Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
How does WoW bounce back from 3mil decline in subs?
OhhPaigey
Member RarePosts: 1,517
So, I'm curious what do you guys think Blizz can do to attract some more players back to the game? It's quite clear WoD was hyped, but it didn't hold enough interest than Blizzard wanted if I had to guess.
I quit for like 4 months starting in December and just came back a little bit ago, I think what they did to PvE is pretty bad, most of the hardcore raiders I know stopped playing, the #1 US guild in the game broke up and most of them raid casually/quit, a lot of top 100 guilds quit, a lot of hardcore PvPers are playing LoL or CS:GO now, and don't even bother with WoW.
I mean, it's a pretty big mess besides playing casually a few hours a night or whatever.
To me, all the expansion did was make the game easier for new players, they lowered the skill cap that PvE had with renaming difficulties and changing the way raids worked, they got rid of snapshotting which was basically the biggest factor in MoP PvE between a decent player and a good player, a bunch of the skills that weren't used often, but were optimal in a few situations are gone. You can gear without even raiding, ect.
PvP, adding all CC on like 3 different DRs, so positioning isn't nearly as important, neither is CD usage. I mean all the way up to like 2k CR is players that would've probably never been past 1600 in MoP.
Idk, there's my rant. I've played for going on 5 years now, I've been subbed for the majority of that time, but I feel like WoD has let a lot of their hardcore playerbase down, and apparently, that's 30% or more of their total players.
What's Blizzards next step with WoW in it's current state? How do they even maintain their current sub count let alone attract new ones, I hope it isn't with boring gimmicky patches and literally insane buffs like in 6.2.
--
P.S. I'm still subbed, I'm having fun PvPing on a few different classes, and it's still basically the only game I play right now, but I'm not having nearly enough fun as I was in MoP, or even Cata.
I'll probably play until the new PoE xpac, and then quit for a bit depending on how PoE goes.
Comments
I would imagine the same way they bounced back from the 5-6 million sub decline in subs last year. A new expansion, new hype...
Expecting a game to have millions of subs the market shown is very very slim. Expecting a game to maintain millions of subs is even slimmer.
The same way they always do. WoW is/was a fluke in the MMORPG scene. A combination of right things at the right time that made it wildly successful, I doubt the majority of WoW's playerbase is actually happy with the game, but they stick around, or keep coming back, because of the high population. The population stays high because a dissatisfied playerbase sticks around/keeps coming back.
It's a catch-22, simply they haven't made enough blunders, or a singularly large enough blunder, to drive away enough people to fall. It's coming though, the whole 'cross-realm zoning' thing is server merges by another name, the leveling game has dyed out to asian gold farmers, pvp twinks, alts, and returnees. Rare is the newbie to WoW these days. A constantly inflated level cap, constant ilvl and stat bloat, the tower eventually topples.
Playing: Secret World: Legends
Waiting for: Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen
That being said, I dont think Blizzard really cares all that much about WoW anymore.
Hearthstone and HotS are blowing up. When all is said and done, Hearthstone will go down as the most played online game ever surpassing LoL in a year or two. HotS is getting coverage on ESPN and will only grow larger as video games continue to become mainstream. And we still don't know of what kind of success Overwatch will have.
It reminds me back to when SWTOR was flopping just after release and they approached EA's CEO about it. He basically said he wasn't concerned with the game because that had much bigger and more important titles. I think Blizzard has the same approach here.
It doesn't bounce back, and never will...
http://www.statista.com/statistics/276601/number-of-world-of-warcraft-subscribers-by-quarter/
Steady decline since it's peak.
It's not the first time their subs have suffered from a sharp decline and probably won't be the last.
I think the Token system is probably good for the population. Though, I'm not sure how they factor that into their statistics.
The WoW population dips and rises before/after every expansion, so I don't see it as them having much of a problem. Given how flooded the market is now with MMOs and how old the game is, the amount of subs they still have is pretty amazing.
I can't comment on ways to make the game more enjoyable/seductive to the basic consumer-base though, as I haven't played the game since Cataclysm era.
I think, by now, most online gamers have already played the game and grown tired of it. So, most of their retention is just a cycle of resubscribing ex-players for each new expansion.
Seems that every expansion Blizzard releases drives off a big chunk of the playerbase in one way or another. I remember tons of people hating Cata and quitting because it dumbed down raiding/skill, etc
Dumbing things down and making things easier has been their MO for quite a long while. If it's simple and easy enough to grasp, then it's more accessible to the masses.
They do this with all their games, honestly. Anything that seems complicated or overly challenging gets removed or retouched. I think it just hurts more driving away the veteran players in a game like WoW because of how aged the game is becoming. You don't have as much new blood coming into 10+ year old games as you do with say Hearthstone/HotS, etc.
In all honesty, I think current Blizzard is kind of a sad shell of what they were in the old days. It seems like they make alot of dumb design decisions in every game these days. They have a one-track focus on simplicity instead of quality and long-term depth.
They already did through hearthstone.
The trick is not to bounce back through WoW .. after all, nothing last forever. Blizz has already a very successful card game, their MOBA and online shooter are also coming.
Somebody, somewhere has better skills as you have, more experience as you have, is smarter than you, has more friends as you do and can stay online longer. Just pray he's not out to get you.
Uhm, personally I blame garrisons for the decline, they seemed neat at first but once you see through the magic they're just a horrible daily grind. It's just so depressing to log into my garrison, they would have been so much better served with real capitol cities, such a waste to scrap them.
Having recently played FFXIV... WoW's PvE... and PvP for that matter look much better. I don't see a lot of games even trying to compete with WoW PvE wise, as you mentioned all those people leaving were not going to other MMORPGs.
Ironically I think it comes down to story. If they next expansions has a cool theme that gets people excited again I think you will see people coming back to give it another try... like always. Past performance is the best predictor of future performance.
I think it fine with what it's now.
Change nothing and keep follow what it doing still now is all the need to keep stay on the top subs game list .
Change anything just make worst .
Like somebody else said, all they have to do is release another expansion. Their number are slowly going down over time because every MMO's numbers are falling due to the glut of games on the market. With all the other stuff they have going on and seeing how WoW is still the number one game on the market, I wish I had an MMO with only 7 million subs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvbzKXsRD5E
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
Smile
A lot of people here haven't played WoW in a while/ Just want it to die but in reality blizzard can bounce back if they change their formula. The biggest issue above all else has been content pacing, everytime a patch comes it its overdue and thats a problem. People come back for the overdue patch in hope of a miracle or that maybe the next patch will come out sooner. It never does. I've been saying it for a few years now, wheres all the money going blizz?
This brings me to the other huge issue, lack of uninstanced content. The no flight experiment was a failed attempt to bandage WoWs lack of player interaction in the world or ANY interaction with the world what so ever. The average WoW player logs in right now to do their garrison and logs off. In MoP it was check your farm/dailies, log off. If you're raiding that night it was log in, check farm/dailies, raid, then log off. Where's the immersion? Though classic/BC were riddled with their own problems I was without a doubt immersed in my character. Even in WOTLK though it was primarily through quest hubs, I still felt like a part of the world.
Just take a look at their patches for the past few years. The typical patch for them includes one or multiple of the following: A daily quest area, a raid tier, dungeons. How about making crafting relevant? Ashrans world pvp was a nice attempt at something new, but it ended up like illum in swtor or tol barad before it. The timewalking dungeons is a pretty good concept and carries that nostalgia value, but why the hell are you restricting content to a specific part of the week WHEN THERE ISN'T ENOUGH CONTENT. I won't even go into the arena PvP meta right now because I haven't followed it recently, but to my knowledge that side of that playerbase hasn't been happy in a while either.
If WoW wants to bounce back they first and foremost need to bring patches out quicker. The feeling of having too much to do in a game like this is a good thing, and right now that really doesn't exist even for those who don''t play very frequently. Second, they need to vary the type of content they introduce and immerse the players again. Blizzard is known for hard instanced encounters but don't venture out into other areas of content very often. Most of their raid bosses are pretty solid, and I think making heroic/normal difficulty flexible was a good move for the PUG raiding scene. As for the hardcore mythic raiding scene, i can't think of one good reason to make the hardest difficulty 20 man instead of 10 man when high end raiding population is on a decline and that's something they should reconsider in the future but not a primary reason of why the game has lost so many subs.
TLDR: Bringing out patches faster + Immersing players again + Varying content = They can bounce back from sub loss. People are tired of logging in just to raid or just to look at a garrison/daily activity.
Played-Everything
Playing-LoL
Like they always did every expansion. As others have pointed out, not only have they made enough profit from WoW (and will probably continue to do so for a very LONG time), they already have HOTS and Hearthstone in the cards, with Overwatch following close behind. Diablo 3 xpacs as well.
TBH, I think Blizzard would happily replace WoW with another smaller, just as profitable yet easier to maintain and update *cough* hearthstone *cough* but since WoW still have the population of a small nation, they'll milk it dry, like every good business out there would do.
Oh don't forget the movie. It could be the worse movie in the world but you know it will be a box office mega hit.
When all else fail...Warcraft 4.
Imho WoW is doing more than fine, i would say superb. Considering its a 10 years game which by its own is a huge minus, with aged graphics, boring combat and questing, non existent professions, retarded talent trees, no max lvl char progression, no housing etc etc i think its in superb condition both as it concerns subs and incomes.
Btw they also need one more thing. Announce a new expansion. Hype will start again, ppl will coming back to prepare their accounts, back to 9-10m after launch and the same posts like this after 3-4 months. Thats how is WoW today and how will be for a long time more.
All Time Favorites: EQ1, WoW, EvE, GW1
Playing Now: WoW, ESO, GW2
They will wait for more game developers to create more garbage. Laugh, as these idiots try to promote their garbage ideas with their garbage games. Then, they will release another expansion. The majority of money will go into Sales & Marketing, leaving very little for the actual product. The ideas that will be pushed and created will be things that help support the Sales & Marketing, ensuring that every idea that see's fruition has no bearing with actual game play and the players needs.
Everyone will buy the expansion, because there simply isn't a better alternative.
The cycle continues.
WoD changed the game too radically. They gutted crafting and gathering. Took out flying. Removed too many skills. Ashran was a mess. Garrison implementation wasn't as expected for many, etc.. 6.1 was disappointing. 6.2 doesn't look any better, and more of a rehash patch.
The game is 10 years old, and people are just bored of it. Another expansion will bring players back, but it's inevitable that WoW will keep declining if it stays the course.
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
Wish it were on it's way out....but people will not learn or move on.
Same way people here will not stop creating nonsense threads just to see their words on screen...but hey....
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to. Relax....."
Many ways to bounce back, but keeping the players after that is much harder job, the move on taking away flying mounts on new xpack and any other xpack after that, is not going help the numbers even more, for me what killed it was to much push for ranking system in pvp that needed groups play with the right spec, if you was the class needed, was to unbalance system.
And that was not only reason but it was a big push away from the game for me.
It doesn't have to bounce back. They're still the most popular and likely profitable MMO out there. Most influx of subs are probably old players coming back for big updates and then leaving again to do other stuff once they're done with the content.
I don't know how many people are actively "playing" it anymore in comparison to using at as a social messenger with 3d graphics. Many people have invested so much money and time in the game that they feel like they can't leave or don't want to leave because of it. In addition to friendships they made and what not. For them it was a huge part of their life growing up and discovering MMOs.
I get on Steam just because I have friends on there not necessarily because I want to play games at that immediate moment. I use it more as a messenger than anything and it just so happens that if I do want to play a game everything is right there easily accessible. I think it's the same with WoW.