14 DAY TRIAL // After last weekend's BlizzCon, the biggest single developer convention out there, a rumor appeared that Blizzard would be charging money for people to play on their online gaming platform, Battle.Net. The system is still used by many people to play classic titles like Starcraft or Diablo I and II, even all of the three Warcraft titles. So, the possibility of paying just to play on their server network didn't go well with most of the Blizzard fans.
But now, Rob Pardo, executive vice president of game design at Blizzard, came forward with a statement regarding the possible monetization of the Battle.Net service. He said that only several distinct features such as changing names or switching servers would be available only after having paid fees. Blizzard's mission is to provide every player a great experience on Battle.Net free of charge.
“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,” said Pardo in an interview with Joystiq.
It's really good that the company cleared out this nasty rumor because although the fans are quite devoted, such a decision wouldn't have pleased many of them. If you look at the future release of one of the most expected RPGs (Role Playing Games), Diablo III, Battle.Net is definitely looking like a money making possibility for Blizzard, but the company shouldn't rush on taking such decisions.