Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
BBC - World of Warcraft subscribers are leaving, Activision warns
Jyiiga
Member UncommonPosts: 1,187
Subscribers to the online adventure game World of Warcraft have dropped dramatically this year, publisher Activision Blizzard has said.
The company said 14% of users left the game between January and March - a fall of 1.3 million.
Comments
I was one of those 1.3 mil. I hadn't played in some time and decided to go back and check out pandaland. I was impressed with things like how well the dungeon finder works...and even the revamp of talents. The content and lore is so boring though..and just queing up for raid after raid...meh. I think people are simply tired of wow.
Smile
I can believe that.
I actually don't think it is because of simplied or dumbing down anything.
It's just a case of "been there, done that"
While a particular raid or encounter may need to be figured out, the overall game doesn't. We've played it, we know how it works, there is no or very little to figure out, it's become old hat.
They need to change it significantly. However at this point that will likely do more dmg than good. They would be better off making a new game with new patterns to figure out... wait a minute.
I smell a potential f2p conversion coming on.
Lets face facts. Games like TERA, SW:TOR, Aion, and LOTRO were only kinda popular when they were s2p games, but once they converted to f2p, they experienced HUGE population booms. The same will happen if/when WoW converts to f2p, and right now, I think it's less of a matter of "if" than it is of "when". In fact, even if they made it b2p where players had to buy the expansion packs but not need to pay a subscription, that would create a similarly huge population boom (and might be enough to bring me back).
Since when is Tuesday a direction?
f2p doesnt typically bring players back, and brings in new people. there isnt a large pool of people who havent played WoW that will suddenly play it if its f2p.
The surprise isn't that the population has dropped. It's quite old.
The surprise is that it's taken this long and dropped by this little. Tons of MMORPGs out there dream of only losing 14% of their userbase a year after launch, let alone nearly a decade post-launch.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
http://www.speedtest.net/result/7300033012
That is in just 3 months though. The peak was 12 millions subs so its closer to 33 percent.
The 12m was a long time ago. So it took quite a while to drop 33%.
Anyways if Blizzard convert to f2p/b2p then I can safely say that P2P is dead. If WoW can't sustain a P2P model no other game can. I mean look at the market at the moment. How many P2P games are there? 3? 5? Probably no more than that.
I guess people just want to play F2P. It will take probably at least another 2-3 years for Blizzard to drop the sub unless something really dramatic happens. I mean even if WoW dropped to 500k subs it would still be worthwhile to keep the sub. So WoW needs to lose A LOT of subs for them to convert to b2p/f2p.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
First World MMORPG problems, man.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
with 8.5 million players they absolutely could sustain a p2p model, the question is do they think they could do better with f2p?
That will be the nail.
Math - according to their numbers, users dropped from about 9.2M to 7.9M.
Users - not specifically $15/mo subs, could be a big chunk of time-card types overseas, we don't know.
Oderint, dum metuant.
I didn't play WoW (tried but didn't like it) however I do know what it's like to see your class toyed with and watered down. You have my condolences.
Truth is Blizzard is doing what every other MMO Publisher is doing.... they are "Swapping Out" their old Customer Base for a newer, younger, and much bigger one. Blizzard and other MMO Publishers don't want MMO Players as Customers anymore, they want People that like to play an online game but have never played a MMO before. 100 times the Customers, less finicky and demanding, with more money to spend and no qualms spending it.
That's the real reason WoW and other MMOs are being dumbed down.
And Players wonder why some of us are pessimists about MMO Gaming.
This isn't a signature, you just think it is.
You know why we all care? Because the ONLY MMO we care about is WoW. Everyone and their dog is interested in WoW. Look at these forums. Everyone he cares about WoW only!
We have the 8m WoW players who like the game.
We have the 100m people who no longer play WoW and physically hate the game with all their being. Their life's sole purpose is to hate WoW and troll the game at every opportunity possible. They also post like 50 threads every time WoW drops 1 subscriber.
Then we have the 50m fanboys who no longer play WoW and flame the above haters. They will go to extraordinary lengths to defend WoW even though they don't play it any longer.
So to sum up, WoW is the only MMO that matters
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Oderint, dum metuant.
I don't think the Chinese will like a grind free game.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
That may be true. It'll be interesting to see how it actually does over there. I can see them getting rather competitive on the WvW side of things in lieu of the traditional grind.
Oderint, dum metuant.
The problem is that they keep adding more of the same. More dailies, more heroics, more raids, etc. People are getting tired of the same old stuff day in and day out. I like MoP, but quit because of the ridiculous daily quest grind.
They need more things like battle pets & farming; fun activities that can be fun diversions from the main gear grind.
Edit: To the poster below me: No, just no. Kung Fu Panda 1&2 are absolutely amazing films, and easily rival the very best Pixar has to offer. To say otherwise just proves you have horrible taste in film.
It's a sad day indeed when a family is too afraid of reprisals to publicly thank somebody for saving their lives.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
The crafting system is plenty grindy though...
It's a sad day indeed when a family is too afraid of reprisals to publicly thank somebody for saving their lives.