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Warcraft III Expansion Goes Gold, Due July 1st
Thanks to several readers for pointing out that the Warcraft III expansion, The Frozen Throne, has gone gold - it's due in stores worldwide on July 1st. The add-on has an extensive official site describing new features, including extra campaigns, units, maps, an enhanced world editor, and new multiplayer clans and tournaments. The press release describes "initial orders of over 2.5 million copies", which is even more impressive considering Warcraft III has 'only' sold "well over 3 million copies".
When they say initial orders of 2.5 million copies, they are talking about orders from STORES. Not consumers. Blizzard always does that with their press releases and most take it to mean that millions of copies have been preordered by consumers when that's just not the case.
Couple things here.
Blizzard is in the business to make money. They make a product and ask a fee for the product. Their business plan is to get paid for their work. This plan may or may not work here, but it is their plan.
RTCW is an example of another business plan. The company feels that a good will gesture will yeild more money in the long run than to toss a whole project out the window. They had already put in the bulk of the R&D, yet they did not feel it was marketable so they are releasing it for free.
Piracy. What a scummy thing. I hate shoplifters. The people who have enough money to pay for something then they just lift it cause they can. That is so slimey. Piracy is the same thing. Take it cause you can.
Folks here love to rationalize their actions, saying they are getting ripped off, or that they deserve it cause they are a big bad corporation. Well, if you really want to protest Blizzard, don't buy AND don't play the game. If you feel the game is not worth what they are asking for it, don't play it. Nothing gives you the right to play it. The best part, is you really get to stick it to Blizzard that way. You are voting with your dollar and not adding to the player base. Once you add to the player base more people will play.
Look at MS. Why are they king of the desktop? Because people keep USING it. Not because they are buying it. Look at how their market share grew so large when they didn't really attack piracy. Consider IE v. other browsers. Mozilla and IE and Opera (non registered) and most others are free. There is no excuse to use IE if you don't want the web to only be an IE haven. You just have to stand up for what you believe. Stand up and be counted. Be a leader and not a follower. However, understand that being a leader you pay a different price, that price is ostracization. You may not be in the in crowd, you might not be able to use your bank's website, you may not be able to see certain applets or plugins. However, future generations will if you make a mark.
So, in short, you may not be able to play WCIII expansions if you do not buy them, but don't pirate them if you dop not feel stongly enough to pay for them. Let your real dollars vote, and stand by your vote.
Norris/Palin 2012
Fact: We deserve leaders who can kick your ass and field dress your carcass.
Uhhh Does the new RTCW offer a 24/7 server that is scanned and taken care by the company itself? Is ID releasing new patches with content/skill changes for a game that is over three years old (Diablo 2)? At this point Blizzard is the only company I buy games from because I know that the cd-key and content of the game are worth something. And to that effect, they keep up and take care of the games once it is release. And trust me, the expansion will require it own cd key. They had that model working since the expansion for Diablo 2 came out, or hell, maybe even with broodwar.