Why doesn't blizzard sell ___?

#0 - March 31, 2010, 11:20 p.m.

Some people love the gear grind of a fresh level 80 where as some people would rather just have the gear handed to them so they could compete with people of their current tier level. This toon I am posting on is my Main, I raid 5 days a week and am currently 10/12 HM (just Sindragosa/LK left). I just don't really have that much time to play an alt and thus most of my time goes into my warlock to farm/do dailies/raid/pvp. I would love to be able to play my alts more, get them more gear, more gold, better professions etc etc. But because of how I choose to spend time on my main it makes it rather difficult to enjoy alts.

Why doesn't blizzard sell gold? Do you really think this would destroy your game? There are many companies out there that already sell gold to players, if Blizzard did it themselves wouldn't this eliminate them as well as earn your company much more money in the process because people will be spending their money on you instead of some random website?

Why doesn't blizzard sell emblems? If I don't have time to run daily heroics, do toc, do icc, then I will slowly fall behind and won't be able to compete. Would it be a problem if blizzard offered something like $1 per 4 frost emblems? People might not like it but think of how much money blizzard could get. How many of you on these forums if blizzard offered this service would buy some emblems for your alt? your main? your friends main? Sure pricing could be changed but if it was what I said, say $1 per 4 then say you wanted 60 frost emblems for t10 shoulders that is $15 (or a monthly payment) that would give you those shoulders on the spot. You would most likely be surprised by the amount of people that would be willing to do this.

The same could be said about certain pvp gear, honor or even arena points. I finally get my fresh level 80 only to have to grind out honor for hours or grind out emblems of triumph to get my furious gear which then leaves me a full 2 seasons behind. If I could get a fresh 80 and buy a full set of relentless off the blizzard website with real life money I probably would.

So many people spend so much money on this game already whether it be the monthly payment, faction changing, server changing, buying gold, buying characters or buying botting programs. Sure by doing this it might ruin some of the games "accomplishment" feeling to it but this would bring in more income to blizzard.

If I could buy a "Blizzard Gear Package Deal" for my friend for his birthday that once he got 80 he could put in a code that would give him a full relentless set or full t10 (251 version) only for a small price of $19.99, not only would I be spending money giving it to blizzard, it would most likely make my friend stay around longer knowing that I spent money on him and he will be up to date on gear when he finally gets around to leveling to 80.

What do you guys think? Many will probably say the game is easy enough to get gear (which to a point I do agree) but even if it is so easy it is still time consuming and there is still the chance you don't win the gear due to your rolls.

Zarhym

#28 - April 1, 2010, 12:08 a.m.

We're of the philosophy that, if there is a market for some fun, virtual flavor items which can be purchased using real-world cash to aesthetically enhance a player's character in a way they deem valuable, we'll provide that service. So far the virtual pet store has been very successful in this regard. Some players might think it's ridiculous to spend real money on a virtual pet that serves no gameplay purpose, so they can easily choose not to invest in that market. There's a very important distinction here though. If a person deems a virtual item not to be worth its value in real money, that person is not negatively impacted when someone else feels differently and runs around in the game with the virtual item on display.

It's an important part of the philosophy that, while we will expand the market for those who are willing to purchase with real money virtual flavor items, we want to avoid selling direct combat advantages to people. We want players to want to play the game to set themselves apart from other players, get more powerful items, or obtain in-game wealth. The reasons for playing the game become almost completely compromised if the best gear rewards for continuing to play can just be bought.

Zarhym

#87 - April 1, 2010, 3:14 a.m.

Q u o t e:
I don't hate the idea of pets/mounts as gifts, and I think they do fill a need here for giving them to someone who enjoys the game. That said, there should be just as much available in game and of similar quality, and so far we have seen 4 high quality pets added to the pet store and 1 pet(pug) obtainable through in game work in the same time. Not to mention that while the pug pup is cute, there is a huge gap between the amount of effort put into it and the level of quality between it and what is available in the store.

From a strictly design standpoint, I'd have to disagree with you. We've been adding non-combat pets to the game for years now and will continue to do so. Do we want to make sure any pets we sell for real money are very cool? Of course. Does that mean more design resources are dedicated to them than other pets? Not necessarily.

Sure, some pets have higher polygon counts because they were added to the game much later, but we're not intentionally saving the "best" pets for sale. Ultimately, your opinion of what are the best or highest quality pets is subjective. I have all of the pets from the store. I have some of the pets we've released for limited purposes (i.e. Murky). My personal favorite pet right now is the Onyxia Whelpling. Players literally had to do nothing for that pet but log in within a certain, fairly generous window of time and check their mail. It isn't very rare, wasn't hard to obtain, and did not cost money, but I love it.

I digress. The one major distinction here is that the value of flavor/vanity items is determined subjectively by each player. The value of a piece of gear is determined by its stats, rarity, how difficult it is to obtain, and the number crunchers who know how to min/max a class. That value is much more intrinsic in terms of gameplay.

Zarhym

#90 - April 1, 2010, 3:24 a.m.

Q u o t e:
Everybody seems to think that when I say you can buy gear is that hey for real money I can buy full 277s and all best in slot gear and never have to worry about raiding at all. WHICH IS NOT THE CASE.

Unless I have a lot of gold to buy random epics off the AH I have to start off with crappy heroics spamming them for countless hours to get 5 piece 232 tier gear, at this point I'll probably have some random 200 blues and epics. Eventually I'll get into ICC 5mans which I can only run once a day to hopefully get some loot there, not to mention you have to win the rolls.

No one does naxx or ulduar and you can't go from Heroics > TOC. You can if you have friends who will carry you, but otherwise no one is going to take you.

I'm talking about a package deal that will either give you t9 (232 ilevel stuff) or a package where you can buy emblems of frost which lets you buy the 251 t10. This gear is "far" from best and there is plenty of better stuff you will be able to get.

Again, this wouldn't be a problem if it was earlier in the expansion but as of right now trying to gear out a fresh 80 takes a loooong time, especially with the heroics/ulduar/toc gear grind you have to do before you'll even be let into an icc (unless of course you are being carried by friends or buying a spot in some guilds raid.)

All I will say is that we have developed and evolved this game so that it is easier now than ever before for someone who just hit the endgame today to catch up to the crowds progressing through the latest raid dungeon, or sporting a high resilience rating. When I say "catch up," I mean in terms of players having great access to gear appropriate for progressing however they choose in PvE or PvP. The key point of this is that the catching up is done purely through playing the game.

Zarhym

#93 - April 1, 2010, 3:26 a.m.

Q u o t e:
Zarhym, shoo, go help people who have legitimate problems and/or legitimate questions, unlike the baddies here...

A lot of people have extremely legitimate problems. I'm just one man. I can't help them all. Perhaps even I have legitimate problems.

Wait, are you talking about legitimate gameplay-related issues? Who determines what is legitimate? Oh never mind. :p

Zarhym

#98 - April 1, 2010, 3:34 a.m.

Q u o t e:

This x10

And BTW Zarhym, whats your take on this new Blizzard staffing change with Kotick and Tippl?

It's not my place to comment. I'm just your friendly neighborhood community manager, and it's business as usual around here. :)