And this is why F2P is the trend now in the industry. There are lots of people who will happily spend copious amount of cash to be l33t. Couple that with the fact there are many people who may spend $5 or $10 here and there that would not spend any money on the game otherwise (i.e. if it required a subscription) and you can see why so many companies are going with this model. I won't be surprised if Blizzard's next MMO goes this route as well.
Diablo 3 better not go this route or i'd be pissed
I highly doubt Blizzard games will go f2p with cash shop. The F2P model is great for games that would otherwise have a very small playerbase if it was subscription based. Why would Blizz go F2P on any of their games when they know they're going to have millions of people willing to shell out a subscription fee every month? I would not be surprised if D3 had some sort of premium subscription thing. I'm fine with that as long as it's actually worth it.
Keep in mind as well that there is a finite point where you make more money with subscriptions vs selling items.
ie: If you were to sell purps/max leveled chars etc, people would pay probably $25 for a lvl 85, but then how many months sooner do they quit? If they leave 2 months earlier it's a net loss for Blizzard.
You could plot out the models and I would be curious as shit to see it but it wouldn't ever be something Blizz would release.
It makes sense for them to just keep going the route they are going. Hammer out expansions, sell useless shit that doesn't alienate the hardcore players (purps etc), keep as many people paying monthly as possible.
A good drug dealer only gives you just enough to keep you coming back. If you OD and die, he loses money. He may sell you xanax to quiet the acid and weed to curb the nausea but he would never risk you falling off the teat.
Top-end I see Heirlooms being purchasable.
oh yeah happy - i bought a bunch of geared toons - the first was from malganis - ruxpin - full tier1 rogue!!! 800 bucks. the rest i'm not sure of the order.. one was a warrior with that thunder whatever sword, one was a rogue in full bloodfang and pvp gear - another was a warrior in full some other gear - either way i blew alot. and most of these they ripped me off and stole them back - whatever i'm a sucker i guess. although i have one of those thieves on linkd-in - want to help me get revenge?
They already do that, it's the tournament realm. They just haven't made it a permanent feature.They have a very large PVP base, so I could see them doing something with maps or a homogeneous PVP thing like LoL where you "choose your hero" and gear is a non-factor (i.e. homogenous gear, individual specs).
He has a really strong personality, I can see how some people would find him annoying. He was a fucking amazing feral dps though back in wrath. He had a lot of world #1s in ToC/Ulduar.Pessi, some random from Spike Flail is in my guild. I just came back but word on the street is he's annoying as fuck in mumble. Neonjoe.