Introducing the Pet Store

[Brachamul]

Originally Posted by adrenalize

How can a business be greedy exactly?

You know, since the whole point is to make money. They didn't even need to sell the monk with the donation, people would have bought it anyway.

You missunderstand me.

I know that the goal of a business is to make a profit (well not literally, actually the goal of a business is to maximise shareholder interest, if the shareholder's interests were to make a balanced game, that would work too, though in this case, I doubt this applies).

The idea that a business's goal is to make money is a misconception, or rather a simplification. A business can have many other goals. A business is made of people, and those people might want more than just money. If you were to create your own business, and you could make money at the same time as you're developping renewable ressources technologies, i'm pretty sure you'd be proud about both, not just the money bit.

Now the real issue is that i'm pretty sure Vivendi-Activision's goal isn't to make the world a better place.

[Sphaerus]

Originally Posted by Brachamul

You missunderstand me.

I know that the goal of a business is to make a profit (well not literally, actually the goal of a business is to maximise shareholder interest, if the shareholder's interests were to make a balanced game, that would work too, though in this case, I doubt this applies).

The idea that a business's goal is to make money is a misconception, or rather a simplification. A business can have many other goals. A business is made of people, and those people might want more than just money. If you were to create your own business, and you could make money at the same time as you're developping renewable ressources technologies, i'm pretty sure you'd be proud about both, not just the money bit.

Now the real issue is that i'm pretty sure Vivendi-Activision's goal isn't to make the world a better place.

"Shareholder interest"? Surely you mean equity (or you just learned from a different accounting book than I did, but I've never heard "shareholder interest").

You know how you boost equity? Boost income, reduce expenses. Yes, there are companies that brag, boast, hem and haw about how they're not just in the business of business, but in the business of bettering the world. You know what you call that? A sales pitch. If the shareholders, board and executives of a company are are not primarily concerned with making money (within the confines of good business and the law), that company will fail.

ATVI isn't the International Bank of Lollipop Junction. At the end of the day, it's about making money by making quality products people want to buy.

[Leviathonlx]

Originally Posted by Sphaerus

"Shareholder interest"? Surely you mean equity (or you just learned from a different accounting book than I did, but I've never heard "shareholder interest").

You know how you boost equity? Boost income, reduce expenses. Yes, there are companies that brag, boast, hem and haw about how they're not just in the business of business, but in the business of bettering the world. You know what you call that? A sales pitch. If the shareholders, board and executives of a company are are not primarily concerned with making money (within the confines of good business and the law), that company will fail.

ATVI isn't the International Bank of Lollipop Junction. At the end of the day, it's about making money by making quality products people want to buy.

Basically I look at the old Blizzard and how they acted and the Blizzard post Actvision and Vivendi merger. Right now I bet they would of tried to charge for Battle.net 10 years ago if the merger happened then. Blizzard has always wanted to make money but you can tell the money is much more important to them now that they realize they can make it than it was 5 years ago. Now it's just turning into how much money can they milk out of their cash cow.

First it was adding services they said they would never add such as faction and race changes and then charging a pretty ridiculous price (in my opinion) for them and now it is buying in-game pets. What's next? Buying epics or other more game changing things for your characters? You can argue that the TCG thing was around but this is in addition to that (which I never agreed with in the first place). Blizzard may argue that they would never do this with more game changing items but they said the same thing about race and faction changes in the past too.

[Epimolophant]

Buy TCG - you are paying for cards, with a bonus ingame (even if some people think the bonus itself is more important)

Buy gender/class/name/realm/faction/etc change - you are paying for a service, like paying to wash your car (even if it becomes fully automated)

Buy a ingame pet - you are buying something that is 100% virtual. This is a new concept, at least to me. Is there another game that does it? Second Life maybe? Paying real money for something that doesn't exist. Let's say, for example, if another player finds a way to kill your pet, can you sue him? Afterall, he destroyed something that you spent real money to buy. If WoW gets unpopular in the future, is Blizzard forced to keep one server online with your pet inside (since it is yours and they can't destroy it)?

As far as I know, your character in WoW doesn't belong to you, it belongs to Blizzard (as stated in the ToS). We pay for the right to play the game. What about pets? We are paying directly for them, doesn't that mean it is our property? Can we sell it? Can we move legal action claiming it if something happens? The concept of buying something totally virtual can be really complex if we think if every possible consequence.

[Skyleth]

I heard that if you donate 10 dollars to the same charity directly, they get 100% of the donation. Confirm/Deny?

[Tyranaes Meneo]

Originally Posted by Brachamul

Now the real issue is that i'm pretty sure Vivendi-Activision's goal isn't to make the world a better place.

I hate to be crass, but duh.

[Shatt]

They have to make more money somehow! They had huge profit in China and now they don't.

[Exilon]

The profit idea I have no issue with - business is business. My fear is the following: Over time we see less and less stuff presented as "free" with our monthly fee and more and more as "add-on" elements via micro-transactions. I'm not in chicken-little mode yet, but what I fear is if a portion of the secondary elements that a lot of us enjoy(non-combat/leveling related) became very bland but for only $10 you could get the shiny/well designed/cool effect version of the item/recipe/pet/mount.

A lot of the free to play type games use this strategy to get people hooked. iPhone is now moving in this direction too.... just like any good drug dealer, give you a little taste for free, then you come back for more.