Re: Pay to play or free to fail?
The essence of what I am going to say has been said, so excuse me for that, but I wanted to add weight to the points others have made previously.
I have a job. I work 50+ hours per week, every week. And that isn't that much. I'm also currently pursuing post-secondary education. I have a very active social life, as well. Money is not the issue (as others have said, it's slightly less money blown on a night of discretionary expenses). Time is. I have very little of it to spend towards any hobbies, and I have many more than just gaming (and especially, for that matter, video gaming) to spend it on. It is thus that my gaming is not measured by hours per day, or often even hours per week, but hours per month. I do not have TV in any form, because it isn't worth it- I would never spend enough time there to justify its presence. (Don't misinterpret- I have TVs, for movies, games, etc, just not cable, satellite, or even an antenna)
So, I am QUITE the casual gamer. Yet I deserve a quality gaming experience just as much as anyone else, and only play games that provide such an experience. Diablo 2 I have installed on my PC on at least 7 separate occasions. I'll install it, play it for a while, find it just as enjoyable as I remembered, get caught up in something else, realize I haven't played it for months and uninstall it, and then get a craving for one of the most thoroughly FUN games I've ever played, reinstall it, and the cycle continues.
If Diablo 2 had been p2p, I would have never bothered reinstalling it, and would likely by now not even remember it. For that matter, without remembering it, and leaving me only with rememberance of WoW, with which I grew inordinately sick of the grinding inherent in every aspect of the game, I would not even be following Blizzard as a company, and likely not even know Diablo 3 was in development at this point, nor care. I AM NOT ALONE. P2P increases current profits, but hurts long term profits.
For me $15, $5, heck $60/month, it wouldn't matter, I'd still try it (if only for a month). If anything, I might even be intrigued by the arrogance presented by a gaming company who thought their game was worth $60 per month. But as soon as something else came along to occupy my very limited time, you can bet your behind I'd be moving along (and something always comes along). And not looking back. Every decision people make (not just financially) is accompanied by the internal debate "is it worth it?" and a smart company makes sure that when that decision is made, it is made in a fashion favorable to their long term growth.
Gillette- when I turned 18 I recieved a happy birthday letter from them, along with a free razor. I can't calculate the thousands that decision has generated for them, as that $20 product made me favorably inclined towards them, and bought my loyalty, as no other company made the effort.
BFG- when comparing practically identical products, their offering of a lifetime warranty on their product means many people will go with them, even though the mean time between failure on the product is longer than the expected time between upgrades for their average consumer
Blizzard- they carry a AAA pedigree, and the inherent assumption on their consumers that any game of theirs is a "safe bet", as it is certain to be Game-Of-The-Year level quality. They cater to a huge audience, and carry a guarantee of near instant ROI, as long as their products maintain their standard. Alienating or even slightly diminishing their fanbase does not make sense as they are not a fly-by-night company, and intend to make money, not just today, but for years to come. They have yet to make a bad decision, or one which obviously negatively impacts their ability to generate profit long term, and scrap games which do not live up to their standard (SC: Ghost?) rather than even chance harming their giant fanbase or ridiculous reputation. Why would they start now? It is obvious from the poll above their fans are not overwhelmingly supportive of that move, to say the least. Therefore, I can say with great confidence, they will not make it.
(FWIW, too, I've bought I think 3 different full copies of Diablo II, as several moves and many years means when I again had that craving, I didn't always still have the game. So, even though they didn't get residual income from me through monthly fees, they generated way More income by making a game good enough for me to not seriously resent rebuying, as it was the game I most wanted to play at that time. Smart company.)
Again, sorry for the wall of text :embarassed:
