Whats everyone's thoughts on the loss of more players? I left the game 6 months ago and still have no taste to go back. the new xpac in my mind was one of the worst that blizz has ever put out.
World of Warcraft
Game » consists of 9 releases. Released Nov 23, 2004
World of Warcraft is an MMORPG that takes place in Blizzard Entertainment's Warcraft universe. At its peak, it boasted a player base of over 12.5 million subscribers, making it the most popular MMO of all time.
Q2 down another 300,000 people
You seriously liked Lich King more than Cataclysm? Sure, Burning Crusade was awesome but Lich King...
Anyway, I only recently started playing again, and it's OK. I've been doing some raiding and stuff but really the only thing keeping me there is the fact that I've hooked up with some old buddies and we're having a good time.
I think people are just getting sick of the game. You can only play the game so much before youve seen it all and get bored.
When it goes under 8 million then I think they will do something drastic, e.g revamp graphics engine, actually fix PVP or Heroic only raids, Meaningful World PVP. World Bosses, 40 mans!!!! (I hope but I know is not practical) etc. i left last month Im just tired of how shitty pvp has become!
Course there is the issue with new people unable to get into raiding guilds because they do not have the right gear...and then not able to get that gear because the raiding guilds wont let them in. *But that really is an issue blizzard cant fix)
I'd call it a combination of player fatigue, an expansion lacking in endgame, and exhausting the pool of new players. Even through the game's ascendance, every single person I played with quit for awhile at some point. I call it logical that at some point they'd quit for good (if you imagine such a thing exists). Cataclysm isn't poorly done, but I think the problem is they gave players what they asked for, not what they wanted. People have complained for years they wanted the original content fixed. And Blizzard did that. I think what they really wanted was to just not have to do it anymore. If they'd let people start characters at 60 or higher, they could have used all that immense dev time to make a properly fleshed out endgame at the new level cap. What we got instead was a good bit less than the number of instances Wrath shipped with, and that includes some revamped old dungeons (this doesn't bother me, but it certainly takes them less work to do). And they only just managed to put out the 2nd raid. And for the entire time WoW has been going, some people have been quitting for good (just post anything here and watch how desperate people are to tell how long ago they quit) and new people have been signing up. At some point, the potential player pool is going to dry up. I don't know if they are truly at that point, but I'd put money on them being out on the tailing end of the curve.
Not surprised, everytime I visit MMO news sites WoW seems to be getting "worse". Worse in this case being more casual gaming friendly, this coming from someone who played the game very hardcore for almost 5 years and dislikes when Blizzard make the game generally easier and easier. Seems WoW is losing more hardcore players than it is gaining casual players.
WoW's still a good game, in my case it was just that I had a great deal of difficulty finding any of the new Cataclysm gear to get me into the heroics, and I had no desire to go through the dungeons with randoms anymore. It was a 40 minute wait to get into a dungeon, then the tank turns out to be some asshole who ragequits 5 minutes in and causes the rest of the group to search again.
When it goes under 8 million then I think they will do something drastic, e.g revamp graphics engine, actually fix PVP or Heroic only raids, Meaningful World PVP. World Bosses, 40 mans!!!! (I hope but I know is not practical) etc. i left last month Im just tired of how shitty pvp has become!Free2play with $25 mounts?
I'm mostly with the "of course they're going to lose players, people don't inherently play a single game for that many years without getting bored eventually." Also, when I see 300,000, while that may normally be something of a high number (for instance, if FF14 lost 300,000 people I don't think anyone would be left playing the game), but when you lose 300,000 of a "population" that is still probably over 8 or 9 million, maybe even over 10 million, yeah, it's not really that much.
I think the issue is that they are being really slow with the content turn around this time and are not keeping their "hardcore" (I hate that word) players entertained which is the audience that will quit the game where as casuals will keep playing even if the raid content and dungeon content is easy.
I'm mostly with the "of course they're going to lose players, people don't inherently play a single game for that many years without getting bored eventually." Also, when I see 300,000, while that may normally be something of a high number (for instance, if FF14 lost 300,000 people I don't think anyone would be left playing the game), but when you lose 300,000 of a "population" that is still probably over 8 or 9 million, maybe even over 10 million, yeah, it's not really that much.Losing 1 million subscribers (over $100 000 000 per year) in the time of one year is still fairly significant, and I don't think it's just players being burnt out.
They made the game too easy. My favorite time was burning crusade. It had easy to clear raids for casuals and extremely difficult raids for the hardcore. Almost the perfect balance and those were the best times I have ever had gaming.
WoW's still a good game, in my case it was just that I had a great deal of difficulty finding any of the new Cataclysm gear to get me into the heroics, and I had no desire to go through the dungeons with randoms anymore. It was a 40 minute wait to get into a dungeon, then the tank turns out to be some asshole who ragequits 5 minutes in and causes the rest of the group to search again.This. I still like the game, but this was the exact same problem I had.
The game just bores me now. I didn't really get very far in the newest expansion. I don't know that that's because the new expansion is bad or anything- I didn't think it was bad- I am just kinda bored of wow. Been playing it since 2005 or whatever.
That's just me though, and I am sure there are others like me. I can't account for all their losses but it does feel about time for another MMO that is worth wasting my time on.
This is inevitable. WoW has reached its peak already, and it'll be in a steady decline from here on out.
I'm not sure there'll ever be another MMO that's quite as big, number-wise. I have doubts that even Blizzard's next MMO offering will manage the same feat.
Yeah, I bought Cataclysm, wasn't digging it, and promptly quit. $40 well spent right?
People are just bored of WoW. I know I am. After four years I felt like I had seen all I wanted to see. Hey, it can't stay on top forever and perhaps it is finally on its way out.
Somewhere in Austin, James Ohlen is sitting in front of his computer, rubbing his hands together, and muttering "Good... goooood..." underneath his breath.
DIABLO 3 NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWdf;kjhgkl;dsnlkjoajgdflknmglkpa;kdmnjsfd;nl,
The game is, by all accounts, a great game.
There's so much to do, so much to see, so much to experience, it bascially never ends.
But for me, and loads others, who's been there since start, since any of the previous XP's....its time to go, cus we've done it all.
And what we didn't do we never will because its something we done already but with a new skin.
I get anal about game I play for a long team, any genre, especially MMO's.
I hate seeing re-used models, reskinned models or stuff like it, and I've seen so much of it since the beta (I played a long time, on and off).
Also done with the quests, with the classes, I got all of them to either 60, 70, 80 or 85, I got all I can get from the game.
The only thing that will ever lure me back in is more customisation, more character sharing (same mounts, same achievements, I worked my ass off on one char just to grind again for weeks on another? No.) and more incentive to keep going.
Not a fan of how much of the community is all about gear and damage done...or about how elitist they become over the simplest of things (seriously, mad about loot in RFC? Gtfo mr Heirloom), not about the journey or the majestic sights.
I can't blame them for why they do it, but I do blame them for HOW they do it.
So many times people pick fights over nothing or just be morons.
Stealing your items to spite you, skipping bosses, insulting your playstyle, always (aggresively) bragging and boasting about how they are better at everything then you.
Or the basic "You're not a good player because you're not in a raiding guild".
People got out of control, many burned out, others just gave up but sadly most are still there, becoming simple and silly over a bunch of polygons.
Sorry for the rant, I'm just a little mad about what they did to one of my most loved games ever.
The time I had the most fun was when heroics and raids really took a lot of cooperation and teamwork to complete. As people have been saying, Burning Crusade seemed to best fulfill that. I watched a friend play recently and he never needs a mic to communicate and barely has to do anything as he just robotically goes through instances. He's the healer and barely pays any attention, however, nothing goes wrong because it never gets difficult enough to have to try. Overcoming challenges is extremely satisfying and enjoyable. I think even new people can appreciate it, but Blizzard just doesn't understand anymore.
Another detail is that up to 11M (Oct, 29, 2008), they were posting new record populations often. Then the next "milestone" was 11.5M (the first non-integer million) on Feb 19 2010. And that was shortly after an expansion release in China. It doesn't take an advanced degree in statistics to guess that they probably had seen a dip then but simply didn't announce it.
Not a fan of how much of the community is all about gear and damage done...or about how elitist they become over the simplest of things (seriously, mad about loot in RFC? Gtfo mr Heirloom), not about the journey or the majestic sights. I can't blame them for why they do it, but I do blame them for HOW they do it. So many times people pick fights over nothing or just be morons. Stealing your items to spite you, skipping bosses, insulting your playstyle, always (aggresively) bragging and boasting about how they are better at everything then you. Or the basic "You're not a good player because you're not in a raiding guild". People got out of control, many burned out, others just gave up but sadly most are still there, becoming simple and silly over a bunch of polygons. Sorry for the rant, I'm just a little mad about what they did to one of my most loved games ever.You're odd. You're playing a Skinner Box, but you're doing it for reasons I wouldn't have expected. These people are on different reward schedules then you, and I'm sure that feels good to them. Being rewarded consistently is something they aren't getting out of their life. Psychologically, the game, being a Skinner Box, is designed to elicit the response they're giving, not your's. Personally, I'm glad WoW is dieing. I don't like what it's done to games. But, I guess... I'm sorry that your WoW is dieing?
I played hardcore from '05 to the middle of burning crusade, once in a while I'll come back for a few months and check it out, still kind of fun , but seems more casual. Makes me miss the old days
@TaliciaDragonsong said:I'm glad its dying too, it had its run.Not a fan of how much of the community is all about gear and damage done...or about how elitist they become over the simplest of things (seriously, mad about loot in RFC? Gtfo mr Heirloom), not about the journey or the majestic sights. I can't blame them for why they do it, but I do blame them for HOW they do it. So many times people pick fights over nothing or just be morons. Stealing your items to spite you, skipping bosses, insulting your playstyle, always (aggresively) bragging and boasting about how they are better at everything then you. Or the basic "You're not a good player because you're not in a raiding guild". People got out of control, many burned out, others just gave up but sadly most are still there, becoming simple and silly over a bunch of polygons. Sorry for the rant, I'm just a little mad about what they did to one of my most loved games ever.You're odd. You're playing a Skinner Box, but you're doing it for reasons I wouldn't have expected. These people are on different reward schedules then you, and I'm sure that feels good to them. Being rewarded consistently is something they aren't getting out of their life. Psychologically, the game, being a Skinner Box, is designed to elicit the response they're giving, not your's. Personally, I'm glad WoW is dieing. I don't like what it's done to games. But, I guess... I'm sorry that your WoW is dieing?
I mean, the mere fact you're calling it a skinner box tells me enough about the state of the game.
I never ever ever cared about what all these others care about (raids, gear, titles, whatever), I just had fun in my own way with my own small group of friends, and the longer WoW dragged on, the more of an actual skinner box it became (or did it just lower its veil a little and shined through what it always was?).
Also, people and their own reward schedules, sod them, I don't care, the point is that th community is filled with assholes that didn't take the time to even say hi when you joined a group but also on the other hand had all the time in the world to keep bugging you with whispers (even on alts when /ignored) about what you did wrong in their eyes or their idea of how the game works.
Its hard to play a MMO with strangers who are often punks.
And yes, I could play with my friends, but that takes the massive out of MMO a little, which is part of the great world filled with adventurers.
I'm quite odd, yes, but I just love to enjoy my games, all of them, and Azeroth was a beautifully crafted world that for me personally took gaming to a new level when it came out, it really was the never ending fun game.
But now its bleeding to death and I'm glad, lets see what the other mmo's can do and which of them can offer me the same experience.
300,000 loss is not necessarily true, sure at that very day it was. I saw a graph somewhere that records the total number of players in a bunch of MMO's. WoW has been losing subscribers and gaining them since day one, the graph is up and down. I personally know this is true because I play WoW. Me, as well as many of the people I play with take breaks. I stop playing for 2 or 3 months at a time and then come back. So while they were down 300,000 from last quarter, a lot of those people will come back.
It'll be interesting to see what happens when decline becomes the dominant trend for WoW. I wonder how far they'll ride it out, how much it'll change, and how soon they'll try to fit in a sequel while continuing to try and make money off the original. I think that eventually WoW will become free-to-play if a WoW 2 is released, and microtransactions will become the dominant form of income for a smaller player base on consolidated servers with a smaller team running it. I have to assume that if a sequel comes out, enough players will hate the changes enough that they'll stay loyal to the original.
Booooooooooowhow is x-pac relevant to the decline of WoW...... oh.
Make some noise! X-PAC!
/leaves
I believe they reported that they did not get a net gain in subscribers with Cata, but I'm not an authoritative source.Just out of curiosity, how many players did they gain with Cataclysm?
Thus, WoW will become free to play soon, and Blizzard will be launching a new MMO.
Heck, as someone who played WoW during the beta of olde but never bought a subscription, playing it now as the free to play till level 20 bit, I've already grown bored with it. I've always been amazed to see the world I'd seen in the Warcraft series prior come to life, but never was a fan of the content within, namely fetch quest after fetch quest.
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