GamersCircle

Times are tough, especially for a developer generating hundreds of millions of Dollars per month, so to help balance the books, Blizzard has added two adverts per topic, per page on their official forums. Unsurprisingly, this has outraged World of Warcraft addicts:

As some have said already, it is a bit of a slap in the face. We pay to use these forums, and to play this game. Generally when a company has a paid option for a forum community or website (which is very much what this is) it comes being ad-free. Next, lots of us already buy other Blizzard related merchandise. We see it in stores, on the website, tell each other about it from word of mouth. We don’t need these things shoved in our faces in order for us to buy them and support you.

Forum posting and interaction is over half of my game. And I know it’s the same for many others that play. It’s where I interact with friends when I can’t access the game itself. It’s where I plan things for my server. And if I lose that (which will more than likely happen if the ads stay - not certainly, but there is a good possibility), I will more than likely stop playing in general. And I’m sure that I’m not the only one that feels this way.

Now that I’ve explained to you guys how I and others feel, lets take a look at it from your side. Ads are a great way to expose your customers to new and interesting products that you, and companies that pay you, are coming out with. People are crying out about how Blizzard makes enough money without this - it would be silly for a company to stop trying to find new ways to make money just because they’re doing well. A successful company will continue to come up with new and innovative ways to make money.

This is not to spit in the faces of it’s customers, it is just common sense. If one of us were to become rich, and had a money making opportunity sat in front of us, do you really think we would just turn it down?

In short, I understand why the ads are being tried. I am asking, as are others, please don’t put them on your forums like this. And if the decision is made to keep them, please make them less obtrusive, or find some way to compromise on them.

Being legible, balanced, and in the Queen’s English, Blizzard allowed Lorellei’s thread to remain open, and later responded with the following statement:

For those people demanding the ads be removed, there’s not much we can say that’s going to satisfy the nerves. We are carefully monitoring the constructive feedback players are providing on the subject so it can be compiled and presented to those who have a hand in such matters.

We’ve extended the post cap of the following thread and suggest it be utilized for providing feedback/suggestions about the ads.

Those creating additional threads with little or no input are considered to be spamming and may be removed from the forums faster than they expect the ads to be.

Source

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