How can WoW still justify a subcription model?

[RhanathShadowhand]

As you can read above, it wasn't really really supposed to be included, but it was the fans who wanted pandas. Feel free to cry some more about pandas being the lore. They have never been a part of the original lore, and they'll never be part of the original lore. Only the modern lore.

What "modern lore" are you talking about? Pandarens were there since Warcraft III. Are you saying WoW turned "sissy casual" since The Frozen Throne came along?

Please say that, I want to point and laugh at someone.

Pandarens were in WC3 because they were meant to be a joke.
Samwise's answer to question:

A lot of people may not know the illustrious history of the pandaren race and their introduction in the Warcraft III expansion. Can you give a brief recap of how you got the idea for an anthropomorphic panda race and how they eventually came to be included in the expansion?

I might never have had the idea if it weren't for my brother's fantastic skill at mangling up words and phrases. "A flash in the pants" or "at the end of my wit" are some of the classics in my brother's repertoire of manglings and mash-ups.

We were all off on a weekend desert trip and come evening everyone was grouped up around the fire. I was off doing something and my bro, who already had a few Stormstouts in him, said something like

"Dude, you're like one of those panda bears -- you're never cold."
I said "Do you mean a polar bear?"
He muttered something like "I said polar bear" or whatever, but from that moment on, I was judged and labeled as: The Panda.

Some years later I did a Christmas picture for my family of a panda bear with a cub sitting on his shoulder in tribute to the new daughter who had joined our clan. That was the first panda picture I did.
For some reason, one of our webmasters asked if it could be made into a Blizzard wallpaper. People seemed to like it well enough so that when April Fools came around we announced that the pandaren were going to be the fifth race for Warcraft III. People got excited by the announcement, and seemed to be let down when they found out it was just a joke.

In your personal work you'll literally represent yourself quite often as a Pandaren, and in other pieces you use them as easter eggs. Do you think of them as an icon or calling card for your work now?

It all started when we were working on the art books. In the Art of Warcraft book they had highlighted a picture I did that had some hidden names, faces, and such in it.

I've always done things like that, but this was the first time we blatantly pointed it out.

From then on people started looking for hidden faces or pandas in my pictures. It is pretty funny now because people are seeing things in everything. Even on art that I didn't work on people are saying, "Look! There's a panda face!"

.
.
.

The development was pretty painless, at least on my end. A pencil drawing for the front, side, and back of Chen as well as details for his gear, and that was about all. The face needed a few more iterations to it to help out the sculptor and that was really it.

The sculpting of Chen is special to me as the Pandaren was originally just created for my family and friends. It was done just for fun, as a joke. To have this personal piece of art become a page or two in the massive volumes of Blizzard Entertainment lore is an honor. And to have it embraced by so much of our community is a really great feeling. Some still think of the Pandaren as the Aprils Fools gag, while others think they should be the next race for World of Warcraft (Horde, naturally ).

But whatever your views, just remember this... if my brother was a better speaker then the pandaren race might never have been born. Cheers to you brother!

They are officialy a part of "lore" since Mists of Pandaria. Modern Lore starts from the beginning of World of Warcraft.

 

[mgs16925]

I will only answer this, because all I could read from the laughter was this:

Also, Pandarans were part of WoW lore before WoW even existed.

Pandarens weren't orignally supposed to be a featured race, but a joke.

The pandaren started as a creation of lead artist Samwise Didier and an April Fool's joke, but they got a massive response from Warcraft fans. When the expansion to Warcraft III was announced, the Pandaren Brewmaster was added as a neutral hero, available and playable on nearly every melee map. One Brewmaster, Chen Stormstout was included as an optional playable hero in the expansion's orc campaign. Due to this popularity, pandaren were rumored to be the new playable Alliance race to be introduced in the Burning Crusade expansion. Their possible appearance in WoW has been hinted at multiple times by Blizzard. On October 21, 2011 at BlizzCon 2011, Blizzard officially announced World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria as the fourth expansion, and the pandaren became the first playable race available to both the Horde and the Alliance. The WoW community has become somewhat divided over the expansion.

As you can read above, it wasn't really really supposed to be included, but it was the fans who wanted pandas. Feel free to cry some more about pandas being the lore. They have never been a part of the original lore, and they'll never be part of the original lore. Only the modern lore.

PS. Captcha: Total Shamble
Should've been "Total Shame"

Dude, your quote includes canon inclusions since The Frozen Throne ten years ago. They were also in the pen and paper version of WOW from day one. This makes them exactly as old as the Blood Elves, and older than the Worgen and Dranei (other than one line in the Warcraft 2 manual from 1995 which just said they were wiped out).

Seriously, this game already has cow people and dog people as playable races, not to mention pig people hyena people owlbear people walrus people snake people and fish people as enemies. We are way, WAY past the point where complaining about a specific breed of furry makes any sense.

 

[Rblade]

all the people saying "WoW sucks, the expansions where terrible" need to get of their high horses. It has simply been a great MMO for many many years and it's exactly the constant patching and willinginess to adopt good new mechanics that justifies the subscription. This game is almost 9 years old, if you think about that it has remained surprisingly fresh. I no longer play, but have for a couple of years. And once the final expansion hits, how knowns maby I'll take a couple of months to go through all the content and see the end game.

 

[RhanathShadowhand]

I will only answer this, because all I could read from the laughter was this:

Also, Pandarans were part of WoW lore before WoW even existed.

Pandarens weren't orignally supposed to be a featured race, but a joke.

The pandaren started as a creation of lead artist Samwise Didier and an April Fool's joke, but they got a massive response from Warcraft fans. When the expansion to Warcraft III was announced, the Pandaren Brewmaster was added as a neutral hero, available and playable on nearly every melee map. One Brewmaster, Chen Stormstout was included as an optional playable hero in the expansion's orc campaign. Due to this popularity, pandaren were rumored to be the new playable Alliance race to be introduced in the Burning Crusade expansion. Their possible appearance in WoW has been hinted at multiple times by Blizzard. On October 21, 2011 at BlizzCon 2011, Blizzard officially announced World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria as the fourth expansion, and the pandaren became the first playable race available to both the Horde and the Alliance. The WoW community has become somewhat divided over the expansion.

As you can read above, it wasn't really really supposed to be included, but it was the fans who wanted pandas. Feel free to cry some more about pandas being the lore. They have never been a part of the original lore, and they'll never be part of the original lore. Only the modern lore.

PS. Captcha: Total Shamble
Should've been "Total Shame"

Dude, your quote includes canon inclusions since The Frozen Throne ten years ago. They were also in the pen and paper version of WOW from day one. This makes them exactly as old as the Blood Elves, and older than the Worgen and Dranei (other than one line in the Warcraft 2 manual from 1995 which just said they were wiped out).

Seriously, this game already has cow people and dog people as playable races, not to mention pig people hyena people owlbear people walrus people snake people and fish people as enemies. We are way, WAY past the point where complaining about a specific breed of furry makes any sense.

They are still not canon. Therefore they don't count as a part of "lore". Feel free to back up your case with proof.

EDIT: Removed a sentence, because I read yours wrong.

 

[Seventh Actuality]

By being a shitload better than all those games.

 

[RhanathShadowhand]

Pandarens were in WC3 because they were meant to be a joke.

I know that. But they were still added to the game, and are a part of the lore ever since WC3. Whether they become a playable race or not has no bearing, they were a part of the lore to begin with since before WoW was launched.

They are still not canon. Therefore they don't count as a part of "lore".

Why, because you say so? The inclusion of a playable hero character in an official, as-canon-as-can-be campaign pretty much makes them cannon.

Not if the hero is an easter egg and has to be found first.
I don't know how to embed videos, but here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8BgIg_Q3FE

 

[Radoh]

Because they've already established a consumer base of about TEN MILLION that's willing to give them money every month and there's no real reason to get rid of that just yet since, again, TEN MILLION people are paying them every single month.
Some people, let me tell you.

 

[RhanathShadowhand]

Not if the hero is an easter egg and has to be found first.
I don't know how to embed videos, but here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8BgIg_Q3FE

From your quote:

When the expansion to Warcraft III was announced, the Pandaren Brewmaster was added as a neutral hero, available and playable on nearly every melee map.

Melee map, meaning multiplayer maps. MP isn't canon...

 

[jetriot]

Honestly it is because their content is the most fleshed out, polished content available. I have played a lot of MMOs and I always go back to WoW because there is simply more to do in WoW than other games. Their PvP is still solid and even if it is not better than GW2 pvp mechanically it does have a lot more content and is easier to access for the casual player. The raids and mechanics are still better than anything out there and the various levels of raid difficulty now allow everyone to participate at their own difficulty level. The quest system is better at telling a story than any other MMO available, especially with the recent xpacs. Crafting is done better any many MMOs but the minigames available like pet battles, collecting and brawlers guild offer more content than many MMOs do.

In short they can have a subscription fee because their game is still superior in many ways, to all the F2P games out there. Much of that is subjective but if we simply measure content and the rate which it is added, WoW offers a fair price for what you get.

 

[runic knight]

I will only answer this, because all I could read from the laughter was this:

Also, Pandarans were part of WoW lore before WoW even existed.

Pandarens weren't orignally supposed to be a featured race, but a joke.

The pandaren started as a creation of lead artist Samwise Didier and an April Fool's joke, but they got a massive response from Warcraft fans. When the expansion to Warcraft III was announced, the Pandaren Brewmaster was added as a neutral hero, available and playable on nearly every melee map. One Brewmaster, Chen Stormstout was included as an optional playable hero in the expansion's orc campaign. Due to this popularity, pandaren were rumored to be the new playable Alliance race to be introduced in the Burning Crusade expansion. Their possible appearance in WoW has been hinted at multiple times by Blizzard. On October 21, 2011 at BlizzCon 2011, Blizzard officially announced World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria as the fourth expansion, and the pandaren became the first playable race available to both the Horde and the Alliance. The WoW community has become somewhat divided over the expansion.

As you can read above, it wasn't really really supposed to be included, but it was the fans who wanted pandas. Feel free to cry some more about pandas being the lore. They have never been a part of the original lore, and they'll never be part of the original lore. Only the modern lore.

PS. Captcha: Total Shamble
Should've been "Total Shame"

So... she was right in saying they existed in the lore (that being events and occurrences established back in warcraft 3) before Wow itself existed.

Not sure why that is funny though. Whine about pandas or what not all you like being stupid (not into warcraft myself, from what I seen, lots of silly things there-in), but seems she got that nail right on the head. They were in the game officially, therefore at least showing the race itself existed within the lore before Wow was created.
Even though it was a multiplayer map, it still had to exist within the universe itself and abide by the rules. Wonder if people bitched and whined about pandas back when it was just warcraft 3. Pretty sure with all the other races and what not, they just went "meh, panda guy" and carried on, precious personal opinion of the lore not harmed in the least.



on the topic at hand.
They charge it because they offer the one of the largest player bases out there for mmo, on top of a solid game and brand recognition. They got lucky, struck gold and now became so big that they can still charge people an subscription just so they can keep playing in one of the oldest and most established clubhouses out there for mmo.

 

[jetriot]

Also for the people whining about panderan... They have been done very well and are easily one of the best races Blizzard has ever done. Calling something dumb because it looks cute at a glance and may not appeal to your oh so manly sensibilities without ever attempting to look at the real depth that Blizzard put into them is foolish. Whether they were initially in the lore or not doesn't matter, they make shit up all the time. If they concentrated only on the lore in the RTS games it would be a dull MMO indeed. Stop being self righteous assholes.

 

[King of Asgaard]

At this point, it comes down to brand recognition, I feel.
WoW still remains with its business model because it still has plenty of players who love it, regardless of any flaws.
Even if subscription numbers have dwindled, there's still quite a few million players who continue to sub.
Honestly, unless there's a drastic change in WoW, the sub model won't be gone for quite a while.

 

[Friendly Lich]

At first I really didn't like the Panderia expansion but I decided to give it a try. The dungeons are better than the Cataclysm dungeons and the new talent system is better than the previous talent tree system because it is easier for blizzard to tweak and balance. The graphics have been updated as well. Also you dont have to play as a panda if you dont want to and pet-battles are hardly even present.

Also no other company can seem to get their shit together the first two months after their games come out and simply just get lazy. But blizzard is constantly updating, patching, and reworking.

Its because blizzard has something to loose if they don't continue to perform but free-play companies really don't care because once you pay initially for their game they don't care if you leave because you don't have a subscription.

I've seen this happen with SWTOR and GW2 they stopped caring about trying to balance their games and are slow to make needed changes.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Ain't the recent why MMORPG with subciption at launch changed to free to play is that they were losing sales as in number of players on it?
Granted I did remember that newspost that WOW has been losing players aswell but I guess the decrease were not extreme enough for them to consider going F2P.
Also as everyone had mention already, people still willing to pay to play it. I guess there are not enough people (will to get a newspost about them) making a protest/ complain that WOW should go to F2P.

 

[RhanathShadowhand]

Melee map, meaning multiplayer maps. MP isn't canon...

But it uses units that are all fleshed out in the actual game. You could find a hydralisk in the second mission of Warcraft 3. It lacked any unit traits and was never mentioned again, so you can easily say that was non-canon and meant as a joke. Chen was a fully voiced, animated and designed hero character that also appeared in multiplayer and skirmish modes.

But think whatever you want, I'm done here.

It still wasn't meant to be anything more than a joke... But I'm also done here. So enjoy your MoP playtime.

 

[Norrdicus]

WoW subscriptions are around 80% profit [http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ACTI/1383852019x0x488724/17640fc1-bacd-4528-bb5e-6be3fc1ae7ea/ATVI_Q2_PR_Tables.pdf], so I guess they justify it with "People are eager to pay that much, why should we start changing our business model or prices?"

I don't personally think P2P is a completely outdated model, maybe the common price is. Servers aren't that expensive anymore

 

[endtherapture]

WoW will be the last big subscription game. I can't see a sequel to WoW having a subscription, especially when Guild Wars 2 is doing it's amazing thing on just a £30 initial purchase fee (well worth the money in my opinion, plus you don't feel pressured into playing so you can just go and play other games then always come back to GW2)

Captcha: fezes are cool - loving the Doctor Who reference there hahaa.