Hey guys, I was wondering what would you be willing to pay for to enhance your Diablo 3 Experience.
If the Battle.net store offered voice packs for the characters/followers, would you be interested?
What about skins for the classes?
Transmog sets? Extra Stash Tabs? Extra Character Slots? Item Trading? Character Portraits?
Which one of these interests you? Also, do you have ideas of your own for what would make for a good microtransaction?
Edit: I considered many opinions I gathered around the web and compiled them in an article about the subject.
All of the above. They are all well within the bounds of what I consider acceptable for microtransactions. And it's not like the voice actors/art team is heavily integrated in the mechanics-patches we'll probably get between now and next x-pack. This gives them something to do, but only the customers who are interested in what is on offer needs to pay.
I voted voice packs, considering how half the wizard community is playing a female character because of the a male's stupid voice pack..
Additionally, some character looks custimization would be nice (not as a paid feature though). All characters have the same face :/.
PS: Diablo 3 is a non-subscription online game which keeps receiving updates.. It would make sense to have some kind of microtransaction in the game. Most games involving just a box-purchase don't entertain me this long
I get that people are against micro transactions, but if those have no impact on game play, what's the deal?
If there's a special dye you can buy for a few bucks, how does this affect you at all in a negative way? Quite the contrary. Micro transactions are a great source of income. If D3 had micro transactions, Blizzard could spend a bit more money on the server infrastructure (which seems to be not as good as it could be) or hire a couple more people to have more frequent content patches. Those who are willing to pay a few extra bucks for an extra dye can get it, and your character will not perform worse just because your boots are not glowing in a bright yellow color. So what? In the end both sides benefit: those who want cosmetics can get it, and those who don't will have a better game experience because Blizzard has a constant income source.
I would never pay for any cosmetics - don't really care about that. But I would instantly buy stash space. I know, however, that many many many people are fine with the stash space as it is now and Blizzard has no plans to extend it in general, so micro transactions are my only hope. In fact, the one and only reason why I bought the Collector's Edition was because of three additional twinks for character slots.
TL;DR: Introduce all sorts of micro transactions but make sure they have zero effect on game play and are completely 100% optional.
I only approve of Microtransactions that aren't solid Cash Only. That being said, here's what I would kill to see.
$10 to buy a Necromancer class or skin for the Witch Doctor, or 100,000,000 gold, or materials. (Comes with additional character slots) (Imagine having to put in 50 Forgotten souls, 500 blue and white crafting mats, +10,000,000 gold to create an item that can be used to summon a boss, kill the boss and it drops a hand in (if you did the first step) and voila! New class to play!$3-5 for extra stash space or more gold, more expensive than current slots.
Additional character slots, and options to spend millions of gold every new Ladder Season for a new slot or so.
Numerous other classes, Druid/Rogue/etc, always options to unlock them in game through either Achievements, Difficult Quests or Grinding (or free if you've been playing a long time and managed to save up ridiculous amounts of Resources to unlock these characters).
Microtransactions are acceptable as a suplement, not as a main gating mechanism. Allow the rich or those without time a chance to experience everything in the game, but obviously not for nothing. You're either going to play the game to get unlock these additional FEATURES (not content), or fork over a few bucks so you don't have to. It's often the difference between dedication (cheaper for the individuals who stick with the game), more expensive for people who burn through everything and then put the game on the shelf till the next content patch or something. That's what I see.
I get that people are against micro transactions, but if those have no impact on game play, what's the deal?
If there's a special dye you can buy for a few bucks, how does this affect you at all in a negative way? Quite the contrary. Micro transactions are a great source of income. If D3 had micro transactions, Blizzard could spend a bit more money on the server infrastructure (which seems to be not as good as it could be) or hire a couple more people to have more frequent content patches. Those who are willing to pay a few extra bucks for an extra dye can get it, and your character will not perform worse just because your boots are not glowing in a bright yellow color. So what? In the end both sides benefit: those who want cosmetics can get it, and those who don't will have a better game experience because Blizzard has a constant income source.
I would never pay for any cosmetics - don't really care about that. But I would instantly buy stash space. I know, however, that many many many people are fine with the stash space as it is now and Blizzard has no plans to extend it in general, so micro transactions are my only hope. In fact, the one and only reason why I bought the Collector's Edition was because of three additional twinks for character slots.
TL;DR: Introduce all sorts of micro transactions but make sure they have zero effect on game play and are completely 100% optional.
In my opinion micro transactions are a nice way to support additional developing effort. This would be the case for voice packs and other cosmetics (I don't want any game changing items to be buyable, too.)
But i have to disagree to introduce all sorts of micro transactions! Because I think additional stash space for example is not a big deal in terms of developing effort and therefore should be implemented for free (*D3 is a full price game... we payed for D3 and for RoS). These kind of buyable improvements are perfectly ok for f2p games, but definetly not for a full-price game like D3.
Additional stash space requires more server load and therefore justifies micro transactions. Furthermore, stash space is something that not everyone in the community wants/needs, so it's not as obvious as it seems.
I only approve of Microtransactions that aren't solid Cash Only. That being said, here's what I would kill to see.
$10 to buy a Necromancer class or skin for the Witch Doctor, or 100,000,000 gold, or materials. (Comes with additional character slots) (Imagine having to put in 50 Forgotten souls, 500 blue and white crafting mats, +10,000,000 gold to create an item that can be used to summon a boss, kill the boss and it drops a hand in (if you did the first step) and voila! New class to play!$3-5 for extra stash space or more gold, more expensive than current slots.
Additional character slots, and options to spend millions of gold every new Ladder Season for a new slot or so.
Numerous other classes, Druid/Rogue/etc, always options to unlock them in game through either Achievements, Difficult Quests or Grinding (or free if you've been playing a long time and managed to save up ridiculous amounts of Resources to unlock these characters).
Microtransactions are acceptable as a suplement, not as a main gating mechanism. Allow the rich or those without time a chance to experience everything in the game, but obviously not for nothing. You're either going to play the game to get unlock these additional FEATURES (not content), or fork over a few bucks so you don't have to. It's often the difference between dedication (cheaper for the individuals who stick with the game), more expensive for people who burn through everything and then put the game on the shelf till the next content patch or something. That's what I see.
Most of what you mention here should never be part of micro transactions again (it was already in D3V and it was horrible). Exclusive game content you have to pay for? New classes and events for money? Hell no!
Gold/materials for money? Hell no!
Allow the rich to experience everything in the game? Absolutely definitely hell no! Don't turn this game back into Pay2Win or I'll be out immediately. I like the AH when it was introduced, I defended it for a long time, but in the end D3V was Pay2Win. 99% of those who played MP10 used the AH/RMAH, either by flipping or putting in real money. As soon as any content becomes accessible through money *as well* there are enough who do this such that Blizzard has to balance the game around those people (especially since they paid for it!) which will make it terrible for all those who don't want to go down this road. This was what made D3V so horrible.
Keep micro transactions purely cosmetic or to non-game changing additions. Micro transactions should never allow you to bypass game content at all, or the game is doomed.
I only approve of Microtransactions that aren't solid Cash Only. That being said, here's what I would kill to see.
$10 to buy a Necromancer class or skin for the Witch Doctor, or 100,000,000 gold, or materials. (Comes with additional character slots) (Imagine having to put in 50 Forgotten souls, 500 blue and white crafting mats, +10,000,000 gold to create an item that can be used to summon a boss, kill the boss and it drops a hand in (if you did the first step) and voila! New class to play!$3-5 for extra stash space or more gold, more expensive than current slots.
Additional character slots, and options to spend millions of gold every new Ladder Season for a new slot or so.
Numerous other classes, Druid/Rogue/etc, always options to unlock them in game through either Achievements, Difficult Quests or Grinding (or free if you've been playing a long time and managed to save up ridiculous amounts of Resources to unlock these characters).
Microtransactions are acceptable as a suplement, not as a main gating mechanism. Allow the rich or those without time a chance to experience everything in the game, but obviously not for nothing. You're either going to play the game to get unlock these additional FEATURES (not content), or fork over a few bucks so you don't have to. It's often the difference between dedication (cheaper for the individuals who stick with the game), more expensive for people who burn through everything and then put the game on the shelf till the next content patch or something. That's what I see.
Most of what you mention here should never be part of micro transactions again (it was already in D3V and it was horrible). Exclusive game content you have to pay for? New classes and events for money? Hell no!
Gold/materials for money? Hell no!
Allow the rich to experience everything in the game? Absolutely definitely hell no! Don't turn this game back into Pay2Win or I'll be out immediately. I like the AH when it was introduced, I defended it for a long time, but in the end D3V was Pay2Win. 99% of those who played MP10 used the AH/RMAH, either by flipping or putting in real money. As soon as any content becomes accessible through money *as well* there are enough who do this such that Blizzard has to balance the game around those people (especially since they paid for it!) which will make it terrible for all those who don't want to go down this road. This was what made D3V so horrible.
Keep micro transactions purely cosmetic or to non-game changing additions. Micro transactions should never allow you to bypass game content at all, or the game is doomed.
Whoa, dude. You either didn't even read my post, or you read it ass-backwards.
I never ONCE said Pay-to-win was a good idea.
It strictly promotes PLAY-TO-WIN traditional gaming.
Pay is there as an option, mainly a deterrent and game lengthener. People who play a lot, get rewarded equally so for those who work a lot and can't play a lot. What's wrong with that?
Every suggestion I made was with "Pay money, OR unlock in game!" and NOTHING, was regarding maps, or EXCLUSIVE game content- because that is terrible, it seperates the community which is bad. Buy SKINS (cosmetic), buy classes (similar to buying an expansion pack, but more regular and smaller and cheaper)
Every class comes with some extra game content (available for everyone for free!) that would be included with every patch, but to get the class or that fancy new part of the game, you're going to have to continue playing to unlock or (or unlock it with all that stuff you've saved up since the last patch) OR, pay with some real money (if you want to support our company) if you don't feel like playing this much or if you devalue the time it takes to manually acquire it in game and value your Real Life time more.
All valid, all representable, all fair.
Sometimes I work a lot. Sometimes I LIKE to be able to just fling 10 bucks down to get something new to do tonight before going back to work in 10 hours for another 12. SOMETIMES, I'm not doing anything for months, making no money, with a lot of time to blow. Would be nice to have something great to build and play towards in game. I can understand and feel both sides of the argument, and I support both. So let's have both damn it!
And keep in mind people, what other people decide to do with THEIR characters, and in THEIR games, has NOTHING to do with YOUR characters and YOUR game. It's all just false enemies built in your mind. Now when it comes to Open and Public games, there's some slight overlap sure. However we've all experienced public games enough now to see that really, you're frequently matched between so many different people that you probably couldn't tell the difference between someone who's bought the Necro class, or someone who unlocked the Necro class... and when it comes down to it, does anyone REALLY care if that random in your pub group bought or unlocked? Do you? Do you REALLY?
Pay is there as an option, mainly a deterrent and game lengthener. People who play a lot, get rewarded equally so for those who work a lot and can't play a lot. What's wrong with that?
What's wrong with that is what you saw with the AH. I get what you're saying - only an *option* - but in the end it will force people to pay for it. If you as a player have to sacrifice hundreds of hours for unlocking the necromancer, someone with the money can just bypass this step and put the same amount of time into gearing his necromancer up. It just doesn't work. You cannot offer money as an "alternative" to invest time. Time in RoS equals character development. If you can bypass the time needed for unlocking content, it gives you a huge advantage over those who don't pay. And in the end it comes down to the same thing again: Pay2Win.
And keep in mind people, what other people decide to do with THEIR characters, and in THEIR games, has NOTHING to do with YOUR characters and YOUR game. It's all just false enemies built in your mind.
This was the same argument that was used for the AH. "It's just their characters buying their way to MP10, it does not affect you." Yes it does/did. They're paying customers who need endgame, so the droprate had to be lowered. In the end the entire game was designed around the AH (paraphrased from bluepost!). The same would happen if you'd allow any game content to be accessed by real money. No, no, no. Purely cosmetic/not game-changing content. Otherwise you screw up everything in an instant.
Pay is there as an option, mainly a deterrent and game lengthener. People who play a lot, get rewarded equally so for those who work a lot and can't play a lot. What's wrong with that?
What's wrong with that is what you saw with the AH. I get what you're saying - only an *option* - but in the end it will force people to pay for it. If you as a player have to sacrifice hundreds of hours for unlocking the necromancer, someone with the money can just bypass this step and put the same amount of time into gearing his necromancer up. It just doesn't work. You cannot offer money as an "alternative" to invest time. Time in RoS equals character development. If you can bypass the time needed for unlocking content, it gives you a huge advantage over those who don't pay. And in the end it comes down to the same thing again: Pay2Win.
No, it's not! This ISN'T the auction house. Inferno was designed to take a year to beat. People who designed Diablo 3 were complete idiots. Please let's stop comparing anything to ANYTHING they did in Vanilla. Design and balance a new class (pretty easy to do for a PVE game). To give a shitty example since I seem to need to make this much more clearer, 100,000,000 gold for the Necromancer, or 10 bucks. Takes like a week to get 100,000,000 gold with average play. A week of playing the game and NOT buying gems to unlock a class that you might want to try? OR 10 dollars to skip that week and continue allowing yourself to upgrade your gems and get that extra 200 strength in your gear for that extra bit of optimization? (Which could be translated into 10 dollars for 200 strength if you wanted to stretch it that far) But, in the end... WHAT are you optimizing that gear for? There's currently nothing you're even matched up against? There's no competition, just artificial made-up competition. Make up a few additional rules to your made up competition if you want, I don't care... In the end, none of this would even apply to the REAL competition (Seasons/Ladders Tiered Rifts). Current Softcore mode is nothing more than a glorified practice mode with Hardcore mode having always existed in a non-functional state (server connection issues killing characters), so currently, everyone who plays Diablo 3- Strictly plays it to waste their time whether they realize it or not.
I'm trying to discuss what's actually meaningful for a game being developed, not what's important in the vast majority of underdeveloped minds.
Edit: And to keep things clearer. Remember, a class as a suggestion is a subset of the game. Not everyone will be interested, most probably won't be. Therefor, it is just to 'charge' those who do SPECIFICALLY want it.
If I were to ever suggest that perhaps a new set of maps and enemies to explore and slaughter can be unlocked to you for strictly paying $10 (EA routinue), that's strict dumbassery. Some people will pay, some won't. You've just split your consumers and made your life more difficult.
If I were to suggest adding in new more powerful items. (Kind of like how the Auction house SERVED, but not acted) That would be Pay-to-Win. Undermining the goal of the game (become powerful) buy allowing direct paid access to the end. It's backwards design. The Auction house was pure idiocy, everyone working on Diablo 3 vanilla presented that. Whoever did Reaper of Souls either learned from their mistakes (bravo, few people do), or were just simply much better at their jobs.
Final Edit: I think it would be worth noting that if Blizzard DID implement Micro-transactions and maintain a fair atmosphere, they should reduce the price of Reaper of souls by 50% and make Vanilla free. They'd probably make more money, and we'd probably pay less.
I think micro transactions popping back up in Diablo 3 in any form just cheapens the game again. Granted you're not gaining any real advantage..but they've already got enough games with micro transactions ..lets leave Diablo 3 out of it.
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If the Battle.net store offered voice packs for the characters/followers, would you be interested?
What about skins for the classes?
Transmog sets? Extra Stash Tabs? Extra Character Slots? Item Trading? Character Portraits?
Which one of these interests you? Also, do you have ideas of your own for what would make for a good microtransaction?
Edit: I considered many opinions I gathered around the web and compiled them in an article about the subject.
http://diablo.blizzpro.com/2014/06/05/reaper-souls-microtransactions/
More character slots, meh, I got one of each class in both SC and HC, I don't need any more.
I could be lured to pay for more stash space if the price was reasonable enough, though.
WTF is wrong with you people? Capitalism hath rot thy mind?
BurningRope#1322 (US~HC) Request an invite to the official (NA) <dfans> Clan
I'm doing research for an article I'm writing and I wanted to connect with the player base a bit and hear their thoughts on the subject.
Additionally, some character looks custimization would be nice (not as a paid feature though). All characters have the same face :/.
PS: Diablo 3 is a non-subscription online game which keeps receiving updates.. It would make sense to have some kind of microtransaction in the game. Most games involving just a box-purchase don't entertain me this long
ive probably salvaged enough pieces that i wanted to keep but didnt have space to gear 20 people for t5+
If there's a special dye you can buy for a few bucks, how does this affect you at all in a negative way? Quite the contrary. Micro transactions are a great source of income. If D3 had micro transactions, Blizzard could spend a bit more money on the server infrastructure (which seems to be not as good as it could be) or hire a couple more people to have more frequent content patches. Those who are willing to pay a few extra bucks for an extra dye can get it, and your character will not perform worse just because your boots are not glowing in a bright yellow color. So what? In the end both sides benefit: those who want cosmetics can get it, and those who don't will have a better game experience because Blizzard has a constant income source.
I would never pay for any cosmetics - don't really care about that. But I would instantly buy stash space. I know, however, that many many many people are fine with the stash space as it is now and Blizzard has no plans to extend it in general, so micro transactions are my only hope. In fact, the one and only reason why I bought the Collector's Edition was because of three additional twinks for character slots.
TL;DR: Introduce all sorts of micro transactions but make sure they have zero effect on game play and are completely 100% optional.
$10 to buy a Necromancer class or skin for the Witch Doctor, or 100,000,000 gold, or materials. (Comes with additional character slots) (Imagine having to put in 50 Forgotten souls, 500 blue and white crafting mats, +10,000,000 gold to create an item that can be used to summon a boss, kill the boss and it drops a hand in (if you did the first step) and voila! New class to play!$3-5 for extra stash space or more gold, more expensive than current slots.
Additional character slots, and options to spend millions of gold every new Ladder Season for a new slot or so.
Numerous other classes, Druid/Rogue/etc, always options to unlock them in game through either Achievements, Difficult Quests or Grinding (or free if you've been playing a long time and managed to save up ridiculous amounts of Resources to unlock these characters).
Microtransactions are acceptable as a suplement, not as a main gating mechanism. Allow the rich or those without time a chance to experience everything in the game, but obviously not for nothing. You're either going to play the game to get unlock these additional FEATURES (not content), or fork over a few bucks so you don't have to. It's often the difference between dedication (cheaper for the individuals who stick with the game), more expensive for people who burn through everything and then put the game on the shelf till the next content patch or something. That's what I see.
But i have to disagree to introduce all sorts of micro transactions! Because I think additional stash space for example is not a big deal in terms of developing effort and therefore should be implemented for free (*D3 is a full price game... we payed for D3 and for RoS). These kind of buyable improvements are perfectly ok for f2p games, but definetly not for a full-price game like D3.
Gold/materials for money? Hell no!
Allow the rich to experience everything in the game? Absolutely definitely hell no! Don't turn this game back into Pay2Win or I'll be out immediately. I like the AH when it was introduced, I defended it for a long time, but in the end D3V was Pay2Win. 99% of those who played MP10 used the AH/RMAH, either by flipping or putting in real money. As soon as any content becomes accessible through money *as well* there are enough who do this such that Blizzard has to balance the game around those people (especially since they paid for it!) which will make it terrible for all those who don't want to go down this road. This was what made D3V so horrible.
Keep micro transactions purely cosmetic or to non-game changing additions. Micro transactions should never allow you to bypass game content at all, or the game is doomed.
I never ONCE said Pay-to-win was a good idea.
It strictly promotes PLAY-TO-WIN traditional gaming.
Pay is there as an option, mainly a deterrent and game lengthener. People who play a lot, get rewarded equally so for those who work a lot and can't play a lot. What's wrong with that?
Every suggestion I made was with "Pay money, OR unlock in game!" and NOTHING, was regarding maps, or EXCLUSIVE game content- because that is terrible, it seperates the community which is bad. Buy SKINS (cosmetic), buy classes (similar to buying an expansion pack, but more regular and smaller and cheaper)
Every class comes with some extra game content (available for everyone for free!) that would be included with every patch, but to get the class or that fancy new part of the game, you're going to have to continue playing to unlock or (or unlock it with all that stuff you've saved up since the last patch) OR, pay with some real money (if you want to support our company) if you don't feel like playing this much or if you devalue the time it takes to manually acquire it in game and value your Real Life time more.
All valid, all representable, all fair.
Sometimes I work a lot. Sometimes I LIKE to be able to just fling 10 bucks down to get something new to do tonight before going back to work in 10 hours for another 12. SOMETIMES, I'm not doing anything for months, making no money, with a lot of time to blow. Would be nice to have something great to build and play towards in game. I can understand and feel both sides of the argument, and I support both. So let's have both damn it!
And keep in mind people, what other people decide to do with THEIR characters, and in THEIR games, has NOTHING to do with YOUR characters and YOUR game. It's all just false enemies built in your mind. Now when it comes to Open and Public games, there's some slight overlap sure. However we've all experienced public games enough now to see that really, you're frequently matched between so many different people that you probably couldn't tell the difference between someone who's bought the Necro class, or someone who unlocked the Necro class... and when it comes down to it, does anyone REALLY care if that random in your pub group bought or unlocked? Do you? Do you REALLY?
This was the same argument that was used for the AH. "It's just their characters buying their way to MP10, it does not affect you." Yes it does/did. They're paying customers who need endgame, so the droprate had to be lowered. In the end the entire game was designed around the AH (paraphrased from bluepost!). The same would happen if you'd allow any game content to be accessed by real money. No, no, no. Purely cosmetic/not game-changing content. Otherwise you screw up everything in an instant.
No, it's not! This ISN'T the auction house. Inferno was designed to take a year to beat. People who designed Diablo 3 were complete idiots. Please let's stop comparing anything to ANYTHING they did in Vanilla. Design and balance a new class (pretty easy to do for a PVE game). To give a shitty example since I seem to need to make this much more clearer, 100,000,000 gold for the Necromancer, or 10 bucks. Takes like a week to get 100,000,000 gold with average play. A week of playing the game and NOT buying gems to unlock a class that you might want to try? OR 10 dollars to skip that week and continue allowing yourself to upgrade your gems and get that extra 200 strength in your gear for that extra bit of optimization? (Which could be translated into 10 dollars for 200 strength if you wanted to stretch it that far) But, in the end... WHAT are you optimizing that gear for? There's currently nothing you're even matched up against? There's no competition, just artificial made-up competition. Make up a few additional rules to your made up competition if you want, I don't care... In the end, none of this would even apply to the REAL competition (Seasons/Ladders Tiered Rifts). Current Softcore mode is nothing more than a glorified practice mode with Hardcore mode having always existed in a non-functional state (server connection issues killing characters), so currently, everyone who plays Diablo 3- Strictly plays it to waste their time whether they realize it or not.
I'm trying to discuss what's actually meaningful for a game being developed, not what's important in the vast majority of underdeveloped minds.
Edit: And to keep things clearer. Remember, a class as a suggestion is a subset of the game. Not everyone will be interested, most probably won't be. Therefor, it is just to 'charge' those who do SPECIFICALLY want it.
If I were to ever suggest that perhaps a new set of maps and enemies to explore and slaughter can be unlocked to you for strictly paying $10 (EA routinue), that's strict dumbassery. Some people will pay, some won't. You've just split your consumers and made your life more difficult.
If I were to suggest adding in new more powerful items. (Kind of like how the Auction house SERVED, but not acted) That would be Pay-to-Win. Undermining the goal of the game (become powerful) buy allowing direct paid access to the end. It's backwards design. The Auction house was pure idiocy, everyone working on Diablo 3 vanilla presented that. Whoever did Reaper of Souls either learned from their mistakes (bravo, few people do), or were just simply much better at their jobs.
Final Edit: I think it would be worth noting that if Blizzard DID implement Micro-transactions and maintain a fair atmosphere, they should reduce the price of Reaper of souls by 50% and make Vanilla free. They'd probably make more money, and we'd probably pay less.