Why are people obsessed about sub numbers?

[Deleted]

I don't get it. I enjoy wow. I'd enjoy wow with a billion subs, and I'd enjoy it with whatever amount is the lowest needed to keep it going and still produce new content every once in a while.

To the people constantly focused on this issue and the changes WoD might or might not bring, what's the deal?

[Deathgoose]

I have to admit, I thought this was going to be about the rogue spec to the right of middle.

Now I feel silly.

[lawow74]

It's WoW. It's all about the numbers(see link in my sig). Plus, like the man said, the only thing people love more than a hero is to watch a hero fall.

[Bathory]

I understand wanting to know how the game is doing, but yeah, people have a strange, and seemingly unhealthy obsession with the numbers. It seems those who want it to fail, salivate at any drop in numbers, and must make it known to everyone else (usually in triplicate)

[checking facts]

2 types of people think about sub numbers:

1 - ex-girlfriend stalker types that quit WoW because they felt WoW "abandoned" them by changing into something they didn't like, but still follow it around on the internet because they want to be there when it gets screwed just to give themselves an ego boost.

2 - people who worry that lower sub numbers mean they'll have fewer people to play with, dead realms, higher queues, etc.

EDIT: actually, there's one more type:

3 - the e-peen stroker that wants high sub count in order to tell everybody that their game is the best around.

[MoanaLisa]

Moved to General Discussions from Warlords of Draenor forum.

[thelightthatstrays]

They are a partial reflection of the revenue the game is generating. The revenue the game is generating dictates the development it will see and the direction it will be going.

How ready is everyone for those shocking fourth quarter numbers to come out?

[Spoonman]

well i belive more subs equal more content? As more cash means more output?

[greysaber]

a lot of people enjoy watching giants come crashing down. most of the people obsessed with subscription numbers are people that can't wait to see wow fail.

i used to be one of them. now, i don't really care, i'd play wow if there were only 50 people on my server.

[Aus Nate]

People just want a reason to complain.

[MoanaLisa]

Many people who post on forums are obsessed about nearly everything at one point or another. Some more than others and everyone in different ways. It's the way of things. Passion for better or worse overrules perspective sometimes. Then there are those that hang around to simply be negative about everything. Everyone has their reasons. None of them much matter.

[McNeil]

Now this might be a good time to ask: Why are people obsessed about high end guilds?

It may seem very offtopic, but in both cases you are asking why people are obsessed over basically nothing, they are about just as important and interesting, yet people don't ask the same about high end guilds that quick.

And like some others already said, its just to see how well WoW is doing.

[hrugner]

I don't get it. I enjoy wow. I'd enjoy wow with a billion subs, and I'd enjoy it with whatever amount is the lowest needed to keep it going and still produce new content every once in a while.

To the people constantly focused on this issue and the changes WoD might or might not bring, what's the deal?

I think you are reading more into people's interest in subs than is objectively present. "constantly focused" doesn't seem accurate, the topic comes up every couple of months, and discussion goes on for several pages; but I think that has more to do with the uncertainty within the topic leaving it open for discussion more than any real obsession.

[Mormolyce]

It's become something people throw at each other to justify their personal vision of the game. Which is utterly stupid.

Then there are some people who are just interested in it for its own sake, like watching stock markets or something. This is fine.

Personally I don't give a shit what the sub numbers are but I do find myself in those kinds of threads a lot so I wind up knowing the numbers pretty well regardless.

[Aydinx2]

I don't get it. I enjoy wow. I'd enjoy wow with a billion subs, and I'd enjoy it with whatever amount is the lowest needed to keep it going and still produce new content every once in a while.

To the people constantly focused on this issue and the changes WoD might or might not bring, what's the deal?

People need to justify their poorly educated opinion of the game/game's state or their unsubbing and therefore feel the need to prove the "correctness" of their decision to an online group of strangers.

[Daveon]

They are a partial reflection of the revenue the game is generating. The revenue the game is generating dictates the development it will see and the direction it will be going.

Except that it's never been true that content follows revenue for WoW. They are no doubt getting less revenue now than in WotLK, but we're getting either the same or more content than before. Heck, you can even look at it like this: revenue is down, but the development team is bigger than at WotLK... So your simple statement hasn't really been true of WoW at all.

[Thetruth1400]

They are shareholders and afraid to lose money?
They want to be part of the game that is played by "ze most ppl in ze world"?
They pretend if subs go down, content goes down (ignoring games with less subs also churn out content?
They have quit, hate Blizzard for whatever reasons and want to see them suffer?

I was number 1 for a while, but sold my stock off during a peak for that exact reason. Sub losses mean less money for the company and therefore less value of the stock. Each time the subs drop, the stock falls.

As for the #3 one there, that's fairly true. Through Vanilla, TBC, and WotLK, when the subs were higher, we got more content. When they started to drop in Cata, the amount of content was down. That trend continued into MoP, and is continuing into the launch of WoD. Now I'm not saying it's a direct correlation, but if it isn't at least in part related, it is an odd coincidence.

Except that it's never been true that content follows revenue for WoW. They are no doubt getting less revenue now than in WotLK, but we're getting either the same or more content than before. Heck, you can even look at it like this: revenue is down, but the development team is bigger than at WotLK... So your simple statement hasn't really been true of WoW at all.

Except that's not true at all. We've got less and less content being delivered each expansion. Even Blizzard has commented that they feel they needed to deliver more content, but hadn't. You can't have players play the same zone, but in 4 different modes, and call that different content, it's the same.

Sure, they have more team working on WoW now, but that's only because they rebooted Titan and therefore didn't need that staff over there any longer. They didn't hire more staff, they just moved it.

[schwarzkopf]

In Australia, we call it the Tall Poppy Syndrome.

Look it up

[Itisamuh]

People want confirmation that their views are correct and/or superior to those around them, and numbers provide that circumstantial evidence.

[Daveon]

They are shareholders and afraid to lose money?

You really think that most of the people who go on about sub numbers on this forum are shareholders? I find it hard to believe... I've seen at most 2 people in the years of reading these threads say they were a shareholder (and that was in a thread specifically about Activision's share price).