Blizzard has announced a major change to the way World of Warcraft players purchase game time, with WoW community manager Bornakk announcing in a forum post that from now on players will only be able to purchase World of Warcraft will only be able to purchase game time in 60-day increments and will no longer be able to purchase 30, 90, or 180 days of game time in a single transaction.

Please note that this will not affect World of Warcraft subscriptions. Subscriptions can still be purchased on a monthly (or 90-day or 180-day) basis. While subscriptions are probably the most common way to access World of Warcraft, many players prefer game time as a one-time purchase. If you do not play consistently, this method of purchasing game time in small increments as you need it is best than paying a monthly fee to purchase game time that may otherwise be wasted. This type of game time purchase is also preferred by many players in countries where credit cards are not always a common payment method. After all, it is nice to have more payment options.

Selling game time cards in 60-day increments is, in fact, standard in most other MMOs, but this change is still upsetting many players. There are already over 500 comments between the official forum post and the WoW subreddit thread, with many players expressing frustration and confusion as to why this change was made in the first place.

"There is no benefit to players/subscribers of woW," one redditor wrote. Other comments accuse Blizzard of trying to artificially boost subscription numbers and retention rates by forcing more players to purchase recurring subscriptions.

"The whole purpose of this is to force more people to subscribe," says another player.

"And when you inevitably quit the game and forget to cancel your subscription, they make more money from you for auto-renewing."

Even if Blizzard is simply conforming to industry standards, it is easy to see why people complain about the lack of payment options. One thing to consider is that purchasing game time (or subscriptions) in larger increments can get you a hefty discount. Purchasing game time in bulk for 180 days will save you about $25 compared to paying monthly. But it is still a lot of money (180 days is about $75), so it is natural that some players do not want to commit to a subscription that they may forget to cancel when the six months are up. At the same time, other commenters have pointed out that one can cancel a subscription immediately after purchasing it, and that it only takes a few seconds. Sure, it's an extra step, but a fairly harmless way to avoid unnecessary charges.

Still, the move has upset players who are angry that Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is receiving an estimated $200 million in bonuses, as well as Blizzard's announcement that it will lay off about 50 people in its esports division back of Blizzard's other controversies.