Quote:
announcing this just after they had the prices for realmtransfers reduced and not before is extremely shady and reeks of greed. I bet many people would have chosen not to transfer, even for the reduced price, had they known this beforehand.
That's certainly one way to view it; however, the other options would have come under just as much fire. Imagine --
A) Blizzard manages to keep virtual realms secret. The grumbling about low server populations continues. Some people transfer. Virtual realms come out and are a success. Boards are filled with angry complaints.
B) Virtual realms come out and go over as well as CRZ. People complain about being deceived. New tech is decried as buggy. Boards are filled with angry complaints. Demands for free transfers and server merges continue.
C) Virtual realms fail to come out with 5.4. PTR showed tech was not working smoothly. People complain Blizzard is milking the server transfer fee. Boards are filled with angry complaints.
D) Virtual realms launch. Everything works perfectly. Blizzard provides each account with a promotional visit by a Belf or Nelf cosplayer who will "provide gf/bf services" and a swag bag including limited edition gold coins. Boards are filled with angry complaints: "gf/bf services were not on par with favorite AV, gold coins were too small and Blizz waited until after the price of gold had dropped, why didn't Blizz make transsexual goblin cosplayers an option, pandapoke still sucks."
E) Blizz realizes that they are screwed and at least half the people complaining don't actually have active accounts or may even be trolls trying to increase another game's allure. Virtual realms shelved and not even announced as a possibility. Boards are filled with angry complaints. "Server populations are low, Blizz should do something!"
No matter when they announced it, somebody would have just paid for a transfer. At least this way, some people got a discount on player services, one of which was the option to transfer. That was probably about the best option they could offer.