With regard to your money paying for support, which I'm assuming is customer support etc, how come companies like Electronic Arts and Valve offer support for free for their products and Blizzard doesn't? Perhaps I'm being a bit unfair here as there is 24/7 Game Master support for World of Warcraft and I can appreciate that they will need a large customer support service to deal with all of the players' various questions and complaints.
Although I'm pretty sure this aspect only takes a few dollars/euros/pounds from your monthly fee and once again most MMORPGs won't charge you a monthly fee for this type of 24/7 support and maintenance.
The last point as to why we're paying a monthly fee, for "content creation for World of Warcraft", is an interesting oneValve, the creators of games such as Left 4 Dead and Half Life, have updated their hit FPS, Team Fortress 2, 97 times since the game launched two years agoThat's roughly one update a weekLet's also not forget about the HUGE updates they have put into the game, which includes things like new items, weapons, maps, modes, modding tools, server side changes and changes which affect the way you manage and receive these items.
Valve: TF2
You don't pay Valve a monthly fee for all of this; you get it all for freeI wouldn't call Valve the most popular gaming company in the world, in fact most console gamers (which make up the vast majority of the market) don't even know who Valve areHowever, despite this the company still constantly updates their gameDo you want to know why? Because they love the game, and they love the community that surrounds itNot only that but Valve believe "You buy the product, you get the contentWe make more money because more people buy it, not because we try and nickel-and-dime the same customers".
I'm not saying that Blizzard doesn't love its community, or World of Warcraft; however if Valve can offer so much for free, what exactly are you paying Blizzard for? I appreciate that there is more content in WoW than in TF2, and I understand that they have to do a lot more to the game and the content they add is very big in scale, however not only do they have a monthly fee, they also get their users to pay for expansion packs every year or soThese expansion packs could easily be patched to their users.
I accept that in some respects, they need a monthly fee to keep the game running; after all it is a very big game with a very big communityMy only thought is that do they really need to have a cash shop on top of all of the money they earn? Blizzard makes so much money, they make more than the vast majority of companies, and they really don't need any more money as they've certainly got enough to cover for everything Any other services they charge you for, they charge you out of greed.
You have to understand that Activision Blizzard couldn't give a care about you or your needs/wantsIn fact when Activision merged with Vivendi Games (the holdings company for Blizzard) they dropped games such as Brutal Legend and Ghostbusters: The Video Game (games which were hits) because they didn't "have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million dollar franchises"They're just trying to milk you for all your worth.
Mini Kel'Thuzad (boss)
The simple fact is the pets you see in the pet store should be included in the monthly fee you payWe've narrowed it down, the things that they're charging you for they really don't need to charge you for, and the money you are giving the company is more than enough for the services and content they provideNot to mention that you do get charged $30 every year or so for an expansion (which as I mentioned before could just be given to you in a large patch) netting them more than $300,000,000 every time a new one is released.
You're paying a premium price and you should be getting "ongoing content creation for World of Warcraft", which you're not getting as Blizzard aren't giving you these pets, which is content that was created for WoWInstead the company is making you pay for things that you should already have!