I would think a 5% discount from the $150 ticket for every year you had a full Warcraft subscription (with a maximum of 4 years or 20%) would be fair. For the other useless games like Diablo or Starcraft:P, you get your discount with proof of purchase. This would be a nice and thoughtful "thank you for your continued game play" attitude.
One of the podcasts I listened to this week (sorry I don't remember which one) mentioned that Blizzard has to make money to pay for these events and pay for entertainers like Ozzy Osbourne. Now I think a couple of posts back I said Blizzard is receiving about $170,000,000 per month in subscriptions if the figure of 11.2 million subscribers per month is accurate. Please don't tell me that Blizzard needs to make money from this event. These events are just to fuel the fire of the players. Don't get me wrong I would LOVE to be there. More so for the community of gamers that it brings together, it seems very exciting. Would I pay $150, damn straight, hence why there is no discounts. With not enough tickets for these events as they are sold out immediately. I know I know, supply and demand.
The only thing I ask, lets not pretend that Blizzard needs the $150 per ticket but that people are willing to pay that amount.
Heh. "Back in the day", there was a chain of video game "parlors" called "Virtual World". Each store had three bays of 18 or so networked pods that ran either Battletech simulations or a racing game called "Red Planet" (my favorite), where you competed with up to 17 other players to "race illegally modified hovercraft through the canals of Mars."
ReplyDeleteThey also had a coffee bar, complete with sammiches and soft pretzels for us to munch on while we waited for our mission to queue.
Much fun, and, since it was around 1990, pretty advanced stuff.
Anyway, the point was that at certain points in your missions run, you would earn a discount like you were talking about. After 100 10-minutes missions, you'd get a buck off and pay $10 instead of $11, at 500 you'd earn another buck off, and so on.
I was paying $8 a mission, and even got a certificate :)
(Epilogue: these were owned by Wizards of the Coast, and when Disney bought them, the entire chain was closed. In retrospect, no biggie, since the intertubes were about to make the entire franchise irrelevant.
But I do miss it.)
Wow, you must be really old Grimm:P hehehe
ReplyDeleteI'm not familiar with that particular game but I remember playing the tennis type thing on the V20 at my sisters house (now I'm telling my age).
Games have come a very long way. Before Warcraft we played Quake Ufreeze which I absolutely loved. A one button shootem' game but it was awesome and we had a clan we played it and made some great friends...good times:)
"The only thing I ask, lets not pretend that Blizzard needs the $150 per ticket but that people are willing to pay that amount."
ReplyDeleteThat is the only true answer as to why they charge $150 per ticket, because they can!
I have a coworker that always says stuff like "what they should do" regarding games and game companies. Like "they should give you a discount off of the next expansion". Blah blah blah. Well, they're not going to do it because we'll all buy it at regular price anyway! Why would a company give something away for less money if we'd buy it anyway?
You will ONLY see discounts from Blizzard if subscriptions take a sudden drop. Then you may see promotions going on but for now you are right Mr. Rorik..they have no reason to give a discount. I don't give you a discount for heals in PVP do I?? No, of course not, cause you are willing to pay what it takes for leet heals:P
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