This is just disgusting...

#0 - March 14, 2008, 10:15 p.m.

Q u o t e:
http://www.weaponmasters.com/auction/

Q u o t e:
Registration Fee: $429.00

(i'll come back to this)

Are you even working on WoW, anymore?

What do we have so far...

Trading Cards,
Trading Card Game + Tournaments,
Credit Cards,
Board Game
Movie
WoW Miniatures
Worldwide Invitational
Huge Arena Tournaments

If you put that much effort into the actual game, well I think that would make a few million people pretty happy.

Back to this insanely stupid Frostmourn thing.

Ok, so you decided to have a company make Frostmourns, since the miniatures sold so well (i guess?)

By bid... Ok...

But OVER FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS to REGISTER?

What the hell is going on!?
You want someone to pay you Four Hundred and Twenty Nine Dollars just for the ability to bid on the "Collector's Edition" (which is nothing special, just a number between 1 and 99 on it... Not even a stupid certificate of authenticity or anything? Not that that would make it right.. but still...)... How frigging greedy can you get? Seriously. This is just disgusting. I'm actually able to truthfully say that I'm more ashamed to talk about playing World of Warcraft in public now than I was a year ago.

Good job, Acti-Blizzard Entertainment, or whateverthehell you call yourselves, now.
You make an amazing game, then try to squeeze every dime and nickel out of it you can.

I understand business, but this is just stupid.

---

Edit: I've seen the posts about some of my comments being incorrect. It need not be brought up again, as I've addressed it in my second post on page two.
I was a little to "excited" (not in the general, happy, sense), to scroll through the whole FAQ.
And nowhere did I claim that you can register and not get a sword, so stop calling me on that.

Bornakk

#6 - March 14, 2008, 10:28 p.m.

Oddly enough, the Upperdeck Entertainment Trading card Game and Epic Weapons sword are not developed internally by our game designers and programmers so they are able to focus on what they do best - making games.

As for the price to enter the auction, it also says in the FAQ: "Regardless of auction outcome, registrants are guaranteed one (1) sword with each fee of $429 which includes domestic shipping (international shipping will be an additional charge calculated at checkout)." The idea is just that you can enter the auction if you are really wanting a special low-number sword, so obviously the option is up to you.

I understand you may not be interested in a collector's item like this, but I can assure you that there are other people who are. I'm sorry to hear that this isn't the item you were looking for, but we will continue to work with 3rd parties to make exciting new things while also putting the time and effort into our games that we also do.

Bornakk

#53 - March 14, 2008, 10:48 p.m.

Q u o t e:
Is it made out of a rare metal or crafted by a master smith?

FAQs are pretty cool.
http://www.epicweapons.com/products/frostmourne/faq.html

Q: What material is Frostmourne made with?
A: The blade is made of 420J2 Japanese milled stainless steel, the other detailed parts are made of cast metal, and the wrapping of the handle is made from leather.

"About Us" link: http://www.epicweapons.com/aboutus.html

Bornakk

#84 - March 14, 2008, 11:32 p.m.

Q u o t e:

I appreciate your comment, and more importantly .. er.. calmness(?).

To other comments: I stand corrected on a few points, particularly that it does include said certificate.

As far as being given a sword, regardless of the outcome, but the point is the cost is just obscene, and I refuse to believe that all of the things I listen in the OP haven't had a single bit of effect on the game.

Even if it's other parts of the company, I always see Blizzard posts saying how "we don't have an endless sea of people to do [whatever]"

Maybe this is because you're hiring other people to make deals with and oversee these third party people making this extra stuff? Once again, I appreciate the fact it's your business and you can do what you want with it, but it just seems like a lot of things are going untouched in the game that could be paid attention to (see: Lightwell), things that have been around for a LONG time, and to see these types of extra money-makers come out while we're starving for attention on the numerous reused armor sets, the lack of class balance/ability problem recognition, and problems such as Arena Queue times, and Battleground balances, among other things, just seems to be a slap in the face, an act that may be followed by such dialog as "we understand you're paying us all sorts of money, and are the reason we have taken off into such a wonderful business, but now that we know you're hooked, and won't go away, we'll switch out attention to other stuff, so we can make more money, and give you a cookie every now and then to keep you semi-complacent."

/sigh

Sorry for the Wall of Text.

I think mainly what has been said is that things people thing are easy 2 minute fixes are not so simple and everything takes development time. So of course, "hire the world!" - sounds great and easy in text, but keep in mind one word that is quite important here: synergy.

As far as the idea of "things are going untouched in the game that could be paid attention to" - everything listed is something from in-game and our development team continues to work on and improve the game.