The Blizzard Club
Because I’ve been entrenched in both Starcraft II and World of Warcraft recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about Blizzard. It seems like when you are actively playing their games, you’re in some sort of club. You can easily socialize with others in the club, and people outside of the club aren’t really sure what to make of you and your group. Just a few weeks ago, I was still unsure that I was even going to buy SC2 and I really had no intention of getting back into WoW. But here I am, a few hours into the Starcraft single player campaign and working on two characters in Warcraft.
There were different motivating factors involved in getting me into these games. WoW was simply a matter of peer pressure. Maybe not in the way that someone at a party wants you to partake in booze but just by knowing that my gaming friends were trying the game out again and it’s been so long since I’ve been able to join them. Plus, I saw it as a nice time to check the world out before the Cataclysm occurs. On the other hand, Starcraft wasn’t as much peer pressure as it was nostalgia and superb marketing. Sure, I know the trailer they used for the TV spots is so far from what the game is actually like it’s not even funny, but it really brought back loving memories from the first game. It’s probably one of the few times in my life that I can acknowledge that an advertisement actually sold me.
But there are people out there who did not buy Starcraft, and who do not play Warcraft simply because of one or both of the two big names associated with those intellectual properties; Activision and Blizzard. While I may share some of the same feelings that people do in regards to Activision, I can’t say I would avoid the titles just because of them. If I actively avoided games because of the transgressions of their publishers, I wouldn’t play many games. Blizzard, on the other hand, is largely touted as being one of the few golden studios out there alongside others such as Valve and BioWare; development teams that can seemingly do no wrong. But this doesn’t stop some from throwing rolls of toilet paper and eggs at Blizzard’s front door.
Some people not in the Blizzard club will point out greedy business practices which seem to take advantage of their customers. Most notably, the $25 sparkly mount and the pets you can buy from their online store. But if you’re in the club, you see no issue with buying these items. It’s for your personal hobby, so why not? Making fun of someone buying DLC is on par of hanging out at a crafts store and complaining to the old ladies buying hundreds of dollars worth of scrapbooking supplies. Even though that sounds hilarious, you’re pretty much being a dick.
For someone like me, playing these titles is a bit weird to say the least. I’m enjoying my time so far, and while I’m in the games I fully understand why people don’t have a problem with offering up their money to support the Blizzard club, but I’m still not sure about drinking that Kool-aid myself. But I want to know where you stand on the subject. Do you see Blizzard as simply an extension of Activision and a pawn in the greed machine? Or do you think that they are still a studio that has done no wrong, and are just giving their customers what they want? But if you answer the questions also ask yourself, “Am I in the club?”
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My brother explained to me about the sparkly pony thing.
He’s simply not one for playing the auction house. He doesn’t do a lot of crafting, and almost all his money comes from either mooching off guildies, or from vendoring junk. Dropping 25$ on a flying mount instead of having to farm enough gold to buy the damn thing for each of his characters just made more sense to him.
He does admit to feeling a little more than gay when riding it however.
Well, as someone who has bought every single Blizzard PC game that has been released in the past 15 years, I suppose that makes me “part of the club.” Blizzard is one of the companies keeping PC gaming as we know it alive and thriving.
I don’t see their big bad corporate ownership as a problem… they were actually originally bought out by Vivendi (a 150 year old French company that started as a public water utility) way back in 1998, and if anything their games have improved since then.
However for me it’s just a club, not a cult. I have never once thought about going to Blizzcon, I don’t take their little authentication thingy on my keychain everywhere I go, and I don’t consider playing games by other developers to be an act of treason against Blizzard and its fanboys. But I know people who do all of these things
I was really skeptical about buying SC2 to be honest. I never thought that I would ever consider it. But there I was staring at the shiny new box and taking it up to the counter to buy…
WoW has changed a lot in the past year or so. Before then it was all about you being logged on 24/7 and raiding with no real other way aside from PvP to advance your character. The new badge system couple with the Dungeon Finder is sheer genius. I have slowly outfitted my new level 80 rogue in almost all epics and slowly working on a few crafted items. It didn’t happen immediately and leveling with the dungeon finder drastically cut down on the number of zones I visited (which is good b/c if I need gold I can just grind quests) too while gearing you up.
I am blown away by the story so far in SCII, but again its not SC. But it shows how Blizzard I think is evolving as a game company. They are still producing amazing games. I honestly believe that a lot of things that I didn’t like about it (RealID, B.net login mandatory, etc) was all Activision’s doing. I am extremely excited to see what will be in store in the near future for WoW, SC, and Diablo III.
/jonesing for some SCII now…
“Making fun of someone buying DLC is on par of hanging out at a crafts store and complaining to the old ladies buying hundreds of dollars worth of scrapbooking supplies. ”
This analogy is way off.
I would NOT make fun of their hobby, as they will receive a “physical” product. They will have something they can share with anyone, and not just those “in their club”
Prices are based on the actual items being sold. Companies can set prices based on quality, workmanship and materials used.
Sparkle ponies are horses made by those already being paid a price for their work, and offers no redeeming value beyond something to show you, the customer, have money to waste, while others continue to pay their 15 a month to grind what they can.
Another issues is you must pay each month to continue to own this product you paid for…so, if you STOP paying Blizzard 15 a month, you lose total access to this item you paid for…until you pay Blizzard again to continue to own something you already paid for (see THAT vicious cycle?)
Finally it sets a precedent…as other companies will now start charging crazy prices for …basically….air…You lose access to your PC for some reason, you lost that product. Because it really does NOT exist. At least with my scrapbook, if it washes away in a flood or burns in a fire…I can insure it to replace it…but, with Sparkle pony…Blizzard actually owns it and can lock you off from said item anytime they wish.
I envy those grandmas scrapbooking.
The basis of that argument relies solely on the idea that a product is only a product if it exists as a tangible item and it’s value is based on the materials and effort consumed in it’s creation. I don’t buy that idea (forgive the pun).
First of all, we pay for intangible things all the time, especially these days where so many products exist solely as code. Our inability to physically possess these things has little effect on their value.
Secondly, anything is worth what someone will pay for it. Period.
The value of the sparklehorse is not derived simply from how much time Blizzard put into it’s creation or my ability to physically possess it. It’s value is derived from how much I am willing to spend to acquire the rights to use it in the limited constraints that Blizzard allows.
So, if Blizzard had created a failure of a game with negligible subscribers, the value of the sparklehorse would be zero. Because nobody would want it. In reality, Blizzard has created the world’s most popular MMO and as a by-product of that creation they can create other products derived from that initial creation that have a value associated with the initial product. This isn’t a new concept. Compare the cost of a sunroof in a BMW to the cost of a sunroof in a Hyundai. There’s a premium associated with a brand.
The fact of the matter is, that there are people out there that are getting satisfaction from riding their sparklehorse every day. They feel they spent their $25 appropriately and would do it again. I personally don’t see the value in it, but I have friends who don’t see the value in paying a monthly fee to play a game. I have other friends who don’t see the point in owning a computer. We all have different opinions as to what is valuable and what is not and deriding each other for what really amounts to a difference of opinion is useless.
5 comments
My brother explained to me about the sparkly pony thing.
He’s simply not one for playing the auction house. He doesn’t do a lot of crafting, and almost all his money comes from either mooching off guildies, or from vendoring junk. Dropping 25$ on a flying mount instead of having to farm enough gold to buy the damn thing for each of his characters just made more sense to him.
He does admit to feeling a little more than gay when riding it however.
Well, as someone who has bought every single Blizzard PC game that has been released in the past 15 years, I suppose that makes me “part of the club.” Blizzard is one of the companies keeping PC gaming as we know it alive and thriving.
I don’t see their big bad corporate ownership as a problem… they were actually originally bought out by Vivendi (a 150 year old French company that started as a public water utility) way back in 1998, and if anything their games have improved since then.
However for me it’s just a club, not a cult. I have never once thought about going to Blizzcon, I don’t take their little authentication thingy on my keychain everywhere I go, and I don’t consider playing games by other developers to be an act of treason against Blizzard and its fanboys. But I know people who do all of these things
I was really skeptical about buying SC2 to be honest. I never thought that I would ever consider it. But there I was staring at the shiny new box and taking it up to the counter to buy…
WoW has changed a lot in the past year or so. Before then it was all about you being logged on 24/7 and raiding with no real other way aside from PvP to advance your character. The new badge system couple with the Dungeon Finder is sheer genius. I have slowly outfitted my new level 80 rogue in almost all epics and slowly working on a few crafted items. It didn’t happen immediately and leveling with the dungeon finder drastically cut down on the number of zones I visited (which is good b/c if I need gold I can just grind quests) too while gearing you up.
I am blown away by the story so far in SCII, but again its not SC. But it shows how Blizzard I think is evolving as a game company. They are still producing amazing games. I honestly believe that a lot of things that I didn’t like about it (RealID, B.net login mandatory, etc) was all Activision’s doing. I am extremely excited to see what will be in store in the near future for WoW, SC, and Diablo III.
/jonesing for some SCII now…
“Making fun of someone buying DLC is on par of hanging out at a crafts store and complaining to the old ladies buying hundreds of dollars worth of scrapbooking supplies. ”
This analogy is way off.
I would NOT make fun of their hobby, as they will receive a “physical” product. They will have something they can share with anyone, and not just those “in their club”
Prices are based on the actual items being sold. Companies can set prices based on quality, workmanship and materials used.
Sparkle ponies are horses made by those already being paid a price for their work, and offers no redeeming value beyond something to show you, the customer, have money to waste, while others continue to pay their 15 a month to grind what they can.
Another issues is you must pay each month to continue to own this product you paid for…so, if you STOP paying Blizzard 15 a month, you lose total access to this item you paid for…until you pay Blizzard again to continue to own something you already paid for (see THAT vicious cycle?)
Finally it sets a precedent…as other companies will now start charging crazy prices for …basically….air…You lose access to your PC for some reason, you lost that product. Because it really does NOT exist. At least with my scrapbook, if it washes away in a flood or burns in a fire…I can insure it to replace it…but, with Sparkle pony…Blizzard actually owns it and can lock you off from said item anytime they wish.
I envy those grandmas scrapbooking.
The basis of that argument relies solely on the idea that a product is only a product if it exists as a tangible item and it’s value is based on the materials and effort consumed in it’s creation. I don’t buy that idea (forgive the pun).
First of all, we pay for intangible things all the time, especially these days where so many products exist solely as code. Our inability to physically possess these things has little effect on their value.
Secondly, anything is worth what someone will pay for it. Period.
The value of the sparklehorse is not derived simply from how much time Blizzard put into it’s creation or my ability to physically possess it. It’s value is derived from how much I am willing to spend to acquire the rights to use it in the limited constraints that Blizzard allows.
So, if Blizzard had created a failure of a game with negligible subscribers, the value of the sparklehorse would be zero. Because nobody would want it. In reality, Blizzard has created the world’s most popular MMO and as a by-product of that creation they can create other products derived from that initial creation that have a value associated with the initial product. This isn’t a new concept. Compare the cost of a sunroof in a BMW to the cost of a sunroof in a Hyundai. There’s a premium associated with a brand.
The fact of the matter is, that there are people out there that are getting satisfaction from riding their sparklehorse every day. They feel they spent their $25 appropriately and would do it again. I personally don’t see the value in it, but I have friends who don’t see the value in paying a monthly fee to play a game. I have other friends who don’t see the point in owning a computer. We all have different opinions as to what is valuable and what is not and deriding each other for what really amounts to a difference of opinion is useless.
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