Yesterday, Blizzard announced that the base game and all expansions for World of Warcraft are free. In order to play World of Warcraft and any of the six expansions, players just need a subscription. Players have total access to all of the game's content with a subscription. This does not include the seventh expansion, which will be the only content new players need to buy. The seventh expansion, World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth, is available 14 August 2018. Blizzard have stated the digital deluxe items from each expansion will be available at the Blizzard shop individually.
Blizzard have also made changed to the refer-a-friend system as follows:
If your friend pays for two months of game time, you'll get a month of game time FREE!
If your friend pays for three months of game time, you'll receive a choice of EPIC in-game mounts or special pets."
A reset on the 'base' game
These new changes, implemented more than a decade after the first expansion The Burning Crusade went live in 2007, will effectively reset what is the base version of World of Warcraft. While the MMO juggernaut isn't as popular as it once was, it still is wildly popular, with 5 million active subscribers, but on the decline. As a result, Blizzard need a way to remarket the current product. The numerous changes made over the past decade, which are now free, makes now the best time for new players to join World of Warcraft in years. With the base game effectively being updated to the 2017 rendition of WOW, this is a great opportunity for Blizzard to hit reset on the retail product and reintroduce the game to a new wave of gamers.
Since World of Warcraft's creation in 2004 a lot has changed, both in and out of the game. Blizzard, now partnered with Activision, are one of the leaders in the industry's latest trend, games as a service. Games like Destiny, Overwatch and Hearthstone work more like a service, being that the retail purchase 'subscribes' the player to the game as it is updated with patches and new content. With the company focused so heavily on free DLC and microtransactions, a more traditional service based game, being World of Warcraft and their subscriptions, needs updating to compete with other MMOs.
This new form of the base game, along with the upcoming Battle for Azeroth expansion, is the perfect opportunity to 'reset' the World of Warcraft experience. With competition like Elder Scrolls Online and Final Fantasy XIV set to release new expansions in 2018, Blizzard need to shake things up in order to maintain its position at the top of the MMO games. The Battle for Azeroth adds a lot of new content but also is somewhat of a return to form for Blizzard, with two new continents, eight races and a simple Horde v Alliance story.
I renewed my subscription because of this although I haven't really played it much. Maybe it's a just my stubbornness to accept new things, but I still feel more motivated to play vanilla or WotLK than I do retail. There is something about retail wow that I don't like, but I can't figure out why. I installed a vanilla private server and it just feels better to me. I think if they implemented that pristine server idea I would be more interested in playing modern wow. Even though the gameplay of vanilla was highly repetitive and grindy, the community was really good. Since the game was more difficult it encouraged teamwork.
Anyway, when they release classic wow I will probably renew my subscription to play it.
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I have a similar sentiment to you. I absolutely loved the Vanilla times and while yes it was repetitive, the hustle and bustle of getting around and doing those 20 man UBRS or 40 man MC runs were the best times of my gaming life. I had 10+ real life friends playing and online constantly. Nothing comes close to it and I doubt there will be anything that can compete on that level tbh!
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It's very interesting article. I have subscribed to you, I hope for mutual subscription
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Thanks for the support!
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De nada...sigamos adelante.
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You can't lose @doublesteemit
Vote for 11 of our posts a day to make hundreds of dollars every day.
Vote for any one of our posts first, and at the very least DOUBLE your money. A win-win proposition!
Competition - Buy A Dollar For A Penny!
You can't lose @doublesteemit
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Good business move. They are battling for people's time and love.
I never saw the sense in monthly subscription to play a game.
Some friends have played it from day 1. They love the whole thing.
😀
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I was baffled by the title of the post... but you still need to pay for the subscription :(
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Yeah but you don't have to pay for legion. You used to have to pay for all the previous expansion packs, so this is quite a lot cheaper
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Es muy entretenido este mundo realmente, donde la mayoría ve solamente el espacio que circunscribe al espectro de la labtops o de la pc, que en muchos casos, no solamente entre los jugadores y las amistades más cercanas, sino entre gente que parece valorar el tema de acuñarle a todo tipo de entretenimiento no-deportivo el cliché ludópata. Es grave, no solamente porque muchas de estas personas además del desconocimiento de las patologías más propias de cada uno de los que pueden o no entrar al ciberespacio, también se ven, prejuicios para descalificar cosas de las que ni saben ni han experimentado. Todo en exceso es malo, pero pareciesen ser esos mismos enemigos de los videojuegos y las vidas menos activas. No solamente desconocer todos los alcances de las enfermedades que traen los celulares de los que están esclavizados. Es verdad, que hay ludópatas pero no es exclusivo ni de la juventud ni de los gamers, y este mundo virtual ha llegado a alcanzar el ámbito de la filosofía y sociología, y las redes sociales son de tal magnitud de comunicación, que el desconocer de las mismas es ser en la actualidad analfabetos reales y efectivos. Que hay de todos los tipos y clases de personas en este universo del gamer, o de los videojugadores, pero me parece un mayor temor de madres o mujeres ignorantes, sea tal vez porque las tecnologías y las ingenierías le son recepcionadas a las mismas de maneras más bien pasivas o pacientes como padecientes... Lo que deben hacer es ya en un plano positivo conversar más y estar menos tiempo desatendiendo a las personas de las que dicen querer cuidar a la distancia. Una paradoja a todas luces grande en el siglo XXI.
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