For every Whiney McBitcherton that is there, posting in WoW forums, there are thousands of people that love Cata.
Yes there are thousands that love Cata shame theres only thousands when millions are playing though .
erm.. i think you missed what he was saying...
it's a ratio thing.
My point exactly too . Most people I know playing WoW myself included have found Cata a real let down . We arn't Blizzard cheerleaders though so we are unlikly to post in the WoW forums . Again it depends on what you enjoy that is the reason the majority ratio of my guild have decided to try RIFT . Catas fun for a couple of months but after that its the same old same old .
I'm an '04 to '10 guy too and I gotta say the new xpac was less about moving wow forward and had more to do with remaking wow. That's great for alt'aholics but for end game guys who focus on one toon it was a disappointment. 5 new, short, zones is just not enuff enough for me. My complaints prob have a lot to do with burnout, but I wish the expac was more substaintial at the high end.
For every Whiney McBitcherton that is there, posting in WoW forums, there are thousands of people that love Cata.
I am one of many I've seen that has subbed to WoW for the first time in YEARS, and like me, they are having a blast.
The biggest negative I've seen from Cata, is that the reworked 1-60 experience has made the Burning Crusade content feel ridiculously grindy. I couldn't wait to get "done" with it and move on to Northrend, and I haven't seen enough of Northrend to determine if it seems dull in comparison, as well.
In case you haven't guessed by now, I haven't yet seen the high level content from Cata, so I have no opinion on that. But if it's done like 1-60 was redone, I'm sure to like it.
Yes there are thousands that love Cata shame theres only thousands when millions are playing though .
I'm not sure what your point is here, other than to make the dozen or so whiners on the official forums even less significant than I made them out to be. Trying to sidestep my point with literalism really isn't worth the pixels on a readers screen.
For every Whiney McBitcherton that is there, posting in WoW forums, there are thousands of people that love Cata.
I am one of many I've seen that has subbed to WoW for the first time in YEARS, and like me, they are having a blast.
The biggest negative I've seen from Cata, is that the reworked 1-60 experience has made the Burning Crusade content feel ridiculously grindy. I couldn't wait to get "done" with it and move on to Northrend, and I haven't seen enough of Northrend to determine if it seems dull in comparison, as well.
In case you haven't guessed by now, I haven't yet seen the high level content from Cata, so I have no opinion on that. But if it's done like 1-60 was redone, I'm sure to like it.
Yes there are thousands that love Cata shame theres only thousands when millions are playing though .
I'm not sure what your point is here, other than to make the dozen or so whiners on the official forums even less significant than I made them out to be. Trying to sidestep my point with literalism really isn't worth the pixels on a readers screen.
Actually I thought your comment about Whiney Bitchertons was a waste of pixels and a bit of an immature way of describing people who arn't happy with the direction WoW has been taken . Perhaps in future you would like to phrase things in a more adult way . Also I assume you mean the offical WoW forums have a huge percentage of possative comments . This isn't suprising really . If your suggesting its the mmorpg.com WoW forums that are full of praise of Cata well then your totally wrong as lots of people are questioning the quality of Cata . These arn't "Whiney Bitchertons" these are people that play WoW that brought it and find it substandard compared to the previous expansions voicing thier disatisfaction . Its these people that will most likly look elsewhere in the coming year .
I'm not sure what your point is here, other than to make the dozen or so whiners on the official forums even less significant than I made them out to be. Trying to sidestep my point with literalism really isn't worth the pixels on a readers screen.
Actually I thought your comment about Whiney Bitchertons was a waste of pixels and a bit of an immature way of describing people who arn't happy with the direction WoW has been taken . Perhaps in future you would like to phrase things in a more adult way . Also I assume you mean the offical WoW forums have a huge percentage of possative comments . This isn't suprising really . If your suggesting its the mmorpg.com WoW forums that are full of praise of Cata well then your totally wrong as lots of people are questioning the quality of Cata . These arn't "Whiney Bitchertons" these are people that play WoW that brought it and find it substandard compared to the previous expansions voicing thier disatisfaction . Its these people that will most likly look elsewhere in the coming year .
Good for you for thinking!
And that's Whiney Mc-Bitcherton.
Again, taking an Xpac like Cata, that's universally praised by critics, has set YET ANOTHER NEW RECORD in PC Game sales, then claiming said Xpac is gonna kill WoW because of a handful of yes, WHINEY MCBITCHERTON's on the official forums complaining about it... sorry... I'll listen to the numbers... oh, and the people I know who play it.
Having issues with some aspect of the gameplay is one thing... stating the game will collapse because of an Xpac that has shown to be extremely popular, is another.
I wont do another quote so this it spams this forum . I agree Cata wont kill WoW but generally speaking its seen as substandard by huge numbers of players . I'm in my last month of play before RIFT starts and I'm somone thats played WoW for 6 years with a few breaks and this is the lowest point I've seen it in terms of quality . Many people were waiting to see what Cata was like after a general feeling that WOTLK was a let down they've been disapointed and theres a lot of games on the horizon that have a strong potential . Lets see how WoW does by the end of the year . I think potentially you'll see the loss of several million subs but nothing WoW can't survive.
I don't think Cata will kill wow I dont even thing the subs will drop to a huge degree until the game is just horribly outdated.
I'm not saying that because Cata is a great expansion, having played wow I think Cata is a total piece of stinking doggy poo thats been lit on fire and let dry in the sun for a week. But that wont keep it from being successful because it's easy to play and there are an army of Justin Bieber age kids waiting to jump on the wow bandwagon, who are Obviously not very demanding. As long as there are a group of people who think that Comcast is a good service, that Taylor Swift is talented, or that WOW has any gamer clout at all, young people and fanbois will play it.
I mean the original fan base for UO is all but gone or on illegal servers, what they have left are the have nots and wannabees, people that just want to pretty up there avatar and plant gardens and stuff. Not at all like the PVP funfest the game originally was. But that doesn't keep people from playing because someone always wants to feel like they belong to a part of a gaming community, even if that community no longer really exists. Basically to me the new WOW players are much like a 12 year old who decides to be cool and trendy by buying tickets to a Motley Crew concert. Everyone who knows better knows how lame it is, but they just keep purchasing. Their like a zombie horde.
Cata killed WoW i liked, so I left. It boring, slow, nothing new & all I liked to do before was changed.
Will I be back to WoW? hell, no. nothing else to do there left for me.
What will be impact of each new game to WoW? IMO very small from each but can be substantial from ALL of them.
I don't see any logic why I should keep any sub & play GW 2 as it b2p? IMO we play game to enjoy it, sub or not, why play many of them if you enjoy your current pretty much?
I mean many guys here think like me & will not pay ANY sub after GW 2 release.
May be for people loosing half or more sub means *nothing much* and *stay #1 game*, but I doubt a lot that Blizz will be agree with this opinion. =D To me looks like making money is first & biggest priority for any devs, then, may be, glory of #1 can be seen.
Many guys kept playing WoW for alts, fast runs etc, beside huge population that were hype about Cata, so they kept subs (perma or some months) and waited. they run to buy Cata at 7th & played a lot the first 2 weeks. then it looked frankly do get fast down (at least what I felt inside game), guys got disappointed (may be 10-15% was mega happy, who knows), bored, called NOOBS & LOOSERS, so they cancelled subs.
Will Blizz get them back? May be some of them yes, if WoW will add a lot more to do for end game & if it will not be too late because of many nice new games coming out this year.
2011 is not like previous years where was *nothing new to play *, *no one game can be like WoW* etc , and before famous Cata release. This year is very rich on new games, some of which can be attractive for long term. but sadly nothing to waiting for in WoW.
Runescape repaired bad errors they did at 2007, so some guys can get back there as well.
WoW getting old, so it not attractive to people seeking some new content to play & Cata offers nothing really new (I wonder how many copies were sold after 1th month after release and further).
So IMO guys will not get back to WoW very fast, but keep trying new games before choosing the one they will love more.
GW 2 can kill tons of subs as it b2p & it simply cheaper to play then sub game.
Note: I never told WoW gonna die or something like that, they are far from it there days. But get much down IMO, they will.
Note: I m not WoW hater, more like I liked it pretty much, but it over now.
try before buy, even if it's a game to avoid bad surprises. Worst surprises for me: Aion, GW2
Cata killed WoW i liked, so I left. It boring, slow, nothing new & all I liked to do before was changed.
Will I be back to WoW? hell, no. nothing else to do there left for me.
What will be impact of each new game to WoW? IMO very small from each but can be substantial from ALL of them.
I don't see any logic why I should keep any sub & play GW 2 as it b2p? IMO we play game to enjoy it, sub or not, why play many of them if you enjoy your current pretty much?
I mean many guys here think like me & will not pay ANY sub after GW 2 release.
May be for people loosing half or more sub means *nothing much* and *stay #1 game*, but I doubt a lot that Blizz will be agree with this opinion. =D To me looks like making money is first & biggest priority for any devs, then, may be, glory of #1 can be seen.
Many guys kept playing WoW for alts, fast runs etc, beside huge population that were hype about Cata, so they kept subs (perma or some months) and waited. they run to buy Cata at 7th & played a lot the first 2 weeks. then it looked frankly do get fast down (at least what I felt inside game), guys got disappointed (may be 10-15% was mega happy, who knows), bored, called NOOBS & LOOSERS, so they cancelled subs.
Will Blizz get them back? May be some of them yes, if WoW will add a lot more to do for end game & if it will not be too late because of many nice new games coming out this year.
2011 is not like previous years where was *nothing new to play *, *no one game can be like WoW* etc , and before famous Cata release. This year is very rich on new games, some of which can be attractive for long term. but sadly nothing to waiting for in WoW.
Runescape repaired bad errors they did at 2007, so some guys can get back there as well.
WoW getting old, so it not attractive to people seeking some new content to play & Cata offers nothing really new (I wonder how many copies were sold after 1th month after release and further).
So IMO guys will not get back to WoW very fast, but keep trying new games before choosing the one they will love more.
GW 2 can kill tons of subs as it b2p & it simply cheaper to play then sub game.
Note: I never told WoW gonna die or something like that, they are far from it there days. But get much down IMO, they will.
Note: I m not WoW hater, more like I liked it pretty much, but it over now.
Blizzard was pretty up front that the Cata revamp was geared towards new players. The existing playerbase can roll alts with the new races (which looks awesome) or experience the new zones/storylines.
The biggest draw of WoW is that everyone knows WoW. If someone is getting into the MMO genre for the first time that person most likely will pick up WoW.
The media is harping about it, your friends are on it etc. To the general public; MMO=WoW
The big issue is that those who play WoW leave (only 30% go beyond level 10) the MMO genre. Blizzard knows this and Cata is their answer to retain them once they try WoW.
I think this was a brilliant move. Since most of the new MMO players are going to try your game first, do your best to keep them.
Gdemami - Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
"Trouble" is a relative term. We all agree that the game is in no imminent danger of shutting down due to lack of subscribers, but I think it's safe to say that WoW has passed its all-the-rage-with-the-kids-these-days phase. The game will keep chugging along for years yet most likely, but with an ever-shrinking playerbase.
Like many of you, my guildmates quit almost to a man during the weeks following Cataclysm's release (myself included). Anecdotal evidence, sure, but I can't recall these tales of mass cancellations being so oft repeated. The first sure sign that the game is truly hemorrhaging a lot of players is when they're forced to consolidate serversand it wouldn't surprise me if we see this start to happen before the year is out.
"Trouble" is a relative term. We all agree that the game is in no imminent danger of shutting down due to lack of subscribers, but I think it's safe to say that WoW has passed its all-the-rage-with-the-kids-these-days phase. The game will keep chugging along for years yet most likely, but with an ever-shrinking playerbase.
Like many of you, my guildmates quit almost to a man during the weeks following Cataclysm's release (myself included). Anecdotal evidence, sure, but I can't recall these tales of mass cancellations being so oft repeated. The first sure sign that the game is truly hemorrhaging a lot of players is when they're forced to consolidate servers—and it wouldn't surprise me if we see this start to happen before the year is out.
I'm not playing, but my gf does, and LOTS of people that used to play in the past and unsubbed for whatever reason have come back because things are slightly more challenging now. Her guild has new members pouring in to the point where they get to be extremely selective with their recruits.
I assure you for every "omg my whole guild cancelled" there is another story of "omg all my friends are back".
Ive played Cataclysm from release and just 2 weeks or so ago I decided to give it up. I raided the content up until 7/13 Heroic 25 man, played arenas 2's 3's and 5's at 2k+ rating and I just cant seem to pull myself into playing
The content at least this tier is very dull its the same stuff over and over, "Avoid fire", "Kill adds", "Stack at this spot", PvP imbalance is diobolical, fixes should have been released straight away rather than waiting to fix them in patch 4.0.6.
I'll keep an eye on the game though to see if there's any drastic changes, at least a lot of the PvP changes next patch look a little promising
I guess it depends on how you define trouble. I do think WoW is a great big source of players for companies like Bioware, Trion, Arena etc. to lure away to their products. And if they lured 50% of Blizzard's subscribers by the end of 2011 WoW would still have a huge amount of cash flowing in. That scenario seems very unlikely.
I'm personally done with WoW. I dropped back in to try Cataclysm and for me it was over. Everything just felt old and boring (just my opinion). Some things actually seemed like a step backwards. I can't see myself playing it again no matter what Blizzard does, but I do thank them for the memories.
I'll play Rift, having tried the beta 3 times now, and finding it fresh and enjoyable. I'm sure they'll get a few months subscription out of me, and then there is hopefully GW2 and TOR this year, both from companies I have a lot of respect for and will purchase and play.
I suppose no matter how you feel about some of these new games arriving in '11, there are certainly going to be people that feel like jumping off the good ship WoW, and perhaps that could cause a bit of flow on effect.
I suppose Blizzard expects this and probably has something great up their sleeves. I just hope it isn't backed up behind Diablo III and/or likely to take as long to bring to market. LOL
You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks ~ WC
Contentious rehashing old ground thread number 2.8million...
However I'm curious. Cataclysm seems to be polarising WoW's playerbase heavily. Having played the game myself from 04 to 10 I'm certainly used to the massive tidal waves of WoW Killer speculation, forum rage and so forth, but we've entered what can only be described as month three or so of some seriously sustained forum rage on Cataclysm. On the official Blizz forums, here and other sites there's been quite a massive amount of flaming, heavy even by WoW's community standards.
This isn't an ideal place for the juggernaut to be in 2011.
Rift, Tera, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Guild Wars 2, Archeage, The Secret World
These are all games on the varyingly distant horizon, from Rift's eminent arrival, to Archeage's distant one. But they are all starting to roll in as WoW continues to stagger a little.
None of these games will kill WoW, but has Cataclysm wounded it? And will some or all of these games finish it off?
2011 will be an interesting year for WoW.
While this is probably a futile effort I will now add, please don't flame WoW or any of the other mentioned games. This is a thread purely for some rational discussion on whether WoW will start to decline this year. Not die, the game itself may well run for decades in a reduced form.
I am not thinking the game is going anywhere. By all accounts, Cataclysm added players - not subtracted them.
Briefly on the games you mentioned - I beta tested Rift and I am convinced it won't steal many (if any) players from WoW. In my opinion, Rift's "eminent arrival" will come and go with a wimper, not a bang. You can go read the discussions in the Rift forum about this, however - I started a thread there and many others have shared basically the same opinions.
Tera, I haven't heard much about.
SW:TOR I am looking forward to trying and playing. It's Bioware, and I haven't played a Bioware game yet that I have disliked.
Guild Wars 2 I am looking forward to very much.
I don't think Cataclysm "wounded" the game at all. People are complaining because people who get used to something 1) become passionate about their "love" (in this case WoW) and 2) people generally dislike change.
Just my two cents. I'm one of the few people who never played WoW much at all pre-cataclysm but the PvE, even the PvP battlegrounds... maybe the awesome RP guild I found... all just blows me away. The WoW world feels much less "linear" than, say, the aforementioned Rift. I spent 20 levels on two characters (40 levels total) in Rift and basically concluded that the game is the same from levels 1-20 because the races start in the same area, it's a linear experience, etc.
With WoW I feel as if I have the freedom to wander and do pretty much whatever my heart desires. I love the "big world" feel of it.
Not flaming Rift or any of the other games; I'm sure they'll attract their fan bases, etc. I just don't see many of them (save maybe SW:TOR) taking away a lot of WoW-gamers.
On XFire, WoW is already back to pre-CATA numbers, and while I realise that XFire is far from hard real evidence of sub numbers I think it can be quite indicative for population trends within each game over a period of time.
I know there were some people who repeatedly stated on forums how Cataclysm was 'WoW 2" and how it'd boost WoW's sub numbers to 14 million subs and possibly even 15-20 million subs. While Blizzard's quarterly report and conference meeting has to happen yet, I find it hard to believe that could have reached such new records. I'll be surprised if it even reached 13 million subs, but sure, it could have happened.
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Comments
My point exactly too . Most people I know playing WoW myself included have found Cata a real let down . We arn't Blizzard cheerleaders though so we are unlikly to post in the WoW forums . Again it depends on what you enjoy that is the reason the majority ratio of my guild have decided to try RIFT . Catas fun for a couple of months but after that its the same old same old .
I'm not sure what your point is here, other than to make the dozen or so whiners on the official forums even less significant than I made them out to be. Trying to sidestep my point with literalism really isn't worth the pixels on a readers screen.
Actually I thought your comment about Whiney Bitchertons was a waste of pixels and a bit of an immature way of describing people who arn't happy with the direction WoW has been taken . Perhaps in future you would like to phrase things in a more adult way . Also I assume you mean the offical WoW forums have a huge percentage of possative comments . This isn't suprising really . If your suggesting its the mmorpg.com WoW forums that are full of praise of Cata well then your totally wrong as lots of people are questioning the quality of Cata . These arn't "Whiney Bitchertons" these are people that play WoW that brought it and find it substandard compared to the previous expansions voicing thier disatisfaction . Its these people that will most likly look elsewhere in the coming year .
Good for you for thinking!
And that's Whiney Mc-Bitcherton.
Again, taking an Xpac like Cata, that's universally praised by critics, has set YET ANOTHER NEW RECORD in PC Game sales, then claiming said Xpac is gonna kill WoW because of a handful of yes, WHINEY MCBITCHERTON's on the official forums complaining about it... sorry... I'll listen to the numbers... oh, and the people I know who play it.
Having issues with some aspect of the gameplay is one thing... stating the game will collapse because of an Xpac that has shown to be extremely popular, is another.
I wont do another quote so this it spams this forum . I agree Cata wont kill WoW but generally speaking its seen as substandard by huge numbers of players . I'm in my last month of play before RIFT starts and I'm somone thats played WoW for 6 years with a few breaks and this is the lowest point I've seen it in terms of quality . Many people were waiting to see what Cata was like after a general feeling that WOTLK was a let down they've been disapointed and theres a lot of games on the horizon that have a strong potential . Lets see how WoW does by the end of the year . I think potentially you'll see the loss of several million subs but nothing WoW can't survive.
I don't think Cata will kill wow I dont even thing the subs will drop to a huge degree until the game is just horribly outdated.
I'm not saying that because Cata is a great expansion, having played wow I think Cata is a total piece of stinking doggy poo thats been lit on fire and let dry in the sun for a week. But that wont keep it from being successful because it's easy to play and there are an army of Justin Bieber age kids waiting to jump on the wow bandwagon, who are Obviously not very demanding. As long as there are a group of people who think that Comcast is a good service, that Taylor Swift is talented, or that WOW has any gamer clout at all, young people and fanbois will play it.
I mean the original fan base for UO is all but gone or on illegal servers, what they have left are the have nots and wannabees, people that just want to pretty up there avatar and plant gardens and stuff. Not at all like the PVP funfest the game originally was. But that doesn't keep people from playing because someone always wants to feel like they belong to a part of a gaming community, even if that community no longer really exists. Basically to me the new WOW players are much like a 12 year old who decides to be cool and trendy by buying tickets to a Motley Crew concert. Everyone who knows better knows how lame it is, but they just keep purchasing. Their like a zombie horde.
Cata killed WoW i liked, so I left. It boring, slow, nothing new & all I liked to do before was changed.
Will I be back to WoW? hell, no. nothing else to do there left for me.
What will be impact of each new game to WoW? IMO very small from each but can be substantial from ALL of them.
I don't see any logic why I should keep any sub & play GW 2 as it b2p? IMO we play game to enjoy it, sub or not, why play many of them if you enjoy your current pretty much?
I mean many guys here think like me & will not pay ANY sub after GW 2 release.
May be for people loosing half or more sub means *nothing much* and *stay #1 game*, but I doubt a lot that Blizz will be agree with this opinion. =D To me looks like making money is first & biggest priority for any devs, then, may be, glory of #1 can be seen.
Many guys kept playing WoW for alts, fast runs etc, beside huge population that were hype about Cata, so they kept subs (perma or some months) and waited. they run to buy Cata at 7th & played a lot the first 2 weeks. then it looked frankly do get fast down (at least what I felt inside game), guys got disappointed (may be 10-15% was mega happy, who knows), bored, called NOOBS & LOOSERS, so they cancelled subs.
Will Blizz get them back? May be some of them yes, if WoW will add a lot more to do for end game & if it will not be too late because of many nice new games coming out this year.
2011 is not like previous years where was *nothing new to play *, *no one game can be like WoW* etc , and before famous Cata release. This year is very rich on new games, some of which can be attractive for long term. but sadly nothing to waiting for in WoW.
Runescape repaired bad errors they did at 2007, so some guys can get back there as well.
WoW getting old, so it not attractive to people seeking some new content to play & Cata offers nothing really new (I wonder how many copies were sold after 1th month after release and further).
So IMO guys will not get back to WoW very fast, but keep trying new games before choosing the one they will love more.
GW 2 can kill tons of subs as it b2p & it simply cheaper to play then sub game.
Note: I never told WoW gonna die or something like that, they are far from it there days. But get much down IMO, they will.
Note: I m not WoW hater, more like I liked it pretty much, but it over now.
try before buy, even if it's a game to avoid bad surprises.
Worst surprises for me: Aion, GW2
Blizzard was pretty up front that the Cata revamp was geared towards new players. The existing playerbase can roll alts with the new races (which looks awesome) or experience the new zones/storylines.
The biggest draw of WoW is that everyone knows WoW. If someone is getting into the MMO genre for the first time that person most likely will pick up WoW.
The media is harping about it, your friends are on it etc. To the general public; MMO=WoW
The big issue is that those who play WoW leave (only 30% go beyond level 10) the MMO genre. Blizzard knows this and Cata is their answer to retain them once they try WoW.
I think this was a brilliant move. Since most of the new MMO players are going to try your game first, do your best to keep them.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
Pro-tip, generalizing MILLIONS of people based on a couple dozen forum posts is about as smart as using wikipedia as a source for a research paper.
World of Darkness should be neer the top of that list.
"Trouble" is a relative term. We all agree that the game is in no imminent danger of shutting down due to lack of subscribers, but I think it's safe to say that WoW has passed its all-the-rage-with-the-kids-these-days phase. The game will keep chugging along for years yet most likely, but with an ever-shrinking playerbase.
Like many of you, my guildmates quit almost to a man during the weeks following Cataclysm's release (myself included). Anecdotal evidence, sure, but I can't recall these tales of mass cancellations being so oft repeated. The first sure sign that the game is truly hemorrhaging a lot of players is when they're forced to consolidate serversand it wouldn't surprise me if we see this start to happen before the year is out.
I'm not playing, but my gf does, and LOTS of people that used to play in the past and unsubbed for whatever reason have come back because things are slightly more challenging now. Her guild has new members pouring in to the point where they get to be extremely selective with their recruits.
I assure you for every "omg my whole guild cancelled" there is another story of "omg all my friends are back".
Ive played Cataclysm from release and just 2 weeks or so ago I decided to give it up. I raided the content up until 7/13 Heroic 25 man, played arenas 2's 3's and 5's at 2k+ rating and I just cant seem to pull myself into playing
The content at least this tier is very dull its the same stuff over and over, "Avoid fire", "Kill adds", "Stack at this spot", PvP imbalance is diobolical, fixes should have been released straight away rather than waiting to fix them in patch 4.0.6.
I'll keep an eye on the game though to see if there's any drastic changes, at least a lot of the PvP changes next patch look a little promising
I guess it depends on how you define trouble. I do think WoW is a great big source of players for companies like Bioware, Trion, Arena etc. to lure away to their products. And if they lured 50% of Blizzard's subscribers by the end of 2011 WoW would still have a huge amount of cash flowing in. That scenario seems very unlikely.
I'm personally done with WoW. I dropped back in to try Cataclysm and for me it was over. Everything just felt old and boring (just my opinion). Some things actually seemed like a step backwards. I can't see myself playing it again no matter what Blizzard does, but I do thank them for the memories.
I'll play Rift, having tried the beta 3 times now, and finding it fresh and enjoyable. I'm sure they'll get a few months subscription out of me, and then there is hopefully GW2 and TOR this year, both from companies I have a lot of respect for and will purchase and play.
I suppose no matter how you feel about some of these new games arriving in '11, there are certainly going to be people that feel like jumping off the good ship WoW, and perhaps that could cause a bit of flow on effect.
I suppose Blizzard expects this and probably has something great up their sleeves. I just hope it isn't backed up behind Diablo III and/or likely to take as long to bring to market. LOL
You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks
~ WC
I am not thinking the game is going anywhere. By all accounts, Cataclysm added players - not subtracted them.
Briefly on the games you mentioned - I beta tested Rift and I am convinced it won't steal many (if any) players from WoW. In my opinion, Rift's "eminent arrival" will come and go with a wimper, not a bang. You can go read the discussions in the Rift forum about this, however - I started a thread there and many others have shared basically the same opinions.
Tera, I haven't heard much about.
SW:TOR I am looking forward to trying and playing. It's Bioware, and I haven't played a Bioware game yet that I have disliked.
Guild Wars 2 I am looking forward to very much.
I don't think Cataclysm "wounded" the game at all. People are complaining because people who get used to something 1) become passionate about their "love" (in this case WoW) and 2) people generally dislike change.
Just my two cents. I'm one of the few people who never played WoW much at all pre-cataclysm but the PvE, even the PvP battlegrounds... maybe the awesome RP guild I found... all just blows me away. The WoW world feels much less "linear" than, say, the aforementioned Rift. I spent 20 levels on two characters (40 levels total) in Rift and basically concluded that the game is the same from levels 1-20 because the races start in the same area, it's a linear experience, etc.
With WoW I feel as if I have the freedom to wander and do pretty much whatever my heart desires. I love the "big world" feel of it.
Not flaming Rift or any of the other games; I'm sure they'll attract their fan bases, etc. I just don't see many of them (save maybe SW:TOR) taking away a lot of WoW-gamers.
RIFT is AAA and with SWTOR on the horizon we shall soon see.
Of course wow is in trouble. Why else would have have to merge battle groups to try and keep queue times down?
in a word? no.
in all likelyhood, the only time wow will see a noticable decline in sub numbers is when blizzard releases thier next mmo lol
How many games do you know that use cross-server queues?
Yea, I can see it now, WoW declines by...what? 6 million subs? figure the odds.
every expansion has gotten boring twice as fast as the previous one......yea i'd say WoW is in trouble.
On XFire, WoW is already back to pre-CATA numbers, and while I realise that XFire is far from hard real evidence of sub numbers I think it can be quite indicative for population trends within each game over a period of time.
I know there were some people who repeatedly stated on forums how Cataclysm was 'WoW 2" and how it'd boost WoW's sub numbers to 14 million subs and possibly even 15-20 million subs. While Blizzard's quarterly report and conference meeting has to happen yet, I find it hard to believe that could have reached such new records. I'll be surprised if it even reached 13 million subs, but sure, it could have happened.
I guess we'll see in the upcoming months.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
requiem did it before wow started to do it
WIN !
Everyone thinks they are the expert on "fixing" Wow when in truth the game speaks for itself.