to be honest i think it is pretty much dead on... WoW will not lift Acti-Bliz stocks again... That ship has sailed but this article does not take in to account things like D3 and what ever new smash hit Activision might be working on, and while i agree that the sample pool might be a bit small and to be honest it is very difficult to pick up random on-line gamers and still foiund a good amount of people who know/care what WoW is per defenition since online gaming is soo much more then MMORPGs. But all in all i think we will see a delcine of around thosenumbers before WoW levels out.
And the scary point is... It will still have twice or trice the numbers of the nearest competitor.
i may be stupid or something but.... how is this news even important when they only surveyed 381 gamers? all i can say to this Bagga dude, go survey at least half of WoWs playerbase then post ur numbers... Of course the competition will get players from WoW to play their games, plus the road Blizz is taking WoW to is not the best one.... i for one will play swtor, and i will switch subs between It and WoW because i like both... only 10% of WoW playerbase left WoW, nobody knows how many of those 10% will come back later on...and how many wont... and i sure as hell know that only 381 surveyed gamers wont give the correct answer to that.
So, now we know who hasn't taken statistics. It's called a representative sample, you NEVER poll half of a demographic as large as a games subscribers, that's just a stupid waste of time and money. Besides, if you take just North American players of 2 to 3 million (just a guess of current subs) 381 should be plenty. You can't count the Asian "subs" that aren't subs. Blizzard has always inflated their numbers with those.
surveying half of WoWs playerbase indeed would be a stupid waste of time... but surveying 381 people will never give an accurate answer for the decreasing population in the game.... since u said its a representative "sample" then the information given by Bragga is just way innacurate (making it false)... why they even bother posting false info...
No..That us how you do a representative survey, 300 people is more than enough to read out trends and signs,..But no where does these measurements say they represents the truth
Some no name company bringing this up, yeah I really trust what they have to say lol. Oh don't let the fact they have ties to EA get in the way of anything lol
"The great thing about human language is that it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand." - Lewis Thomas
once the players see the real quality of the old republic they'll be back to WoW in no time. though i'm sure the numbers will still be dropping regardless, after cataclysm and later pandaria
ROFL, your blind, the quality is fine. Just because you don't like something does not mean the quality is bad, they have lower graphics on purpose, which was smart, if they had it your way they would of had high end graphics, and have an AOC launch because everyone would need high end machines.
The graphics looks fine, the game play is fun, the end game is fun, and the story is great. The combat an animations are done properly, being in game design I have seen my far share of crap, and SWTOR is far from it.
381 'online gamers' and not even all of them were WoW subscribers at the time of the survey? And they used these results to determine what literally millions of currently active WoW players are going to do? Thats really pretty pathetic surveying.
Was about to say the same... These numbers are no representation of the 'general WoW population'. Though we all can agree that WoW might loose even more subs (with the coming of SWTOR and GW2) than the ~1.5M they lost last quarter, this survey is rather flawed. Lets just wait for the Q4 sub numbers of Blizzard early next year and see...
Side note. I think SWTOR and GW2 are partly the reason for this declining WoW subscription numbers. The latest expansion and coming (panda) expansion have done a lot of damage to WoW as well...
"The survey results have Lazard Capital projecting a potential 900,000-1.6million player drop due to the the imminent launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic alone. 50% of those who were actively subscribed to World of Warcraft during the time of the survey stated they would be purchasing The Old Republic, while 38% said they may pick up the title."
Wow, that's a huge bite out of the WoW population. I can say for a fact that TOR is awesome and I'm pretty sure it's going to lead to a serious decline in WoW's numbers.
SWTOR is the hot news atm, but once people realize how limited the content on a new game is, they will be back playing Wow in no time.
agree sheeps will be sheeps what can you do?
Activsion/Blizzard are parasites on MMO/Gaming industry they suck all money and blurt out crap products that people keep on buying GODS KNOWS WHY...
WHATS WITH YOU PEOPLE STOP FEED THESES CASH COWS
World of Warcraft out dated game now pandas? Cata was bad and worst expasion to date and u think adding pandas going make a better game? Same crap over n over
Call of Duty = COW CASHING on HYPE and reputation nothing more look at Modern warefare 3 its same BS since COD 4 its same gameplay since CoD4 its same CRAP OVER N OVER
dont you guys see the patten? its a marketing scam and they very lucky people are sheeps sooner or later people will realize this and stop feeding this fat bad company money they dont diserve for theses half arsed crap they call games
Battlefield 3 is a game Call of Duty is not a game they do same crap over n over Battlfield did try new things and used new engine
Blizzard Activtion used a 12 year old Quake engine same since GODS KNOW HOW LONG
dont get me wrong quake is good but this just goes show these sheeps that do wat others do and follow the hype
I just ask my self.... What would Tyrion Lanister do?
Most answers are most likley best not put in to reality.
But honestly anyone thinking that WoW will not loose a good chunk of players is in denial... Anyone who blame it at the pandas is a fool... And in the end wpeople will play the games they find fun any way.
Welcome to the business cycle. Everyone moves from game to game. WoW toi EQ2, back to WoW, to Rift, back to WoW, to SWTOR, back to WoW...
I see a pattern emerging...
Untill now theres been some truth in that . But its simply because the games out there havn't either been that good or havn't had mass appeal . Also a lot of people playing Rift at the moment are one time WoW players and many of them havn't gone back because Rifts a solid enough game to keep them interested . The problem with your theory is its based on past games and past Warcraft .
StarWarsTOR is a totally different beast from anything you or I have experianced in the last 7 years since WoW was released .
I don't know if you've been in the beta or not but if you had been I've a feeling you would be less certain that the majority of players will find themselves back in WoW . Also the problem is Blizzard needs to have a major rethink about WoW and look to why its losing subs but they are on cruise control .
Blizzard need to give bored players something intresting and challenging again and that needs changes at the top and some new blood to come in and shake things up .
You see Blizzard needs to give players something to come back to and untill they do there is nothing to come back to .
And Pandas just don't cut it . They really need to cancel this expansion and release something people can get excited about .
381 players is a truly pathetic survey quantity given the scale of the MMO marketplace as a whole.
I've no issue with downgrading stocks & tbh I would have given the article more credibility if it had been made without mentioning the survey at all, since Activision Blizzard themselves already said they lost a million subs & the marketing behemoth that will surely rev it's engines in earnest come the start of December for SWTOR's release is bound to have an impact.
But, 381, if anything the "survey" does more to highlight the severe lack of understanding about the MMO marketplace that the "money-men" have, i.e. it's woefully inadequate to make any kind of judgements based on such a paltry number, it's like sniffing the bath-water without going any closer than 50-feet.
I think it's insane that the stock would drop based on stockholders assumption that a 7+ year old game won't experience a subscriber loss. They just released a smash hit FPS and the outlook is still downgraded. Investors are more jittery than a tasmanian devil on red bull.
I'm not putting much stock in this thread. WoW, albeit important income for the company, isn't it's only hand that feeds.
You honestly think Kotick would prop up an under-performing title? lolololololololololol. That man is purely profit driven.
I also, love how people don't understand the basics of "Surveys". Surveys, by design, require only a small number of participants to get an accurate number.
OOOOOOH MAAAAH GAAAWD, The analyst's survey has an error of ~5.12%. Yes, clearly he should have sampled all ~13million current AND former WoW players.
On a side note, I do wonder if the survey account for that Annual Pass gimic...christ I wished I had watched the BlizzCon '11 and stayed up-to-date with the "next expansion"-talk; I would have paid the ~$60 for D3 and dropped WoW......pandas??? seriously?! Just because retards thought that an April Fools joke was "awesome".....
Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising everytime we fall.
There is no reason why WOW can't go free to play with an item mall. I personally don't like to have to pay up to 60 dollars for a game and 20 dollars for an expansion plus the monthly cost. There are plenty of other mmorpgs that are the same and don't cost anything unless you use the item mall. Greedy is the first word that comes to mind. Good luck with your gaming.
Why are people even still playing this game? There's little to no social interaction and the quality of "RPG" is sorely lacking compared to any even decent RPG, let alone something as titanic as Skyrim right now. So, what's the point? 'X' million asshats running around showing each other their e-peen in purple text still? Fascinating that since '04 nothing has changed in this joke of a genre.
I know this is 'news', but let it go. Are we going to have to hear every about every event that marks the decline of WOW. It was bound to happen eventually, let it go. People love this topic and I just don't get it. LET IT GO. The guy back in 1900 who predicted that WOW would decline is indeed nostrodamous. He predicted it, let him take all the credit in the world and move on.
10 million people subscribed to this game and you don't get why it's a popular point of discussion? For the same reason that people can't agree to disagree abotu politics and religion...stupidity, obviously.
wow will be around for a long log time. I'll will be playing it as long as it is around. all the little kids that get bored easy will jump ship but will come back once there is something new.
maybe the guy never heard of a worldwide crisis that hits especialy hard on europe and the usa and that this could be one of the reason's why some people stop playing?
The drop in subscribers is NOT due to StarWars coming out, or "age" of the game, as you put it. I was offended by your article and you do not speak for the huge number of people who have left the game. You obviously do not have your finger on the pulse of the playing community.
The reason people left the game is that when Cataclysm came out, they re-wired the game completely. They changed how a lot of classes worked and nerfed some of them so badly, they were unplayable and the game become unenjoyable. All the years you put into a beloved character and it was no longer what you originally picked to play. That was not a good plan, Blizz.
Next, they changed raiding to be so ridiculous that only a few could do it. You have to be able to click your mouse while standing on your head and rubbing your tummy, run through fire, heal or cast spells, fight, and get yelled at by your leader for not doing it precisely. It was a game changer.
Blizz seemed to no longer care for the casual player, which is the 50% that they lost and perhaps more. Some just stay because they love the game so much.
Those are the real reasons why the game is not doing well. It doesn't matter how "old" the game is or that some new one, and there are several, is coming out. WoW fans are too loyal to leave for silly things like that. The changes in the game are what killed it. It is still savable.
Blizzard is being run by a bunch of fools with stupid ideas. You reap what you sow. Fix what you have broken and nerfed and the game will be loved and playable, once again.
Comments
same old story...but there are good news! wow has a superb guild finder that will help you find a guild, when you return from SWTOR, so dont be afraid
see you in azeroth as always...
RIP Orc Choppa
to be honest i think it is pretty much dead on... WoW will not lift Acti-Bliz stocks again... That ship has sailed but this article does not take in to account things like D3 and what ever new smash hit Activision might be working on, and while i agree that the sample pool might be a bit small and to be honest it is very difficult to pick up random on-line gamers and still foiund a good amount of people who know/care what WoW is per defenition since online gaming is soo much more then MMORPGs. But all in all i think we will see a delcine of around thosenumbers before WoW levels out.
And the scary point is... It will still have twice or trice the numbers of the nearest competitor.
This have been a good conversation
WoW just lost 1 more customer, hurry make a news post.
No..That us how you do a representative survey, 300 people is more than enough to read out trends and signs,..But no where does these measurements say they represents the truth
Even after an extensive break from wow (mmo's in general), part of me is still itching to go back (maybe it's ecsma ^^).
Must......resist!
"The great thing about human language is that it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand."
- Lewis Thomas
ROFL, your blind, the quality is fine. Just because you don't like something does not mean the quality is bad, they have lower graphics on purpose, which was smart, if they had it your way they would of had high end graphics, and have an AOC launch because everyone would need high end machines.
The graphics looks fine, the game play is fun, the end game is fun, and the story is great. The combat an animations are done properly, being in game design I have seen my far share of crap, and SWTOR is far from it.
Was about to say the same... These numbers are no representation of the 'general WoW population'. Though we all can agree that WoW might loose even more subs (with the coming of SWTOR and GW2) than the ~1.5M they lost last quarter, this survey is rather flawed. Lets just wait for the Q4 sub numbers of Blizzard early next year and see...
Side note. I think SWTOR and GW2 are partly the reason for this declining WoW subscription numbers. The latest expansion and coming (panda) expansion have done a lot of damage to WoW as well...
"The survey results have Lazard Capital projecting a potential 900,000-1.6million player drop due to the the imminent launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic alone. 50% of those who were actively subscribed to World of Warcraft during the time of the survey stated they would be purchasing The Old Republic, while 38% said they may pick up the title."
Wow, that's a huge bite out of the WoW population. I can say for a fact that TOR is awesome and I'm pretty sure it's going to lead to a serious decline in WoW's numbers.
SWTOR is the hot news atm, but once people realize how limited the content on a new game is, they will be back playing Wow in no time.
agree sheeps will be sheeps what can you do?
Activsion/Blizzard are parasites on MMO/Gaming industry they suck all money and blurt out crap products that people keep on buying GODS KNOWS WHY...
WHATS WITH YOU PEOPLE STOP FEED THESES CASH COWS
World of Warcraft out dated game now pandas? Cata was bad and worst expasion to date and u think adding pandas going make a better game? Same crap over n over
Call of Duty = COW CASHING on HYPE and reputation nothing more look at Modern warefare 3 its same BS since COD 4 its same gameplay since CoD4 its same CRAP OVER N OVER
dont you guys see the patten? its a marketing scam and they very lucky people are sheeps sooner or later people will realize this and stop feeding this fat bad company money they dont diserve for theses half arsed crap they call games
Battlefield 3 is a game Call of Duty is not a game they do same crap over n over Battlfield did try new things and used new engine
Blizzard Activtion used a 12 year old Quake engine same since GODS KNOW HOW LONG
dont get me wrong quake is good but this just goes show these sheeps that do wat others do and follow the hype
Expect the same announcement when GW2 is about to launch. Who knew WOW was the newest speculation spot on Wall Street?
I just ask my self.... What would Tyrion Lanister do?
Most answers are most likley best not put in to reality.
But honestly anyone thinking that WoW will not loose a good chunk of players is in denial... Anyone who blame it at the pandas is a fool... And in the end wpeople will play the games they find fun any way.
This have been a good conversation
Untill now theres been some truth in that . But its simply because the games out there havn't either been that good or havn't had mass appeal . Also a lot of people playing Rift at the moment are one time WoW players and many of them havn't gone back because Rifts a solid enough game to keep them interested . The problem with your theory is its based on past games and past Warcraft .
StarWarsTOR is a totally different beast from anything you or I have experianced in the last 7 years since WoW was released .
I don't know if you've been in the beta or not but if you had been I've a feeling you would be less certain that the majority of players will find themselves back in WoW . Also the problem is Blizzard needs to have a major rethink about WoW and look to why its losing subs but they are on cruise control .
Blizzard need to give bored players something intresting and challenging again and that needs changes at the top and some new blood to come in and shake things up .
You see Blizzard needs to give players something to come back to and untill they do there is nothing to come back to .
And Pandas just don't cut it . They really need to cancel this expansion and release something people can get excited about .
381 players is a truly pathetic survey quantity given the scale of the MMO marketplace as a whole.
I've no issue with downgrading stocks & tbh I would have given the article more credibility if it had been made without mentioning the survey at all, since Activision Blizzard themselves already said they lost a million subs & the marketing behemoth that will surely rev it's engines in earnest come the start of December for SWTOR's release is bound to have an impact.
But, 381, if anything the "survey" does more to highlight the severe lack of understanding about the MMO marketplace that the "money-men" have, i.e. it's woefully inadequate to make any kind of judgements based on such a paltry number, it's like sniffing the bath-water without going any closer than 50-feet.
I think it's insane that the stock would drop based on stockholders assumption that a 7+ year old game won't experience a subscriber loss. They just released a smash hit FPS and the outlook is still downgraded. Investors are more jittery than a tasmanian devil on red bull.
You honestly think Kotick would prop up an under-performing title? lolololololololololol. That man is purely profit driven.
I also, love how people don't understand the basics of "Surveys". Surveys, by design, require only a small number of participants to get an accurate number.
http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_ideas/Soc_participants.shtml
OOOOOOH MAAAAH GAAAWD, The analyst's survey has an error of ~5.12%. Yes, clearly he should have sampled all ~13million current AND former WoW players.
On a side note, I do wonder if the survey account for that Annual Pass gimic...christ I wished I had watched the BlizzCon '11 and stayed up-to-date with the "next expansion"-talk; I would have paid the ~$60 for D3 and dropped WoW......pandas??? seriously?! Just because retards thought that an April Fools joke was "awesome".....
Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising everytime we fall.
Why are people even still playing this game? There's little to no social interaction and the quality of "RPG" is sorely lacking compared to any even decent RPG, let alone something as titanic as Skyrim right now. So, what's the point? 'X' million asshats running around showing each other their e-peen in purple text still? Fascinating that since '04 nothing has changed in this joke of a genre.
10 million people subscribed to this game and you don't get why it's a popular point of discussion? For the same reason that people can't agree to disagree abotu politics and religion...stupidity, obviously.
wow will be around for a long log time. I'll will be playing it as long as it is around. all the little kids that get bored easy will jump ship but will come back once there is something new.
maybe the guy never heard of a worldwide crisis that hits especialy hard on europe and the usa and that this could be one of the reason's why some people stop playing?
D3, MoP and the SC2 expansion will raise the stock rating quite a bit imo.
The drop in subscribers is NOT due to StarWars coming out, or "age" of the game, as you put it. I was offended by your article and you do not speak for the huge number of people who have left the game. You obviously do not have your finger on the pulse of the playing community.
The reason people left the game is that when Cataclysm came out, they re-wired the game completely. They changed how a lot of classes worked and nerfed some of them so badly, they were unplayable and the game become unenjoyable. All the years you put into a beloved character and it was no longer what you originally picked to play. That was not a good plan, Blizz.
Next, they changed raiding to be so ridiculous that only a few could do it. You have to be able to click your mouse while standing on your head and rubbing your tummy, run through fire, heal or cast spells, fight, and get yelled at by your leader for not doing it precisely. It was a game changer.
Blizz seemed to no longer care for the casual player, which is the 50% that they lost and perhaps more. Some just stay because they love the game so much.
Those are the real reasons why the game is not doing well. It doesn't matter how "old" the game is or that some new one, and there are several, is coming out. WoW fans are too loyal to leave for silly things like that. The changes in the game are what killed it. It is still savable.
Blizzard is being run by a bunch of fools with stupid ideas. You reap what you sow. Fix what you have broken and nerfed and the game will be loved and playable, once again.