WoW may go free-to-play in China

Kentokae — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 04:24:59 GMT

I would Quit WoW if Blizzard approve of this and not do the same for the rest of the world. Especially when the most gold farmers are from China working for 10 cents an hour. While Chinese players play the game and make profits none Chinese players are constantly spammed by them and are tracked down and fined/sued for such action when they have to pay to play.

WoW may go free-to-play in China

TheEnigmaIMP — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 04:24:58 GMT

Indeed - to echo Kentokae's remarks.
Shoukd Blizz go ahead with this (bearing in mind it seems pure speculatin at the moment) I see a lot of avid fans walking away to warhammer etc should the whole world not get the same treatment.

And if china is high on the popularity list then why not charge them - i dont see how the more people play in an area the cheaper it becomes.
Seems like a mad idea IMHO.

WoW may go free-to-play in China

Fujiwara — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 04:24:57 GMT

Its only free-to-play in China? So it wont affect us in Europa & USA?

WoW may go free-to-play in China

asp — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 04:24:56 GMT

It's something they seem to be considering. It's not a fact that they will do this. This is The9, not Blizzard. A business model that works well in the US and the EU might not work as well in Asia. Of course Asia would have to have a revenue stream from somewhere so I can't imagine it being completely free.

WoW may go free-to-play in China

Tinkerkas — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 04:24:55 GMT

AHHHHHH a reason that is free is that the are major supporters of gold farming YOU BAI!

WoW may go free-to-play in China

bruteMax — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 04:24:54 GMT

in communist china, games play you!

WoW may go free-to-play in China

ShadeofChaoS — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 04:24:53 GMT

LoLz fuking chinese dont pay and we get da sh1t to pay
Blizz wake up plz

WoW may go free-to-play in China

Kentokae — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 04:24:52 GMT

As funny as you tried to be, you are so true for 10 cents an hour

WoW may go free-to-play in China

Bearnaked — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 04:24:51 GMT

mmm i want free, thatd be nice

WoW may go free-to-play in China

Lethanialist — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 04:24:50 GMT

All the people threatening to quit fail. The whole point of WoW in China is that the servers are Chinese. This means that they'll be more inclined to play their free WoW on their servers than flooding our US, European, and Oceanic servers with gold! This would actually be good for Blizz to approve to clean out the rest of the servers of a majority of gold farmers.

WoW may go free-to-play in China

Hellarion — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 04:24:49 GMT

If they get it free we should get a price drp to $10 a month. Keep game cards $30 but tag on an extra month

WoW may go free-to-play in China

Serrol — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 04:24:48 GMT

Lethanialist, the only reason anybody would play on their servers is because they aren't being paid to play on American, Oceanic, or European realms. If you are getting a profit to pay for the game elsewhere, why would you want to play for free and make no profit?

If they were to open up free realms in China, it would only make for more Chinese to learn about the game, and how to play it, and it would create a virtual training grounds for the future gold farmers and power levelers. Think of the PTRs. People use PTRs to test different methods and strategies to see which will work. If this is so, then we can compare the PTRs to these free realms. Give them a place to try anything they want, with no risk, and they'll take advantage of it. Anyone would, especially them.

WoW may go free-to-play in China

lucidan — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 04:24:47 GMT

Many games are free in China ,The9 want to make it free so that WOW can get more players.But i hope WOW don't like other free games.

WoW may go free-to-play in China

Lothaer — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 04:24:46 GMT

if china get free wow then i want all chinese ISP banned from joined the US/EU server period they do that and the amount of gold spammers will go through the roof, lousy rice munchers ><

WoW may go free-to-play in China

vires — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 04:24:45 GMT

People obviously haven't realized the ideas behind the so called "Free to play" business model of new generation MMORPGs, the current trend in Korean/Chinese MMORPG market is that a lot of games are becoming free to access, however, the in-game items and special privileged items/skills are charged. This enables rich kids and elitist to spend as much as up to 30,000 RMB a week in a game, in fact, I have actually heard from my friends of people that are doing this. A lot of MMORPGs are transitioning to this business model in China, but most of them suck anyway, the only selling point of these MMOs are that they enable you to be uber pwnage, given that you are willing to pay for it, and yes, it's becoming an alternative form of entertainment for rich people who have jobs and need some form of relaxation, they want to cut the leveling, the grinding and enjoy the games on equal levels (if not greater) than the average players.

It's amazing how pride and greed can drive an economy, yes, China is corrupt, and that's why this business model is becoming more prevalent, go to any net-cafes in China and you'll see what I mean, some cafes have arranged agreements with MMORPG distributors to offer demo stations that are free to play, some even give out cash and prizes for the masses to gain popularity.