Well first off, I’m going to stop quoting on account of its a waste of space.
And relating Diablo 2 to World of Warcraft is like comparing apples and oranges. Diablo is a relatively simple game. You have a set of quests you can run through, which you complete to move on. There is very little variation with the online play; as it is the same thing except with the opportunity to compete/co-operate with other people (to complete exactly the same quests). This is very low maintenance, as Blizzard knows that there is pretty much a “set path” in which everyone must travel through the world.
World of Warcraft is much, MUCH different. Due to it’s non-linear nature, the astounding number of quests (over 1000, last time I checked), and the woes that plague all online games (balance issues, bugged zones, etc.) WoW will be an astoundly complicated game. Naturally, a game that is this intricate and is constantly evolving will require a helluva lot of maintenance.
And I think we can all agree that WoW will need much more maintenance, tweaking and anti-hack support then Diablo 2 ever would. So naturally, WoW would have to cover these expenses with a monthly rate. This isn’t Blizzard gouging you for money, this isn’t some elaborate ploy to cheat you out of your paycheck, this is simple math. You’re going to have to pay more money for a game that is “always in development.” You pay a monthly fee, and in return the game is constantly made better.
It isn’t the fact that you’re stealing from Blizzard that particularily aggravates me, but I’m sure once you get your pirate servers up and running you’ll be stealing all of the WoW updates as well. Stealing the constant updates that Blizzard offers is not only stealing from the company, but is essentially stealing from the thousands of gamers who actually PAID the monthly fees to receive them. People out there are paying money for the updates, which you then take for free. That isn’t very fair.
I will start playing pay-to-play online games by companies rules the same day when we are forced to get rid of all the MP3’s in our computers, since that argument is also valid for music ;D
No, what you’re doing is more like somehow stealing a magazine subscription as opposed to stealing a single magazine. Instead of just having one magazine to read and enjoy, you are constantly being delivered new material at the expensive of other subscribers (I know thats an unlikely scenario).