extremely scal…
I'm highly sceptical. Ignoring the auction house for a second, Blizzard makes money once though a large up front sale, and then has no monthly fee. The game is played entirely on online servers with no single player however. That means Blizzard makes the most money from a customer who plays though the game once (or not at all) and then doesn't play again. This philosophy seems to be present throughout the games desig…
I am very interested in how this will all play out.
Personally, I think the auction house real money economy is going to be huge. If the trading that went on in Diablo 2 is any indicator:
- people in low wage countries will easily be able to live of the auction house without necessarily having to work for a gold farm.
- hardcore gamers are likely to be dissatisfied with high level content so easily available, but then again, they may take to turning a profit on hard to get stuff.
- casual gamers with jobs will get the maximum amount of fun out of their hour of gaming a day. For a small price at least.
These are incentives for 3 different demographics, 2 of which are highly desirable for Blizzard.
Re: With World of Warcraft fading, what will Blizzard do next?
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
knock knock "Hello, it's the IRS."
What is this supposed to mean? Are you suggesting selling virtual items is illegal in some way? Perhaps you should tell Zynga and Valve about this.
I believe he means if you manage to make enough money with the auction house, the IRS will be curious if you're reporting this as income and paying taxes etc.
Re: With World of Warcraft fading, what will Blizzard do next?
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
knock knock "Hello, it's the IRS."
What is this supposed to mean? Are you suggesting selling virtual items is illegal in some way? Perhaps you should tell Zynga and Valve about this.
No he means that if you sell them, you have to pay the due taxes. Zynga and Valve supposedly pay their taxes. The difference is that in this case it's the individuals who make a profit and the IRS (or other tax agencies) would make such a "virtual goods for real money public marketplace" more complicated.
Re: With World of Warcraft fading, what will Blizzard do next?
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
knock knock "Hello, it's the IRS."
This is going to be interesting. Anybody selling "virtual items" will have a cost basis of "0" if self created, so everything is "profit" in the IRS' eyes. If Blizzard is collecting the payments they are obligated to track those transactions and report anybody that hits the minimum 1099 threshold. If you're in CA and sell to somebody in CA will you have to pay the state board of equalization too for sales tax? Very c…
Hardly '0'.
The game. The hardware to run the game. ISP cost. The fees.
It all adds up. Not to mention Blizzard will be implementing their own restrictions (AH and $ limits) to choke and put up barriers for those that really want to make this a full time job.