The problem with this logic is that OTHER PLAYERS will buy it. This than encourages the developers to keep doing it. Right now they aren't selling anything that changes the balance of the game...but what happens when they start charging for the latest and greatest gear? People who are willing to shell out the extra cash get an advantage. It forces you to buy something (on top of the game, the expansions, and the monthly fees) to stay competitive.

As to your second point, you pay a monthly fee for those extra features. Thats why you pay it, to keep them developing and distributing new content, keep the servers running, pay their employees etc. - not so they can milk you for every drop they can. As I said in my previous response, an expansion is one thing (and the WoW expansions barely qualify as proper expansions) but outside of that NOTHING should cost a dime in game outside of your fee.

I see my apologies for that, but not for this.

So in your world, games should be enjoyed and won only by those who have the deepest pockets who little or no qualms about what they spend their money on. Great. I have some games I suggest you go to, there is one, Allods. It has an item over there for 7 thousand dollars. Go enjoy.

You're original message was not a joke, and you are just not funny.

Now here is what I will do for you Aractain, we'll take Sins and have stardock create a new ship that costs 500 dollars, a "titan" type ship, a game killer. And you won't care right, because if you really wanted to have fun, you would throw down 500 dollars or sit back and happily watch the individual with the deepest pockets and, more importantly, the willingness to spend that money to win every game simply because that playerr values his fun more than you do. But hey, don't worry, 6 months down the road, they'll releae another one for 1000 dollars, that way the one who has the 500 dollar ship can be as happily jealous as you were of him with this new king of the hill. And they'll just keep doing that until they release Sins 2 and then recycle the process all over again.

There is always someone out there willing to throw money at some product, digital or otherwise. That doesn't mean they should do it. But hey what do you care, buying your way through a game is more important to you than actually playing a game and using strategy or skill or good sportsmanship right?

You made a blanket statement saying that, and I quote, "an item costs a million can the 'free' players still have fun? Do they still have options to buy things which are actually within their budget? If so whats the problem?". I don't see you saying anything about charging for cosmetic items is okay but not items that have an actual effect. How about them having fun until some PvP combat shows up and the one with the fattest wallet takes them out because most F2P game are also heavily PVP. And do you know who gets to do decide whether cash shops have cosmetic items or items that give you a substantial advantage, not the players.

I mentinoed Allods, you made some half-ass comment about it not mattering if it was a million dollars. Guess what, Allods cash shop is full of items that give substantial advantages to the players who buy them. You buy your way to the top.

Like I said, I do not play WoW. I have never played WoW, but Turbine tried the same thing, and I rejected it then too. It's not about the company or the specific game, it's the idea that we are at the point in the gaming industry where those with the most discretionary dollars to spend on games should be the ones who get the biggest advantage at the expense of those who choose not to or cannot spend as much.

WoW has what about 6-10 million subscribers depending on what you count as a actual subscriber and in roughly 4 hours managed to sell around 100k of these mounts at 25 a pop. Now maybe WoW isn't a game you give a shit about, but some thing tells me you wouldn't be so oh who cares, let the rich have their fun, if Stardock started gouging their player base and giving the upper-hand of their games to the ones willing to throw out the most money so that the top "players" are actually the top "buyers".

Your statement would require a case-by-case analysis for each player. No one has this kind of time or resources to do what you suggest. If players can, with an acceptable amount of grinding, achieve the same result or get something similiar, then it's really a cosmetic item, something often visually seen as "different" but not necessarily game breaking. Allods is not this way. It looks like WoW's mount is... this time. There is nothing that prevents them from changing that.

Not with DDO. DDO is F2P, now, and their cash shop shouldn't be compared to WoW which slaps a cash shop on top of a sub fee they already require to play. It's double dipping for WoW. It's not for DDO.

I was referring to LOTRO, but as I said, you can get a similar mount in game by grinding. A bit too long if you ask me, but then again, I don't play anymore. I quit shortly after their "adventure pack" attempt. I question cash shops are are buy to win like ALLODs, and while i think DDO was a rip-off for awhile, especially the leveling sigils, I understand they have scaled back. Of course the "offer wall" was a disaster for them which pretty much proves these companies will sell their player base down the river for the promise of some extra dollars.

Ironically it seems that in *most* games released today someone is always out to "buy their way to the top" by availing themselves of cheats/hacks etc (the best cheats/hacks cost monet too!) and ensuring their spot at the top of a "stat-ladder" somewhere anyway.  So isn't it just good business sense to go about it legally and sell DEV-created content as long as "counters" to any purchased units/abilities always remain available for FREE?  (ie. non-game-balance-breaking-paid-for-content)

It's everyone's own individual need to feel "ranked" against others that drives the choices made by industry on both sides of the legal fence.

At any rate, simply the act of offering better-performance for more money does NOT inherently cause game imbalance......as long as game DEVS are conciously ensuring the real possibilty of FREE counters to said unit/ability. 

the Monk

Either way, this is interesting. Usually people buy DLCs/expansion packs for $25...yet in WoW they buy a mount, which will be "obselete" in a couple of months. This is what I found very weird.

Also...I don't think that anyone was bashing Blizzard here, but I didn't read all of the replies. Personally I respect them, because like I've said: everything they touch turns into gold.

That's not addiction, that's lack of self-control. Addiction is when actual physical changes in your head make it so not even friends or relatives could drag you away. Things like game addiction and sex addiction are bullshit. People just don't want to take responsibility for the fact they made bad decisions that they very much had control of.

Added emphasis. You have no idea what you're talking about, and it shows.  Unlike Alloids or any of Turbine's games, WoW has a sizable group of people playing competitively. Worldwide top ranked guilds get commrecial sponsorship, and last years arena tournament had a top prize of $75,000. That's cash, not virtual items.

Blizzard has been extremely careful to make these paid goodies not do anything. The mount doesn't even give you a speed bonus. It's capable of going at 310 (the fastest speed in the game), but in order to do that you have to already have a mount capable of that speed. The only way to get those mounts is through activities in game, primarily by being a reasonably high end arena player, raider, or through doing *every* holiday achievement (which takes a calendar year so you can hit all the holidays).

If Blizzard suddenly changes their mind and offers up the Sword of Omgwtfbbq for $10, it will kill the competitive side of the game instantly. They know better. They're selling fluff. Hell, the first two items they sold on the pet store were just pets. They follow you around. One of them sometimes freezes critters for amusement. Neither of them impacts the game in any way whatsoever. The mount is the same thing, it just looks cool.

Your insane ranting aside, Blizzard has exactly zero items for sale that impact gameplay, and has a stated policy of not selling items that impact gameplay. They have a significant portion of their playerbase to whom a pure competitive environment is the appeal of the game, and they don't want to screw with that. If they started doing it, they'd lose those players.

Same as if Stardock sold an "apocalypse" spell in Elemental that simply wipes out the other players, they'd lose customers. Starting with me.

And yet I doubt you ever stole,committed other crimes to obtain your fix, or went through physical withdrawals after a day or two of not playing. Game addiction is a choice where you'd rather play games than do other things. Drug addiction is a disease where even if you do try to quit your body won't let you. Psychological addiction is just an excuse for poor willpower and a testament to the human spirit to do what we prefer rather than what's expected.

Addiction is a complicated subject because people will say they are 'addicted' and it ruined thier lives thus having a strong emotional connection and being the worst place for useful or accurate information. Chemical depenance is not the same thing as what people call addition to objects. Specifically the OBJECT did not cause the phsycological desire, your mind did.

Theres a reason for this but its not the objects fault, its your minds fault. Its like a lactose intolerance, you should avoid milk fetishes if you are such - its not the milks fault your body was setup with those traits (next time customise your own character build).

The reason I hate to hear people talk about gaming or sex or sparkles addicitons is because everyone ELSE thinks that object == drugs and have a negative view of it.

If the same person said "Im intolerant of bland unsparkly things" it dosn't carry any 'negative payload' with it.

Boy there is always one of you out there that think that WoW is so unique and the first at everything that other people who have been paying MMORPGs for years have no clue. I've been playing MMORPG's since before WoW was ever in development. I know the P2P games are. I know what mounts are. I know what microtrans are, and I assure you have more than enough information here to make a judgment on Blizzard's choice. What I am not is a WoW fanbois, so my opinion is not biased like yours obviously is.

You're just a litt bit dense right? Because you are aware of that fact that the entire conversation isn't WoW specific. Do go back and read again.