Honestly I don't regret paying a subscription for WoW. Maybe it's different now, but when I played it felt fair. You got reliable servers, frequent updates,somewhat reasonable balance changes, and seasonal events. You didn't get any loot box bullshit, just playing the game regularly generally got you the rewards with minimal effort.

Sure expansions also cost extra, but that was $30 and about 1 every 2 years.

For a game that ate all your free time, it didn't hit your wallet that hard.

[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Yeah, it kind of just keeps the agreement honest.

“We need ideas to find a way to monetize our active playerbase!”
“We already are. They pay us money each month. In turn, we continue to make sure the game is fun and has stuff that keeps them interested.”
“Aha! Carry on.”

[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 7 points 10 months ago

The subscription also helped with spamming. There was plenty in wow, but it was nothing compared to f2p ganes that I've tried.

[–] Blackmist@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

If only they'd carried on with that idea.

[–] TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

I used to hate subscription games with a passion, but seeing what followed, in-app purchases, lootboxes and FOMO-driven battlepasses, turns out subscriptions were the lesser evil.