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

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Q u o t e:
So Julian Wilson told us that you guys are looking monetize Battle.Net in some way. Is that right?

Rob Pardo: Wow, that's an evil way of putting it. Julian's turning into a business guy on me. Here's the way I would put it. We're definitely not looking at turning Diablo into a subscription based game. It's clearly not an MMO, so it's not appropriate to do a business model like that. The way we approach all of our games now, is we come up with what we think is a great game, and then we wrap the appropriate business model around it. If that's just a box price, then that's that.

With Battle.Net we're definitely looking at possible different features that we might be able to do for additional money. We're not talking about Hellgate or anything like that. We're not going to tack things on. I think World of Warcraft is a great example to look at. We charge people if they want to switch servers or if they want name changes, things that aren't core to the game experience, they're really just optional things that some people want. It takes us some development work to do it, so it makes sense to charge for it. We would never do something like say to get the full game experience, you'll have to pay extra.

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I should clarify that "no microtransactions" isn't exactly what I wanted to put - I just ran out of room in the title. No microtransactions for things actually in the game, only for 'services' a la WoW. I dunno, some people may hate that still, but personally that doesn't bother me. Just as long as its not affecting gameplay.

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Q u o t e:
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/13/blizzcon-2008-rob-pardo-talks-battle-net-monetizing/

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i feel a distubence in the forums.. like millions of whiners just cryed out..then fell silent

THIS NEEDS TO BE STICKIED AAGGHH

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Q u o t e:
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/13/blizzcon-2008-rob-pardo-talks-battle-net-monetizing/



I should clarify that "no microtransactions" isn't exactly what I wanted to put - I just ran out of room in the title. No microtransactions for things actually in the game, only for 'services' a la WoW. I dunno, some people may hate that still, but personally that doesn't bother me. Just as long as its not affecting gameplay.

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I LOVE you for finding the exact piece of information. I'm glad they won't kill the game, but either way, I still disagree with the Battle.net functions microtransactions, like the WoW name changes and server changes. I always figured the point of naming your character and choosing a server was that you COULDN'T change it, so you had to think carefully about your name. No game breaking micros is a godsend, but micros still exist and still must be abolished.

I think it's interesting that this is the second time in two days that Rob Pardo has contradicted Jay Wilson on something. Jay's the lead on D3, but Rob's his boss, right? That's very... interesting.

By tendency complainers will find a way to ignore such information. It's their job to complain about something.

THUMBS UP THUMBS UP

Would read again!

(excellent news)

good news! \o/

I think that Jay just said that to incite our angry!

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Q u o t e:
We would never do something like say to get the full game experience, you'll have to pay extra.

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So great, so %#¤ing great!

3 very enthusiastic thumbs up!

That's pretty much what I expected.

Diablo 2 is free to play, and you saw, what happening there now? It's totally abandoned. Bots, dupes, hacks. Don't be so happy about that, Blizz will release the game and leave it be, after some time it will become like d2 these days.

So, does that mean I don't have to pay for playing in the Battle.net2 with my friends, except for the box price of course?

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Q u o t e:
Diablo 2 is free to play, and you saw, what happening there now? It's totally abandoned. Bots, dupes, hacks. Don't be so happy about that, Blizz will release the game and leave it be, after some time it will become like d2 these days.

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Oh come on :D. I'm sure Diablo 2 is not played anymore because it's so old, it's gone man. That's why Blizzard is developing us this great, new game to be played.

heh im pretty sure alot of people still play d2.

I could've sworn I already posted here, but I can't find it. Maybe there is a delay? Well, we'll find out son enough.

Anyways, YAY!

Halleluja! I didn't spell that right but who cares!!!1!1!!! No pay to play! Yay!

Now they could have some fun extras you could pay for:

A perfect example of this is in Guild Wars; You have the option of buying the Bonus Mission Pack. The bonus has nothing to do with gameplay, and you could disregard it comepletely and still be fine. It's just there to entertain the bored people.

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Q u o t e:
heh im pretty sure alot of people still play d2.

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Only about 50,000 people in all of the U.S.

About 200,000 Worldwide.

Also, alot of those "players" are just item stores and bots. It's sad, really.

These are online stats though... there could be more playing SP.

What did you spell wrong?

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Q u o t e:
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/13/blizzcon-2008-rob-pardo-talks-battle-net-monetizing/



I should clarify that "no microtransactions" isn't exactly what I wanted to put - I just ran out of room in the title. No microtransactions for things actually in the game, only for 'services' a la WoW. I dunno, some people may hate that still, but personally that doesn't bother me. Just as long as its not affecting gameplay.

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Rob Pardo is Jay Wilson version 1.11. all the bug fixes are there :D. no more silly p2p for me thx.