Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
i would nt be suprised if blizzard announce a drop in subs in the coming months
googajoob7
Member Posts: 866
i would nt be suprised if blizzard announce a drop in subscriber numbers in the coming months . i have characters on several european servers ( medium to high load ) and a lot of people are noticing a drop in the number of players . now some of that may be down to the russian servers or maybe its because blizzard have more servers now but the general feeling is theres a real drop in player numbers in europe . from what i ve heard from friends who play on the north american servers that they believe a decline to be happening there as well . i will be interested to see what blizzards numbers are like by the end of the summer .
i actually still like wow but the game has undoubtedly become far too easy in recent years . a number of things like faster leveling and more easliy obtained epic gear have all taken thier toll . i think player turnover is far greater now because you can level from 1-80 and obtain full epic gear within 4 months without much problem .
maybe blizzard have gone down the route of short term gratification and maybe they are about to see what happens when you go too far and make a game a little too simple ?
will people get bored sooner and then leave?.
Comments
I would also have to say that I believe that WoW has reached its pinnacle in terms of subscriptions and it probably won't see any significant increases anymore. That's not to say there aren't still millions of players playing and it will take a long time for a small trickle of unsubscribers to make an impact.
The biggest thing that has to be considered is that the game has been out for nearly 5 years now, and one of the main things that attracted so many subscribers was the novelty of this new MMO, which had been gaining popularity due to it's mass appeal and ease of gameplay. The novelty has worn off, there are a lot of players like myself who had been playing since the beginning who just came back to WotLK to see what it was about, only to realize it was the same girlfriend you dumped last year, but with a makeover.
I don't think "oversimplifying it" is a huge issue, and even though the game is very easy to pick up, get into, and learn inside out, I think one of the main issues is that they had grabbed the attention already of nearly everyone that plays an MMO at the moment and now there are no new fish to reel in. Even lots of non-gamers know what WoW is because its embedded into pop culture now. The biggest thing affecting the decline in subscriptions IMHO is the current playerbase getting bored of the game and slowly giving it up. I am at that stage myself where after nearly 5 years of playing, taking a few breaks in between, seeing tons of raid content, I have had no desire to log into the game in the last 2 months, even with the release of the Ulduar content. Even though I paid for the 2 month game card, I don't feel like playing and would rather flush the game time down the drain.
In closing, I believe Blizzard officially announcing the development of their new MMO at last year's Blizzcon was an acknowledgment from them that they basically know that the 8th wonder of the world they launched back in 2004 is not quite what it once was. Even when WoW finally comes back down to earth to take its place among all the other "mortal" MMO's who are quite happy with subscribers UNDER one million, the biggest thing that was accomplished is showing millions of people out there WoW is a Blizzard produced game, and its a quality one. No matter which one of Blizzard's game they're playing, a lot of people will be looking to Blizzard for their gaming entertainment from now on.
..:: Sappin' sentries in TF2 till I can find me a new MMO ::..
I really think what ever will happen to World of Warcraft all depends on Blizzard....
A lot of level 80s pretty much are tired of the game, and waiting for one of the big releases this year Aion can be really good and may be a pain for Blizzard... I have a feeling Aion may win game of the year in the coming E3!
However what will Blizzard do in Oct they can tell the world on there Blizcon about a new XP pack but unlikey, we already known they will patch new content in the next two month or so.... new ring of blood style instant 5/10/25 man! And a crappy new Battlegrond... But will this keep the people playing World of Warcraft or not??!!
Also Blizzard not want to make the old world better may cost them some noobs in time....
no i think you misunderstood . what i m seeing is a general decline . its hard harder to get groups to go into instances battle grounds are less busy , the citys are quieter . if you level an alt you can go for hours without seeing another player and mid levels . general decline . a lot of larger guilds are reporting lot less active players . its also not just me a huge number of players have voiced similar concerns about a decline . i m not trying to troll this game as i said i still like it . i m just offering an observation based on what i m experiancing in game at the moment .
It's common knowledge that a large chunk of the population in starting zones are alts or people on trial accounts.
..:: Sappin' sentries in TF2 till I can find me a new MMO ::..
depends on the server. Most servers the low areas are just alts or trial accounts so yea you won't see that many people. Go to a newer server if you wanna see a good low level pop.
I agree to some extent. I can tell you honestly that there is going to be a big decline by the end of the year for sure, since games like Aion and a few others (names are slipping my mind atm) are coming out. I personally ended my subscription the other day. Blizzard would have to do something pretty amazing for me to have any interest sparked into the game again.
i must admit i m intregued by what aion might have to offer . i ve heard very little in the way of negativity about it . which is unusual for an mmo . while keeping my fingers crossed i ve had those same fingers burnt by the next big thing a few times . i dont paticulary want to see a wow killer . warcrafts a decent game but it lacks competition . if something else decent comes along i think blizzard will have to up thier game . which will mean warcraft may actually see some improvements in the coming years . the interesting thing is the games coming up this year dont seam to be the conventional tolkienesque fantasy . i agree i think we ll see a sharp fall in subs soon and in fact what we are seeing at the moment is only the beginning . wow of course will survive . in fact if it loses half its subs the actual gameplay and community may improve no end . so it would nt be all bad .
Sorry, that's wishful thinking - Blizzard won't notice the tiny number of people that will try new games and then return to WOW.
I don't think it would be very noticeable because it would happen slowly and gradually. My bet is if it is happening you are seeing less people at endgame but I guarantee there would be more newbs rolling in. Blizzard is great at advertising and getting their game out there, there is usually more newbs rolling in than vets quitting. As for me, I stopped my sub and my game time ran out earlier this month. I still like the game but I just felt bored when I got to 80 and started doing endgame again, nothing really felt new to me except wintergrasp. I liked the setting of Northrend but really its the same exact content I've been playing for years, so I guess its normal to grow tired of it. I will still eagerly away the next expansion, and my friends might urge me back eventually if they start playing again.
If there would be a fall in subs, we'd see a new ad campaign in TV. Blizz' biggest talent is marketing
Ad will only bring people to the 7 day trial. Its the 8th day that matters. A crappy game won't make it to the 8th day, or even the 8th hour.
To the OP: Warning of the end of the world (of warcraft) has been promulgated by no less than a million people, you are million and one extra crystal ball reader. Everything will die eventually. Keep making this forecast every week, eventually, you will be right.
BUT, if you are going to bet your last penny on a date when WoW will decline by say 25% sub, I would be willing to bet against you. Name a reasonable date, not the year 3093.
WoW will see a decline in sub's coming from the east market first.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
It's not just WOW, i think most peoples are bored with the whole MMO's genre. We dont get new games anymore, they all feel the same, play the same... i played on/off WOW since launch this is by far the longest time i stopped playing, 6 months now, and i have absolutly no desire to come back anytime soon.
Does it matter? WoW could lose subs Equal to EQ2, Lotro, Vanguard, WAR, AoC all combined and you still wouldnt see a difference.
Playing: EvE, Ryzom
Without 'dissing' the game, and in my opinion. I think it will decline. It's an old game now, the big wigs they had working on it have been moved to Blizzards new project (next MMO) from what I've read in press releases, interviews etc. Not saying WoW is going to die or that it's a bad game. I know a bunch of people in real life that played WoW. They've all moved onto other things in life, other games (none of them are MMOs), all waiting on Blizzards next big thing, be it Starcraft 2, Diablo3, or their new MMO.
Well, first, the number of subbers in the US/EU seems to have been on the decline for a while.
But the # of subs around the world as gone up.
Anyways, while the subs is pretty stagnant right now, as soon as WotLK releases in asia, subs will skyrocket again. This might be the last hurrah for wow as far as going up, but it will be years that it will have millions.
Even if subs go down, having 7 million subs is...bad?
I think so just because people will want to try some new mmos such as Jumpgate Evolution, Aion and Champions Online. Lets face it, sooner or later all games start showing signs of age and a decreased population.
Ad will only bring people to the 7 day trial. Its the 8th day that matters. A crappy game won't make it to the 8th day, or even the 8th hour.
To the OP: Warning of the end of the world (of warcraft) has been promulgated by no less than a million people, you are million and one extra crystal ball reader. Everything will die eventually. Keep making this forecast every week, eventually, you will be right.
BUT, if you are going to bet your last penny on a date when WoW will decline by say 25% sub, I would be willing to bet against you. Name a reasonable date, not the year 309
i think what you ve done is react to what you think is said rather than what is actually said my friend .
where did i say anywhere i thought it would be the end of warcraft . lol . i ve only brrought up the subject a lot of player who like me are still playing wow are talking about . namely we are noticing less people playing in europe at the moment . i gather the russian servers are pretty busy but wow is newer to the russian speaking population . if you d like me set a date for the end of the world of warcraft i would proberbly put it somewhere in the early 2020s . after all ultima is still going is nt it after more than a decade . i just asking the question has wow reached its peak and i m interested in seeing if theres going to be a decline in the subscriber numbers after what i ve observed in game across several servers .
of course i ll admit i could be totally wrong maybe the servers i play on are the exception to the rule . the thing is people i know who play on other servers where i dont have a character say its the same there as well . but then again they could be unlucky as well .
i guess we ll all know soon enough . but personally as i ve said i wont be suprised if there is some sort of decline .i
Oh yes because they all went and played Aoc , war, vanguard, Darkfall, and Wow lost milions to those games right? newsflash probably 80-90% of the players came back to wow. Even if wow lost half of its playerbase, it would still be the biggest mmo in the world, with sub numbers other compnaies could only dream about, so when you all go on about dying, there is no dying if you have 1 millon or 12 million active subs.
Wow was released in eu/Usa, before wotlk launched subs were at 10-11million, the figurs are now at 11.5million+. You do the math
Calm down there broseph. All he said was he 'thinks' it will decrease in subs because people will want to try new games. Wipe the foam off your mouth.
Actually I would be very surprised if Blizzard announce a decline in number of subs. WoW is a cultural phenomenon and the ball just keeps on rolling. It doesn't matter if the game suck donkeyballs(which it don't), the game would still go strong.
It's like top10 music. Most people over 30 know it's massproduced crap but that kinda music is still strong allthough WoW is anything but massproduced. It's all the copycats around that's that.
Anyway, WoW will continue to grow. 100 vets drop the game and a 1000 nubs take their place - doesn't matter...
---
Grammar nazi's. This one is for you.
games are slightly different simply because when a game is produced it is essentially a snapshot aimed at whatever tech is available to play it on at the time . they tend to have a short ish shelf life in comparission with other entertainment media . i agree warcraft does nt suck . its seen better days but its still a pretty good mmo . i dont know if your suggesting warcraft can keep up this level of subsribers for years and maybe decades to come because given the way the games market works that would highly unlikly if not impossible . every year that passes warcraft looks more outdated . all it will take is a decent game with better graphics to come along and the cultural phenomenon will shift . warcrafts owes its populalarity to a lack of competition as much as decent gameplay . if say aion delivers the goods ( who knows if it will or not ) and is playable on the majority of mid range pcs suddenly warcraft will seam old hat . and those hundred vets and 1000 nubs will have something else to spend thier money on .
that kind of change in the mmo demographic could be pretty rapid when it happens .
Oh yes because they all went and played Aoc , war, vanguard, Darkfall, and Wow lost milions to those games right? newsflash probably 80-90% of the players came back to wow. Even if wow lost half of its playerbase, it would still be the biggest mmo in the world, with sub numbers other compnaies could only dream about, so when you all go on about dying, there is no dying if you have 1 millon or 12 million active subs.
Wow was released in eu/Usa, before wotlk launched subs were at 10-11million, the figurs are now at 11.5million+. You do the math
i dont think anyones said warcraft will die . warcraft would still be very healthy if it lost half of its subscribers . this thread is about weather we ll see a reduction this year . i personally think wow will be around for another decade . only a fool would think it ll still be as popular in ten years time to what it is now . so there will be a decline at some point the question is if we are seeing it the beginings of it now . maybe you believe warcraft will continue to grow untill it has 20 -30-40 million players . be realistic there will be a peak .
Martie, do you really think even if the numbers of wow subs did drop, and you think that blizzard would even announce that? No one will notice it besides blizzard.
I don't care if the numbers is dropping or increasing, I am just a forum surfer. I don't play any mmorpgs anymore, cuz all of them are enjoyable for only a moment, then life moves on. Even tho I know that I still miss wow, the flash back of all the grindings, party/raid composing process!, the similar competition in all mmorpgs, <-- gear, arena rating, and others. I can't go back to wow. It is just horrifying to ME.
If you wonder why I am still here discussing about wow, It is probably my day off or I just got nothing else to do or have some spare time dropping by and say hi. Fact is life is boring without wow, tho I change my routine to watching movies/working out/bodybuilding. I'm not here to attack or defend wow. I am just a half & half observer/commentator.
Edit: And I'm still a customer to blizzard, though not a subscriber. I only play TFT once in a while and its quite fun if you don't compare it to wow =P
When I edit something, its for grammar. (edited)
Oh yes because they all went and played Aoc , war, vanguard, Darkfall, and Wow lost milions to those games right? newsflash probably 80-90% of the players came back to wow. Even if wow lost half of its playerbase, it would still be the biggest mmo in the world, with sub numbers other compnaies could only dream about, so when you all go on about dying, there is no dying if you have 1 millon or 12 million active subs.
Wow was released in eu/Usa, before wotlk launched subs were at 10-11million, the figurs are now at 11.5million+. You do the math
i dont think anyones said warcraft will die . warcraft would still be very healthy if it lost half of its subscribers . this thread is about weather we ll see a reduction this year . i personally think wow will be around for another decade . only a fool would think it ll still be as popular in ten years time to what it is now . so there will be a decline at some point the question is if we are seeing it the beginings of it now . maybe you believe warcraft will continue to grow untill it has 20 -30-40 million players . be realistic there will be a peak .
10 years of WOW ? That's actually a scary thought.
Poll is biased, there's no "I don't care" option.
And you might be just wrong - it's not because your small circle of contacts is not playing anymore, that the world is falling apart. People might be playing on other areas, especially when the game makes a heavy use of instances (majority or a significant of the players online are probably on Battlegrounds and Instances).