This has really riled me up, and rather than doing what I’ve whined about in the past and sending a bunch of tweets about it, I just decided to throw a blog post together. This is pre-E3 week, and I’m technically too busy to write anything other than what I’m already supposed to be working on, but I’m pretty angry about this, so I’m putting this together quickly.

Here’s the deal: For a long time, Blizzard (who makes World of Warcraft, though if you don’t know that, none of this post will probably make any sense to you) has promised to include friends in the Dungeon Finder system. Right now, you can play with people from other realms, but they’re all random people, and while you can chat with your Real ID friends, you can’t actually meet up with them in the game if you happen to be on other realms. Fortunately, today, Blizzard has announced that it’s very close to releasing that functionality, finally allowing me to play with all of my Real ID friends across realms. Unfortunately, Blizzard wants to charge a premium fee for that service.

Here’s the thing: World of Warcraft already charges a premium fee. I’ve been paying $15 a month since I started playing the game, which is more money than I actually want to admit I’ve given them. Sure, I’ve gotten a lot of game out of that, but the world has changed since that original agreement started. Back then, $15 a month was worth it to play an online game, because there weren’t that many around that worked well. These days, there are tons of terrific online games around, many of which are much cheaper (my Xbox Live gold membership has been a bargain compared to WoW), and some of which are completely free.

It’s not that those games don’t charge — they do charge for customization or other services, and those charges are very reasonable and in large part allow those games to be very profitable. But WoW is already a premium game — it’s already the biggest drain on my gaming spending. If Blizzard wants to charge for optional services like realm transfers, character re-customization, mobile access, or even, yes, the idiotic Sparkle Pony, then fine. I can definitely stay away from using those services, because they’re all extra and optional.

But playing with my friends? That’s a pretty core part of an MMO, and it’s outright greedy of Blizzard to suggest that I, as one of their premium subscribers, need to pay another premium fee to enjoy their game with my friends in that way. You may argue that I’m being overly entitled, and sure, why not. I can play with my friends in League of Legends, and Portal 2, and Call of Duty, and Red Dead Redemption, and Crysis 2, and all of the other multiplayer games I play, without a premium charge. So yes, I do feel entitled to this kind of gameplay, especially when I’m already still paying $15 a month.

In the end, Blizzard can charge whatever it wants, but if they stick with a “premium charge” for this service, I won’t use it. They say that only the people inviting their friends have to pay the cost, and I feel that’s a little shady — I’m half tempted to ignore any invites from the service, just because I don’t want people paying for me when I’m clearly so vehemently against a system like this. Blizzard’s holding me and my friends hostage, keeping us apart until one of us cracks and ponies up the cash.

But most importantly, aside from any personal issue I have with the charges, I find it really sad that Blizzard, a company that’s always been about letting players play their games as they like, is so out of touch with what the real multiplayer game market is like. MMOs, at this point, are a free-to-play endeavor. For a few years now, the only MMO that’s really been able to get away with a subscription on a mass market level is World of Warcraft, and that’s because it’s worth it. If WoW were free already, I’d happily pony up a few bucks for the ability to play with my friends.

But it’s not, of course. And to ask your players to play extra for such a core feature, especially when they’re the players who’ve stuck around and continued to pay when lots of other players have moved on to free titles, shows a real disrespect for your player base and a real misunderstanding about what is happening in this market.