WotLK released 5 years ago... the industry getting bigger happened. If you look at how many MMOs released since then it's surprising the drop isn't greater. Since Titan is under re-construction now freeing about 60 developers you have to wonder what Blizzard will do with WoW. It's Blizzards flagship and just dropped 12% this year.
I think most of those people are just sitting on the sidelines waiting for something decent to play. Not everyone who plays mmos is addicted and willing to invest time in a subpar game. There's just a lot of garbage out there at the moment. If you have any standards as a gamer and value your free time, there isn't much to choose from right now.
The next well made game that is perceived as a step up from WoW will suck all these players back in.
man... and I just started wow. Don't play it alot but when I decide to play a game it is what I've been playing. Wondering why it took me this long to give it a fair shot.
I did see a quick blurb about 72% of US gamers play online. And the first link has no sources.
But, I don't think the number is crazy, I just think the definition of "video game" is very loose. If they're counting playing 10 rounds of Snake on a blackberry as a video game, then yeah, pretty much everyone can claim they play video games.
I did see a quick blurb about 72% of US gamers play online. And the first link has no sources.
But, I don't think the number is crazy, I just think the definition of "video game" is very loose. If they're counting playing 10 rounds of Snake on a blackberry as a video game, then yeah, pretty much everyone can claim they play video games.
The definition of "gamers" could also be loose (as mentioned).
A friend of the family has a 3 year old who plays on Wii. The could be counting him too.
Ken Fisher - Semi retired old fart Network Administrator, now working in Network Security. I don't Forum PVP. If you feel I've attacked you, it was probably by accident. When I don't understand, I ask. Such is not intended as criticism.
Is this a signal that WoW is finally reaching the end of it's life cycle?Probably but between now and it closing down completely is still gonna be longer than a lot of games that have been released since's life cycle.
There are at least 500k NA/EU lifers in WoW, probably a million. EQ1 has between 50-100k lifers, and WoW's NA/EU peak was more than 10x EQ's.
WoW will probably always be a top 5 MMO in this market. And with that many subs it will always be extremely profitable and will get continued development. WoW isnt going anywhere and anyone that htinks otherwise is fooling themselves.
Originally posted by Rusque Originally posted by lizardbonesOriginally posted by PWN_FACEOriginally posted by lizardbones70% of the planet play video games. That's like five and a quarter billion people.
But, I don't think the number is crazy, I just think the definition of "video game" is very loose. If they're counting playing 10 rounds of Snake on a blackberry as a video game, then yeah, pretty much everyone can claim they play video games.
They don't specify what type of games, just video games. People could be playing on 8 bit Nintendo systems for all we know.
However, given how prevalent cell phones are, even in countries where electricity is iffy, I think it's entirely possible that most of the planet is playing video games.
If you think about the video game industry itself, even ignoring little things like Minesweeper, it's huge. As in Mega BlockBuster Movie Industry huge. Every single WoW player could filter out of WoW and they wouldn't be noticeable unless they all moved over to another MMO.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Originally posted by ZombieKen Originally posted by Rusque
I did see a quick blurb about 72% of US gamers play online. And the first link has no sources.But, I don't think the number is crazy, I just think the definition of "video game" is very loose. If they're counting playing 10 rounds of Snake on a blackberry as a video game, then yeah, pretty much everyone can claim they play video games.
The definition of "gamers" could also be loose (as mentioned).
A friend of the family has a 3 year old who plays on Wii. The could be counting him too.
Well they should. He's a future forum extremist in the making!
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
As a former wow player (from vanilla beta) i got annoyed at the gear treadmill and decided that until a decent sandbox comes out that's not ftp, i wont be investing any time or money into MMOs. I mostly play single player RPGs or co-op anything. I miss wow and consider going back from time to time, but i know that's purely nostalgia talking more than anything.
Players go to so many places. The reason its not one game like in the past (such as EQ to WOW/EQ2) is since theres just so many games out there. Most jsut go game hoping or just quit all together, few perhaps finding that new home. I personally have a lot of trouble staying in one place, its sad that oversaturation really makes it hard to stay loyal to a game. Even Rift which I did spend a good deal of time on I was cheating secretly upon it a lot with other games on the side MMO wise.
where did they? Since The Wrath of The Lich King, WoW has lost somewhere between 4-5 million players.
Where did these players go? Why did they go? What's keeping them where they are?
Let's discuss.
(attention: this is not about WoW, but more about the mmorpg community in general)
The market is saturated with mmos.
Some folks went to other mmos, some stopped playing mmos and just play single player games (or other types of video games), and others just stopped playing games.
Lets say this is true, 4-5 million players left WoW. So that would mean other MMO's had seen a huge increase in new accounts right? Well no they have not, many new MMOs have been struggling to stay afloat.
So maybe they are all now playing solo games? Well the solo gaming titles have not seen an enormous spike of players buying there new games.
4- 5 million players is a very big splash, so where are they?
Many went back to other MMOs they were already playing so did not generate new accounts in those games. Many players play more than one MMO and so double counting often occurs. (For you lovers of MMO stat sites, this is yet another reason why I would question the figures they give.)
Many went back to the solo games they were playing and played them more. Talk to your friends it is amazing how many players won't even play a solo game they like until the end.
Many have decided to give up MMO's and leave the genre. I know players who have done that, what is there in MMO land now to make the time they put into MMO's worthwhile?
So these figures show three things, don't totally trust figures from MMO stat sites, players are transient and more players are leaving MMO's. How many, who knows?
Well in the case of about 10 or so of my long time gaming friends, we are all playing a classic version of a MMO that we first enjoyed together about 10 years ago. All of spent time in WOW at one point but are done with that style of game now.
My son and his 6 or so close friends who played WOW for years are all pretty much playing LOL, GW2, and D3 on occasion.
I have about 10 more friends who have either stopped gaming, moved to consoles, with a few playing various games on occasions.
It is likely that no matter how many people are playing WOW right now the number of people who used to play and no longer do exceed that figure by perhaps two or three times that figure.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Originally posted by Drakynn You know any other MMO that only dropped 14% of it's players in one year would be considered a resounding success in most cases.I'm not a fan of WoW since before the second expansion let alone now but....
but when 14% is a couple of million then that is another story. How badly do you have to fuck up to lose a couple million players in 1 year.
What is a few million lost compared to the 35%+ loss that most other companies face. WoW is one of the more stable MMOs if not the most stable where it didn't need massive server merges. WoW IS the most successful MMO past and present and shows no signs of slowing. WoW, love it of hate it, is in fact the best MMO on the market and will continue to be the dominate MMO.
Be interesting how it will fare when Wildstar and ESO releases but that is an old age tune sung by many MMOs that have failed.
I'm one of the ones that left WoW right before Cataclysm. Farted around with a few games, such as STO, Eve Online (great game),... settled quite happily in GW2.
I and my whole family have left wow and are likely never to return. GW2 is B2P and I cannot be bothered with the daily quest content blizzard seemed to have funneled customers into. When a game feels like a job and not a game, there is a problem.
That's easy Guild Wars 2 as evidence by the rapid content updates and a constantly increasing population. Im on Anvil Rock I used to have to guest once in awhile in off hours if I was in an empty zone, now its packed pretty much all the time. Constant ques for wvw and la and southsun because that map is currently where the living story is.
Comments
Major changes could be coming.
I think most of those people are just sitting on the sidelines waiting for something decent to play. Not everyone who plays mmos is addicted and willing to invest time in a subpar game. There's just a lot of garbage out there at the moment. If you have any standards as a gamer and value your free time, there isn't much to choose from right now.
The next well made game that is perceived as a step up from WoW will suck all these players back in.
C'mon Good Guy Greg, you can trust me!
You can't? Fine. Here. http://online.lovetoknow.com/how-many-people-play-video-games
Here's the NPD's website. I didn't feel like filling out the forms and registering to track down all the source links, but the site at least is real.
https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/industry-expertise/video-games/#prettyPhoto
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
I did see a quick blurb about 72% of US gamers play online. And the first link has no sources.
But, I don't think the number is crazy, I just think the definition of "video game" is very loose. If they're counting playing 10 rounds of Snake on a blackberry as a video game, then yeah, pretty much everyone can claim they play video games.
The definition of "gamers" could also be loose (as mentioned).
A friend of the family has a 3 year old who plays on Wii. The could be counting him too.
There are at least 500k NA/EU lifers in WoW, probably a million. EQ1 has between 50-100k lifers, and WoW's NA/EU peak was more than 10x EQ's.
WoW will probably always be a top 5 MMO in this market. And with that many subs it will always be extremely profitable and will get continued development. WoW isnt going anywhere and anyone that htinks otherwise is fooling themselves.
C'mon Good Guy Greg, you can trust me! You can't? Fine. Here. http://online.lovetoknow.com/how-many-people-play-video-games Here's the NPD's website. I didn't feel like filling out the forms and registering to track down all the source links, but the site at least is real. https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/industry-expertise/video-games/#prettyPhoto
I did see a quick blurb about 72% of US gamers play online. And the first link has no sources.
But, I don't think the number is crazy, I just think the definition of "video game" is very loose. If they're counting playing 10 rounds of Snake on a blackberry as a video game, then yeah, pretty much everyone can claim they play video games.
They don't specify what type of games, just video games. People could be playing on 8 bit Nintendo systems for all we know.
However, given how prevalent cell phones are, even in countries where electricity is iffy, I think it's entirely possible that most of the planet is playing video games.
If you think about the video game industry itself, even ignoring little things like Minesweeper, it's huge. As in Mega BlockBuster Movie Industry huge. Every single WoW player could filter out of WoW and they wouldn't be noticeable unless they all moved over to another MMO.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
The definition of "gamers" could also be loose (as mentioned).
A friend of the family has a 3 year old who plays on Wii. The could be counting him too.
Well they should. He's a future forum extremist in the making!
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
As a former wow player (from vanilla beta) i got annoyed at the gear treadmill and decided that until a decent sandbox comes out that's not ftp, i wont be investing any time or money into MMOs. I mostly play single player RPGs or co-op anything. I miss wow and consider going back from time to time, but i know that's purely nostalgia talking more than anything.
We can all agree that people are leaving WoW, but.... they come back. It's hard to walk away from WOW for a long time.
Proud MMORPG.com member since March 2004! Make PvE GREAT Again!
The market is saturated with mmos.
Some folks went to other mmos, some stopped playing mmos and just play single player games (or other types of video games), and others just stopped playing games.
There is no all encompassing answer.
They went to tha clones my friend:)
Ive played at launch for couple of months up until around march 2005 and never cameback i thought it was terible game, so your statement is false.
3 years ago, Mike Morhaime (CEO of Blizzard) stated that '30% of WoW players get past level 10'.
So people leaving WoW is not a new thing at all and has been going on for the past 7 years.
I know some of the PVP players moved to LoL / DoTA.
I suspect the PVE players moved to w/e game (whether they are MMOs or not is irrelevant).
I moved to SWTOR / GW2 / 100+ Steam games.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
Lets say this is true, 4-5 million players left WoW. So that would mean other MMO's had seen a huge increase in new accounts right? Well no they have not, many new MMOs have been struggling to stay afloat.
So maybe they are all now playing solo games? Well the solo gaming titles have not seen an enormous spike of players buying there new games.
4- 5 million players is a very big splash, so where are they?
Many went back to other MMOs they were already playing so did not generate new accounts in those games. Many players play more than one MMO and so double counting often occurs. (For you lovers of MMO stat sites, this is yet another reason why I would question the figures they give.)
Many went back to the solo games they were playing and played them more. Talk to your friends it is amazing how many players won't even play a solo game they like until the end.
Many have decided to give up MMO's and leave the genre. I know players who have done that, what is there in MMO land now to make the time they put into MMO's worthwhile?
So these figures show three things, don't totally trust figures from MMO stat sites, players are transient and more players are leaving MMO's. How many, who knows?
My son and his 6 or so close friends who played WOW for years are all pretty much playing LOL, GW2, and D3 on occasion.
I have about 10 more friends who have either stopped gaming, moved to consoles, with a few playing various games on occasions.
It is likely that no matter how many people are playing WOW right now the number of people who used to play and no longer do exceed that figure by perhaps two or three times that figure.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
What is a few million lost compared to the 35%+ loss that most other companies face. WoW is one of the more stable MMOs if not the most stable where it didn't need massive server merges. WoW IS the most successful MMO past and present and shows no signs of slowing. WoW, love it of hate it, is in fact the best MMO on the market and will continue to be the dominate MMO.
Be interesting how it will fare when Wildstar and ESO releases but that is an old age tune sung by many MMOs that have failed.
I´m playing Guild Wars 2.....
didn´t know you missed me that much :P
Oderint, dum metuant.
They're all playing "300 Heroes", who can resist a Shrek v Wall-E v Naruto matchup?
I'm going to say what WoW suffers, all MMOs suffer. It's just a matter of scale. Here is why the MMO industry is losing customers.
1. Summer. Fewer people play games in summer, they go outside.
2. Competition. Diablo 3 had like 5 million players on last week. And all the shooters and other games, etc.
3. Burnout. Many people suffer burnout from MMOs because they played them for so long. They might come back after a break.
Where are they going?
That's easy Guild Wars 2 as evidence by the rapid content updates and a constantly increasing population. Im on Anvil Rock I used to have to guest once in awhile in off hours if I was in an empty zone, now its packed pretty much all the time. Constant ques for wvw and la and southsun because that map is currently where the living story is.