Blizzard Saviness will make WoW survive.

noxiel

1. An easier game for noobs and kids to play. Almost everyone can have gear now and raid end game.

2.A 1yr subscription obligation scheme, which almost every fan took. If 25%th of the population pay the year subscription (thats my humble opinion on how much TOR will take from WoW, maybe less or maybe more), Blizzard kept their income and didn't loose money to the TOR player exodus, which gives them time to re-strategize and scheme to bring more players

3. Most of the core's or raiders, who are currently upset about how easy the game is now, are the ones that paid the 1yr so they will leave WoW but not entirely.

4. Blizzard is betting on a reality, every new game has bugs, lots of them, and many glitches, If TOR do the same as WAR they are screwed. WoW is more stable and many WoW players at TOR will complain about bugs and go back and bring people to WoW who will get upset about bugs.

5. WoW will loose a lot of gamer to TOR and Blizzard prepared in what is important, money, and the upcoming expansion will bring the players back.

6. Most WoW player are a bit lazy when it comes to lvl a character. They mostly prefer to have money and some twinks to get an advantage and WoW provides it, so when get stuck at TOR, a thing that will happen, as hapened in WoW clasic, they will go back to WoW.

7. There is a big comercial spot of WoW Cataclysm at the Forums of TOR, nothing more to say. Blizz is investing and its will become into a comercial war against a savy comeptitor as Blizzard.

I really hope TOR has a lot of success. I tried not to sound upset but Blizzard changed since the WoW classic and not for better but for worse. It was company for players, now I have my doubts. I think a good competition to WoW will up a notch on the MMORG's and will bring new players to the genere and also re-establish new content for the gaming comunity. If Blizzard pays attention I hope it brings the great game experience that company used to give.

nyxium

I wish TOR every success but I like fantasy RP's traditionally so will still be playing WoW. Au revoir ex WoW players, enjoy TOR.

MurlockDance

Originally posted by noxiel

1. An easier game for noobs and kids to play. Almost everyone can have gear now and raid end game.

Or an easier-to-get-into game for busy adults to play. I hate to admit it, but I can't play the hardcore style game anymore due to time constraints. I loves me a challenge, as an old schooler, but I just cannot spend my precious tiny bits of gaming time sitting around waiting for a traditional group in a traditional MMO anymore or to go on raids. I wish it weren't so, but there it is. I guess another way of seeing it is that WoW does not penalize MMO fans who have a busy real life schedule but still want to engage in their hobby.

2.A 1yr subscription obligation scheme, which almost every fan took. If 25%th of the population pay the year subscription (thats my humble opinion on how much TOR will take from WoW, maybe less or maybe more), Blizzard kept their income and didn't loose money to the TOR player exodus, which gives them time to re-strategize and scheme to bring more players

It is also a decent way of ensuring that people who enjoy WoW can also enjoy D3 and get into the MoP beta without spending more than a year's subscription in WoW. This is a great deal in hard economic times. Before the crisis hit, I think we would be paying the one year's worth of subbing and not have access to D3 free. As an extremely popular game company, they don't have to lower the price on their products to get people to buy them. People in general will anyway. I was surprised to see this deal, and I hope that Blizzard continues to make good ones in the future.

4. Blizzard is betting on a reality, every new game has bugs, lots of them, and many glitches, If TOR do the same as WAR they are screwed. WoW is more stable and many WoW players at TOR will complain about bugs and go back and bring people to WoW who will get upset about bugs.

Every release is somewhat buggy, that is true, but I don't know how much of an effect that will have on WoW reabsorbing those who have just left it to play ToR. I think what is more important is how replayable ToR is after you get one character to max level. This was a problem in Rift too. After I got my Mage to level 50 in Rift, I didn't want to repeat the whole process on an alt... this is the problem with games that are "over-architectured" and too on-rails.

5. WoW will loose a lot of gamer to TOR and Blizzard prepared in what is important, money, and the upcoming expansion will bring the players back.

Agreed, plus they release decent updates. I was pleasantly surprised by the new features in the last one. I really enjoyed the new Darkmoon Faire for example. Just as long as the talent review doesn't mess everything up...

I really hope TOR has a lot of success. I tried not to sound upset but Blizzard changed since the WoW classic and not for better but for worse. It was company for players, now I have my doubts. I think a good competition to WoW will up a notch on the MMORG's and will bring new players to the genere and also re-establish new content for the gaming comunity. If Blizzard pays attention I hope it brings the great game experience that company used to give.

I wish that what would happen is that game companies would realize that the themepark MMO is saturated and develope something original. The best bet right now really for a new style of MMO is Minecraft, even though it holds no interest for me. I definitely would prefer to see at least one AAA sandbox in production. People say Arche Age is it, but I am not sure. Whether ToR is successful by pilfering players from WoW and vice-versa, no new players are coming in. The industry is stale. Blizzard might be on the slippery slope of decline, but it still seems to be one of the best game developpers in the industry. Sure it is changing, but I think it hasn't gone down the tubes as quickly as Bioware in my eyes has, or SOE, or many of the other older developers.

I hope that more new game companies are set up that release new titles, new styles of games and push the envelope a bit. In a time of crisis, this is more likely, so let's hope we see a new crop of potential "Blizzards of the tomorrow".

jairus

Blizzard is Savvy for sure.

 

they know their game is 7 years old.

they know that people are looking for something new.

they know that its just a matter of time.

they know that the people who are enjoying WoW arent going anywhere

they know that  alot of people play wow cuase they have nothing better to do with thier free time and our waiting for the next big thing.

they know that MoP will still sell around 2-3million in the frist 24hrs of launch. like how cataclysm sold 3.5 million in the frist 24hrs.

WoW will still be kicking 10 years from now,  or untill blizzard replaces it with another mmo.

 

wow has become easy a cake becuase it what players want. ToR is even easier then current WoW. people are already lvl 50 and the game hasnt released yet.

wow put out that one year sub to reward their long term players, if your plan on playing WoW for a year why not get Diablo 3 for free and a nice ingame mount for WoW.

 

Razeron

If they were so Savvy why did they drag WOW down a path that will only hasten it's population decline.

(Apparent due to it's massive hemorrhage of players.)

 

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't wipe my ass with StarWars or EA but the route Bli$$ took WoW only serves to sell more TOR boxes.

Loke666

Wow will survive but it wont get the players back. Blizzard have done an amazing work to stay on top this long but the game have long since peaked and as the game ages it will slowly lose more and more.

Blizzard need "Wow 2" if they want to beat the peak they had, no mere expansion can do that no matter how good it is. But Wow 2 have the potential of being bought by all who once played the game and the current playerbase...

Now Wow will drop down until it stabilize at a small fan community in 4 or so years, and stay around much like EQ is today,  probably a bit larger though.

But yes, Wow will survive. But if you think it still will be the largest MMO out there 10 years after release you are deluding yourself.

AdamTM

Originally posted by Razeron

If they were so Savvy why did they drag WOW down a path that will only hasten it's population decline.

(Apparent due to it's massive hemorrhage of players.)

 

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't wipe my ass with StarWars or EA but the route Bli$$ took WoW only serves to sell more TOR boxes.

Titan, 2013

MurlockDance

Originally posted by Razeron

If they were so Savvy why did they drag WOW down a path that will only hasten it's population decline.

(Apparent due to it's massive hemorrhage of players.)

 

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't wipe my ass with StarWars or EA but the route Bli$$ took WoW only serves to sell more TOR boxes.

I don't blame the expacs for being the root cause of population decline. Sure some people didn't like Cata, but there are a lot who did like it. Also, all games change after a point, and people tend to move on anyway after 7 years. The question is whether overall number of players has increased over time in MMOGs or has it stagnated?

 

If your overall number of MMOG players has pretty much stagnated, then more MMOGs means that there will be a larger distribution of players between them. Some polished themepark MMOs have been released in the past year, such as Rift, and now ToR. It is only normal that people would want to try those for a while at any rate. But how long will they stay in before they, say, go back to WoW? Quite a few games have become F2A recently, such as EQ2 and LotRO, and since they are not bad games at all will probably attract a lot of gamers who either just want to try them out or want to cut out having to pay subs.

And then there is the fact that quite a few people just can't afford gaming anymore.

In other words, it is a set of factors in my view that could explain the decrease in numbers in WoW, not just shoddy expacs.

In my view, Blizz is making pretty good choices about how to solve the above problems. They advertize, and they add things to the game that could appeal to new players. They changed a lot about the low level experience that makes it smoother and they have an unlimited trial of the first 20 levels. This could potentially attract in new players and here I mean new players to MMOGs, not just current MMOG players. They are also putting in package deals : WoW for cheaper for Christmas, the year-long deal with D3... this helps retain players and perhaps attract new ones in a difficult economic climate. As for "taking the wrong direction"? It is true that Blizzard is risking a little (and I do mean a little) by putting in changes that could piss off vets, but I think it is only some of the vets. I would reckon that those who took on the year long pass deal are pretty much mainly vets and I have been seeing a heck of a lot of Tyreal chargers zipping around on the two servers I play.

So in that sense, I agree with the OP that Blizz is being savvy. They could be even savvier. If they made a WoW-based application on facebook and on mobile phones/pads that ties into WoW, they could take this even further.

It might not stop the population from overall declining though. I agree with Loke666 about what will happen with the WoW population. However, it won't be "dying" anytime soon. Just look at D1, D2, SC1, etc.

IAmMMO

If Ultima online is still going after a decade,  WOW can expect the same, even if new bigger things come, it will still be there like UO is today.

Doomedfox

Originally posted by Loke666

Wow will survive but it wont get the players back. Blizzard have done an amazing work to stay on top this long but the game have long since peaked and as the game ages it will slowly lose more and more.

Blizzard need "Wow 2" if they want to beat the peak they had, no mere expansion can do that no matter how good it is. But Wow 2 have the potential of being bought by all who once played the game and the current playerbase...

Now Wow will drop down until it stabilize at a small fan community in 4 or so years, and stay around much like EQ is today,  probably a bit larger though.

But yes, Wow will survive. But if you think it still will be the largest MMO out there 10 years after release you are deluding yourself.

I wonder if ppls would complain about WoW2 beeing just another WOW clone tho......

 

Omni1rbb

Of course WoW will survive, as will Britney Spears and Newt Gingrich and Transformer  movies.  

10 years from now there will still be at least a few WoW servers.

WoW has already ceased to be the cool game to play and is entering a slow decline.

The cool thing now is to say that people who talk trash about WoW, or Blizzard in general, are only doing it because it's the cool thing to do.  

It's also cool to talk about how cool WoW was back in the "vanilla" days when it somehow magically didn't suck.

WoW's community is like a pack of angry hyenas, sans survival skills, who all despertaley cling to their territory.  Venturing out from time to time only to gnash their teeth and snarl at those who don't sucumb to their pack mentality. 

Let's hope that WoW never dies, so the hyenas can stay in their cage.

 

MurlockDance

Originally posted by Omni1rbb

WoW's community is like a pack of angry hyenas, sans survival skills, who all despertaley cling to their territory.  Venturing out from time to time only to gnash their teeth and snarl at those who don't sucumb to their pack mentality. 

Let's hope that WoW never dies, so the hyenas can stay in their cage.

 

This is a case of pot meets kettle...

Players in general in MMOs get worked up over nothing. I have seen hyenas everywhere... not just in WoW.

Bladestrom

Originally posted by Omni1rbb

Of course WoW will survive, as will Britney Spears and Newt Gingrich and Transformer  movies.  

10 years from now there will still be at least a few WoW servers.

WoW has already ceased to be the cool game to play and is entering a slow decline.

The cool thing now is to say that people who talk trash about WoW, or Blizzard in general, are only doing it because it's the cool thing to do.  

It's also cool to talk about how cool WoW was back in the "vanilla" days when it somehow magically didn't suck.

WoW's community is like a pack of angry hyenas, sans survival skills, who all despertaley cling to their territory.  Venturing out from time to time only to gnash their teeth and snarl at those who don't sucumb to their pack mentality. 

Let's hope that WoW never dies, so the hyenas can stay in their cage.

 

Decent analagy, and I would agree.  What interests me is that in the next expansion they are lowering the prioritisation of raiding a little just when SWTOR will be getting fully into the raiding swing.  That will be a dilemma for pure raiding guilds.  Could be that blizzard are privately resigned to losing the raiding crowd and are trying to create a new niche for themselves.