Originally posted by Albatroes I dont know why people make such silly threads when they see numbers drop from the largest mmorpg in the world. The numbers are almost the same as they were when WoW didn't update content for a year in MoP. They went up and went down....Like they have been doing.....for years.....Obviously these people making such threads haven't really played WoW and just want to start something. Yes WoD sucks and they'll probably release a new expansion next year since there's literally nothing they can do to save this one. They aren't going to go F2P when they still have 2-3 times more sub numbers than many mmorpgs combined.
Tbh those who make out the 3mill drop in 3 months as nothing, is just as bad as people who make WoW F2P threads.
They should go the buy to play route if anything, more companies are starting to see the benefits of buy to play, and personally I love it! The secret world is doing good with the buy to play and I literally do not feel obligated to play it, I can take a break without spending a dime to come back I really wish more mmorpgs would do this. I probably would play wow again even though I didnt care for it in the past if it went buy to play. Blizzard are you listening? Go buy to play!:)
I still think they have a secret project going on. Just more secret than the last because it's early in development and letting WoW ride the gravy train to the max limits.
F2P.....I'm sure it had been discussed and shot down many times. Large companies don't look too far into the future. They easily can with statistical management. But it's looking into the variable future to far to waste time on.
When I worked for Time-Warner Music, our CEOs saying was always " lets deal with the today for now ".
I m willing to bet they re going to open up some progression servers. Maybe even like it was originally. Could you imagine how many people would flock back to that. Some people don t want that, but they would destroy the so called competitors if they opened these. Nostalgia is a powerful thing.
Many WOWers dont pay every month, they play a bit after expansion and freeze account till next big update. Without big update there wont be any reason to un-freeze, plus no income from expansion pack itself. Can this trigger switch to f2p? Yes. Will it? How would I know?
It was about time for this tired old speculation on WOW going F2P to come around again. It happens at least twice a year and this has been the case for the last 11 years! Yeah, yeah, WOW is losing subs... heard it all before, many, many, many times and yet WOW cruises on as steadily as ever.
Well, our job is done here, see you all again in the topic in 2016.
Not during this expansion. Maybe in the next one if they see a big drop in subs after say 6 months. New expansions see a big jump in subs so why miss out on that.
Why would WoW go F2P with 7.1m subscribers still remaining?
I'm sorry but that is still more than every other MMORPG combined.
Going F2P isn't just a matter of sub numbers. It's also a matter of when is the right time to make the change, if they plan to. That would be before too many lose interest, and the game begins to slip into irrelevance.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Hmm, let me see. If I had a company making a billion dollars yearly (*approx. I didn't look up numbers, just quick math) when I only have to put out some average content on a bi-yearly basis, would I change it to F2P so that I had to put out appealing stuff on a regular basis so that my existing playerbase would spend in excess of $150 a year on frivolous stuff when they don't have to?
No. It's not going to happen.
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
Ofc it's going to happen, blizzard are profit driven and all the other options are expensive form their greedy point of view. Shareholders will not tolerate a 30% drop just after they released an expansion.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Why would WoW go F2P with 7.1m subscribers still remaining?
I'm sorry but that is still more than every other MMORPG combined.
They lost 3 million subs in 3 months. Now with the news that 6.2 will be the last major patch for WOD, do you seriously think people and going to stick around with no new content for the next 10-12 months till the next expansion launches. This is not 2004 , there are so many F2P games out there today its almost overwhelming.
Look at Path of Exile for example. A huge FREE expansion "The Awakening" comes out July 10th. Even Blizzard has two great F2P games, Hearthstone and HOTS. F2P has taken over. Gamers have so many options, why pay 15 dollars of month for no new content when other content is free. It's just common sense.
WoW subs usually drop after everyone races to max level and gets burned out. The next expansion, it will go back up again and rinse and repeat...
I think there just going to split the difference between F2P and pay to play.
Yes they are positioned currently in a way that they could make the free to play transition fairly easily. They already have the cosmetic shop open but why give up all the money from the subs? If people want to pay 10$ here, 20$ there for mounts, realm transfers, name changes, race changes, etc people will and the last 10 years are evidence that people will spend extra money on WoW. They are under no real pressure or have the incentive to go Free to play.
The alternate paying system is just another way to keep people playing the game longer and hopefully they will either A) start using real money to sub or purchase services and/or cosmetics from the shop.
Why would WoW go F2P with 7.1m subscribers still remaining?
I'm sorry but that is still more than every other MMORPG combined.
They lost 3 million subs in 3 months. Now with the news that 6.2 will be the last major patch for WOD, do you seriously think people and going to stick around with no new content for the next 10-12 months till the next expansion launches. This is not 2004 , there are so many F2P games out there today its almost overwhelming.
Look at Path of Exile for example. A huge FREE expansion "The Awakening" comes out July 10th. Even Blizzard has two great F2P games, Hearthstone and HOTS. F2P has taken over. Gamers have so many options, why pay 15 dollars of month for no new content when other content is free. It's just common sense.
Everytime WoW has a new release/DLc etc they numbers rise above 10 mill, after the vampires have sucked all the blood always there is a drop of or around 3 mills, WoW in the last 5-6 years have moved along those lines.
Yeah they took a full 12 months off with no new content to release an expansion everyone and their mother describes as rushed. Pray tell just how many years does Blizzard need to take off to produce an expansion that isn't half-assed?
You're really going to try an compare the rate of content release for a game that takes in a billion dollars a year to games that make a tiny fraction of that? Oh wait, SE just demonstrated they don't need to take off a year or more to get a decent expansion out the door unlike Blizzard.
Well if someone doesn't know WOW offers some of the fastest content release (if not the fastest) then certainly we should encourage they educate themselves (as I did in the earlier post.) But if they know WOW offers fast (or the fastest) content releases and still complain, then they're even whinier and (given that WOW basically charges the same as any other MMORPG) they're acting entitled without any good reason to be entitled.
Not everyone described the expansion as rushed, and the last few WOW expansions have been fine and enjoyable. The short life of successive expansions has a lot more to do with the fact that the game is completely familiar to people than the quality of those expansions.
FFXIV is a solid game, but even if their content rate was provably faster than WOW's it wouldn't change what I've said above.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
If Blizzard went with a F2P model similiar to that of SWTOR it would make sense. Hear me out. The hardcore and casual fanbase would still pay 15$ a month and nothing would change for them , maybe they would get VIP access and a few goodies in their mailbox every month. The F2P crowd would be playing a restricted version of WOW, maybe only 2 bars on the UI, less bags and bank slots, limited BGs,Arena, Auctions, gold cap, locked Transmog, etc...
So the guys who buy the expansion, burn through the content and unsub would most likely come back to check it out. Hey it's F2P, why not. Now Blizzard has nothing to lose by letting these jaded players back into the game. Some might play for a day and say , bah not interested and leave. A few might spend some cash to unlock UI, bag and bank slots , and play for a month or two, maybe spending more later on to unlock other features.
So what happens is they get some of those 3 million back and make some cash in the process. Those 3 million weren't going to sub anyways, so the ones who don't spend a dime don't hurt Blizzard, but the ones that do spend make them money.
And we all know how F2P can hook people. You spend only 5$ at first, then another 10$ a week later, and by the end of the month you already invested 30 bucks into the game. Happened to me with Hearthstone, I'm up to 100$ in that game.
Ok I'm going to chime in here. It's obvious that Blizzard is going or is already in the process of making a new game. I believe there is no doubt . WoW will eventually go free to play. The market is ripe for a new game to take over. If Blizzard can make a new type of mmorpg then its game over and the saga continues.
Why would WoW go F2P with 7.1m subscribers still remaining?
I'm sorry but that is still more than every other MMORPG combined.
^^ This, exactly. I'm beginning to wonder how many times we need to remind people of this very simple fact. Personally, I think a lot of the "WoW f2p" talk is just from folks who either don't like WoW, weren't very good at it, or both. And this is coming from someone (me) who un-subbed during MoP and has never looked back.
As far as all of the super-hyped "next big things" are concerned - games like Gw 2, ARR, WildStar, TOR - WoW still has more players than all of those games put together. And it's not that all the rest are doing poorly (except WildCrap, lol), I mean Gw 2 and ARR are evidently healthy - but they still come nowhere near WoW in terms of player base size.
Of course WoW is much-ballyhooed all over the internet and will always have its detractors, but the fact that it also has more detractors than the rest of its competition combined is also highly indicative of its health, even after all this time. Oh, it will go b2p or f2p eventually, but that day is years away yet, and perhaps not even in this decade.
"Why would I want to loose a religion upon my people? Religions wreck from within - Empires and individuals alike! It's all the same." - God Emperor of Dune
Originally posted by ceratop001 Ok I'm going to chime in here. It's obvious that Blizzard is going or is already in the process of making a new game. I believe there is no doubt . WoW will eventually go free to play. The market is ripe for a new game to take over. If Blizzard can make a new type of mmorpg then its game over and the saga continues.
I doubt it will have even remotely the same success as wow did.
Originally posted by ceratop001 Ok I'm going to chime in here. It's obvious that Blizzard is going or is already in the process of making a new game. I believe there is no doubt . WoW will eventually go free to play. The market is ripe for a new game to take over. If Blizzard can make a new type of mmorpg then its game over and the saga continues.
I doubt it will have even remotely the same success as wow did.
For any game to achieve what WoW managed to do, it would have to be very 'new' probably involving a persistent world accessed through VR tech, so, not for a while yet
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So I can safely assume you eat Mcdonalds for every meal and every other restaurant is trash because it's not as popular?
I am the Arch-fiend, the Despoiler of Worlds, and by my hands shall the false Emperor fall.
Tbh those who make out the 3mill drop in 3 months as nothing, is just as bad as people who make WoW F2P threads.
I still think they have a secret project going on. Just more secret than the last because it's early in development and letting WoW ride the gravy train to the max limits.
F2P.....I'm sure it had been discussed and shot down many times. Large companies don't look too far into the future. They easily can with statistical management. But it's looking into the variable future to far to waste time on.
When I worked for Time-Warner Music, our CEOs saying was always " lets deal with the today for now ".
It was about time for this tired old speculation on WOW going F2P to come around again. It happens at least twice a year and this has been the case for the last 11 years!
Yeah, yeah, WOW is losing subs... heard it all before, many, many, many times and yet WOW cruises on as steadily as ever.
Well, our job is done here, see you all again in the topic in 2016.
Going F2P isn't just a matter of sub numbers. It's also a matter of when is the right time to make the change, if they plan to. That would be before too many lose interest, and the game begins to slip into irrelevance.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Hmm, let me see. If I had a company making a billion dollars yearly (*approx. I didn't look up numbers, just quick math) when I only have to put out some average content on a bi-yearly basis, would I change it to F2P so that I had to put out appealing stuff on a regular basis so that my existing playerbase would spend in excess of $150 a year on frivolous stuff when they don't have to?
No. It's not going to happen.
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
I don't hate much, but I hate Apple© with a passion. If Steve Jobs was alive, I would punch him in the face.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
WoW subs usually drop after everyone races to max level and gets burned out. The next expansion, it will go back up again and rinse and repeat...
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
I think there just going to split the difference between F2P and pay to play.
Yes they are positioned currently in a way that they could make the free to play transition fairly easily. They already have the cosmetic shop open but why give up all the money from the subs? If people want to pay 10$ here, 20$ there for mounts, realm transfers, name changes, race changes, etc people will and the last 10 years are evidence that people will spend extra money on WoW. They are under no real pressure or have the incentive to go Free to play.
The alternate paying system is just another way to keep people playing the game longer and hopefully they will either A) start using real money to sub or
purchase services and/or cosmetics from the shop.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
Everytime WoW has a new release/DLc etc they numbers rise above 10 mill, after the vampires have sucked all the blood always there is a drop of or around 3 mills, WoW in the last 5-6 years have moved along those lines.
want 7 free days of playing? Try this
http://www.swtor.com/r/ZptVnY
Well if someone doesn't know WOW offers some of the fastest content release (if not the fastest) then certainly we should encourage they educate themselves (as I did in the earlier post.) But if they know WOW offers fast (or the fastest) content releases and still complain, then they're even whinier and (given that WOW basically charges the same as any other MMORPG) they're acting entitled without any good reason to be entitled.
Not everyone described the expansion as rushed, and the last few WOW expansions have been fine and enjoyable. The short life of successive expansions has a lot more to do with the fact that the game is completely familiar to people than the quality of those expansions.
FFXIV is a solid game, but even if their content rate was provably faster than WOW's it wouldn't change what I've said above.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
If Blizzard went with a F2P model similiar to that of SWTOR it would make sense. Hear me out. The hardcore and casual fanbase would still pay 15$ a month and nothing would change for them , maybe they would get VIP access and a few goodies in their mailbox every month. The F2P crowd would be playing a restricted version of WOW, maybe only 2 bars on the UI, less bags and bank slots, limited BGs,Arena, Auctions, gold cap, locked Transmog, etc...
So the guys who buy the expansion, burn through the content and unsub would most likely come back to check it out. Hey it's F2P, why not. Now Blizzard has nothing to lose by letting these jaded players back into the game. Some might play for a day and say , bah not interested and leave. A few might spend some cash to unlock UI, bag and bank slots , and play for a month or two, maybe spending more later on to unlock other features.
So what happens is they get some of those 3 million back and make some cash in the process. Those 3 million weren't going to sub anyways, so the ones who don't spend a dime don't hurt Blizzard, but the ones that do spend make them money.
And we all know how F2P can hook people. You spend only 5$ at first, then another 10$ a week later, and by the end of the month you already invested 30 bucks into the game. Happened to me with Hearthstone, I'm up to 100$ in that game.
^^ This, exactly. I'm beginning to wonder how many times we need to remind people of this very simple fact. Personally, I think a lot of the "WoW f2p" talk is just from folks who either don't like WoW, weren't very good at it, or both. And this is coming from someone (me) who un-subbed during MoP and has never looked back.
As far as all of the super-hyped "next big things" are concerned - games like Gw 2, ARR, WildStar, TOR - WoW still has more players than all of those games put together. And it's not that all the rest are doing poorly (except WildCrap, lol), I mean Gw 2 and ARR are evidently healthy - but they still come nowhere near WoW in terms of player base size.
Of course WoW is much-ballyhooed all over the internet and will always have its detractors, but the fact that it also has more detractors than the rest of its competition combined is also highly indicative of its health, even after all this time. Oh, it will go b2p or f2p eventually, but that day is years away yet, and perhaps not even in this decade.
"Why would I want to loose a religion upon my people? Religions wreck from within - Empires and individuals alike! It's all the same." - God Emperor of Dune
I doubt it will have even remotely the same success as wow did.
For any game to achieve what WoW managed to do, it would have to be very 'new' probably involving a persistent world accessed through VR tech, so, not for a while yet