World of Warcraft has always required a subscription. But why is that? More and more players are asking themselves this question and are unwilling to pay for it anymore.
When World of Warcraft was released, it was entirely normal to pay a subscription for the game. You would pay between €11 and €13 per month, depending on the subscription option chosen. However, as the years went by, competition for WoW and other business models increased. Many players are now asking themselves: What do you actually pay a subscription for? Why does World of Warcraft still rely on a subscription model?
In recent days, this topic has gained momentum in the WoW subreddit and has sparked some interesting discussions.
What speaks in favor of a subscription? Blizzard has always justified a subscription by stating that the funds are needed to provide good service. The maintenance of the server infrastructure, paying support staff, and the ongoing development of the game through patches and updates are primarily funded through the subscription.
This is what the post on Reddit says: In the WoW subreddit, “Last_Judicator” posted and elaborated in a few lines that a subscription for World of Warcraft is no longer relevant. His main arguments are:
- There has been an item shop in the game for a long time, so you certainly aren’t paying for the privilege of not having one.
- There are many months without new content and often long droughts between major patches.
- Expansions still cost a considerable amount. So you pay twice – once for the expansion and then again to play the content.
- Almost all other major MMORPGs have found alternative payment methods and do not “force” the player into a subscription.
- Support staff has been significantly reduced in recent years.
Why is this relevant right now? Typically, such posts with a few dozen up or down votes quickly disappear into obscurity, but Last_Judicator’s post was different. It received a lot of support (91%) and nearly 16,000 upvotes – quite a lot, which very few posts achieve. Many other players are chiming in below the post and sharing their opinions as well.
What are the other players saying? There is almost unanimous agreement that WoW’s payment model is outdated and conflicts with other aspects – such as the item shop or the costs of new expansions. One of the most popular comments is from zoidao401:
“It’s incredibly simple …
People pay it.
That’s it, that’s the only reason they need. Too many people have invested [a lot of time] in the game to quit, so they will continue to pay. As long as enough people pay for it, [Blizzard] will continue to demand it.”
There is also a lot of agreement with the comment from Magnific3nt, who cynically complains about the current content system of World of Warcraft:
You pay monthly for something that gets released but is then locked behind weekly time gates and has a weekly cap.
However, there are also some dissenting voices that make it clear that they are happy to pay for World of Warcraft because it has brought them many thousands of hours of fun and joy that other games have not been able to deliver over so many years. For instance, “DaenerysMomODragons” writes:
Believe it or not, but many people enjoy the game in their own way. Sure, many do not, and most of them have already canceled their subscription. Just because you no longer enjoy a game doesn’t mean that everyone who sees it differently is somehow delusional.
What do you think about this matter? Is it okay that WoW still sticks to the subscription model?
