Blizzard Entertainment & Bitcoins

[twobits]

The target for this is not yet the average adult anyway.   Target would be precocious kids.

The average adult is absolutely your target.  Your average adult is the one with a brokerage account, 401(k), IRA, etc. etc.

You seem to be forgetting who the owners of the Company are.  Senior management is not answering to "precocious kids" they're answering to shareholders.  You know, the average adult?

No,  that is not the target.... at all....    since when is adding a payment method a board/shareholder level decision?

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[twobits]

Please come up with a more concise list of steps that you would tell someone to ensure that they were able to turn their dollars into bitcoins into a WoW subscription.

Not gonna waste time on that since you have made up your mind anyway.

Psst...it's because you can't.

Well at least you are open about being close minded.

Ahh excellent...and how do I get those bitcoins exactly?  And how does the merchant turn those bitcoins into real money?

How you get them is irrelevant if I am only adding to the options and not taking ones away.  Those like you who can't figure it out just keep using the old methods to pay.   

Now the merchant does need to know how to convert the payment into forms that let them pay their bills.  Since it is being used as a medium of exchange you probably already know you use of the term 'real' is misleading.   However anyone that is going to take bitcoin on anyscale needs to have that answered for themselves before doing so.

[CurbsideProphet]

The target for this is not yet the average adult anyway.   Target would be precocious kids.

The average adult is absolutely your target.  Your average adult is the one with a brokerage account, 401(k), IRA, etc. etc.

You seem to be forgetting who the owners of the Company are.  Senior management is not answering to "precocious kids" they're answering to shareholders.  You know, the average adult?

No,  that is not the target.... at all....    since when is adding a payment method a board/shareholder level decision?

So adding a payment method is not a decision made by the owners of a Company?  It affects revenues.  Maybe if Bitcoins only added users but you have to take into account existing users switching from their current form of payment to Bitcoin.  Now you're talking about switching relatively stable revenues to relatively volatile revenues.  Management's main concern with a public company is the preservation of their stock so it is indirectly a shareholder decision.  Everything is.

We can go back and forth on this but I don't think it's worth the effort.  The ironic thing is I'm an owner of both Bitcoin and ATVI, believe it or not.  I'm just trying to look at this objectively.  

[twobits]

The target for this is not yet the average adult anyway.   Target would be precocious kids.

The average adult is absolutely your target.  Your average adult is the one with a brokerage account, 401(k), IRA, etc. etc.

You seem to be forgetting who the owners of the Company are.  Senior management is not answering to "precocious kids" they're answering to shareholders.  You know, the average adult?

No,  that is not the target.... at all....    since when is adding a payment method a board/shareholder level decision?

So adding a payment method is not a decision made by the owners of a Company?  It affects revenues.  Maybe if Bitcoins only added users but you have to take into account existing users switching from their current form of payment to Bitcoin.  Now you're talking about switching relatively stable revenues to relatively volatile revenues.  Management's main concern with a public company is the preservation of their stock so it is indirectly a shareholder decision.  Everything is.

We can go back and forth on this but I don't think it's worth the effort.  The ironic thing is I'm an owner of both Bitcoin and ATVI, believe it or not.  I'm just trying to look at this objectively.  

Depends on the size of the company.  

Since you own stock in them, tell me when is the last time they asked you to vote for much of anything more then the board members?
Do you remember seeing the vote to add the phone bill payment method for example?  How much of a say did you have with the negotiations  with thenine and/or netease, which have a far bigger impact on the company and revenues then adding a payment method.

[rnicoll]

No,  that is not the target.... at all....    since when is adding a payment method a board/shareholder level decision?

If Bitcoin was just a payment method (which it's not, but I'll get on to that in a second) it would probably go to multiple department heads (finance, legal, customer services) I suspect.

We're talking however of Blizzard taking payments in an unproven, highly volatile currency with limited ability to guarantee they can get their money back out again, or use the currency in any straight forward manner (e.g. to pay staff). Yes, that would probably go to the board if a case could be made for it, and it's difficult to see the advantage to them at this point.

[kebumaha]

Who is unable to pay them in a currency they accept but who would pay them in pretend internet coins?  Do even five of those people exist?

Here's one.

[twobits]

No,  that is not the target.... at all....    since when is adding a payment method a board/shareholder level decision?

If Bitcoin was just a payment method (which it's not, but I'll get on to that in a second) it would probably go to multiple department heads (finance, legal, customer services) I suspect.

We're talking however of Blizzard taking payments in an unproven, highly volatile currency with limited ability to guarantee they can get their money back out again, or use the currency in any straight forward manner (e.g. to pay staff). Yes, that would probably go to the board if a case could be made for it, and it's difficult to see the advantage to them at this point.

They would have to address the conversions issues.  They would put contract in place to handle that, and it would behave just like another payment method to them.   If they can't get those in place,  they would not accept it.  It would never rise to a board level decision, unless some board member became obsessed with it to push it top down instead.   It would be dropped if they could not get the contracts for the volumes they want not made a board level issue for a gaming company, too far afield for that to be allowed to become such.

[CurbsideProphet]

Depends on the size of the company.  

Since you own stock in them, tell me when is the last time they asked you to vote for much of anything more then the board members?
Do you remember seeing the vote to add the phone bill payment method for example?  How much of a say did you have with the negotiations  with thenine and/or netease, which have a far bigger impact on the company and revenues then adding a payment method.

Well that's why I said indirectly.  A shareholder speaks with their wallet.  If I disagree with ATVI's vision, I sell.  Same as any other shareholder, institutional or otherwise.  

[twobits]

Depends on the size of the company.  

Since you own stock in them, tell me when is the last time they asked you to vote for much of anything more then the board members?
Do you remember seeing the vote to add the phone bill payment method for example?  How much of a say did you have with the negotiations  with thenine and/or netease, which have a far bigger impact on the company and revenues then adding a payment method.

Well that's why I said indirectly.  A shareholder speaks with their wallet.  If I disagree with ATVI's vision, I sell.  Same as any other shareholder, institutional or otherwise.  

Yep, and thats why I said it would not be a stockholders level decision and no need to sell them on it.  We both agree blizzard is not going to do this at this time.  Let's say they do though,   and lets say it does not work out well for them.  It would have been started out and used on such a small scale, they they would end if before most stockholders even knew it started.

[Nescio]

You think these shareholders are going to be thrilled reading these articles with keywords like "drugs" "guns" and "child pornography?"

Wait, are you saying Blizzard should stop accepting cash?

And Blizzard is going to take all of this risk because of credit card transaction fees?  Beyond delusional.

You got it the wrong way around. The most likely reason they aren't going to support Bitcoin is because credit card companies will threaten to make life difficult for them if they do.

[bitplane]

And Blizzard is going to take all of this risk because of credit card transaction fees?  Beyond delusional.

I imagine that a lot of Blizzard's customers are kids who have decent graphics cards, and there's lots of them. Rather than get into all the trouble of dealing with washed/stolen funds in a currency that doesn't allow chargebacks, they could easily set up their own pool, sell BTC at the market rate to cover the cost of their games and stash a significant amount more as a future investment.

They wouldn't even have to publicly deal in BTC or even admit that they were doing it, just offer game credits for GPU time.

[molecular]

The items I was thinking about was more so equipment for your character, not their in-game mounts/pets or whatever else they've got now. I agree that testing BTC via ponies would be a good idea.

I never played WOW. Does it have ingame carrots?

[error]

The items I was thinking about was more so equipment for your character, not their in-game mounts/pets or whatever else they've got now. I agree that testing BTC via ponies would be a good idea.

I never played WOW. Does it have ingame carrots?

Yes.

[molecular]

The items I was thinking about was more so equipment for your character, not their in-game mounts/pets or whatever else they've got now. I agree that testing BTC via ponies would be a good idea.

I never played WOW. Does it have ingame carrots?

Yes.

Wow, they're even stackable.

[tjohej]

Warning: this topic has not been posted in for at least 120 days.
Unless you're sure you want to reply, please consider starting a new topic.

Yes, does there exist another thread about Blizzard's current state of mind on Bitcoin(yes, not 3 year old "news")?

I can buy candy, computers and hardware from a reputable store here in Sweden and I can buy indie games from Humble Bundle inc.

I think it's high time Blizzard starts accepting Bitcoin.

[allthingsluxury]

Definitely a good effort, it will be interesting to see if anyone higher up responds to you.

[keithers]

 A lot of my clients are current employees of Blizzard, as well as the previous owner of Blizzard.  I can reach out to a few of them and see if I can get the question in front of the right people

[USAS-12]

A lot of my clients are current employees of Blizzard, as well as the previous owner of Blizzard.  I can reach out to a few of them and see if I can get the question in front of the right people

Can you tell us who are you? What kind of job do you have?

[chopstick]

Too bad all of Blizzard's games have gone downhill..

Totally ruined the storylines of starcraft and diablo..

[llanillo]

I hope it works i wanna buy cards on hearthstone