Monetization of Battlenet (article inside)

[Nicol Bolas]

Even in cooperative games, being able to buy items that impact gameplay tend to have a negative effect on the overall enjoyment of the game. A big part of RPGs is the feeling of accomplishment that comes from getting good loot and watching your avatar grow and become more powerful.

For you, perhaps. But not for everyone. Some people are perfectly happy taking a short-cut, removing much of the tedious grinding necessary for many MMOs. Even if it costs them more money.

For some, time is more important than money.

In many cases, such as Diablo, getting good loot is one of the main goals of the game, period.

Man, every word I hear about Diablo is a gigantic sign saying, "Never play this game!" Everything all of you say about the game makes me want to avoid Diablo III (which I was kinda interested in) like the plague.

I don't understand how people can play a game for the sole purpose of getting an item that makes a number bigger. I can understand it if the new items give your character new abilities or otherwise allows them to do more stuff than they could before. But just increases a stat so that now you can kill monsters one level deeper in the dungeon? God, I can't think of anything more lifeless; it's like Dragon WarriorQuest all over again.

When you can simply buy awesome gear in a few minutes, it ruins the feel of accomplishment, and greatly reduces the replay value of the game.

Not if you don't buy the "awesome gear". And being able to purchase stuff with actual gameplay value doesn't mean putting all gameplay items on sale. You can provide not "awesome gear," but "good gear". The "awesome gear" still has to be won.

The feel of accomplishment for many comes from going to new places, defeating new foes, following the story, etc. It does not have to come from loot.

[Gifted]

Thanks, was just making sure I understood what you meant. Makes sense.

NP, glad to share industry expirience

For you, perhaps. But not for everyone. Some people are perfectly happy taking a short-cut, removing much of the tedious grinding necessary for many MMOs. Even if it costs them more money.

For some, time is more important than money.

Same Page Nicol. I don't buy myself, but still, same page.

Man, every word I hear about Diablo is a gigantic sign saying, "Never play this game!" Everything all of you say about the game makes me want to avoid Diablo III (which I was kinda interested in) like the plague.

Nicol, take this from me.

Diablo 2 is a solid game, one that shines more in a LAN party. You explore semi-randomized dungeons that have certain plot points that are stable throughout. I have never truly played it on battle.net for any pvp and just enjoy cooperative content. It has solid replay value as I have leveled up multiple characters for the fun of it, and though the storyline is "old" for me now, I enjoyed it my first few times through.

The only complaints I had about Diablo 2 are being solidly resolved in Diablo 3. Foremost being a lack of story telling devices. Diablo 2 does it by terms of boss fights and lore being described by conversation of a lighter nature and the occasional cinematic. Diablo 3 has solid production value relating to the questing.

In short, I highly advise Diablo 2 as a multiplayer expirience. But as a singleplayer I still found myself playing it often... and not just "grinding". It may be hard to view a game as alive though if a person has played through it 12-15 times though... the fact still remains that something drew them in to play it that many times.

[Moradon]

The feel of accomplishment for many comes from going to new places, defeating new foes, following the story, etc. It does not have to come from loot.

Everyone enjoys getting loot to some degree, because good loot allows you to experience more content. I always hear people claim that they don't care about loot in WoW, but they always end up the first to complain when they aren't able to get it, especially before the expansions came out. People enjoy getting gear because like I said, it's a badge of honor you get to show off. Nearly everyone enjoys obtaining these "badges", the absurdly high popularity of the achievement system in gaming is proof of that.

On one hand, you're right that gear shouldn't be tedious to get. Any journey to get gear should be made as fun as possible by making them experience enjoyable content in order to get it, and that's partially why I disapprove of buying gear because it's like cheating. Yeah you can still have fun in an RPG if you start off with a Lv 99 character, but it would be like taking a chunk of the enjoyment out of it. If given a choice between experiencing story and fun gameplay with all the best stuff handed out to you and experiencing story and fun gameplay without handouts, I would choose the latter every time.

[Marneus Calgar]

Our gamers are telling us there's lots of services and innovation they would like to see that they're not getting yet. From what we see so far, additional content, as well as all the services Blizzard is offering, is that there is demand from the core gamers to pay up for that.

T_T

Who are these "core gamers", anyways? They *want* to pay for things? :S

[newcomplex]

For you, perhaps. But not for everyone. Some people are perfectly happy taking a short-cut, removing much of the tedious grinding necessary for many MMOs. Even if it costs them more money.

For some, time is more important than money.



Man, every word I hear about Diablo is a gigantic sign saying, "Never play this game!" Everything all of you say about the game makes me want to avoid Diablo III (which I was kinda interested in) like the plague.

I don't understand how people can play a game for the sole purpose of getting an item that makes a number bigger. I can understand it if the new items give your character new abilities or otherwise allows them to do more stuff than they could before. But just increases a stat so that now you can kill monsters one level deeper in the dungeon? God, I can't think of anything more lifeless; it's like Dragon WarriorQuest all over again.



Not if you don't buy the "awesome gear". And being able to purchase stuff with actual gameplay value doesn't mean putting all gameplay items on sale. You can provide not "awesome gear," but "good gear". The "awesome gear" still has to be won.

The feel of accomplishment for many comes from going to new places, defeating new foes, following the story, etc. It does not have to come from loot.

kind of irrelevent but...

Maybe the way they put diablo gameplay it makes it sound very unappealing, and shallow but it really isn't (or really is, but in a different way). A huge part that makes more "hard-core" games like counterstrike, starcraft, wow fun are its systems. People like mastering a specific (and functionally useless) system in a game. Not one built on relexes or quick thinking, just a simple system of organization in a game, such as build orders, mastering various shooter gimmicks, perfecting a spell rotation etc. Diablo requires no skill, except for mirror class ranked pvp. Which requires pretty dedicated clans, and a incredibly geared character. What makes diablo fun are its systems. Getting a level 70 to efficiently grind hell is basically just a hundred "build orders".

Getting gear is fun, but it only becomes fun because of all these complex systems in diablo. Its not just "OH BIG NUMBERS YAY!", its about getting that perfect bow that has the perfect randomly generated stats that perfectly optimizes your build, or collecting that perfect set of runes to make your set (well...not so much anymore because of duping). In order to get these items in a reasonable timespan, it goes back to the systemic, cycle of collecting optimized items, and optimizing your character...so you can do the same thing.

Than, these specific systems are combined with completely random and equally inaccessible systems found in hell dungeons. A player who is just "doing his thing" will literally be smashing his head on a wall trying to grind hell dungeons, where monsters will literally smash those not completely optimized in build and items in one hit.

Getting items is fun because you have had to master complex (and arbitrary) systems such as these. The satisfaction comes from mastering in game systems. (which, if you look below, is probably the most completely inaccessible thing for a new player, complete with algebra, looking through game database files, number crunching min maxing, and jargon)
http://forums.diii.net/showthread.php?t=412453

then, this joy is multiplied with the realization that you are now able to display this mastery by playing with/against friends/random strangers. Honestly, I think you'd like the game :P.

May not sound any more appealing, but it isn't just "SHINY EPICS LULS"

[deadlock]

diablo II is cool because blizzard didn't try to tell a story, per se. it's a game composed solely of atmosphere and superb designs (of the prime evils, etc.) hopefully they'll reuse this approach for d3.

[Cheesenium]

Great,even the shit from MW2 is coming to SC2.

[KillaKhan]

T_T

Who are these "core gamers", anyways? They *want* to pay for things? :S

I would think mostly the WoW crowd, as they pay for their game, so why not pay a little extra?

[Crota]

MW2 is a great game. The PC version however is a different story and something I wont get into as I'm sure I'll just get flamed anyways.

StarCraft II has some advantages over MW2 in that game is not being ported over from a console to PC but being developed soley in a PC environment. I for one am looking forward to some of the intergration in the StarCraft II environment that Browder has discussed over many panels. Right now the current Ladder system has a number of flaws and Blizzard is looking to address those issue. Secondly, earning achievments is a great addition to Battle Net and something I am personally looking forward to.

As long as the paid content does not affect the core game or give an unfair advantage in ladder play, I see no reason why Blizzard/Activision would not want to capitalize on their investment.

Large companies get a bad rap for being a big large greedy entity that wants to squeeze every time out of its customers. Although this may be true to some extent, a big company is also made up of many hard working men and women who are simply trying to provide for their families.

[ArcherofAiur]

MW2 is a great game. The PC version however is a different story and something I wont get into as I'm sure I'll just get flamed anyways.

StarCraft II has some advantages over MW2 in that game is not being ported over from a console to PC but being developed soley in a PC environment. I for one am looking forward to some of the intergration in the StarCraft II environment that Browder has discussed over many panels. Right now the current Ladder system has a number of flaws and Blizzard is looking to address those issue. Secondly, earning achievments is a great addition to Battle Net and something I am personally looking forward to.

As long as the paid content does not affect the core game or give an unfair advantage in ladder play, I see no reason why Blizzard/Activision would not want to capitalize on their investment.

Large companies get a bad rap for being a big large greedy entity that wants to squeeze every time out of its customers. Although this may be true to some extent, a big company is also made up of many hard working men and women who are simply trying to provide for their families.

I dont think anyone is against the developers providing for their families. Its against the microtransaction business model and any consequence it may have. Personally i think blizzard should make the product and then value it at what ever its value is. So if the game is more expensive than other games so be it, ill pay. I know that Ill get a great game and I dont mind paying for it. You buy Starcraft2 and gain access to this entire incredible esports expeirence with all that that entails.

What I dont want to do is buy a portion of the full game and then have to upgrade it periodically. I feel that bundled content/features provide much more incentive for quality than segemented features/content. Because of this I think that paying a one time fee for access to the full game is much better for long term profit and brand name integrity.