Bashiok then went on to discuss how some pay-for ideas could possibly work for the game."Mike mentioned it in an Activision Blizzard investor meeting [paraphrased] "A player that buys Starcraft 2 at retail will have the ability to play on Battle.net with no additional fee."
I'll point out that this is a very carefully worded statement."
Obviously, none of us would like to have to pay additional fees in order to use Battle.net. If nothing else, I believe anybody who buys the inevitably pricier "Collector's Edition" of Diablo 3 when it comes out should never have to pay Battle.net fees to play the game."One pay-for idea that specifically relates to Diablo that I thought was kind of interesting was the chance to resurrect a fallen hardcore character.
I think this was mentioned by a fan, as far as I know we're not even thinking about these types of pay-for options yet. But, I think it's kind of interesting. I'm not sure if I like the idea or not, which is probably why I like thinking about it. There are some obvious pros and some obvious cons, but I'm not sure there's a clear cut answer as to whether it would work well or not."
However, this does raise the question: What special features would you pay Battle.net fees for with Diablo 3 other than the chance to resurrect a fallen hardcore character? Is there anything that you feel would be worth spending a little extra cash on to make the online gameplay more interesting?
If they did monetize that they'd for sure need to put a cap on it or something... I'd hate to see the top hardcore player be a guy who just paid 50$ to be resurrected 5 times.
But think about it, why would people play hardcore if they had this feature ?
It would basically be playing softcore mode, except having to pay to play. Any idiot could figure this out, and the hardcore ladder would become an abandoned wasteland.
Completely redundant and pointless if you ask me, bad idea of Blizzard's part.
pay to ressurect a fallen hardcore char? haha,if your that afraid about loosing your HC char dont make one at all.
But thanks you blizzard for keeping battle.net free to play, indefinatley
Which would indicate that playing on B.net is free of charge, which would rule out monthly, obligatory fees, however doesn't rule out micropayments for name changes and similar changes.
Ridiculous, nothing more to say. Industrialize, industrialize, industrialize.. can't things stay pure? Pay for this, pay for that. What happened to pay for the game, then deal with everything yourself, the old natural way? Paying for ressurection.. why play hc..
I think I pretty much just wrote what everyone here already said, just wanted to express my own rage.
now that that's done, thanks.
Theyll very likely offer some 'extra', like they do in WoW (character renaming, changing all kind of silly cosmetic stuff, character transfer). On top of chat I could maybe see them charge for 'special features' on Bnet, like featured clan/guild pages, voice communication etc.
As for paying to resurrect your Hardcore characters, that would really be silly. However, what if you could pay to resurrect your dead hardcore character over to the normal gamemode? Your character would be alive, but no longer in hardcore mode. Wouldnt have issues with that at least (not that I want them to find obscure ways to make people pay :D).
The last way to monetize Diablo 3 I see is through DLC. SC2 wont work very well with that imo, but it could work for a game like D3. New zones with monsters, items etc. every 3rd-4th month for example for a small amount of money. The difficult part would be not to split the community up too much between those who buy and those who dont, like new items cant really be better than what the standard game offers, just different etc.
Personally I would like to get small expansions a bit more often, instead of one big expansion after 2 years for example, to make the game last even longer. And while its nice to get such expansions for free, to be realistic its something you would have to pay for.
Ill bet there will be no payment for the standard game though, that goes against the whole idea in micro-transactions (get people into the 'cheap' game, get them hooked so they want to pay more).
Will they hold back featues? Depends what you see as features.
I cant see Blizz deciding to require extra payment for unlocking hardcore mode for example, even thoug they surely could. OR for unlocking higher difficulties. Neither can I see them charge for getting access to the better items. Some games do that, but I try to have enough faith in Blizzard that they wouldnt be so stupid... Maybe theyll prove me wrong
Its much more likely theyll make you pay for extra features which you really have no reason to use to play tthe game (transfers, name changes, new character models, voice chat and such).
And DLC, thats probably the most interesting form of microtransactions for D3, butwe know nothing about their plans here yet. That said, I dont see the difference between paying for an expansion and paying for DLC.
I know some likes to argue that game developers hold back content just to release it as DLC. And that might be true sometimes, but you could argue the same for expansions if you really want to so its a moot point. In the end content is likely not held back for DLC but because the game actually has to be released some day.
I agree there is a quality issue in DLC, the funny example is still the horse armor for Oblivion. But we are talking about Blizzard, why wouldn't it be possible for them to have be far above others in DLC quality as they usually are when it comes to standard game quality.
I strictly play hc d2 and the game wouldn't be half as fun if that was an option
Word!
Only cosmetic upgrades if that!
That, and claiming that in d2 you could be declared hostility upon, and die before you even saw what was happening, leads me to believe that the d3 devs used to afk at waypoints alot. The only way this was ever a problem was with abusing hydras/hurricane/traps with tp (or w/e) which could be fixed had there been more than one person working on d2; and seeing this as a reason to tone down competitiveness in d3 just leaves me rolling my eyes, really.
As for paying for cosmetic features, again I might just be a cheapskate, but when I see another sweet looking character and I say to myself "holy cow how do I look like that?!" and then find out I have to pay to do it, it creates a sense of inferiority because I can only look like that or have that skill, or sound like that if I shell out the money, which again ruins the experience for me. and I don't know about the rest of you, but when I pay for a cosmetic feature, or a skill, or item, or whatever, it loses its renown or its significance because there was no work put into the game to get it, it was just some spoiled kid's parent's fueling the child's ego by giving him the insignificant right to brag about something he didn't even earn.
Gaming was just as commercialized when Diablo 2 came out.
People are overreacting tbh. Bashiok came up with a silly idea (not even his own it seems), there isnt much reason to believe they would do something like that (although as said before, they'll likely do other stuff).
Indeed it does. Buying cosmetic 'upgrades' is silly and non-significant. Personally I would never do it. But at the same time I dont really mind to let 'stupid' people pay for these things so the company behind a game I enjoy got more money to improve the game for.
Its a very fine line to wak between offering 'silly' stuff (cosmetic upgrades) or non-essential stuff (name changes etc) people can pay for, and offering actual gameplay advantages (e.g. items, skills, avoiding Hardcore deaths etc.), so I understand the concern people have, but at the same time we really have no reason to think Blizzard will step into the wrong side of the line so far.
Fucking exactly, just what I've been saying this whole god damn time.
Really saddens me to see Blizzard making their games so... unchallenging.
I mean theres nothing wrong with opening the game up to the public and making it easier to use, but god damn, sounds like they're going to be spoon feeding us throughout most of the game, I want the days of challenging gameplay back :(.
That was fixed pretty well... once they made it so TP's were removed upon hostility, it made PK way harder.
Like you said, only way this could happen was if you AFK's at a waypoint.
Agree on every single point there, you just summed up what I couldn't articulate ^^.
You're right about casual-hardcore gamers though, I used to know a lot of those types of people. Hell, I used to be one. I'd completely forego the game during the week, then on weekends I'd play the fuck out of it.
Also completely right about the cosmetic features... I used to see them in the game Guild Wars all the time, only way you could get them was if you bought the collectors edition. First time I saw one, it blew my fucking mind, I went out and bought the collectors edition, then was let down by how lame I felt after buying it.
And again... completely right about that last part, most of the people who had that shit would brag and brag... most times not having bought it themselves.
*sigh*
edit: EttenCO, you mind if I take your post to the b-net forums ? Love to see what Bashiok would say to that... I'd give you full credit for the post, of course.