Vyava, you made some good points and i can respect that. If Lineage 1 is indead a bigger revenue maker it is cause of its success in the east because it most certainly isnt successfull here. If we have this same discussion in 6 months im pretty sure WoW will have continued to grow. It has not only taken players from other games but created new players.
I dont sit here and claim that WoW is perfect, never have i in this entire thread. They have as frequent patch and content updates as any other mmorpg out there. Yes i have played a warrior, but no i have no played a warlock. You might find alot of bugs on a forum, but the average player runs into bugs very infrequently, and the game stopping ones are dealt with the minute they are found. Overall i don't see any more problems with this title than any other.
To completely dismiss WoW's popularity as merely a clever add campaign that bridged the downtime is foolish. Timing and ads may have gotten people to try WoW, but you and i both know that if it sucked people would have left. Instead, they told their friends, and they came in droves. Everquest 2 had quite the opposite effect.
Your exactly right, Customer service sucks in every game. In fact, customer service sucks in every area of life. Every company would rather spend their profits on training the people that talk you out of your money, not the ones that fix your problems, its a fact of life.
My assumptions on the age and maturity levels of the WoW player demographic is no more skewed than yours. You would have me believe that a certain Game exists with a player base of all 40 year olds. I will give you that certain game types appeal to different crowds, but ultimately, all ages enjoy fun. If fun is there, people, both kids and adults will show up and pay. I also think that an important thing to consider, is that the advent of proggies like vent and team speak have made the age differences alot more obvious. When i played Eq we communicated in type, and someone's age was not always so apparent. Times have changed, and the pipsqueeks stand out like sore thumbs. But i ran into them in every other game i have played since EQ.
This post was never to convince people who hate wow to start liking it. Its here for people scouring these pages for a game to play. Say whatever you want about wow, but it is the best option out there.
Originally posted by Echorox Overall i don't see any more problems with this title than any other.*I do, but i think a large numebr were from a rush to release...but i loved the hunter talents in beta!*To completely dismiss WoW's popularity as merely a clever add campaign that bridged the downtime is foolish. Timing and ads may have gotten people to try WoW, but you and i both know that if it sucked people would have left. Instead, they told their friends, and they came in droves. Everquest 2 had quite the opposite effect.*hehe I find it ironic one guild that i used to run ZG with left WoW for EQ2. But if you ever read teh Economist then you should note that the "total number of subscribers" lists those who have an inactive account, including those gold sellers shut down. Advertising is a numbers game ppl play without quite lying. Now that isn't to say WoW doesn't have its great parts either. Some of the stories and diaglog in quest chains are amazingly great, especially the Badlands as horde. (flash back to the new Coke ads)*Your exactly right, Customer service sucks in every game. In fact, customer service sucks in every area of life. Every company would rather spend their profits on training the people that talk you out of your money, not the ones that fix your problems, its a fact of life.*Ahmen, sucks doesn't it?*My assumptions on the age and maturity levels of the WoW player demographic is no more skewed than yours. You would have me believe that a certain Game exists with a player base of all 40 year olds. I will give you that certain game types appeal to different crowds, but ultimately, all ages enjoy fun. *all ages and equal distribution are differnt things, but like i said: age isn't the big facto, action is (aka maturity). I spent a lot of time on lightninghoof when it was released playing in a guild with primarily 16-18 year old with 4 of us over 20. Loved my time there, if the guild was still intact I would most likely still be playng there, but instead a roommate is playing my account. Age isn't a deciding factor in a community feel, was just stating WoW has a large chunk under 20. EvE has a large chunk over 20, but it isn't a lot more mature in 0.0 non-corp areas...* If fun is there, people, both kids and adults will show up and pay. I also think that an important thing to consider, is that the advent of proggies like vent and team speak have made the age differences alot more obvious. When i played Eq we communicated in type, and someone's age was not always so apparent. Times have changed, and the pipsqueeks stand out like sore thumbs. But i ran into them in every other game i have played since EQ. This post was never to convince people who hate wow to start liking it. Its here for people scouring these pages for a game to play. Say whatever you want about wow, but it is the best option out there.
PS: I liked WoW, and a lot. 60 druid, warrior, lock, hunter, and mage on various PvP and RP-PvP servers. It is dying off in my eyes for one reason, it became the "World of 1 shotting" and now is normalizing things, BUT the issue that was supposed to fix remains...
the only reason i flame is because WoW lies so much!!!!!!!i bought the game cause i played WC3 and they were all like yay man this whole horde vs alliance war will be awesome!!!!! sure lvling is fun..... and bgs get bORING REALING FAST.
but the thing is that end game its boring as heck!!! yay let me try to get with 39 other people who have no life and play 24/7 to help me farm and grind for gear through PvE processes for a game that had a logo stating hey come play our CASUAL FRIENDY WARcraft game guys!!!!!!
thats why i think wow blows especially when its like one of the most richest and most played games in the world which has a suggestions forums that is never ever visited by blizz......
but the thing is that end game its boring as heck!!! yay let me try to get with 39 other people who have no life and play 24/7 to help me farm and grind for gear through PvE processes for a game that had a logo stating hey come play our CASUAL FRIENDY WARcraft game guys!!!!!! Your Absolutely Right Mystic.. thats why i think wow blows especially when its like one of the most richest and most played games in the world which has a suggestions forums that is never ever visited by blizz...... And once again
My time with WoW started on Nov 2004 and ended on Janurary 2006. I woke up and found myself in a huge melting pot with many others, raiding for items and gear just to get my character uberized and stand in a QUE line to get into the BG's to grind for faction and to get into pvp mode.
I started to bore of the same quests, same areas, rolling different toons (alliance and horde) and the QUE lines to get into the game. The QUE lines were the icing on the cake for me to get the hell out and try something more challenging.
WoW is great, if your new to the game, if your a veteran, the excitement is gone once you hit level 60 for the 5th time (LOL).
Dang, WoW was stale after 4 months the first time, then about 2 the next. Such a polished game, such a great potential to be awsome... and somehow it all falls short with the communtity of n00blets the icining on the cake. That right little Jimmy, you don't have to cast Arcan Intellect on anyone but yourself... becaus you are the only class that benifits from increased Intellect >< Serious folks, lets have a real game come out agian.
I agree sadly WoW is the best on the market currently and I agree that this game has pushed other games worthy of notice off the shelves unfortunately. I do have this to say while I don't have a ton of experience compared to some in MMO's I have played 4 in the past 3 years. And of all 4 WoW has been by far the worst in service. MMO customer service as a whole is usually pretty poor but Blizzard takes it to a whole new level.
All the problems you listed are serious flaws in the game. Reasons enough that have made me want to throw up my arms more and more often lately and quit. I think why it bothers so many (myself included) is because Blizzard at one time was a great company that made quality games.
1. ) The servers are so pathetic.. I'm no IT but it's common sense that this has been an issue since launch. We're pushing 2 years now and no improvements have been made just empty promises. With the numbers this game is sadly pulling you would think if they had any intention of fixing it, it would have been fixed by now. As long as the 6 million people keep flocking to their shotty service why should they? I don't mind maintenance, login issues, ques or anything else of the like but when it's a nearly every day thing and no improvements have been made since day one... I really have to question how stupid we the consumers are.
2. ) Balancing The balancing in pvp and the balance between melee and casters in general is just mind boggling. It's like Blizzard said well we have to have caster classes but lets give them the bare minimum. (i.e. Two melee legendaries in the game with Ashbringer also on the table yet only now is the mere possibility of a legendary caster item even on the table.)
3.) Patching is just sad.. Issues unresolved for weeks at a time in some cases. Drastic changes (especially in 1.10) I am in a raiding guild this does not even effect me anymore. But it's rather sad after almost 2 years of people raiding Strath/Scholo ect they now decide to change it. Rather poor call if you ask me. Blizzard really took the lazy route with the .5 armor. You have to revisit the exact same places you got the original armor from? Not to mention just overall gap of time in patching and information.
There is NO best MMORPG out there yet, not WoW not EVE not GW not FFXI not not not and so on, each one of these games offer a different gameplay and style, different content, the only thing that they have similarities in is the concept, if a game evolves around PVP, then you'll see lack of PVE ( for the exception of two games, EVE and DAOC ), if the game evolves around PVE, then you'll see lack of PVP ( with the exception of EVE and DAOC again )
because these two games offer the best PVP and best PVE experience i've ever seen in all MMOs i've played and saw and watched or heared about.
so basically, there's no best MMO, there's style and taste, and people are so different in these two fields, right?
Originally posted by Drachonis Dang, WoW was stale after 4 months the first time, then about 2 the next. Such a polished game, such a great potential to be awsome...
It is very good, but things like the queues are a very bad idea. Blizzard is making quite a bit of money off this game, they could at least invest in there hardware a bit.
Actually WoW IS plagued by everything you listed. Once some fresh names get out that were done right WoW will start to drop. I'd already assume that WoW's Quitters to Noob ratio is steadily changing. I already wrote a big lengthy post about what would happen to WoW but I'll repeat myself to enlighten those of you who may not have seen it.
WoW will start losing subscribers soon, Blizzard knows this, hence they made the "Event" for Ahn'Qiraj to drag out the time before it opens. Why? Because once those items from Ahn'Qiraj get into circulation you'll be seeing more of your PvPers quit. Not only PvPers, but players who just don't enjoy raiding and casual players as well. You may be asking again 'Why?' Because, looking through the new items that were introduced with Ahn'Qiraj they are unbelievably strong compared to Molten Core epics. Players will begin to realize that if they do not raid, they are a second class citizen and are completely obsolete. Raiders are always the best Crafters, PvPers and PvErs out there because of the items they get from raiding. With raiding they get crafting formulas and materials that non-raiders can not get, making them have much larger profit margins and with far more ease.
WoW's monstrous playerbase is only because the company who made it is Blizzard, and many of their players are first time MMO players from other Blizzard games. These players among many others like casuals, pvpers and crafters will see that the grass is greener in other games, that their play style is more accepted in other games instead of being FORCED to raid to be efficient at anything else that isn't raiding in the game.
After these two waves leave (Though it possibly may conjoin into one major wave) you'll be left with raiders playing the game. The second wave here-in begins. You'll begin seeing raiders who were only in it for the items begin to quit. The easy targets that were once bountiful in the battlegrounds (and open field in case of PvP servers) will be a nearly extinct breed. The advantage they "worked" so "hard" for will be completely gone as they will be facing mostly other people with raiding gear with all the non-raiders vanishing. They'll become frustrated that all their "hard work" is flushed down the toilet because their play things got sick of being toyed with and look for a new game to begin again.
Next you'll be left with your hardcore carebear type. The kind of freak who actually enjoys sitting there for 8 hours facing a faulty artificial intelligence that's PROGRAMMED TO LOSE TO YOU EVENTUALLY. From what I've seen generally these guys only take up 20% of the population or so. 20% of WoW's current population is in no way capable of paying for all the servers WoW has currently, they will have to merge servers which will cause all sorts of problems, players being seperated from their guilds and friends by bugs, characters accidentally getting deleted, etc. A small portion of the remaining population will probably quit to this, but the big loss is yet to come if Blizzard keeps going the route it is right now.
Blizzard will begin panicing when it's far too late, they'll begin pumping out massive amounts of content for non raiding players, it'll be rushed and way too easy in a vain attempt to drag players back to their game. Sadly by this time many of their ex players will be addicted to new games and will not even give WoW a second look. The changes to the game will leave the Raiders without new content, and also infuriate them that there are items of raiding equivelency basically being given away to non raiding players, a good deal will likely quit the game out of boredom from lack of content, or frustration from people just getting "free epics" while they had to "work" for theirs.
"Your mom is my champion... just without the c... or the a... or the m... the p... the i... and now that you mention it, no, no n either."
Jargonecius, you couldnt be more wrong. If your trying to say that WoW won't be the most popular mmorpg on the market forever, sure ill agree with that, but your doomsday scenario where suddenly all 5mil people just get up and leave is ridiculous. The only thing that will take away WoW's subs is a better game, and that has yet to come around. Why do you think so many of the so called quitters return to the game a month later? Its because there is nothing else out there that can keep their attention for more than a month. All of which backs up my original statement, Wow is the best game out period. You can argue that it is only the best because all games suck, fine, but that doesn't change the truthfullness of the statement.
Oh, and btw, wait till you see the big pile of money Blizzard makes on the xpansion. I hope you will come back to this post and create an all new doomsday forecast for the game.
Originally posted by Echorox The only thing that will take away WoW's subs is a better game, and that has yet to come around. 1. Why do you think so many of the so called quitters return to the game a month later? Its because there is nothing else out there that can keep their attention for more than a month. 2.All of which backs up my original statement, Wow is the best game out period. You can argue that it is only the best because all games suck, fine, but that doesn't change the truthfullness of the statement.3. Oh, and btw, wait till you see the big pile of money Blizzard makes on the xpansion. I hope you will come back to this post and create an all new doomsday forecast for the game.
1. Players still ahve hope WoW will become what was promised, but if the game is so good why do the so called quitters leave again? consistently
2. WoW is the biggest game out now because a lot of bad games are out there, but that doesn't make it the best by default. Most of the players I did raids and such with on Lightninghoof are eagerly waiting for NWN2 and ditching WoW asap after release, common on all of the RP realms actually. Since L2 has cut down on a lot of the botting and made low level grinding easier it is a better PVE and PVP game now than WoW is, but WoW has the advertising budget and eye level display at Best Buy and CompUSA. WoW is the first MMO for a lot of the players of which most only heard of games like EQ from the news and have a twisted view of them as only for geeks and addicts. Just look at the number of "WoW was my first MMO, I am trying to find a good one now" threads across all of the various game forums.
3. BTW: you do know that WoW's listed subscriber base includes all character for all serial numbers registered? That is including player that have multiple characters (very common) and those who are no longer subscribed (also very common). So, while it is the largest game in NA right now, the numbers are inflated. Which isn't to say all MMO population numbers are inflated, I assume they are, but WoW isn't as big as people think it is and the "growth rate" isn't necessary as positive as people think it is. But, it is about making it look good to investors.
Originally posted by DuraheLL Not in my eyes. It's just another one of those "kids" games. Why? Cus you have that extreme awarding and confirming feeling in the game, I don't need that kind of confirmation, I can find it myself.
i think somebody needs to lay off the splenda and take a nice long nap : /
Even if wows numbers are enhanced by 20 pct, it could turn a profit with only 800k subs...so that doesn't really affect your doomsday scenario. Ya, people who come back often quit again. Much the same way it takes 2 or 3 times to finally break up with a really good girlfriend. The point is, they are coming back over and over again despite how they feel about the game because they desperately want to play something and nothing else out there is any good. Lineage sucks. I want to make that point because you continually bring it up in your posts and I think you are the only one on this side of the ocean that doesn't think it sucks hardcore. Theres not a problem that WoW has that lineage doesn't share as well and to make it worse, they are an asian MMO which means GRIND to the 5th degree with little or no options in character development. Why do you defend all the bugs and bs that lineage puts out but so eagerly piss on Blizzard?
I am personally having a great time playing WoW. I have been there off and on for over a year and if I suddenly decide to quit tomorrow how could i possibly say its a shitty game when it held my attention for so long? And Btw...i don't have any of these so called problems that i see others here having loggin in. I'm not saying it doesnt exist, but except for patch day, i always log in straight away and play for a couple hours every day.
Yes, WoW is the best current MMO. That doesn't mean that it doesn't have it's rough edges, and it doesn't invalidate any detractors claims.
- PvP is unbalanced in the level 60 bracket on many realms because you have Horde in blues and greens going up against Alliance hardcore raiders in epics
- The paladin class is fantastically horrible while the shaman class is amazingly good (I have both, by the way)
- Aside from PvP there isn't much content at end game for casual and/or solo players that doesn't involve the exact kind of content that Blizzard swore they wouldn't implement (ungodly long and tedious killing grinds for faction, for example)
WOW is the best marketing MMORPG so it seems or they claim...(like someone mentioned, they included all the inactive accounts, possibiliy included trial accounts who never came back again too)
WOW is NOT the best MMORPG out there(ugly characters, mindless boring grinding, carebear "pvp" I don't even see it as real pvp), end of the story!
Yup. I agree. Was going to post something along this lines myself. Currently, it is the best. I have gone back and tried my EQ, EQ2, CoH, AO, and DAoC accounts for a bit over the past year. They have all come up short when compared to WoW. They are still the great games they were back when they were new. But, WoW has surpassed them all. I am sure a better game than WoW will come along (DDO is *certainly* not it!). But, until then, I am really happy with WoW.
In the current state of mmorpgs not one can claim to be the best mmorpg available, this is because every single mmorpg to date offers gameplay which caters a narrow group of players. World of warcraft is no different.
World of warcraft is about hardcore pve achivement where the time you spend on line doing the correct grind is the way you improve your status in the world. It's based on guild-content so you will need to join a guild that is able to supply you with 19/39 "friends" all lined up at their computers and on ventrilo several nights a week.
World of warcraft does however not cater pvp players who want to progress through pvp only, small casual guilds, exploreres, roleplayers who wish to build their own comunity/rules nor players who want playerskill and not timespend to be what matters. Many of these players go for other games like the ever growing eve-online because that is a better choice of mmorpg for those player types.
You can say that world of warcraft is popular of course, in fact it's the most popular mmorpg in Europe/America but popularity does not allways equal quaility. As an example there are mmorpgs in Asia who have more subscripers in a single country than world of warcraft does world wide, those games do however not attract a lot of players from our part of the world.
In my book a mmorpg can't be the best choice on the market untill it strives to create good and entertaining gameplay to all player types and world of warcraft simply doesn't do that. Even the very core of the gameplay it offers is a little flawed because though the pve achivement system is the best ever made it's still only available a limited time every week. If your guild is only does BWL and is capable of doing it in 5 hours then you'll only get 5 hours of pve achivement available every week and a good pve game simply shouldn't be restricted to 5 hours a week.
Comments
Vyava, you made some good points and i can respect that. If Lineage 1 is indead a bigger revenue maker it is cause of its success in the east because it most certainly isnt successfull here. If we have this same discussion in 6 months im pretty sure WoW will have continued to grow. It has not only taken players from other games but created new players.
I dont sit here and claim that WoW is perfect, never have i in this entire thread. They have as frequent patch and content updates as any other mmorpg out there. Yes i have played a warrior, but no i have no played a warlock. You might find alot of bugs on a forum, but the average player runs into bugs very infrequently, and the game stopping ones are dealt with the minute they are found. Overall i don't see any more problems with this title than any other.
To completely dismiss WoW's popularity as merely a clever add campaign that bridged the downtime is foolish. Timing and ads may have gotten people to try WoW, but you and i both know that if it sucked people would have left. Instead, they told their friends, and they came in droves. Everquest 2 had quite the opposite effect.
Your exactly right, Customer service sucks in every game. In fact, customer service sucks in every area of life. Every company would rather spend their profits on training the people that talk you out of your money, not the ones that fix your problems, its a fact of life.
My assumptions on the age and maturity levels of the WoW player demographic is no more skewed than yours. You would have me believe that a certain Game exists with a player base of all 40 year olds. I will give you that certain game types appeal to different crowds, but ultimately, all ages enjoy fun. If fun is there, people, both kids and adults will show up and pay. I also think that an important thing to consider, is that the advent of proggies like vent and team speak have made the age differences alot more obvious. When i played Eq we communicated in type, and someone's age was not always so apparent. Times have changed, and the pipsqueeks stand out like sore thumbs. But i ran into them in every other game i have played since EQ.
This post was never to convince people who hate wow to start liking it. Its here for people scouring these pages for a game to play. Say whatever you want about wow, but it is the best option out there.
PS: I liked WoW, and a lot. 60 druid, warrior, lock, hunter, and mage on various PvP and RP-PvP servers. It is dying off in my eyes for one reason, it became the "World of 1 shotting" and now is normalizing things, BUT the issue that was supposed to fix remains...
expecialy if there is a monthly fee
Guild - http://lightness.goodforum.net/
Blog - http://www.pierrecarlier.com/
the only reason i flame is because WoW lies so much!!!!!!!i bought the game cause i played WC3 and they were all like yay man this whole horde vs alliance war will be awesome!!!!! sure lvling is fun..... and bgs get bORING REALING FAST.
but the thing is that end game its boring as heck!!! yay let me try to get with 39 other people who have no life and play 24/7 to help me farm and grind for gear through PvE processes for a game that had a logo stating hey come play our CASUAL FRIENDY WARcraft game guys!!!!!!
thats why i think wow blows especially when its like one of the most richest and most played games in the world which has a suggestions forums that is never ever visited by blizz......
My time with WoW started on Nov 2004 and ended on Janurary 2006. I woke up and found myself in a huge melting pot with many others, raiding for items and gear just to get my character uberized and stand in a QUE line to get into the BG's to grind for faction and to get into pvp mode.
I started to bore of the same quests, same areas, rolling different toons (alliance and horde) and the QUE lines to get into the game. The QUE lines were the icing on the cake for me to get the hell out and try something more challenging.
WoW is great, if your new to the game, if your a veteran, the excitement is gone once you hit level 60 for the 5th time (LOL).
I agree sadly WoW is the best on the market currently and I agree that this game has pushed other games worthy of notice off the shelves unfortunately. I do have this to say while I don't have a ton of experience compared to some in MMO's I have played 4 in the past 3 years. And of all 4 WoW has been by far the worst in service. MMO customer service as a whole is usually pretty poor but Blizzard takes it to a whole new level.
All the problems you listed are serious flaws in the game. Reasons enough that have made me want to throw up my arms more and more often lately and quit. I think why it bothers so many (myself included) is because Blizzard at one time was a great company that made quality games.
1. ) The servers are so pathetic.. I'm no IT but it's common sense that this has been an issue since launch. We're pushing 2 years now and no improvements have been made just empty promises. With the numbers this game is sadly pulling you would think if they had any intention of fixing it, it would have been fixed by now. As long as the 6 million people keep flocking to their shotty service why should they? I don't mind maintenance, login issues, ques or anything else of the like but when it's a nearly every day thing and no improvements have been made since day one... I really have to question how stupid we the consumers are.
2. ) Balancing The balancing in pvp and the balance between melee and casters in general is just mind boggling. It's like Blizzard said well we have to have caster classes but lets give them the bare minimum. (i.e. Two melee legendaries in the game with Ashbringer also on the table yet only now is the mere possibility of a legendary caster item even on the table.)
3.) Patching is just sad.. Issues unresolved for weeks at a time in some cases. Drastic changes (especially in 1.10) I am in a raiding guild this does not even effect me anymore. But it's rather sad after almost 2 years of people raiding Strath/Scholo ect they now decide to change it. Rather poor call if you ask me. Blizzard really took the lazy route with the .5 armor. You have to revisit the exact same places you got the original armor from? Not to mention just overall gap of time in patching and information.
There is NO best MMORPG out there yet, not WoW not EVE not GW not FFXI not not not and so on, each one of these games offer a different gameplay and style, different content, the only thing that they have similarities in is the concept, if a game evolves around PVP, then you'll see lack of PVE ( for the exception of two games, EVE and DAOC ), if the game evolves around PVE, then you'll see lack of PVP ( with the exception of EVE and DAOC again )
because these two games offer the best PVP and best PVE experience i've ever seen in all MMOs i've played and saw and watched or heared about.
so basically, there's no best MMO, there's style and taste, and people are so different in these two fields, right?
Actually WoW IS plagued by everything you listed. Once some fresh names get out that were done right WoW will start to drop. I'd already assume that WoW's Quitters to Noob ratio is steadily changing. I already wrote a big lengthy post about what would happen to WoW but I'll repeat myself to enlighten those of you who may not have seen it.
WoW will start losing subscribers soon, Blizzard knows this, hence they made the "Event" for Ahn'Qiraj to drag out the time before it opens. Why? Because once those items from Ahn'Qiraj get into circulation you'll be seeing more of your PvPers quit. Not only PvPers, but players who just don't enjoy raiding and casual players as well. You may be asking again 'Why?' Because, looking through the new items that were introduced with Ahn'Qiraj they are unbelievably strong compared to Molten Core epics. Players will begin to realize that if they do not raid, they are a second class citizen and are completely obsolete. Raiders are always the best Crafters, PvPers and PvErs out there because of the items they get from raiding. With raiding they get crafting formulas and materials that non-raiders can not get, making them have much larger profit margins and with far more ease.
WoW's monstrous playerbase is only because the company who made it is Blizzard, and many of their players are first time MMO players from other Blizzard games. These players among many others like casuals, pvpers and crafters will see that the grass is greener in other games, that their play style is more accepted in other games instead of being FORCED to raid to be efficient at anything else that isn't raiding in the game.
After these two waves leave (Though it possibly may conjoin into one major wave) you'll be left with raiders playing the game. The second wave here-in begins. You'll begin seeing raiders who were only in it for the items begin to quit. The easy targets that were once bountiful in the battlegrounds (and open field in case of PvP servers) will be a nearly extinct breed. The advantage they "worked" so "hard" for will be completely gone as they will be facing mostly other people with raiding gear with all the non-raiders vanishing. They'll become frustrated that all their "hard work" is flushed down the toilet because their play things got sick of being toyed with and look for a new game to begin again.
Next you'll be left with your hardcore carebear type. The kind of freak who actually enjoys sitting there for 8 hours facing a faulty artificial intelligence that's PROGRAMMED TO LOSE TO YOU EVENTUALLY. From what I've seen generally these guys only take up 20% of the population or so. 20% of WoW's current population is in no way capable of paying for all the servers WoW has currently, they will have to merge servers which will cause all sorts of problems, players being seperated from their guilds and friends by bugs, characters accidentally getting deleted, etc. A small portion of the remaining population will probably quit to this, but the big loss is yet to come if Blizzard keeps going the route it is right now.
Blizzard will begin panicing when it's far too late, they'll begin pumping out massive amounts of content for non raiding players, it'll be rushed and way too easy in a vain attempt to drag players back to their game. Sadly by this time many of their ex players will be addicted to new games and will not even give WoW a second look. The changes to the game will leave the Raiders without new content, and also infuriate them that there are items of raiding equivelency basically being given away to non raiding players, a good deal will likely quit the game out of boredom from lack of content, or frustration from people just getting "free epics" while they had to "work" for theirs.
"Your mom is my champion... just without the c... or the a... or the m... the p... the i... and now that you mention it, no, no n either."
Jargonecius, you couldnt be more wrong. If your trying to say that WoW won't be the most popular mmorpg on the market forever, sure ill agree with that, but your doomsday scenario where suddenly all 5mil people just get up and leave is ridiculous. The only thing that will take away WoW's subs is a better game, and that has yet to come around. Why do you think so many of the so called quitters return to the game a month later? Its because there is nothing else out there that can keep their attention for more than a month. All of which backs up my original statement, Wow is the best game out period. You can argue that it is only the best because all games suck, fine, but that doesn't change the truthfullness of the statement.
Oh, and btw, wait till you see the big pile of money Blizzard makes on the xpansion. I hope you will come back to this post and create an all new doomsday forecast for the game.
1. Players still ahve hope WoW will become what was promised, but if the game is so good why do the so called quitters leave again? consistently
2. WoW is the biggest game out now because a lot of bad games are out there, but that doesn't make it the best by default. Most of the players I did raids and such with on Lightninghoof are eagerly waiting for NWN2 and ditching WoW asap after release, common on all of the RP realms actually. Since L2 has cut down on a lot of the botting and made low level grinding easier it is a better PVE and PVP game now than WoW is, but WoW has the advertising budget and eye level display at Best Buy and CompUSA. WoW is the first MMO for a lot of the players of which most only heard of games like EQ from the news and have a twisted view of them as only for geeks and addicts. Just look at the number of "WoW was my first MMO, I am trying to find a good one now" threads across all of the various game forums.
3. BTW: you do know that WoW's listed subscriber base includes all character for all serial numbers registered? That is including player that have multiple characters (very common) and those who are no longer subscribed (also very common). So, while it is the largest game in NA right now, the numbers are inflated. Which isn't to say all MMO population numbers are inflated, I assume they are, but WoW isn't as big as people think it is and the "growth rate" isn't necessary as positive as people think it is. But, it is about making it look good to investors.
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Even if wows numbers are enhanced by 20 pct, it could turn a profit with only 800k subs...so that doesn't really affect your doomsday scenario. Ya, people who come back often quit again. Much the same way it takes 2 or 3 times to finally break up with a really good girlfriend. The point is, they are coming back over and over again despite how they feel about the game because they desperately want to play something and nothing else out there is any good. Lineage sucks. I want to make that point because you continually bring it up in your posts and I think you are the only one on this side of the ocean that doesn't think it sucks hardcore. Theres not a problem that WoW has that lineage doesn't share as well and to make it worse, they are an asian MMO which means GRIND to the 5th degree with little or no options in character development. Why do you defend all the bugs and bs that lineage puts out but so eagerly piss on Blizzard?
I am personally having a great time playing WoW. I have been there off and on for over a year and if I suddenly decide to quit tomorrow how could i possibly say its a shitty game when it held my attention for so long? And Btw...i don't have any of these so called problems that i see others here having loggin in. I'm not saying it doesnt exist, but except for patch day, i always log in straight away and play for a couple hours every day.
- PvP is unbalanced in the level 60 bracket on many realms because you have Horde in blues and greens going up against Alliance hardcore raiders in epics
- The paladin class is fantastically horrible while the shaman class is amazingly good (I have both, by the way)
- Aside from PvP there isn't much content at end game for casual and/or solo players that doesn't involve the exact kind of content that Blizzard swore they wouldn't implement (ungodly long and tedious killing grinds for faction, for example)
But yes, it's the best.
WOW is the best marketing MMORPG so it seems or they claim...(like someone mentioned, they included all the inactive accounts, possibiliy included trial accounts who never came back again too)
WOW is NOT the best MMORPG out there(ugly characters, mindless boring grinding, carebear "pvp" I don't even see it as real pvp), end of the story!
World of warcraft is about hardcore pve achivement where the time you spend on line doing the correct grind is the way you improve your status in the world. It's based on guild-content so you will need to join a guild that is able to supply you with 19/39 "friends" all lined up at their computers and on ventrilo several nights a week.
World of warcraft does however not cater pvp players who want to progress through pvp only, small casual guilds, exploreres, roleplayers who wish to build their own comunity/rules nor players who want playerskill and not timespend to be what matters. Many of these players go for other games like the ever growing eve-online because that is a better choice of mmorpg for those player types.
You can say that world of warcraft is popular of course, in fact it's the most popular mmorpg in Europe/America but popularity does not allways equal quaility. As an example there are mmorpgs in Asia who have more subscripers in a single country than world of warcraft does world wide, those games do however not attract a lot of players from our part of the world.
In my book a mmorpg can't be the best choice on the market untill it strives to create good and entertaining gameplay to all player types and world of warcraft simply doesn't do that. Even the very core of the gameplay it offers is a little flawed because though the pve achivement system is the best ever made it's still only available a limited time every week. If your guild is only does BWL and is capable of doing it in 5 hours then you'll only get 5 hours of pve achivement available every week and a good pve game simply shouldn't be restricted to 5 hours a week.