WOW has been bought and paid for well over its cost plus expansions many times as long as it has been running. Even with a cut of half their subs, it is still a 800lb gorrilla that does well.
The people still playing are casual gamers and really hardcore wow fans.
I played the game since release and have conquered all pvp and pve content to be seen. I enjoyed my time and don't regret a minute of it, but I'm done for good.
It's not just a comment about wow, but I'd really like to see a MMO with dynamic instances or events to keep the game fresh and ever changing. I've grown weary of the "everyone will know the boss fight from reading info online so lets make it harder." If random spawns or encounters happened it would be more about the players skill and ability to adapt vs. a time spent + gear = win formula.
"Hey, I'll tell you what. You can get a good look at a butcher's azz by sticking your head up there. But, wouldn't you rather to take his word for it?" - Tommy Boy
WoW's subscriptions are bound to start going down eventually. They can't keep growing forever, and the older the game gets, the more difficult it is to continue to grow as more new games come out. I could see WoW peaking and starting it's decline fairly soon.
Tried: LotR, CoH, AoC, WAR, Jumpgate Classic Played: SWG, Guild Wars, WoW Playing: Eve Online, Counter-strike Loved: Star Wars Galaxies Waiting for: Earthrise, Guild Wars 2, anything sandbox.
WoW's subscriptions are bound to start going down eventually. They can't keep growing forever, and the older the game gets, the more difficult it is to continue to grow as more new games come out. I could see WoW peaking and starting it's decline fairly soon.
Like I said. I already think it has peeked. Especially now that they lost so many customers in China. I know for a fact how many of my friends have quit WoW before and after Ulduar. WoTLK was not great for many of us, but few still play. Mostly the casuals who play perhaps 3-6 hours a week and those who would need to goto rehab in order to seperate from their characters.
However, none of that really matters for the people who want to play this game. It will be around, like I said before, at least a decade, unless Blizzard pulls a plug earlier. In few years, Blizzard fans will have a new MMO, so the most eager fans do not even have to leave the safety of their company. However, I think their own games might reduce some WoW numbers at least briefly. Diablo III especially, but this also depends on the multiplayer options it will have.
Blizzard might at some point start changing their subscription model, but I do not expect this to happen for at least 3-5 years.
"The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in."
I dont think its a huge surprise since the release of Aion in Asia, WoW's sub numbers have nose dived so much. Aion has taken a majority of the market share in Asia, by simply being a better product than than WoW. Finally a game that performs better, is graphically surperior and has better PvP content. Once Aion releases in the West i expect their numbers to surpase WoW, just like whats happened in Asia. WoW will have to perform some "miracle" patch to rescue the shinking ship.
I dont think its a huge surprise since the release of Aion in Asia, WoW's sub numbers have nose dived so much. Aion has taken a majority of the market share in Asia, by simply being a better product than than WoW. Finally a game that performs better, is graphically surperior and has better PvP content. Once Aion releases in the West i expect their numbers to surpase WoW, just like whats happened in Asia. WoW will have to perform some "miracle" patch to rescue the shinking ship. Go Aion !
Cannot believe this thread is still going.
WoW is down 5million subs as WoW china is offline, 5million did not decide to no longer play, they cannot play because its offline due to some wrangling going on between chinas government and blizzard/netease. Fact 90% of those players will come back when/if the servers come back.
As to AION, it wont do well the west, its a very generic asian MMO. It will in no way surpase wow or even come close, you can quote me on that in 6months time.
WoW subscriptions are down due to outside the game reasons. Therefore it's not safe to speculate on the penetration of Aion in the east. When the whole situation gets resolved and provided that the account transition is smooth, the majority of players will probably return. There is a possibility that a good portion will decide to remain to Aion, if they chose to give it a go. However, seeing as Aion didn't manage to achieve a market penetration anywhere near the 5M margin, it's safe to say that most of the onhold-WoW Chinese players have not picked up Aion, but are waiting for Blizzard to relaunch the servers.
As for the west, I doubt that Aion will achieve anything near the WoW numbers. It's a different market than when WoW launched and by that time the game matured and grew. Aion hasn't even launched yet. Besides, no wise MMO player would really want the WoW phenomenon repeated, as it is one of the major factors for the lack of creativity and different directions in the market for some time now.
All it matters is that all games have a healthy amount of subscribers, so that the development continues.
Also the anti-RMT crowd should really stand behind the less greedy companies and their products. So backing up both WoW and Aion does make sense for the anti-RMT_on_top_of_subscription crowd.
Originally posted by supbro I dont think its a huge surprise since the release of Aion in Asia, WoW's sub numbers have nose dived so much. Aion has taken a majority of the market share in Asia, by simply being a better product than than WoW. Finally a game that performs better, is graphically surperior and has better PvP content. Once Aion releases in the West i expect their numbers to surpase WoW, just like whats happened in Asia. WoW will have to perform some "miracle" patch to rescue the shinking ship. Go Aion !
There are people in this world who couldn't see the forest for the tress even if they were in the middle of Redwood National Park.
You're not one of those people.
You belong to the sub-category that flies a jet-ski into one of these tress in the forest.
Let me preface this by saying a couple of things: 1) I play WoW and am loving it. I'm about to enter Outlands and experience expansion content for the first time. 2) I was going to post this on the WoW forums but I didn't want my account banned, even if this story turns out to be true.
Another thing to be disappointed about if you live in China.
It is possible to play NA WoW from China. It is possible to play Oceanic servers from China. The dispute involves servers localised for China.
It was once not possible to log onto Taiwan servers directly, even though you all know how to bypass it. Now I was told the ban is quietly lifted. I cannot be sure, as I no longer play on Taiwan servers. Korean and Japanese servers you have to check yourself, I never deal with them.
As for whether you are disappointed about China, YVMV.
Comments
Brought WoW to its knees? Lets see even if it is at 5 million what other mmo has that many players? Yeah none do. WoW isn't dead or dying.
Rift
if a chinese boy that has immunity to the boredom of grinding gets bored that means an eu player is bored twice as fast
butterfly effect comes to mind
So what is the purpose of this thread, exactly?
Are you trying to scare me into canceling?
WOW has been bought and paid for well over its cost plus expansions many times as long as it has been running. Even with a cut of half their subs, it is still a 800lb gorrilla that does well.
you just have to sit back and laugh huh.. At how many just drink this up and believe it .
"how you'd here this" " oh a BLOG said it"..
What happen to the only 6million one?.. yep that was a BLOG to.
I heard Bill Gates is down to only 1mil.. well thats what the BLOG said..
I heard Jesus came and you got left.. thats what the BLOG said..
I heard MMORPG is ran by Blizzard.. thats what the BLOG said..
Ah the INTERNET INFO..
It's the developers fault. They turned the game into carebear central. Lets make the game so easy no one will play it...
This thread has greatly exceeded my expectations.
2 Points:
1) So many of you are very clearly WoW Bashers, and should take that hate elsewhere.
2) ***Remember*** The alleged lower sub number is only from WoW China being down with no word on whether it will ever come up again.
It's the natural progression of the game.
The people still playing are casual gamers and really hardcore wow fans.
I played the game since release and have conquered all pvp and pve content to be seen. I enjoyed my time and don't regret a minute of it, but I'm done for good.
It's not just a comment about wow, but I'd really like to see a MMO with dynamic instances or events to keep the game fresh and ever changing. I've grown weary of the "everyone will know the boss fight from reading info online so lets make it harder." If random spawns or encounters happened it would be more about the players skill and ability to adapt vs. a time spent + gear = win formula.
[(T+G=W)=Gr*Nf]-S=FoF
T=Time G=Gear W=Win Gr=Grind Nf=NoFun S=Skill FoF=FullofFail
"Hey, I'll tell you what. You can get a good look at a butcher's azz by sticking your head up there. But, wouldn't you rather to take his word for it?" - Tommy Boy
WoW's subscriptions are bound to start going down eventually. They can't keep growing forever, and the older the game gets, the more difficult it is to continue to grow as more new games come out. I could see WoW peaking and starting it's decline fairly soon.
Tried: LotR, CoH, AoC, WAR, Jumpgate Classic
Played: SWG, Guild Wars, WoW
Playing: Eve Online, Counter-strike
Loved: Star Wars Galaxies
Waiting for: Earthrise, Guild Wars 2, anything sandbox.
Like I said. I already think it has peeked. Especially now that they lost so many customers in China. I know for a fact how many of my friends have quit WoW before and after Ulduar. WoTLK was not great for many of us, but few still play. Mostly the casuals who play perhaps 3-6 hours a week and those who would need to goto rehab in order to seperate from their characters.
However, none of that really matters for the people who want to play this game. It will be around, like I said before, at least a decade, unless Blizzard pulls a plug earlier. In few years, Blizzard fans will have a new MMO, so the most eager fans do not even have to leave the safety of their company. However, I think their own games might reduce some WoW numbers at least briefly. Diablo III especially, but this also depends on the multiplayer options it will have.
Blizzard might at some point start changing their subscription model, but I do not expect this to happen for at least 3-5 years.
"The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in."
I dont think its a huge surprise since the release of Aion in Asia, WoW's sub numbers have nose dived so much. Aion has taken a majority of the market share in Asia, by simply being a better product than than WoW. Finally a game that performs better, is graphically surperior and has better PvP content. Once Aion releases in the West i expect their numbers to surpase WoW, just like whats happened in Asia. WoW will have to perform some "miracle" patch to rescue the shinking ship.
Go Aion !
GW2 the future of MMO gaming
Cannot believe this thread is still going.
WoW is down 5million subs as WoW china is offline, 5million did not decide to no longer play, they cannot play because its offline due to some wrangling going on between chinas government and blizzard/netease. Fact 90% of those players will come back when/if the servers come back.
As to AION, it wont do well the west, its a very generic asian MMO. It will in no way surpase wow or even come close, you can quote me on that in 6months time.
I would almost agree on both accounts.
WoW subscriptions are down due to outside the game reasons. Therefore it's not safe to speculate on the penetration of Aion in the east. When the whole situation gets resolved and provided that the account transition is smooth, the majority of players will probably return. There is a possibility that a good portion will decide to remain to Aion, if they chose to give it a go. However, seeing as Aion didn't manage to achieve a market penetration anywhere near the 5M margin, it's safe to say that most of the onhold-WoW Chinese players have not picked up Aion, but are waiting for Blizzard to relaunch the servers.
As for the west, I doubt that Aion will achieve anything near the WoW numbers. It's a different market than when WoW launched and by that time the game matured and grew. Aion hasn't even launched yet. Besides, no wise MMO player would really want the WoW phenomenon repeated, as it is one of the major factors for the lack of creativity and different directions in the market for some time now.
All it matters is that all games have a healthy amount of subscribers, so that the development continues.
Also the anti-RMT crowd should really stand behind the less greedy companies and their products. So backing up both WoW and Aion does make sense for the anti-RMT_on_top_of_subscription crowd.
There are people in this world who couldn't see the forest for the tress even if they were in the middle of Redwood National Park.
You're not one of those people.
You belong to the sub-category that flies a jet-ski into one of these tress in the forest.
Alltern8 Blog | Star Wars Space Combat and The Old Republic | Cryptic Studios - A Pre Post-Mortem | Klingon Preview, STO's Monster Play
http://www.wow.com/2009/07/22/chinas-ministry-of-culture-approves-wow-content/2#comments
Now go make doomsday predictions somewhere else, pls
WOW gains 5 million subs in one day!
Amazing!
http://www.wow.com/2007/07/03/the9-changes-wow-in-china-to-appease-censors
See? That works both ways!
It is possible to play NA WoW from China. It is possible to play Oceanic servers from China. The dispute involves servers localised for China.
It was once not possible to log onto Taiwan servers directly, even though you all know how to bypass it. Now I was told the ban is quietly lifted. I cannot be sure, as I no longer play on Taiwan servers. Korean and Japanese servers you have to check yourself, I never deal with them.
As for whether you are disappointed about China, YVMV.