Blizzard looking to "monetize" Battle.Net

It seems that our favorite game developer is looking towards making more money from Battle.Net. Their free service which we have come to love and foster may or may not be free anymore with the advent of Blizzard's two upcoming releases (StarCraft II and Diablo III)

http://news.bigdownload.com/2008/10/12/blizzard-looking-to-monotize-battle-net/

They have not exactly said Battle.Net would not be free but the fact that they are also splitting StarCraft II into a trilogy just bothers me as a customer/fan. How do you feel about these new approaches from Blizzard? Do you think free online gaming should be the standard? Would you pay a monthly fee for a non-MMO game?

Let's hear what you (the base) have got to say!

 

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/13/blizzcon-2008-rob-pardo-talks-battle-net-monetizing/

OT: HOLY **** HOW DID YOU GET SO MANY MINERALS?!?!?! Care to donate to the poor?

 

I find what Rob Pardo says at the end to be quite hilarious:

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/10/starcraft-2-to-be-released-as-a-trilogy/

and then:

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/13/blizzard-vp-starcraft-2-trilogy-on-the-3-year-plan/

 

What exactly are you saying? Are you referring to the trilogy "problem"? I think that's quite different. In the trilogy you are paying the box price.. no "after" or "hidden" (To borrow a phrase from phone companies) prices

OT: .. About them minerals

 

What I was trying to say is that we would have to purchase all three StarCraft II CDs for us to get a fuller gaming experience and to top that off, we would have to wait at least a whole year for each expansion pack. Rob Pardo said that Blizzard would never do that... Odd. It seems it is doing the opposite of what was said but I guess if it is out of necessity then so be it.

P.S. Minerals = Tournaments/Contests in the future.

 

Charging for server swaps?! Name Change?! What the hell, as long as they don't start to ask a monthly fee over 180$ for all three games. What's next Diablo 3 in 5 games for each class?

 

Like I said, I believe it's entirely different. He was talking about online fees other than the "box price". If you take it that way then he was absolutely correct. When quoting someone we have to remember to keep it in context. We have enough problems with this in politics and religion

 

The Trilogy is fine! Essentially we are getting full multiplayer and a 30 mission single player, just like the original. If anything we will have a much deeper and focused single player as a result, with CONFIRMED expansions! With the possiblity of a third expansion to look forward too!!

Monetizing BNET could be a good move, as long as its monthly. I have dreaded the though of "Pay to PLay" with SC2, you know like you pay 25 cents per online game, or something crazy like that!

 

I'm actually happy with the trilogy, its essentially 3 games instead of one, each of which gives you access to the full multiplayer. I often wished that the original game was longer, you really only had a few missions with each race where you had access to all of the units, this way you have many many missions. As for battle.net I would really hope there isn't a monthly fee. Perhaps they will just be adding more ads or something, or nothing may come of it, it is an awfully long ways off still, and a lot can change.

 

i'd rather have them throw some pop ups at me every time i click on create game or join game menu.

 

Blizzard should be making more than enough from the wow subs... why must they be so greedy.

 

monetizing?
is that even a word?
what does it mean?

 

lol, i hope they won't 'monetize' it...

P.S. make a UT2003 tournament

only contestant=win.

 

I personnaly don't give a sh#t about playing solo campaigns during a whole month: solo is nice, with the story, the characters etc, but what I really want with purchasing Starcraft2 is some solo training before to play online!

I don't like at all all that money thing, but am unfortunately not surprised at all: Vivendi behind Blizzard definitely decides everything, and they are not much into the gaming so far I noticed...

I will not buy three boxes to enjoy one multiplayer game.

I am not sure if the word is really english, but this means in french to make money with something that originally doesn't require any.

Our whole civilisation is based on this concept, to make everything paying.

I don't mind much having to pay something to enjoy some service, I can understand this company needs incomes in order to pay all the staff, afford the hardware etc, but splitting a same product into three ones, this is abusive to me...

Who would buy the three boxes? What about their prices by the way? Will I have any special advantage if I get the three of them, beyond having to play forever evenings to master every unit and know every part of the general storyline?

What I do fear with Diablo III is some extra paying service for all the items/storage system, like if you don't pay an extra fee, you have 0% chances of getting elite items, or you just have a poor 8x4 stash space, or can only play up to 2 online characters, or something like this.

I am sure they are thinking about that, Diablo is too much inventory / looping oriented to let them ignore such potential. Maybe they are even considering releasing their own eBay, like "Buy your lv60 Barb for only $7.99!!"...

Keep in mind Vivendi already killed Counter-Strike, which was a great online title, with an incredibly active community. Now the players and the mappers are all apart because of all the different versions of the game, in addition of the gameplay ruined with every new add-ons... What would stop them to do the same with our favorite RTS and action-RPG games?

 

the advantage is that
1. there are 60 more maps
2. new multiplayer units will be included


People, they arent splicing up the multiplayer, you get everything with the first box. the other 2 boxes are expansion sets, only blizzard sucks at PR

 

Wrong, I'd whoop your arse

And yeah the financial crisis has to be eased through involving the gaming community I guess.

 

I'm not really sure about it, but weren't there people buying 4 copies of Warcraft just to have all the different arts on boxes?


The server swap and name change refered to their WoW services. They won't neccesarily be in SC/Diablo (but they might)

 

i would buy the three boxes, cause i loved brood war, and have high hopes for these expansion sets

 

So you have then your answer regarding your question about monetizing.

 

thanks. I think they'' implement the name change and the server change fee then. No monthly, that has already been confirmed by Karune a long time ago(though that was before vivendi)