Where is the returning player Hype?

[Celista]

i was hyped for legion untill i got beta invite and tested the new class talents out,i barely login to beta now i just cant bring myself to play,for me the zones are cool and some of the classes are ok but for the most part they have been ruined for the sake of change,its sad for me cos i played wow since original beta but i cannot play this trash.

This isn't the first time I've heard stuff like this about this particular beta, and I can't recall people being that disappointed in the game in previous beta tests. Generally people are excited to beta test the new expansion.

Bad sign.

[Eleccybubb]

Check back at expansion release. Nobody really came back "in droves" for the Blasted lands world event prior ot Draenor either.

MoP and WoD pre launch events were pathetic.

MoP- Oh here's a scenario for a week or 2 and that's it.
WoD- Oh here's some crappy quests and 3 bosses of a dungeon and that's it.

Legion actually looks like it's having a decent pre launch for a change.

[Deleted]

I'll be back with Legion, but I wait until August 29th or something.

New addon changes everything. I don't care about old stuff and decorative things so I wanna jump in and play LEGION.

[Tijuana]

Been away from the game since the beginning of last February and I still log into battle.net to chat with friends/old guild members...people are logging back into the game now. On my friends list, that number is exactly 2. That is two more than I've seen in the past several months, however.

I see people in Hearthstone and other Blizzard titles, however.


I almost wonder if Blizzard fucked it up on purpose, because they decided that WoW was too expensive to keep running in its current form. Especially in comparison to games like Hearthstone, that cost very little to make and maintain comparatively...maybe that's overly optimistic (or pessimistic, depending) thinking on my part, WoW is certainly a cash cow.

So their plan to get things cheaper and more profitable was to double the staff then intentionally drive away customers? You have a strange concept of how business works.

[Luxeley]

After the mediocrity (at best) of Cata and MOP and the utter debacle of WOD players are skeptical and taking a prudent wait and see attitude. I do believe they are interested in what Legion offers, but the reality is how times can you actually sell players "painted rust?" A lot of players drew the line with WOD and rightfully so. Being Hyped, Wooed and seduced is just not enough anymore.

[xanzul]

How do you know we have less than a week to go before pre patch? Did they announce the date?

Oh please. Do we seriously need to do this every single fucking patch? The patch ends the current pvp season as always.

[SteveRocks]

Usually when pre-patch is about to hit the hype train starts and people start flooding back to WoW. We have less than a week till pre-patch and I don't see any signs of people returning in droves like usual. Makes me wonder how big Legion will actually be.

Did WoD really turn people off this much? This is first time I've ever seen pre-patch not be super hyped up.

My server was already flooded with returning players just for those movie transmog items. Now the server is even more crowded.

I'm guessing you must play on a very low pop server.

[xanzul]

Yet another example of someone speaking without actually going out gathering experience first.
As someone that's leveled 5 characters 1-60 in the past weeks, and 3 chars to 90, I can say without a doubt that there are PLENTY of returning, and NEW, players, out leveling.

There's even been many bottleneck moments for quest mobs.

The haters only see what they want to see. We didn't even get past post #2 before somene started dancing on Blizzard and Wow's grave. That has to be some sort of record for these forums.

[shimerra]

If you started Legion in June, when HFC hit, it took what, 3 months to get the legendary? So you got it in September. At that point, your friends already likely had upgraded theirs a number of times. To upgrade from 735 to 795 took 20 ring upgrades which meant 20 weeks of killing Archimonde. 20 weeks = 5 months. 3+5 = 8. That's where I got the number from, because that's what I remember calculating it to be when I rejoined for HFC.

You could make it shorter once they released the upgrade via valor in January, but sure, maybe you have it by end of January there. So if you started in June, you were caught up by end of January, about 7 months.

Oh you're talking the valor upgrades too. Who gives a flying tap dancing shit about that. I can say this as both someone who is a dirty casual now and was once a top tier raider that maxing the ring out doesn't mean jack shit.

And neither does filling out that last 20 points of your artifact for all but the most bleeding edge mythic raider. And guess what? As someone who has raided with that level of player if you're actually good at this game it wont hold you back. If you're a "try hard" who cares more about numbers then performance then yes it does. You're making a mountain out of a mole hill and calling the system broken. I'm sorry if you think having .5% less artifact damage bonus means you're crippled for life. For the rest of us it doesn't matter. But the overwhelming majority of the artifacts that significantly impact your performance will be easily acquired with catch up mechanics. Hell even without.

[xanzul]

Well, everything that has a beginning has an end, and Legion will be a fitting end. We'll destroy the ultimate evil end boss while wielding Ashbringers and what not.

A new game will pick up the players that leave WoW. The cycle will continue.

You do understand that since Blizzard wrote this story they can add to it right?

[Tijuana]

Unless they explicitly say, "after X weeks, you should be even with the person who started earlier" I won't believe that the catch up system will get you all the way there. Designing it that way goes against a lot of things they've said in the past. I think they'll let you get close, but that you'll still be consistently behind someone who started earlier, up until the point where you catch up to them at the absolute max level you can reach.

Nobody is saying you will ever be able to "catch" a person who has been working on their artifact longer, but is not yet capped. They are saying your path to cap your weapon will take less time if you start later, than if you had started at launch.

[xanzul]

Pretty much everything I've seen about the system directly contradicts that. And there's always been "penalties" to starting late. People just get too god damn focused on OMG YOU HAVE TO 100% MAX YOUR ARTIFIACT OR YOU'LL SUCK1$@!@$!@#!@#!@#!@ attitude which even for the classes that have particularly awesome traits just isn't the case.


I'm excited for legion as much as the people who are whining for legacy aren't. A lot of my old friends are coming back and I'll have a nice casual raid team of RL and online friends to play with.

edit-The above poster said it better. You couldn't be more wrong if you were paid to be wrong.

You have to understand that once these people decide on a narrative they will beat it into the ground endlessly no matter how wildly inaccurate they are.

[PeterTheGreat]

Usually when pre-patch is about to hit the hype train starts and people start flooding back to WoW. We have less than a week till pre-patch and I don't see any signs of people returning in droves like usual. Makes me wonder how big Legion will actually be.

Did WoD really turn people off this much? This is first time I've ever seen pre-patch not be super hyped up.

Yep, WoD did his job. It was the expansion that opened many people's eyes to the fact that the success of WoW is just a coincidence or the result of unnamed geniuses who have nothing to do with the current company. Personally, I think it's both. When geniuses and stars come together, a miracle happens.

WoW 2004-2008 RIP. We are now seeing an autistic child of one of the greatest games ever made.

[Celista]

So their plan to get things cheaper and more profitable was to double the staff then intentionally drive away customers? You have a strange concept of how business works.

I think Blizzard has a strange concept of how business works, considering that they supposedly doubled staff while halving current expansion content and not releasing Legion at any faster of a pace than previous expansions.

Also you, if you buy into that BS.

[xanzul]

People are skeptical. Only a few people I know have pre-ordered. Everyone else is just waiting to see what people say about it, scared to buy into it again like WoD. Can't say I blame them

The lack of content in Wod wasn't evident at launch so posts like this make zero sense.

[shimerra]

Nobody is saying you will ever be able to "catch" a person who has been working on their artifact longer, but is not yet capped. They are saying your path to cap your weapon will take less time if you start later, than if you had started at launch.

And that it wont be this horrid game ruining experience that Tonus is trying to paint it as even for the mythic world first level player that you're 1% artifact bonus damage behind the rest.

You have to understand that once these people decide on a narrative they will beat it into the ground endlessly no matter how wildly inaccurate they are.

Perception is reality as they say. They've decided Legion is shit and the catch up mechanic sucks and even if God himself were to declare it otherwise they'd still think their original thoughts.

I think Blizzard has a strange concept of how business works, considering that they supposedly doubled staff while halving current expansion content and not releasing Legion at any faster of a pace than previous expansions.

Also you, if you buy into that BS.

Given the abortion that most people seem to consider WoD to be I think it's the vastly smarter decision to abandon it asap and get out the new expansion rather then try and keep WoD hobbling along. hoping that word of mouth gets you back your lost customer base. And most of the people I know who actually bothered to play for WoD launch( I quit mid MoP and WoD didn't lure me back) agree.

[xanzul]

Not really. WoW was a unique place - having such a huge revenue stream allowed them to do so much more than other games - polish, invest in content, etc. It was so profitable that their entire focus should have been on keeping people happy and keeping the gravy train going for as long as they can. Unfortunately, they got bought by Activision in 2013, and the next expansion was a disaster largely because of decisions that appear suspiciously like they were made by bean counters maximizing the next quarter's profit (1 year expansion! Two tiers!). I'm sure that's just a coincidence though, everyone will tell me that Blizzard is totally independent of Activision.

Blizzard has always been owned by other companies even when they developed the holy and sacred TBC/Wrath that can do no wrong. Just because Blizzard isn't making you happy doesn't mean everyone else is unhappy with Wow.

[Tijuana]

Well, everything that has a beginning has an end, and Legion will be a fitting end. We'll destroy the ultimate evil end boss while wielding Ashbringers and what not.

A new game will pick up the players that leave WoW. The cycle will continue.

So, they should stop making billions of dollars because the story might have a nice ending if we stop here? I take you are not a share holder...

[Aori]

My friendlist went from 1-2 people in WoW every evening to 10-15 every evening.. I think the hype is there.

[xanzul]

We all know what you just said is horseshit, but it's proper etiquette to provide a link to the financials when making wild claims. At least then we know who fed you the horseshit.

Here's a hint. Go through Activision Blizzard's Q1 2016 numbers. WoW is a marginal little shit in their portfolio of games now.

Yeah ok. You do realize links to these numbers have been posted on this site right?

- - - Updated - - -

I am on Beta and I am having fun

Fun isn't allowed here. Only fanatical and pathological hatred.

- - - Updated - - -

The prepatch doesn't actually bring anything new to do until the demon invasions start (which according to blizzard, might not be until mid august) so there's really not a lot to be hyped about.

A lot of people are excited for the new transmog system and will be running a lot of older content to collect missing pieces in their collection. And no I don't give a fuck if that isn't new content it is still something to do.