One small observation. Cross server battlegrounds or dungeon tools does not equate single shard design. Unless of course the game devolves from an MMORPG world to a glorified Diablo II chat client.
The funny bit is that WoW is trying hard to push people into play the game the way GW1 is played, while the GW developers are trying to put some MMORPG into their next incaration.
In all honesty think about this. Blizzard claims to have 12 million active subs? Yet they talk about the record 4.4 million sold copies of cataclysm? What about the 7.6 million other "active" subs? Clearly by blizzards own admission in a round about way they have not bought cataclysm? Somethings not right there. Not trolling just looking at hard facts as far as numbers blizzard themselves put out.
i got an active sub but no copies of cata... i dont think digital version of cata is included in the 4.4 millions.
It was 4.7million and that was including digital sales if I remember right. But Cata was no more successful than the other expansions if you take into account the other expansions were not up for digital download.
Here's a breakdown of their expansion pack sales:
The Burning Crusade (incl. Pre-Sales)
2.4 million in first 24 hours
3.5 million in first month
Wrath of the Lich King (incl. Pre-Sales)
2.8 million in first 24 hours
4.0 million in first month
Cataclysm (incl. Pre-Sales and Digital Downloads)
3.3 million in first 24 hours
4.7 million in first month
Since Cataclysm is a special case (players able to purchase and install the retail on Nov. 3rd) and if you ignore Blizzard's fine print, sales figures were actually:
One small observation. Cross server battlegrounds or dungeon tools does not equate single shard design. Unless of course the game devolves from an MMORPG world to a glorified Diablo II chat client.
The funny bit is that WoW is trying hard to push people into play the game the way GW1 is played, while the GW developers are trying to put some MMORPG into their next incaration.
Even GW2 is adding cross server game play through its planned PvP system.
Like I said: how can you man 100 dungeons (and seperated BG's) with 3K single server and concurrently on line populations (divided in 2 factions) and through 85 levels.
You can't, unless you want very much an unplayable game (which is what some may want regarding Wow perhaps).
Besides in wow the seamless world is there as a background to other tracks of gameplay. It IS there, it is your choice if you don't want to use it or play in these parts. The number of quests done or professions and Auction House activity show the world is played too.
How can you man 100 dungeons (and seperated BG's) with 3K single server and concurrently on line populations (divided in 2 factions) and through 85 levels?
And have a gaming opportunity within seconds or a few minutes in that part you want to play (be that open world quests/fights/economy/professions/dungeons or BG's within a 5 level bracket to avoid ganking).
4.7 millions of copies sold in a month since day of release.
Let's not go there, please. ALL games have pre-orders, even WOtlk and TBC had them. You just could not download and install it but plenty of people had it pre-ordered how many moths in advance?
So if pre-sales are counted, what is the difference with buying digital version one month before than putting down 10 euros to pre-order your copy 6 months in advance? NONE!
They still outsold any other pc game ever, in a month.
Also note. that is in ONE MONTH, not total, albeit I guess it is not going to go much higher than that as West subscriptions will be 5-6 millions I think.
As for China as it was said, they pay equivalent money. it is a few cents for us, but it is like it would be 15 bucks for them. And what is they have a different business plans there? EVERY company selling to China uses the same plan and they count Chinese subscribers too!
I do not really think there are many that paid one hour a month. you either play WoW, so that you pay quite a bit.. or don't... and then you do not pay a single cent.
Everytime a new game comes out this repeat itself... I guess eventually it will actually happen and people here will be happy... is this that time? I doubt. Come back when SW:TOR comes back, then we might have something.
Nothing to say for Rift, not tried it yet... but the fact it has similar style than WoW but 1/4th the content (2 starting areas vs 8) does not bode well. Maybe I am wrong. And no... Wow ALWAYS had many starting areas... they were 6, now they are 8. so do not go comparing 6 years old game vs new game.. cause when WoW came out it had to compete with many years old game too (EQ,UO, AC, DAoC, AO etc) and it still got to the top... so no excuses developers!
Then again, nothing wrong with having 100-300k subscribers, it is still a nice chunk of money every month!
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
@ X, you now troll clearly as you didn't answer my very reasonable question:
Like I said: how can you man 100 dungeons (and seperated BG's) with 3K single server and concurrently on line populations (divided in 2 factions) and through 85 levels?
And have a gaming opportunity within seconds or a few minutes in that part you want to play (be that open world quests/fights/economy/professions/dungeons or BG's within a 5 level bracket to avoid ganking).
Since I value accountability more than doing the actual run and since I prefer quality gameplay over quantity, the best compromise I can think of is to make the tool server only. If this happens:
The people in your group will matter and still be accountable for their actions, unlike the blind pick from a million people alternative.
Less loot whoring due to the above
By quality I don't mean that the run will be flawless. What I mean is that people will invest on others some of their own time so they improve. So you'll get more wipes, but it'll be a learning process and you'll get to teach yourself and those people some team skills. All of the above are meaningless if you'll never going to meet the same people again, even if you wanted to.
The automated tool is just that, a tool. It has some positive effects, ie, is a time saving feature. It has some negaive effects, mainl in the areas of accountability, team skills and loot.
Since I value accountability more than doing the actual run and since I prefer quality gameplay over quantity, the best compromise I can think of is to make the tool server only. If this happens:
The people in your group will matter and still be accountable for their actions, unlike the blind pick from a million people alternative.
Less loot whoring due to the above
By quality I don't mean that the run will be flawless. What I mean is that people will invest on others some of their own time so they improve. So you'll get more wipes, but it'll be a learning process and you'll get to teach yourself and those people some team skills. All of the above are meaningless if you'll never going to meet the same people again, even if you wanted to.
The automated tool is just that, a tool. It has some positive effects, ie, is a time saving feature. It has some negaive effects, mainl in the areas of accountability, team skills and loot.
The tool assures everyone can play the huge offering of the content no matter how they want to play.
Hmm... it is used in addition and as a supplement to all those other tools to play like : GUILD PLAY, PREMADE PLAY, FRIEND lists and world quests and story telling.
Sounds like a nice added tool.
A pity it was Blizzard that added it or else it would be considered better than sliced bread.
Do you know what would happen if WoW had this tool from launch implemented this way?
How many people do you remember from CoD lobby? The answer is noone, because in every game you'll get an entirely different person and you'll more than likely never meet the same person again.
How do people make friends in MMORPGs? By bumping into each other on the way to gather some nodes? Or by forming groups and beating content together? Usually in some dungeon?
So if this is the most common way to meet people that are not your everyday friends, how are you going to accomplish it if all dungeon runs are conducted by people you'll never meet again in your life?
@ X, you now troll clearly as you didn't answer my very reasonable question:
Like I said: how can you man 100 dungeons (and seperated BG's) with 3K single server and concurrently on line populations (divided in 2 factions) and through 85 levels?
And have a gaming opportunity within seconds or a few minutes in that part you want to play (be that open world quests/fights/economy/professions/dungeons or BG's within a 5 level bracket to avoid ganking).
Answer what would you do ?
By looking at the numbers the way you put it, WoW has gotten so far out of control on the instances that I doubt there is any other way to manage it than the way they currently do. Seriously, over 100 dungeons and BGs huh. And you dont see this as bad no matter how its handled?
If it was me, you know what I would do? I'ld get rid of 99% of all the instances and make them all open world dungeons and open world PvP contested zones. Make people walk to them because they are just zones themself and not some instance only you and your team can get into and see. But thats just me and what I would do.
(DISCLAIMER - The use of the word YOU in the above post is not directed at any one person in particular, but towards those who fall into the category itself - there is no personal attack here, neither intentional nor implied.)
First, I heard Blizzard lost over half it’s subscriber base bringing it somewhere in the 5.5 range. Then, with Cata, I have many friends stating that their tired of the same old grind and have either canceled their subscriptions or are in the process of it. Now if all this wasn’t unsettling enough, we have entire guilds that have pre-ordered Rift.
Does anyone know if Blizzard did in fact loss a good portion of their subs? Anyone know if future WoW expansions will be anything else than level some more? Any info helpful.
My friends list is diminishing as well. I know a few guilds that are uprooting for Rift. I have no clue where the others went. The only thing I know for certain is that they're gone.
My wife , son ,and I resubbed to Wow in preperation for cataclysm. What else is out there? All we saw was the weekly movie - email - spoof of Star wars ( but no date in sight for release ). The other games that were out at the time or being released had so much lackluster to them it was sad. ( Final fantasy xiii etc )
My wife said she didnt want to play any more but the son and I both found the " fun " to the game and are still enjoying the ups and downs that the game has to offer still.
And the guy that said fighting in water was annoying, did you ever try the Everquest 1 fight where you had to fight the boss in the water for planes progression? Barf!
I resubbed a week before Cataclysm hit and have been playing casually - having a bunch of fun doing it. I have four other people in my small guild who resubbed as well, and are having a good time with it as well. I see about eleventy billion people hanging out in the major hubs during peak hours on my server (Hyjal). Doesn't look to me like anything's falling apart on my end (excpet my back, knees, and occasionally my gut).
Do you know what would happen if WoW had this tool from launch implemented this way?
How many people do you remember from CoD lobby? The answer is noone, because in every game you'll get an entirely different person and you'll more than likely never meet the same person again.
How do people make friends in MMORPGs? By bumping into each other on the way to gather some nodes? Or by forming groups and beating content together? Usually in some dungeon?
So if this is the most common way to meet people that are not your everyday friends, how are you going to accomplish it if all dungeon runs are conducted by people you'll never meet again in your life?
ah..join a guild maybe and make friends? make a pick up group in trade chat and then run a dungeon together maybe? just because the dungeon finder tool is available doesnt mean you need to use it everytime you want to run a dungeon, trade chat is always full of people making pick up groups.
Exactly but some will bring up the fact that Blizzard has yet to release in China which is true but their model is way different than ours and because Blizzard's definition of subscribers it allows them (well atleastt hey think it does) to include them as subscribers. WoW is not falling apart yet but between TOR, GW2 and Blizzard's new mmo it is all but done. It had it's days in the sun and I'm sure it will have a few more good moments but it just is time for something new.
I wish they had the same subscription models here. Having to pick which game you want to play this month is crazyness . (and it favors WoW big time in the West)
Interesting point you make there. Once upon a time, people found a "home" in a MMO they liked and stayed there for years. The concept of "which MMO will I play this month" is pretty crazy to me, given the types of games MMOs were conceived to be. They were intended to be long-term hobbies.
I don't know if it's the MMOs not being designed interestingly enough to keep people playing that long. Or, if it's that more people playing MMOs now have truly brought the console approach to MMOs (playing one, "finishing it", moving on to the next, "finishing it", moving on to the next.... etc).... Or maybe a combination of both. It also makes sense in the way so many are so damned concerned about how quickly they can reach level cap/end game before they've even created their first character.
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Do you know what would happen if WoW had this tool from launch implemented this way?
How many people do you remember from CoD lobby? The answer is noone, because in every game you'll get an entirely different person and you'll more than likely never meet the same person again.
How do people make friends in MMORPGs? By bumping into each other on the way to gather some nodes? Or by forming groups and beating content together? Usually in some dungeon?
So if this is the most common way to meet people that are not your everyday friends, how are you going to accomplish it if all dungeon runs are conducted by people you'll never meet again in your life?
You don't attack the dungeon finder: you attack (without knowing it) the single server based community, which simply is way too small to guarantee the number of players needed to play the present huge content offer and diversity.
The only solution to that is to regroup the players around the content with different tools. One such tool is the dungoen finder in addition to other grouping tools like friends lists, guilds but also a huge concentrated PvP zone per realm, a daily quest cycle etc...
Stating Wow is a lobby game is a simple lie because COD doesn't have a consistent world behind it, WOW has.
But in your answers you simply couldn't find any argument how you would handle the 100+ dungeons being manned in a 3K player world.
Morhaime gave the answer: they will change the structural design for their new MMO. The MMO of the future will need to be played by millions on one server realm by using clusters. No longer single server realms.
Cant say I'm raiding any content except for BH. (Waiting on friends to catch up on gear)
We had a lot of fun gearing for raids this expansion. It only took about a week and a half but we had vent with 3-4 channels with 5 people in them, we had our 'super team' fighting the new heroics, the others swapping around for every tank to get to play with every healer doing the heroics the super-group already cleared...
It was fun. Going into raid, though, even then we realised how far we were from 'easy kills'. it got better almost instantly but first weeks were rough. if we didn't have those heroics it would've been much rougher.
Today on heroic chimaeron for example we used a lay-on-hands rotation. There's never been such thing. For this boss we needed it. Holy...prot...ret...all contributed. And it got us a kill for it. And where did we learn to use such obscure tactics nobody ever uses? oh yeah. heroic deadmines...heroic SFK...those little 5mans that people want to walk all over without learning a thing.
Thats good stuff, but once they start nerfing heroics even more it will start the wrath cycle anew and the playerbase will get even worse (even though its bad already). When my guild recruits the first place we go to, to see what kind of players we are interesting in keeping is deadmines and shadowfang due to the large variety of mechanics.
Do you know what would happen if WoW had this tool from launch implemented this way?
How many people do you remember from CoD lobby? The answer is noone, because in every game you'll get an entirely different person and you'll more than likely never meet the same person again.
How do people make friends in MMORPGs? By bumping into each other on the way to gather some nodes? Or by forming groups and beating content together? Usually in some dungeon?
So if this is the most common way to meet people that are not your everyday friends, how are you going to accomplish it if all dungeon runs are conducted by people you'll never meet again in your life?
ah..join a guild maybe and make friends? make a pick up group in trade chat and then run a dungeon together maybe? just because the dungeon finder tool is available doesnt mean you need to use it everytime you want to run a dungeon, trade chat is always full of people making pick up groups.
Here's the catch 101 though. In order to join a group/guild you need to meet other people. That is usually when you need them for something, either a hard quest part, some world PvP or a dungeon run. In a game like WoW where all quests are single player affairs, the quest part is eliminated. World PvP is dead and will remain so in all zones that allow flying mounts. What's left are the dungeon runs. If you use the tool like you use it in CoD, you're guaranteed never to meet anyone, thus not to form friendship or make guilds with friends.
4.7 millions of copies sold in a month since day of release.
Let's not go there, please. ALL games have pre-orders, even WOtlk and TBC had them. You just could not download and install it but plenty of people had it pre-ordered how many moths in advance?
So if pre-sales are counted, what is the difference with buying digital version one month before than putting down 10 euros to pre-order your copy 6 months in advance? NONE!
They still outsold any other pc game ever, in a month.
Also note. that is in ONE MONTH, not total, albeit I guess it is not going to go much higher than that as West subscriptions will be 5-6 millions I think.
As for China as it was said, they pay equivalent money. it is a few cents for us, but it is like it would be 15 bucks for them. And what is they have a different business plans there? EVERY company selling to China uses the same plan and they count Chinese subscribers too!
I do not really think there are many that paid one hour a month. you either play WoW, so that you pay quite a bit.. or don't... and then you do not pay a single cent.
Everytime a new game comes out this repeat itself... I guess eventually it will actually happen and people here will be happy... is this that time? I doubt. Come back when SW:TOR comes back, then we might have something.
Nothing to say for Rift, not tried it yet... but the fact it has similar style than WoW but 1/4th the content (2 starting areas vs 8) does not bode well. Maybe I am wrong. And no... Wow ALWAYS had many starting areas... they were 6, now they are 8. so do not go comparing 6 years old game vs new game.. cause when WoW came out it had to compete with many years old game too (EQ,UO, AC, DAoC, AO etc) and it still got to the top... so no excuses developers!
Then again, nothing wrong with having 100-300k subscribers, it is still a nice chunk of money every month!
Here's an article from VG Charts
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm (PC) is the top game on the list as it adds 25,000 pre-orders in its final week before launch. The game reaches a final total of 544,000 pre-orders. Expect first week sales in America to be in the 600,000 to 700,000 range. The reason for such a small difference between pre-orders and first week sales is that Starcraft II (PC) the closest related PC game VGChartz has pre-order data on, only increased 13% from its total pre-order in America (796,000) to its first week sales in America (912,000).
And actually the figures I posted was from the "pre-orders" from the digital copies well the thing with Blizzard is they skewed the numbers in their favor and if you notice some of the headlines THEY THEMSELVES wrote it has Asertisks by it because it was data compiled from when they offered the digital download up until 1st day sales, which is why the only company that actually tracks video game sales says they have less sales. I personally dont care if they sold 1 copy or 1 billion I was just jumping in the conversation with someone else when they were talking subscriber base. And Wrath had 2.8 Million 1st day sales without the Digital Download option, you would figure that with the digital download option the 1st day sales would have been higher, granted shitty weather had a hand in it as well. As for the China thing I misspoke I forgot they haven't even gotten Cataclysm and probably wont until the end of this year hell they just got WotLK in August.
And yes I understand the pay models in China well in Asian markets are completely different buisness models than here seeing as that demographic plays moreso in internet cafes as opposed to home, but their play style is also different. They pay per usage as we just prepay for the whole month. Which is why I hate it when I see arguements oh Blizzard makes 15.00x12million a month they can do (Insert random thing fans want) when there are many different pay plans for Warcraft.
And yes everytime a game comes out fans that are bored or jaded with Warcraft tout it as the WoW killer. And it's been said before no one will kill WoW but Blizzard themselves well Activision-Blizzard I should say. They have already started to shift some of the devs that have been around the longest over to their other MMO they are producing. When WoW first came out I was PISSED I was playing Final Fantasy XI with some buds and a lot of them left for WoW so I eventually went over to Warcraft and found myself liking it. So no I don't think Rift will be the Warcraft Killer simply for the fact that while they improve on ideas of Warcraft they do not innovate themselves for someone who is not completely dissatisfied with Warcraft to get them to leave.
Even when SW:TOR Comes out granted I think they have a better chance at it, it will dent Blizzards subscriber base but not damage it, however by that time Blizz should be ready to roll out their first content patch in Warcraft, and even the disenfranchised with the current state of WoW will come back to check it out in hopes Blizz has fixed what they deem wrong with it.
Blizzard needs a game to come out and challenge Warcraft or even the fundamentals on what they built Warcraft around to make them better because without the competition I don't think you'd see even the slightest innovation in the genre as little as it is these days. And the problem companies are seeing with the 100k-300k subscribers is the ammount of time the investment will come back to them. I think that is a lot of the reasons a lot of games are rushed out into live games is because they (The company and the investors) need the cash influx into the game and they release it. And even with Rift with it being in a hell of a lot better state than 95% of the MMOs that get released anymore they will need that 500k-1mill subscribers to start coming out of the red but it will take time (time that some companies don't look at or dont care about) to cover the initial costs, maitenance costs, server costs, ect.
Comments
One small observation. Cross server battlegrounds or dungeon tools does not equate single shard design. Unless of course the game devolves from an MMORPG world to a glorified Diablo II chat client.
The funny bit is that WoW is trying hard to push people into play the game the way GW1 is played, while the GW developers are trying to put some MMORPG into their next incaration.
It was 4.7million and that was including digital sales if I remember right. But Cata was no more successful than the other expansions if you take into account the other expansions were not up for digital download.
Here's a breakdown of their expansion pack sales:
The Burning Crusade (incl. Pre-Sales)
2.4 million in first 24 hours
3.5 million in first month
Wrath of the Lich King (incl. Pre-Sales)
2.8 million in first 24 hours
4.0 million in first month
Cataclysm (incl. Pre-Sales and Digital Downloads)
3.3 million in first 24 hours
4.7 million in first month
Since Cataclysm is a special case (players able to purchase and install the retail on Nov. 3rd) and if you ignore Blizzard's fine print, sales figures were actually:
Cataclysm (incl. Pre-Sales)
2.2 million in first 24 hours *
3.3 million in first month
4.7 million by second month
Even GW2 is adding cross server game play through its planned PvP system.
Like I said: how can you man 100 dungeons (and seperated BG's) with 3K single server and concurrently on line populations (divided in 2 factions) and through 85 levels.
You can't, unless you want very much an unplayable game (which is what some may want regarding Wow perhaps).
Besides in wow the seamless world is there as a background to other tracks of gameplay. It IS there, it is your choice if you don't want to use it or play in these parts. The number of quests done or professions and Auction House activity show the world is played too.
Well, I don't know how GW2 will implement their servers, but GW1 was basically one shard, so the term "cross server" has no meaning in this regard.
And we care about GW why?
Try to answer this question:
How can you man 100 dungeons (and seperated BG's) with 3K single server and concurrently on line populations (divided in 2 factions) and through 85 levels?
And have a gaming opportunity within seconds or a few minutes in that part you want to play (be that open world quests/fights/economy/professions/dungeons or BG's within a 5 level bracket to avoid ganking).
Tell me if you know the answer.
4.7 millions of copies sold in a month since day of release.
Let's not go there, please. ALL games have pre-orders, even WOtlk and TBC had them. You just could not download and install it but plenty of people had it pre-ordered how many moths in advance?
So if pre-sales are counted, what is the difference with buying digital version one month before than putting down 10 euros to pre-order your copy 6 months in advance? NONE!
They still outsold any other pc game ever, in a month.
Also note. that is in ONE MONTH, not total, albeit I guess it is not going to go much higher than that as West subscriptions will be 5-6 millions I think.
As for China as it was said, they pay equivalent money. it is a few cents for us, but it is like it would be 15 bucks for them. And what is they have a different business plans there? EVERY company selling to China uses the same plan and they count Chinese subscribers too!
I do not really think there are many that paid one hour a month. you either play WoW, so that you pay quite a bit.. or don't... and then you do not pay a single cent.
Everytime a new game comes out this repeat itself... I guess eventually it will actually happen and people here will be happy... is this that time? I doubt. Come back when SW:TOR comes back, then we might have something.
Nothing to say for Rift, not tried it yet... but the fact it has similar style than WoW but 1/4th the content (2 starting areas vs 8) does not bode well. Maybe I am wrong. And no... Wow ALWAYS had many starting areas... they were 6, now they are 8. so do not go comparing 6 years old game vs new game.. cause when WoW came out it had to compete with many years old game too (EQ,UO, AC, DAoC, AO etc) and it still got to the top... so no excuses developers!
Then again, nothing wrong with having 100-300k subscribers, it is still a nice chunk of money every month!
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
Because WoW is turning into GW1 perhaps in terms of gameplay design? Only difference is that the hencemen are humans.
@ X, you now troll clearly as you didn't answer my very reasonable question:
Like I said: how can you man 100 dungeons (and seperated BG's) with 3K single server and concurrently on line populations (divided in 2 factions) and through 85 levels?
And have a gaming opportunity within seconds or a few minutes in that part you want to play (be that open world quests/fights/economy/professions/dungeons or BG's within a 5 level bracket to avoid ganking).
Answer what would you do ?
Since I value accountability more than doing the actual run and since I prefer quality gameplay over quantity, the best compromise I can think of is to make the tool server only. If this happens:
The people in your group will matter and still be accountable for their actions, unlike the blind pick from a million people alternative.
Less loot whoring due to the above
By quality I don't mean that the run will be flawless. What I mean is that people will invest on others some of their own time so they improve. So you'll get more wipes, but it'll be a learning process and you'll get to teach yourself and those people some team skills. All of the above are meaningless if you'll never going to meet the same people again, even if you wanted to.
The automated tool is just that, a tool. It has some positive effects, ie, is a time saving feature. It has some negaive effects, mainl in the areas of accountability, team skills and loot.
The tool assures everyone can play the huge offering of the content no matter how they want to play.
Hmm... it is used in addition and as a supplement to all those other tools to play like : GUILD PLAY, PREMADE PLAY, FRIEND lists and world quests and story telling.
Sounds like a nice added tool.
A pity it was Blizzard that added it or else it would be considered better than sliced bread.
Do you know what would happen if WoW had this tool from launch implemented this way?
How many people do you remember from CoD lobby? The answer is noone, because in every game you'll get an entirely different person and you'll more than likely never meet the same person again.
How do people make friends in MMORPGs? By bumping into each other on the way to gather some nodes? Or by forming groups and beating content together? Usually in some dungeon?
So if this is the most common way to meet people that are not your everyday friends, how are you going to accomplish it if all dungeon runs are conducted by people you'll never meet again in your life?
By looking at the numbers the way you put it, WoW has gotten so far out of control on the instances that I doubt there is any other way to manage it than the way they currently do. Seriously, over 100 dungeons and BGs huh. And you dont see this as bad no matter how its handled?
If it was me, you know what I would do? I'ld get rid of 99% of all the instances and make them all open world dungeons and open world PvP contested zones. Make people walk to them because they are just zones themself and not some instance only you and your team can get into and see. But thats just me and what I would do.
(DISCLAIMER - The use of the word YOU in the above post is not directed at any one person in particular, but towards those who fall into the category itself - there is no personal attack here, neither intentional nor implied.)
My friends list is diminishing as well. I know a few guilds that are uprooting for Rift. I have no clue where the others went. The only thing I know for certain is that they're gone.
I am sure, you guys forgot about Diablo III. So, blizzard will not falling apart. But wow, maybe.
My wife , son ,and I resubbed to Wow in preperation for cataclysm. What else is out there? All we saw was the weekly movie - email - spoof of Star wars ( but no date in sight for release ). The other games that were out at the time or being released had so much lackluster to them it was sad. ( Final fantasy xiii etc )
My wife said she didnt want to play any more but the son and I both found the " fun " to the game and are still enjoying the ups and downs that the game has to offer still.
And the guy that said fighting in water was annoying, did you ever try the Everquest 1 fight where you had to fight the boss in the water for planes progression? Barf!
I resubbed a week before Cataclysm hit and have been playing casually - having a bunch of fun doing it. I have four other people in my small guild who resubbed as well, and are having a good time with it as well. I see about eleventy billion people hanging out in the major hubs during peak hours on my server (Hyjal). Doesn't look to me like anything's falling apart on my end (excpet my back, knees, and occasionally my gut).
ah..join a guild maybe and make friends? make a pick up group in trade chat and then run a dungeon together maybe? just because the dungeon finder tool is available doesnt mean you need to use it everytime you want to run a dungeon, trade chat is always full of people making pick up groups.
HEAVEN OR HELL
Duel 1
Lets ROCK!
Interesting point you make there. Once upon a time, people found a "home" in a MMO they liked and stayed there for years. The concept of "which MMO will I play this month" is pretty crazy to me, given the types of games MMOs were conceived to be. They were intended to be long-term hobbies.
I don't know if it's the MMOs not being designed interestingly enough to keep people playing that long. Or, if it's that more people playing MMOs now have truly brought the console approach to MMOs (playing one, "finishing it", moving on to the next, "finishing it", moving on to the next.... etc).... Or maybe a combination of both. It also makes sense in the way so many are so damned concerned about how quickly they can reach level cap/end game before they've even created their first character.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
You don't attack the dungeon finder: you attack (without knowing it) the single server based community, which simply is way too small to guarantee the number of players needed to play the present huge content offer and diversity.
The only solution to that is to regroup the players around the content with different tools. One such tool is the dungoen finder in addition to other grouping tools like friends lists, guilds but also a huge concentrated PvP zone per realm, a daily quest cycle etc...
Stating Wow is a lobby game is a simple lie because COD doesn't have a consistent world behind it, WOW has.
But in your answers you simply couldn't find any argument how you would handle the 100+ dungeons being manned in a 3K player world.
Morhaime gave the answer: they will change the structural design for their new MMO. The MMO of the future will need to be played by millions on one server realm by using clusters. No longer single server realms.
Single shard is indeed something great.
Turning the game from WoW vanilla (talking about the world feeling, not the mechanics like dual spec etc.) into Diablo II or DDO, not so much.
Thats good stuff, but once they start nerfing heroics even more it will start the wrath cycle anew and the playerbase will get even worse (even though its bad already). When my guild recruits the first place we go to, to see what kind of players we are interesting in keeping is deadmines and shadowfang due to the large variety of mechanics.
HEAVEN OR HELL
Duel 1
Lets ROCK!
Here's the catch 101 though. In order to join a group/guild you need to meet other people. That is usually when you need them for something, either a hard quest part, some world PvP or a dungeon run. In a game like WoW where all quests are single player affairs, the quest part is eliminated. World PvP is dead and will remain so in all zones that allow flying mounts. What's left are the dungeon runs. If you use the tool like you use it in CoD, you're guaranteed never to meet anyone, thus not to form friendship or make guilds with friends.
That is really the end of the discussion and a real laugh.
Present day Azeroth, Outland, Northrend has around 300% more seamless open world than the old WOW.
And I see players in every zone (but hardly enough to keep up with the ever growing content - hence cross servers)
Here's an article from VG Charts
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm (PC) is the top game on the list as it adds 25,000 pre-orders in its final week before launch. The game reaches a final total of 544,000 pre-orders. Expect first week sales in America to be in the 600,000 to 700,000 range. The reason for such a small difference between pre-orders and first week sales is that Starcraft II (PC) the closest related PC game VGChartz has pre-order data on, only increased 13% from its total pre-order in America (796,000) to its first week sales in America (912,000).
And actually the figures I posted was from the "pre-orders" from the digital copies well the thing with Blizzard is they skewed the numbers in their favor and if you notice some of the headlines THEY THEMSELVES wrote it has Asertisks by it because it was data compiled from when they offered the digital download up until 1st day sales, which is why the only company that actually tracks video game sales says they have less sales. I personally dont care if they sold 1 copy or 1 billion I was just jumping in the conversation with someone else when they were talking subscriber base. And Wrath had 2.8 Million 1st day sales without the Digital Download option, you would figure that with the digital download option the 1st day sales would have been higher, granted shitty weather had a hand in it as well. As for the China thing I misspoke I forgot they haven't even gotten Cataclysm and probably wont until the end of this year hell they just got WotLK in August.
And yes I understand the pay models in China well in Asian markets are completely different buisness models than here seeing as that demographic plays moreso in internet cafes as opposed to home, but their play style is also different. They pay per usage as we just prepay for the whole month. Which is why I hate it when I see arguements oh Blizzard makes 15.00x12million a month they can do (Insert random thing fans want) when there are many different pay plans for Warcraft.
And yes everytime a game comes out fans that are bored or jaded with Warcraft tout it as the WoW killer. And it's been said before no one will kill WoW but Blizzard themselves well Activision-Blizzard I should say. They have already started to shift some of the devs that have been around the longest over to their other MMO they are producing. When WoW first came out I was PISSED I was playing Final Fantasy XI with some buds and a lot of them left for WoW so I eventually went over to Warcraft and found myself liking it. So no I don't think Rift will be the Warcraft Killer simply for the fact that while they improve on ideas of Warcraft they do not innovate themselves for someone who is not completely dissatisfied with Warcraft to get them to leave.
Even when SW:TOR Comes out granted I think they have a better chance at it, it will dent Blizzards subscriber base but not damage it, however by that time Blizz should be ready to roll out their first content patch in Warcraft, and even the disenfranchised with the current state of WoW will come back to check it out in hopes Blizz has fixed what they deem wrong with it.
Blizzard needs a game to come out and challenge Warcraft or even the fundamentals on what they built Warcraft around to make them better because without the competition I don't think you'd see even the slightest innovation in the genre as little as it is these days. And the problem companies are seeing with the 100k-300k subscribers is the ammount of time the investment will come back to them. I think that is a lot of the reasons a lot of games are rushed out into live games is because they (The company and the investors) need the cash influx into the game and they release it. And even with Rift with it being in a hell of a lot better state than 95% of the MMOs that get released anymore they will need that 500k-1mill subscribers to start coming out of the red but it will take time (time that some companies don't look at or dont care about) to cover the initial costs, maitenance costs, server costs, ect.