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World of Warcraft: Story of the Week: Azeroth Loses People
BillMurphy
Former Managing EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 4,565
This week's Story of the Week is none other than Blizzard's admission that 1.1 mln subscribers have left World of Warcraft over the course of 2011.
The Story of the Week is no doubt the recent announcement that Blizzard’s World of Warcraft has lost 1.1 mln subscriptions over the course of this year. The thread I just linked was a fury of discussion on the topic, and people were doing everything from claiming it was the end of Azeroth to merely a blip on the radar for Morhaime and crew. The truth is likely somewhere in the middle. I have a few thoughts of my own on the story, so bear with me.
Read the rest of Bill Murphy's Story of the Week: Azeroth Loses People.
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Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
Comments
#1. The game looks old; the game is old.
#2. There used to be an illusion that Blizzard cared 50% for it's customers and 50% for profit. Activision/Blizzard has turned this into 5% customer and 95% profit.
#3. MicroTransaction / Cash Shop puts a bad taste in most players mouths.
#4. There are so many newer MMOs out and plenty more to come.
#5. Expansions are so redundant and basic. Innovation has been lost.
They locked in free D3 and a yearly subscription? Wow, that's simply genius.
That means that all those WoW players who opt for doing that will be counted towards the total sub number for the next year regardless whether they will play WoW or not. Plus it makes it easier for people to jump back into WoW from time to time even if they're playing other MMO's or just singleplayer games. Smart move.
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."
I think you hit the nail on the head . The loses Blizzard are likly to incure next year will be substantually more than 1.1 million . These arn't the seasonal loses some fans would like to have us believe . Theres a whole lot of new games coming out just as Blizzard are about to release a total mistake of an expansion . It will not go well for them .
Blizzard’s World of Warcraft has lost 1.7 mln subscriptions over the course of this year not 1.1 just saying
I also think that the craze of past-WoW was like a MMO baby boomer generation. Everyone jumped on the wagon, e.g., the nerd, the jock, the hottie, etc. This has come to an end. It's all about retention now - keeping the same players active. However, 7 or so years later = people are getting older.
We are sick of it. We yearn for depth and innovation. We try to find it in other games, yet they don't offer. It's the same old bs.
This type of thread is gonna be too common. Every week we are gonna see a thread about how many people left that week. I think we got it. They are finally declining.
I self identify as a monkey.
Game is 7 years old it would be just un natural if it didn't lose players after that many years.
I still think though with gradual declining numbers WoW still has some years left...
its a dated and boring game, i gave up on it about the time cata came out...it doesnt allow the core fans to enjoy it and its now so boring no new players are starting.
I say it should hang up its hat and move aside for SWTOR and other large titles due out!
1. WoW ages, no doubt about it. Sure MoP gonna have better textures and models, but 2012 games will have it even better and gap will be even bigger than atm.
2. Microtransaction - even though it is vanity except RMT pet, - it allows to ramp up revenue and profits - that's for sure. Many customers are starting to wonder - hey I have cash shop here, and many "free" games also have cash shop, so what I pay subscription for?
Introducing cash shop into WoW is defeating best subscription advantage = pay flat rate and have everything. Not to mention that imho with MoP cash shop will expand alot, as it will be many things for 'pokemon fights' there. More pets, skins, etc
3. Cataclysm was failure. Redoing whole 1-60 lvl world was not bad idea, BUT inreasing xp rate to ridiculous amounts was devaluating this redoing of zones, as people are levelling so fast they don't see most of this new/redo content anyway.
4. Gamers are just getting tired of 'same old' .
5. There is common view that WoW is on slippery slope atm, and I think it has 'snow ball' effect. WoW lost ~ 2 million subs in preety short time. Swtor, GW2, Tera and ArcheAge and all other titles that 2012 will be full of, will drain even more subscibers.
There is just no doubt.
Sure WoW propably still will be biggest mmorpg, but imho 2012 will make it's lose another 2-3 millions of subs.
And China has over a billion potential players to spare. Ooh look Panda's. What a coincidence!
Lineage Eternal > Diablo 3
Just going to put that one out there, won't stop the Diablo fans buiying just becuase it has Diablo in the title.
Blizzard is a self perpetuating gaming culture, I think when the cracks start happening they will find it harder to maintain any kind of market dominance.
Healing the world since 2005
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
Its the dawn of wow.
We all were asking who the wow killer would be, and in the end there is not one but many. Wow is starting to bleed out, and when the new AAA mmos are out, every one of them will hit a big wound in wow, well lets see if it can raise again with the pandas.
How can Panda's in China eating cutey wootey bamboo chutes be in bad taste? The chinese will love it. Yiyiyiyiyiyiyiiiiiiii ah ssssssso.
I try to think back why i played this game so long back in the day. only reason i could find is it had people. tons of people to group with be in a guilds with. and thats it. it never was innovative in anyway. and the devleopers were always changing stuff to the point you got nerfed every patch. i think i spent more time frustrated by my class getting nerfed then actually trying to have fun again at some point.
It's like every month they had a new direction. and they would NEVER roll-back any change even if the forums were in riot mode.
All hate talk aside. they will slowly dwindle down but never really die. it will just be made more appealing to younger people and familys and before the last xpac comes it will go free to play. i know morhaim promised no free to play, but i think it will. heck those new pokemon pets could be sold in a cash store and i'm sure you will see more F2P past 20 before it goes fully.
I wish they would have cared about us older vets the ones that help them spread the word and make the game the hit it was. but we arent the demographic they're looking for now.
I wish them luck.
They need to start with dumping Ghostcrawler.....
The man do alot of harm to classes who where once fun to play.
Cataclysm was bad, alot can agree on that one, MoP will be even worse...
So in a year where Blizzard is going to get hurt in numbers so they try to focus on Asia to let it look like they are not losing subs.
I have no intention to play with panda's and it will leave a bad taste for Euro and USA players, not all but alot at least.
Also if you wathced Blizzcon with the announcement of the new MoP you should have at least laughed realy hard.
Chriss Metzen is pumping up thw whole hall and live vieuwers with talk about a massive war that is comming.
Horde Are You Ready !!!
Alliance Are You Ready !!!
War is COMMING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then a panda bear does a barrel roll...........i shit you not i was spitting out my coffe -_-
What en enormous anticlimax of a speech :P
Its like having ... and all of a sudden she turn her face to you but you see its a man rofl ^^
Such a bad way of selling MoP.
But to each his own i gues.
WoW have shot their own legs off in 2012 it will survive iam sure of that, but they will lose players who are the backbone of wow.
GW2 and SW and in a not so distand future Archage will bring wow to their knees.
It will feel mortal again and iam sure Ghostcrawler will not be leading wow after 2012 is over.
You're absolutely right. The game is fantastic. It's so fantastic that 1.1 - 1.7 MILLION users quit in a single year. Do you not realize how big that number is?
Age of Conan claims to have around 600k subscribes. This is like having their ENTIRE game vanish... TWICE.
I'm not a pver but I'll tell you why one pvper left the game a while ago.I think it has just lost its magic. Back in Vanilla, people pvp'd because they wanted to. Now people pvp because they have to get gear. Grind this, grind that. It's boring. Did you guys notice that most people only do the required amount of arena games just to get the points per week? It's because they are not having fun doing it. They're only doing it because they want gear.... It's the community that has gone downhill. They only do things if they get something in return. They've forgotten how to have fun. It's a shame...being brainwashed into thinking grinding this and that is fun. They even go into a bg and stand there afk... Is that fun? Isn't it more fun to go to the dentist?
Another thing is how the devs listen to the vocal whining minority on the forums that probably don't even play the game. Nerf this, nerf that. This [insert class] killed me and it's not fair, nerf them. [Insert class] is so op, nerf them. I lost a duel so therefore his class is op. That guy in my guild is a [insert class] and he always does more damage/healing than me, nerf him. Instead of nerfing, buff the other classes maybe?
Anyway, it's not like any dev will read this rant and think, "Ohhh maybe we should do online surveys and ask people that are playing the game for input instead of listening to the crybaby trolls on the forums."
...and still WoW is loosing subs... I think the loss of subscribers would have been bigger if this free D3 wasn't aded to a 1 year WoW subscription...
You are forgetting all those who still play...something above 10million.
quite simple...
They did not innovate enough, i think the secret of MMO's longlevity is innovating while still giving the players the feeling that its still the same old game they are playing, making them feel at home in the world, keeping things challenging...
How many beta players are still around in WoW?
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
I was a beta player and stayed for six and a half years, BUT.....throughout that time I did a lot of eye rolling and grumbling as I watched them "edit out" things that were GOOD and add things that were, in my opinion, crippling. Eventually I said, "C'est la vie," and moved on.
I agree with your assessment, by the way. Innovating while still making a game seem like "home" is a good foundation for lasting player commitment, in my opinion. I know that's probably not an easy balance, but it's the developers' job not mine, so....I can't be bothered with figuring out the "hows" of it all. Just a gut level feeling for me that that is what needs to happen.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
Where is the proof of this?
You can still make a case its the best game in the market though. Its certainly better than anything thats come out since.
Although I agree with some of what youve said
1. The game is indeed old. Most people have played it for several years, and there comes a time when the wonder and allure just fade. That is the number one reason, BY A HUGE MARGIN, that WoW is fading (which ties in to point 5)
As far as it looks old? Yes, games can have some amazing looking graphics. However WoW still has a winning art style and its flair really goes a long way. Rift may look stunning, but its so damn boring at the same time (though ember isles looks like an improvement). Art Style > all. But then thats just me. I still can stomach EQ1.
2. I got the feeling a long time ago Blizzard just didnt care. The development pace for WoW has always been pretty putrid. Popular requests like player housing or shared banking are met with 'that would be expensive to add, strain on our database, blah blah blah'. Well hold on, the poster boy for greed (SoE) has the most in depth housing system on the market in two of their games, and is always expanding inventories and banks/shared banks. So SoE implements these expensive features but Blizzard doesnt.
Oh maybe they are using that extra money for development? *Compares amount of content added since launch EQ2 vs. WoW* Nope. EQ2 implements expansive features, so probably less revenue per sub x 150k, compared to more revenue per sub x 4 million NA/EN alone.
So where the heck is this money going to? There are currently 7 raid mobs in the game that are worth doing. 7. For all that money. (Okay maybe 8 if you want cheap entry level raid pvp loot from the loot pinata in BH)
But ever since BC took so long to come out Ive always been wondering...where is the money going?
Point 3 for me goes back to point 2. Okay, sparkle pony for 25 bucks a pop. Where is the money going?? If this game wa spumping out content as often as Rift I wouldnt think twice about the MTs. Its why I give SoE a pass on them, because both EQ games have less than 200k subs (maybe much less) but their development cycles, even with the recent slowdown, are still mostly acceptable.
I can understand if the game needs RMT to keep up a fast paced devleopment cycle. If Trion went out and added an in game shop with fluff and said 'We know we told you wed have no RMT but we want to keep up our level of development and we feel this extra income is necessary' I would applaud them for it (as opposed to being sneaky with the double collectors edition nonsense). But there is zero evidence WoW needs these RMTs. Its pure greed.
4. Im not sure this is a factor, yet. Yeah, some left WoW for Rift. Thise people did not stay at Rift and most actually went back to WoW (at least from my server's experience). The number decrease isnt because of new games. Now next year may be different because SWTOR will make a big splash. GW2 I predict will *not* make a big initial splash due to peoples misconceptions about the game (GW1 not an MMO, PvP sounding title, etc) and gradually grow over time into a juggernaut (if its good of course). I predict the GW2 impact to be felt in 2013. Tera? not even a blip on most people's radar screen. Archeage? WoW isnt the sandbox crowd. TSW? If its good it will be late 2012/2013 before it builds momentum.
5. Cata is the same thing as Wrath. the 1-60 game is great fun now but too fast. 60-70 is bad and 70-80 is BRUTAL. 81-85 is boring the second time through. The Cata dungeons are not as good as Wrath. Currency grind is old. Replacing gear every update is old. What happened to the interesting raid design of Ulduar? Hard modes launched as such an amazing concept and now its flick an artifical switch and BOOM harder mob.
I do think it also has to do with the slow cycle. We are just looking at the same zones too long. This time around the set of zones sucked so its excruciating. MoP actually looks like it might have interesting zones, but it might be too late for me by then, especially since they are keeping the same stupid currency grind system.
So I guess I agree with 4 of the 5 points, at least partially.
In other news... Rift has just announced they have 1.1 million new subscribers, all from china.
Players report a massive increase in gold spamming in local and regional chat.
More at 10, now Bob with the weather...
Bob: Well, it seems that it is raining noobs out here in Tommarow Land. Locals report power outtages all over the place and the island has crashed 3x now with no fix in sight.
I am entitled to my opinions, misspellings, and grammatical errors.