I'm glad I quit when I did. They're selling levels for cash now in the form of new customers. This is going to be exploited and help to ruin the game. It's the first time I ever saw the integrity of this game breached. By making leveling easier ONLY for a select few that hand them cash they're going to rope a few instant subscriptions, but the overall game is being damaged now. Going to the extreme of handing out levels is a pretty good indicator that the game is beginning to sink.
Man, you must be wanting to go back pretty bad when you use such elborate reasons to justify your WoW abstinence.
The reasons aren't elaborate, they're actually pretty simple. Its the description of the how and why that is elaborate, but you kind of run that hazard whenever you choose to participate in a discussion.
He thinks that the quality of the game has taken damage since they offered levels for cash.
I contend that they have been offering levels, characters, this and that for cash since a long time ago and that is actually when the quality deteriorated. I remember reading about Scillia and Ghost Lands, among many others, where players were forced to plop down 25 bucks in order to move to a playable server.
WoW is popular, has been popular, won't argue that for now. However the quality has been in a steep decline.
Edit:
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The Asian markets for WoW, especially Russia will help prop up the subs for a long time.
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LoL
___________________ Sadly, I see storm clouds on the horizon. A faint stench of Vanguard is in the air.-Kien
i would say there will be significant drop in the numbers playing the month war is out . thats not to say subs will drop that month because people will proberbly play both . if warhammers any good it will definatly take a chunk of wows subscriber base in subsequent months . people are bored with wow but if you want a good fun /easy access mmo its really the only one on the market at the moment that caters for that audiance . thats not to say games like lord of the rings , eve and city of heroes dont have something to offer but their niche gameplay is never going to be as popular as wow .theres bound to be some kind of revival with the liche king coming out . i personally fully intend to return to warcraft at some point but because of the likes of warhammer and age of conan etc i wont be rushing back
It will be nice to have some solid competition. Monopolies are never good, they get lazy and start getting complacent. When Intel was the only main chip maker before AMD got competitive, they held back technology and slowly released it. It's the same kind of thing with any monopoly, if there is no competition, just sit back and cruise. Consumers will benefit from a more competitive environment. WOTLK is already introducing a new PvP zone. Why did they take 4 years to do it?
As it stands I feel as though wow is probably one of the best games when it comes to PvE and raids. They have so many flaws pvp wise starting with the lack of character balance and being a gear dependant game. I also seen the youtube video with the siege tank and if this is what blizzard is bringing to the table with PvP then you guys can have it.
As it stands I feel as though wow is probably one of the best games when it comes to PvE and raids. They have so many flaws pvp wise starting with the lack of character balance and being a gear dependant game. I also seen the youtube video with the siege tank and if this is what blizzard is bringing to the table with PvP then you guys can have it.
Arena shows every class can shine in one configuration or another.
So you are avoiding the subject... what happened to your 12% decrease? you know, the number you pulled from your butt. A blizzard employee, who is under the watch of the Security and exchange commission stated they reached 11.9 million in May.. where is your proof they lost 12% of subscribers?
And as far as ethical business practices. You never saw a phone company offer new customers a discounted rate on their first 3 months? Wow, how unfair is that.. people who have been with them years are paying more than new customers???
This isn't about Blizzard losing customers.. this is simply about Blizzard wanting to give new players a chance to catch up to their friends before Wraith launches. I mean think about it. I want to invite a friend, would it work if I said " yeah, join this game, you'll never be able to adventure with me because you'll never catch up". There are so many restrictions on this offer that the only people who DO get the exp boost are the ones who actually do help their friends adventure. It also means that those new players are ready to buy the expansion!! You don't get to 11 million subscribers without having a good business sense.
Also, Blizzard HAS made leveling easier for everyone in the game. They removed elite/group quests from 1-60, they lowered the exp needed to gain levels from 30-60, they increased exp given from quests from 20-60 AND they lowered the level requirements for mounts from 40 to 30 (makes traveling much faster). Blizzard has also stated that once Wraith launches, they are going to reduce the exp needed to level from 60-70.
You can find that their sales are down at the beginning of the year. They didn't release an expansion like they did the previous year. It's just natural that would happen.
I'm done with WOW. I have been, but I still like to keep up with it and have considered going back to it from time to time. I'm glad I quit when I did. They're selling levels for cash now in the form of new customers. This is going to be exploited and help to ruin the game. It's the first time I ever saw the integrity of this game breached.
By making leveling easier ONLY for a select few that hand them cash they're going to rope a few instant subscriptions, but the overall game is being damaged now.
Going to the extreme of handing out levels is a pretty good indicator that the game is beginning to sink.
Again, you are completely wrong with this ' buying levels' thing.
1. The new players and the old player ONLY get the bonus to their experience while questing together.
2. The old player can't do this on his main. If I have a lvl 65 character, I can't go adventuring with a lvl 3 character and get any exp at all. The only thing I get from this is faster leveling on a new character.
3. ALL exp bonuses end at lvl 60, which is only about half the amount of time it takes to level a character to 70 ( 1-60 time = 60-70 time)
Now lets see what they did for ALL character to make leveling easier
1. Decreased the exp needed to level from 20-60
2. Increased the amount of experience given by quests from 30-60
3. Removed all Elite Mobs and group quests from 1-60
4. Improved quest rewards from 1-60
5. Mounts only require lvl 30 now, used to be 40
The 'buying levels thing only does the following
1. If I get a friend to play, I can create a new alt that will level fast (but only when we quest together)
2. I can create ANOTHER alt which gets to level fast also, but will always be behind the new players character.
3. I get a cool Zebra mount.
4. With luck, My friend will now have enough time to get to lvl 70 bfore the expansion hits.
None of the leveling things effect main characters or high level characters. It's not like I can get 5 people to play WOW and suddenly my character goes from 65 to 70, or that he levels faster going 60-70.
BTW.. you still haven't shown where WOW subscriptions dropped by 14%. All 3 versions of WOW continue to be on the top 10 in PC game sales and haven't budge from those charts ever.
Comments
Blizzard will still claim WoW has 10 million players. It's what they do.
Man, you must be wanting to go back pretty bad when you use such elborate reasons to justify your WoW abstinence.
The reasons aren't elaborate, they're actually pretty simple. Its the description of the how and why that is elaborate, but you kind of run that hazard whenever you choose to participate in a discussion.
He thinks that the quality of the game has taken damage since they offered levels for cash.
I contend that they have been offering levels, characters, this and that for cash since a long time ago and that is actually when the quality deteriorated. I remember reading about Scillia and Ghost Lands, among many others, where players were forced to plop down 25 bucks in order to move to a playable server.
WoW is popular, has been popular, won't argue that for now. However the quality has been in a steep decline.
Edit:
--------------
The Asian markets for WoW, especially Russia will help prop up the subs for a long time.
--------------
LoL
___________________
Sadly, I see storm clouds on the horizon. A faint stench of Vanguard is in the air.-Kien
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/12/13/
i would say there will be significant drop in the numbers playing the month war is out . thats not to say subs will drop that month because people will proberbly play both . if warhammers any good it will definatly take a chunk of wows subscriber base in subsequent months . people are bored with wow but if you want a good fun /easy access mmo its really the only one on the market at the moment that caters for that audiance . thats not to say games like lord of the rings , eve and city of heroes dont have something to offer but their niche gameplay is never going to be as popular as wow .theres bound to be some kind of revival with the liche king coming out . i personally fully intend to return to warcraft at some point but because of the likes of warhammer and age of conan etc i wont be rushing back
It will be nice to have some solid competition. Monopolies are never good, they get lazy and start getting complacent. When Intel was the only main chip maker before AMD got competitive, they held back technology and slowly released it. It's the same kind of thing with any monopoly, if there is no competition, just sit back and cruise. Consumers will benefit from a more competitive environment. WOTLK is already introducing a new PvP zone. Why did they take 4 years to do it?
As it stands I feel as though wow is probably one of the best games when it comes to PvE and raids. They have so many flaws pvp wise starting with the lack of character balance and being a gear dependant game. I also seen the youtube video with the siege tank and if this is what blizzard is bringing to the table with PvP then you guys can have it.
Arena shows every class can shine in one configuration or another.
Would you care to do arena in Conan
))
So you are avoiding the subject... what happened to your 12% decrease? you know, the number you pulled from your butt. A blizzard employee, who is under the watch of the Security and exchange commission stated they reached 11.9 million in May.. where is your proof they lost 12% of subscribers?
And as far as ethical business practices. You never saw a phone company offer new customers a discounted rate on their first 3 months? Wow, how unfair is that.. people who have been with them years are paying more than new customers???
This isn't about Blizzard losing customers.. this is simply about Blizzard wanting to give new players a chance to catch up to their friends before Wraith launches. I mean think about it. I want to invite a friend, would it work if I said " yeah, join this game, you'll never be able to adventure with me because you'll never catch up". There are so many restrictions on this offer that the only people who DO get the exp boost are the ones who actually do help their friends adventure. It also means that those new players are ready to buy the expansion!! You don't get to 11 million subscribers without having a good business sense.
Also, Blizzard HAS made leveling easier for everyone in the game. They removed elite/group quests from 1-60, they lowered the exp needed to gain levels from 30-60, they increased exp given from quests from 20-60 AND they lowered the level requirements for mounts from 40 to 30 (makes traveling much faster). Blizzard has also stated that once Wraith launches, they are going to reduce the exp needed to level from 60-70.
You can find that their sales are down at the beginning of the year. They didn't release an expansion like they did the previous year. It's just natural that would happen.
I'm done with WOW. I have been, but I still like to keep up with it and have considered going back to it from time to time. I'm glad I quit when I did. They're selling levels for cash now in the form of new customers. This is going to be exploited and help to ruin the game. It's the first time I ever saw the integrity of this game breached.
By making leveling easier ONLY for a select few that hand them cash they're going to rope a few instant subscriptions, but the overall game is being damaged now.
Going to the extreme of handing out levels is a pretty good indicator that the game is beginning to sink.
Again, you are completely wrong with this ' buying levels' thing.
1. The new players and the old player ONLY get the bonus to their experience while questing together.
2. The old player can't do this on his main. If I have a lvl 65 character, I can't go adventuring with a lvl 3 character and get any exp at all. The only thing I get from this is faster leveling on a new character.
3. ALL exp bonuses end at lvl 60, which is only about half the amount of time it takes to level a character to 70 ( 1-60 time = 60-70 time)
Now lets see what they did for ALL character to make leveling easier
1. Decreased the exp needed to level from 20-60
2. Increased the amount of experience given by quests from 30-60
3. Removed all Elite Mobs and group quests from 1-60
4. Improved quest rewards from 1-60
5. Mounts only require lvl 30 now, used to be 40
The 'buying levels thing only does the following
1. If I get a friend to play, I can create a new alt that will level fast (but only when we quest together)
2. I can create ANOTHER alt which gets to level fast also, but will always be behind the new players character.
3. I get a cool Zebra mount.
4. With luck, My friend will now have enough time to get to lvl 70 bfore the expansion hits.
None of the leveling things effect main characters or high level characters. It's not like I can get 5 people to play WOW and suddenly my character goes from 65 to 70, or that he levels faster going 60-70.
BTW.. you still haven't shown where WOW subscriptions dropped by 14%. All 3 versions of WOW continue to be on the top 10 in PC game sales and haven't budge from those charts ever.