the community ruined it for me. i just couldn't stand it anymore. and, yes, the level cap being increased screwed all those who worked for what they had pre-BC. too much grind...and the fun begins to wane.
The way to keep people that are questioning the worth of the game after a year or two of playing is simple. Put some of that hundred million dollars they make every month back into the game. It slays me that they seem to have such a problem doing this. I understand they are running a business and the point is to make money. Regardless, one months income and they could create a massive content update. Raise the level cap to 100+ and perpetuate the junk that everyone seems to love so much. Make it a free expansion. Yes, I said free. WoW will become a victim of it's own sucess if that process hasn't begun already. I guess the apparent lack of giving back to the community is what I find irritating. Something, anything.....been a subscriber for a year, your monthly cost drops to $10 a month.....2 years.....$5 a month. I used to love Blizzard as a company prior to WoW, now they just disgust me.
I think the free expanion and bumping up the level is a good idea. But what I would do with the upping the level limit, is to make it so that players would have to work to open new level limits for the server. Say you have a zone 71-75 level based mobs with an instance inside with some action which needs to be completed to open the server maximum level to 75. This gives those who reach the endgame first something new and harder to work towards completing while the general population catches up.
IF I ever came out with a class/level based game I would have an extra 20 levels or so at the end of each release cycle with just this type of content.
Implement 40 man raids again. Lots of 'em. Because that is what holds the crowd in the game: THe Promise "Play for another 5 months, and you maybe got enough gear to finish the hardest dungeons", during those 5 months, another, even harder Dungeon opens, obviously.
WoW chose the Carrot on a Stick approach, instead of the "Play because it's fun"-Approach. They have to stick with it now.
I think Blizzard has done an excellent job at keeping the interest level high. Most people won't play an MMO as log as they have World of Warcraft. What Blizzard does is create new and interesting content. If they keep doing that... I think people will continue to play the game no matter how long they've been playing for.
The way to keep people that are questioning the worth of the game after a year or two of playing is simple. Put some of that hundred million dollars they make every month back into the game. It slays me that they seem to have such a problem doing this. I understand they are running a business and the point is to make money. Regardless, one months income and they could create a massive content update. Raise the level cap to 100+ and perpetuate the junk that everyone seems to love so much. Make it a free expansion. Yes, I said free. WoW will become a victim of it's own sucess if that process hasn't begun already. I guess the apparent lack of giving back to the community is what I find irritating. Something, anything.....been a subscriber for a year, your monthly cost drops to $10 a month.....2 years.....$5 a month. I used to love Blizzard as a company prior to WoW, now they just disgust me.
Yet another sadly mistaken soul who thinks that simply giving a developer more money will somehow magically make them work harder, longer, increase their programming/designing abilities, and just generally make them better.
Developers are human beings. The devs that work for Blizzard are talented and skilled at what they do, and they deserve to be making the money they do from their successful hard work. They cannot be expected to produce more simply because their game is highly successful.
Think about it. Lets say you work 8 hours a day to the best of your abilities at your job. Your manager notices this, and gives you a raise at the next review. Does that mean that now you have to work 10 hours a day and take on an even larger work load because you are getting paid more?
How about come out with an expansion that actually is not more of the same? These clowns are making over 100 million a year in sub fees, and the one expansion in two years is the exact same thing we've been doing. How about some storyline? How about some meaningful RvR? This kind of service is ridiculous. DAoC with its 50k subscribers get better service than we do.
The way to keep people that are questioning the worth of the game after a year or two of playing is simple. Put some of that hundred million dollars they make every month back into the game. It slays me that they seem to have such a problem doing this. I understand they are running a business and the point is to make money. Regardless, one months income and they could create a massive content update. Raise the level cap to 100+ and perpetuate the junk that everyone seems to love so much. Make it a free expansion. Yes, I said free. WoW will become a victim of it's own sucess if that process hasn't begun already. I guess the apparent lack of giving back to the community is what I find irritating. Something, anything.....been a subscriber for a year, your monthly cost drops to $10 a month.....2 years.....$5 a month. I used to love Blizzard as a company prior to WoW, now they just disgust me.
Yet another sadly mistaken soul who thinks that simply giving a developer more money will somehow magically make them work harder, longer, increase their programming/designing abilities, and just generally make them better.
Developers are human beings. The devs that work for Blizzard are talented and skilled at what they do, and they deserve to be making the money they do from their successful hard work. They cannot be expected to produce more simply because their game is highly successful.
Think about it. Lets say you work 8 hours a day to the best of your abilities at your job. Your manager notices this, and gives you a raise at the next review. Does that mean that now you have to work 10 hours a day and take on an even larger work load because you are getting paid more?
I can tell you're pretty clueless. If you manage a business that is making A LOT of money you reinvest in that business. One way of doing that is hiring MORE people, so that the workload per employee doesn't increase. Yes, they are expected to produce more quality content. We as customers deserve that.
If you don't expect to get anything for your money then that is your flawed thinking, not ours.
How about come out with an expansion that actually is not more of the same? These clowns are making over 100 million a year in sub fees, and the one expansion in two years is the exact same thing we've been doing. How about some storyline? How about some meaningful RvR? This kind of service is ridiculous. DAoC with its 50k subscribers get better service than we do.
it's actually more like over 100 million a month...approx, i have heard that some countries have higher/lower monthly fees, so it could be higher/lower than this actually:
8,000,000 players (what they say their subscription #'s are)
I can tell you're pretty clueless. If you manage a business that is making A LOT of money you reinvest in that business. One way of doing that is hiring MORE people, so that the workload per employee doesn't increase. Yes, they are expected to produce more quality content. We as customers deserve that.
If you don't expect to get anything for your money then that is your flawed thinking, not ours.
I can tell you talk like you have experience in a multi-million dollar business with an international customer base, but I'm pretty sure you don't. I'm not saying I do either, but I don't have to. Blizzard is a very successful game company. They obviously know what they are doing, and when you can show me your multi-million dollar international business that brings in the type of revenue that Blizzard does, then you can come back and tell me I'm clueless.
I'll wait.
In the meantime, let me assure you that hiring new people is not always the way to increase productivity. In fact, your entire presupposition is that Blizzard somehow needs to be more productive. This is not the case, and their success is proof of that, regardless if you personally feel otherwise. Why take on a greater workload at all if your current workload is producing acceptable profits? Why mess with a proven development team by bringing in new people who could potentially cause problems within the developer community?
My expectations of what I needed to receive in exchange for my monthly subscription were met or exceeded during the time that I paid for the WoW service. If you think for a minute that I, or any other WoW subscriber didn't "get anything", then you are simply out of touch with reality, and your perception is clouded by your emotions. You certainly are not speaking for all customers, and you certainly are not basing your argument on facts.
Good luck to you in whatever business you manage though. You'll need it.
Comments
"...and with that cryptic comment, I'm off to bed!"
I think the free expanion and bumping up the level is a good idea. But what I would do with the upping the level limit, is to make it so that players would have to work to open new level limits for the server. Say you have a zone 71-75 level based mobs with an instance inside with some action which needs to be completed to open the server maximum level to 75. This gives those who reach the endgame first something new and harder to work towards completing while the general population catches up.
IF I ever came out with a class/level based game I would have an extra 20 levels or so at the end of each release cycle with just this type of content.
Implement 40 man raids again. Lots of 'em. Because that is what holds the crowd in the game: THe Promise "Play for another 5 months, and you maybe got enough gear to finish the hardest dungeons", during those 5 months, another, even harder Dungeon opens, obviously.
WoW chose the Carrot on a Stick approach, instead of the "Play because it's fun"-Approach. They have to stick with it now.
My answer is nothing!
I think Blizzard has done an excellent job at keeping the interest level high. Most people won't play an MMO as log as they have World of Warcraft. What Blizzard does is create new and interesting content. If they keep doing that... I think people will continue to play the game no matter how long they've been playing for.
they should introduce things for high level players to strive for (like running buisnesses, towns, politics, diplomacy)
they should make additional harvesting and crafting
they should make a new class or two
they should release areas important to the lore yet almost unmentioned in this game (undermine, northrend etc.)
they should make quests which have more than one outcome (a negative and a positive ending or sometihng)
bacially they should vary things up and make then endgame less of an item grind with noting else to do
Developers are human beings. The devs that work for Blizzard are talented and skilled at what they do, and they deserve to be making the money they do from their successful hard work. They cannot be expected to produce more simply because their game is highly successful.
Think about it. Lets say you work 8 hours a day to the best of your abilities at your job. Your manager notices this, and gives you a raise at the next review. Does that mean that now you have to work 10 hours a day and take on an even larger work load because you are getting paid more?
Perception is Reality.
SWG Refugee
Bloodfin Server - Starke
Developers are human beings. The devs that work for Blizzard are talented and skilled at what they do, and they deserve to be making the money they do from their successful hard work. They cannot be expected to produce more simply because their game is highly successful.
Think about it. Lets say you work 8 hours a day to the best of your abilities at your job. Your manager notices this, and gives you a raise at the next review. Does that mean that now you have to work 10 hours a day and take on an even larger work load because you are getting paid more?
I can tell you're pretty clueless. If you manage a business that is making A LOT of money you reinvest in that business. One way of doing that is hiring MORE people, so that the workload per employee doesn't increase. Yes, they are expected to produce more quality content. We as customers deserve that.
If you don't expect to get anything for your money then that is your flawed thinking, not ours.
8,000,000 players (what they say their subscription #'s are)
$15 a month
= $120,000,000 a month
x12 months
which would equal $1,440,000,000 yearly
yeah, nearly 1.5 billion dollars a year....
I'll wait.
In the meantime, let me assure you that hiring new people is not always the way to increase productivity. In fact, your entire presupposition is that Blizzard somehow needs to be more productive. This is not the case, and their success is proof of that, regardless if you personally feel otherwise. Why take on a greater workload at all if your current workload is producing acceptable profits? Why mess with a proven development team by bringing in new people who could potentially cause problems within the developer community?
My expectations of what I needed to receive in exchange for my monthly subscription were met or exceeded during the time that I paid for the WoW service. If you think for a minute that I, or any other WoW subscriber didn't "get anything", then you are simply out of touch with reality, and your perception is clouded by your emotions. You certainly are not speaking for all customers, and you certainly are not basing your argument on facts.
Good luck to you in whatever business you manage though. You'll need it.
Perception is Reality.