ya they recently annonced a lost of 800k during the Q3 so ya i guess would be close to 1.7 million,
so NA + uk is down to a 3.9 million sub or around that and the rest of player are in china. and we all know that china dont have sub but a different way of paying.. i think by hours right
WOW will probably be around until they are just breaking even...which will be a while. But they will have WOW 2 ready to go. I know the desire for the sandbox fans is to have WOW disappear into thin air but I just don't see Blizzard letting all that player base go. There is too much Lore there and people would flock to an updated version of the game. Despite what the sandbox fans want to think they are the minority I believe. Most people don't have the time in their busy lives to log onto a game and spend 30mins just trying to figure out what to do because you can do anything. And I definately don't want to log on to a game and spend an hour trying to do something just to be killed and have it all taken away.
So what i'm trying to say is i don't get the reason for your points and i find them flawed. The game is still great unless you've played it for 7 years.. obviously you're tired and older and hopefully found job by now.
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.
Glad you agree with me now..
Though what do people expect, game has been out for 7 years with 3 new time consuming prospects on the horizon. Not to mention people will jump back into the game for 4.3 to fight death wing.
I mean its about time WoW starts to bleed.. it was bound to happen sooner or later but to say its because the game is crap is pure ignorance.
D3 looks ok but there are other games coming out that look even better, for instance the recently announced Lineage Eternal.
Lineage eternal is being made by NCSoft. Doesnt mean it wont be good, but the odds arent in its favor and is it even going to be a 2012 release?
I take it you dislike NCSoft, well with that in mind lets change NCSoft for Trion (though I suspect that will get a thumbs down aswell) and Rise of Nations, this is another top down game, and infact an MMO that looks like it will be a sure fire hit when it goes live, it's also pushing the genre forward where aqs D3 is more of the same.
My point is this, Blizzard isn't really creating anything new, it's resting on it's laurels and relying on past customers sticking with them to buy products that could be better.
Titan may be their only chance of recapturing the customers who are leaving for other games, however lets hope they decide to ditch the long drawn out expansion program they have in place, it's one of the hings holding them back, too little content means bored players and bored players soon look elsewhere, I did.
When you have a formula that works (and Im talking Diablo here) why change it that much? How much has Elder Scrolls really changed from Morrowind to Oblivion to Skyrim? You tinker too much and you risk alienating your fans.
When I buy Diablo 3 I want something similar to D2. I dont want LE. Now, when I buy LE I dont want something similar to D2.
Also fwiw End of Nations is being made by a compnay with two very non innovative RTS's under its belt so its completely unknown if it will be even worth playing. trion is only the publisher.
Problem is, 10 min playing SWTOR and I can tell you it is terrible.
I created 5 characters to level 5 and they are all exactly the same it feels. Spam random buttons and stuff does. Doesn't seem to matter what you press. Combat is pretty clunky. Of the 5 classes I tried I really didn't feel like any of them were different at all.
=(
Thats some amazing research right there. In similar research, all classes in Rift seem to play the same at level 5. You know, every new character I create in skyrim seems to play the exact same for the first 10 minutes of the game.
I recently re-subbed to the game out of sheer boredom. I'll play it until GW2 launches. Then goodbye, hopefully forever.
I don't hate WoW, I have problems with certain aspects of it.
I think what we are seeing is the very start of the decline of WoW. I don't think the game will ever truly die. Look at games like my beloved Ultima Online still plugging along in spite of being pre-historic from a graphics stand point. Wow is dying the death of a thousnad razors. It will slowly see a decline of its massive player base until it is no longer the top dog. It doesnt mean its dead, just that it has come back to earth.
The fact that people are freaking out over this just shows the power and interest of this game. It won't be going anywhere. People stop and start up games all the time. They just overhauled the graphics with cataclysm and keep updating it. If original EQ can keep it going, WoW will surely never die. People just play it too much and get all burnt out and whiny.
If you like the style WoW is still one of the most visually appealing games out there, it could use character updates but it still has a very beautiful world. Yes 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.
It has to maintain 50/50 otherwise it wouldn't be where its at now. People are taken care of and blizzard devotes a large employee base to maintain a happy playerbase.
#3. MicroTransaction / Cash Shop puts a bad taste in most players mouths.
Its all vanity.. i don't see the issue here. Unless you're referring to the guardian cub which isn't very effecient at making gold.
#4. There are so many newer MMOs out and plenty more to come.
All of the new MMO's out now are trash, the ones to come aren't here.. who is to know what will happen.
#5. Expansions are so redundant and basic. Innovation has been lost.
BC was good, wrath was different but got old quick and cata is good for alt-o-holics and hardcore raiders(4.3)
So what i'm trying to say is i don't get the reason for your points and i find them flawed. The game is still great unless you've played it for 7 years.. {mod edit}
So what are you trying to say is that WoW is great for new players, but for veteran ones it sucks? And if you find the reasons stated in the quote flawed its bacause you have never played another mmo other than WoW, or you still endure that childish and borish creation just because it was great a few years ago, and like me when i played WoW, you think nothing can beat it...well...i also think Michael Jordan is the greatest NBA player ever, but he cant play anymore, hes old for it....but he was the best...like WoW. Just kill that game already.
I still think though with gradual declining numbers WoW still has some years left...
At least a decade, if it follows a typical MMO decline curve.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
I belong to the many people hoping that WoW dies already and releases the market from it's grasp.
Unfortunately Blizzard "inspires" the industry way too much and in every negative sense that came with WoW (see tons of wow clones), so WoW going down may indicate to dev studios and investors the possible end of the P2P era and push F2p/freemium/VIP-member models even more.
I dont see what all the commotion is about. I made a thread almost a year ago about how I thought the the game world was so static and dead in all the areas that were vanilla besides Ironforge and Orgimmar and even into what I was playing at the time, TBC.
It wasnt that it just felt static and unloved and unused, but it was more like a deep seeded "I hate you" static feeling, like you know only a few straglers have walked most of the vanila paths and the rest wouldnt dare touch it. I new the population was really bad, hell I couldnt get into any of the dungeons I wanted being a LVL 64.
I dont see what all the commotion is about. I made a thread almost a year ago...I was playing at the time, TBC.
That would be three years ago. Just sayin'.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
I'm still holding on... for now. Been thinkning to drop my sub soon though. I'm seriously losing intrerest and with new games coming, I'm too much occupied to care about WoW at all anymore.
Only a matter of time before it was to go on the decline. Can't reign on top forever. All good things eventually must come to an end. WoW still has a lot of life left though for years to come.
I belong to the many people hoping that WoW dies already and releases the market from it's grasp.
Unfortunately Blizzard "inspires" the industry way too much and in every negative sense that came with WoW (see tons of wow clones), so WoW going down may indicate to dev studios and investors the possible end of the P2P era and push F2p/freemium/VIP-member models even more.
Really? There isnt enough F2P choices available? More Asian crap than I care to count and the AAA titles that cant compete all have F2P options now. A handful of P2P that you dont have to play and you want more?
Really? This game sucks and Im not having fun? Im going to unsub right now. Thanks for the tip.
I think by the summer of 2013 and possibly a lot sooner WoW will announce and extention of free 2 play to levels 1-60 . Over the course of 2012 they will probably lose anything between 2-4 million players ( maybe more ) and when that happens expanding the current free to play will seem like a good idea .
Problem is, 10 min playing SWTOR and I can tell you it is terrible.
I created 5 characters to level 5 and they are all exactly the same it feels. Spam random buttons and stuff does. Doesn't seem to matter what you press. Combat is pretty clunky. Of the 5 classes I tried I really didn't feel like any of them were different at all.
=(
Wut?
You tend to get differentiation between classes in themepark games through abilities. Abilities are gained through level progression.
Level 5 and 10 mins of playing is not a yardstick for such a comparision. If someone doesn't like an aiming mechanic or a UI set-up in that time I could understand it. But class homogeneity... nope.
"Come and have a look at what you could have won."
I belong to the many people hoping that WoW dies already and releases the market from it's grasp.
Unfortunately Blizzard "inspires" the industry way too much and in every negative sense that came with WoW (see tons of wow clones), so WoW going down may indicate to dev studios and investors the possible end of the P2P era and push F2p/freemium/VIP-member models even more.
Really? There isnt enough F2P choices available? More Asian crap than I care to count and the AAA titles that cant compete all have F2P options now. A handful of P2P that you dont have to play and you want more?
I think by the summer of 2013 and possibly a lot sooner WoW will announce and extention of free 2 play to levels 1-60 . Over the course of 2012 they will probably lose anything between 2-4 million players ( maybe more ) and when that happens expanding the current free to play will seem like a good idea .
I don't know why Blizzard would go F2P even if they lose another 2 million players. They will still have strong 7 million playing the game. Never heard of a MMO with 7 million subs suddenly going F2P (oh wait there is no MMO to have that many players). Also the new expansion will certainly get a lot of players back so i hardly doubt that 2 to 4 million is a good speculation. Losing around 4 mill players in one year is a very sharp decline, sorry but your numbers are way too unrealistic and far fetched.
...and with the upcoming MMos (like SWTOR, Guild Wars 2, Tera, etc...) will lose a lot more, and they know...that is why they are focusing on the Asian market.
I don´t even care if WoW goes free to play. That game died after the WOTLK expac for me.
I like to compare WoW to AoL that is if people actually remember what America Online was the most popular Internet Service Provider.
1. AoL was crap, it was always crap, it didn't matter how many people subscribed to their service. It was still crap. Anyone who thinks their service was good at any point in its' history is just being Ingorant.
2. AoL was dumbed down lowest common denominator Internet. It apealed to a lot of people who didn't understand what the Internet was and people who were not ready for real Internet access.
3. AoL was heavily marketed in ways everything from TV ads to other product tie ins to even Randomly sending out AoL CDs through snail mail.
4. At its' height of popularity AoL had 50% of the ISP market. It became a self contained center of cool with people using AoL instant messager like it was the second coming.
5. Eventually AoL users did wise up that the service was just over hyped trash and that there were way better ISPs out there. They left slowly at fist: ten thousand here, hundred thousand there. But then BAM it happened millions woke up and quit the service seamingly overnight. That is because it became "uncool" to use their service. In two short years AoL went from King of the ISPs to completely irrelevent.
Replace AoL with WoW and Internet with MMORPG and you have a good History of where this is going. WoW is on early stages of Step 5. WoW will likely lose 6 to 8 million subs in the next year because the trend is accelerationg it cool factor that gained them all the subs in the first place will now work against them. The #1 reason people will give for quitting will be:
"I quit because my friends quit."
Then some time after that ex WoW player will look back and say "I can't beleive I used to play that horrible game."
Comments
ya they recently annonced a lost of 800k during the Q3 so ya i guess would be close to 1.7 million,
so NA + uk is down to a 3.9 million sub or around that and the rest of player are in china. and we all know that china dont have sub but a different way of paying.. i think by hours right
ouch, lol they are hurt!
http://wow.allakhazam.com/story.html?story=28229
~The only opinion that matters is your own.Everything else is just advice,~
WOW will probably be around until they are just breaking even...which will be a while. But they will have WOW 2 ready to go. I know the desire for the sandbox fans is to have WOW disappear into thin air but I just don't see Blizzard letting all that player base go. There is too much Lore there and people would flock to an updated version of the game. Despite what the sandbox fans want to think they are the minority I believe. Most people don't have the time in their busy lives to log onto a game and spend 30mins just trying to figure out what to do because you can do anything. And I definately don't want to log on to a game and spend an hour trying to do something just to be killed and have it all taken away.
You need a lesson in sarcasm.
When you have a formula that works (and Im talking Diablo here) why change it that much? How much has Elder Scrolls really changed from Morrowind to Oblivion to Skyrim? You tinker too much and you risk alienating your fans.
When I buy Diablo 3 I want something similar to D2. I dont want LE. Now, when I buy LE I dont want something similar to D2.
Also fwiw End of Nations is being made by a compnay with two very non innovative RTS's under its belt so its completely unknown if it will be even worth playing. trion is only the publisher.
Thats some amazing research right there. In similar research, all classes in Rift seem to play the same at level 5. You know, every new character I create in skyrim seems to play the exact same for the first 10 minutes of the game.
by the end of 2012, it will be like, World of What??
LoL
*because GW2 will surely have been released by then
I recently re-subbed to the game out of sheer boredom. I'll play it until GW2 launches. Then goodbye, hopefully forever.
I don't hate WoW, I have problems with certain aspects of it.
I think what we are seeing is the very start of the decline of WoW. I don't think the game will ever truly die. Look at games like my beloved Ultima Online still plugging along in spite of being pre-historic from a graphics stand point. Wow is dying the death of a thousnad razors. It will slowly see a decline of its massive player base until it is no longer the top dog. It doesnt mean its dead, just that it has come back to earth.
The fact that people are freaking out over this just shows the power and interest of this game. It won't be going anywhere. People stop and start up games all the time. They just overhauled the graphics with cataclysm and keep updating it. If original EQ can keep it going, WoW will surely never die. People just play it too much and get all burnt out and whiny.
So what are you trying to say is that WoW is great for new players, but for veteran ones it sucks? And if you find the reasons stated in the quote flawed its bacause you have never played another mmo other than WoW, or you still endure that childish and borish creation just because it was great a few years ago, and like me when i played WoW, you think nothing can beat it...well...i also think Michael Jordan is the greatest NBA player ever, but he cant play anymore, hes old for it....but he was the best...like WoW. Just kill that game already.
At least a decade, if it follows a typical MMO decline curve.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
I belong to the many people hoping that WoW dies already and releases the market from it's grasp.
Unfortunately Blizzard "inspires" the industry way too much and in every negative sense that came with WoW (see tons of wow clones), so WoW going down may indicate to dev studios and investors the possible end of the P2P era and push F2p/freemium/VIP-member models even more.
I dont see what all the commotion is about. I made a thread almost a year ago about how I thought the the game world was so static and dead in all the areas that were vanilla besides Ironforge and Orgimmar and even into what I was playing at the time, TBC.
It wasnt that it just felt static and unloved and unused, but it was more like a deep seeded "I hate you" static feeling, like you know only a few straglers have walked most of the vanila paths and the rest wouldnt dare touch it. I new the population was really bad, hell I couldnt get into any of the dungeons I wanted being a LVL 64.
That would be three years ago. Just sayin'.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
no, I was playing TBC but it was after release.
Roger.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
I'm still holding on... for now. Been thinkning to drop my sub soon though. I'm seriously losing intrerest and with new games coming, I'm too much occupied to care about WoW at all anymore.
Only a matter of time before it was to go on the decline. Can't reign on top forever. All good things eventually must come to an end. WoW still has a lot of life left though for years to come.
Really? There isnt enough F2P choices available? More Asian crap than I care to count and the AAA titles that cant compete all have F2P options now. A handful of P2P that you dont have to play and you want more?
Really? This game sucks and Im not having fun? Im going to unsub right now. Thanks for the tip.
I think by the summer of 2013 and possibly a lot sooner WoW will announce and extention of free 2 play to levels 1-60 . Over the course of 2012 they will probably lose anything between 2-4 million players ( maybe more ) and when that happens expanding the current free to play will seem like a good idea .
Wut?
You tend to get differentiation between classes in themepark games through abilities. Abilities are gained through level progression.
Level 5 and 10 mins of playing is not a yardstick for such a comparision. If someone doesn't like an aiming mechanic or a UI set-up in that time I could understand it. But class homogeneity... nope.
"Come and have a look at what you could have won."
Read my posting again.
I don't know why Blizzard would go F2P even if they lose another 2 million players. They will still have strong 7 million playing the game. Never heard of a MMO with 7 million subs suddenly going F2P (oh wait there is no MMO to have that many players). Also the new expansion will certainly get a lot of players back so i hardly doubt that 2 to 4 million is a good speculation. Losing around 4 mill players in one year is a very sharp decline, sorry but your numbers are way too unrealistic and far fetched.
...and with the upcoming MMos (like SWTOR, Guild Wars 2, Tera, etc...) will lose a lot more, and they know...that is why they are focusing on the Asian market.
I don´t even care if WoW goes free to play. That game died after the WOTLK expac for me.
I like to compare WoW to AoL that is if people actually remember what America Online was the most popular Internet Service Provider.
1. AoL was crap, it was always crap, it didn't matter how many people subscribed to their service. It was still crap. Anyone who thinks their service was good at any point in its' history is just being Ingorant.
2. AoL was dumbed down lowest common denominator Internet. It apealed to a lot of people who didn't understand what the Internet was and people who were not ready for real Internet access.
3. AoL was heavily marketed in ways everything from TV ads to other product tie ins to even Randomly sending out AoL CDs through snail mail.
4. At its' height of popularity AoL had 50% of the ISP market. It became a self contained center of cool with people using AoL instant messager like it was the second coming.
5. Eventually AoL users did wise up that the service was just over hyped trash and that there were way better ISPs out there. They left slowly at fist: ten thousand here, hundred thousand there. But then BAM it happened millions woke up and quit the service seamingly overnight. That is because it became "uncool" to use their service. In two short years AoL went from King of the ISPs to completely irrelevent.
Replace AoL with WoW and Internet with MMORPG and you have a good History of where this is going. WoW is on early stages of Step 5. WoW will likely lose 6 to 8 million subs in the next year because the trend is accelerationg it cool factor that gained them all the subs in the first place will now work against them. The #1 reason people will give for quitting will be:
"I quit because my friends quit."
Then some time after that ex WoW player will look back and say "I can't beleive I used to play that horrible game."