World of Warcraft is not as known anymore.

[Deleted]

I keep hearing this "instant gratification" thing and i think it is not at all the reason.
The problem is that in a MMO you have to do quite a lot of chores, for a gameplay that does not depend on you, meaning you can be the whole week farming AP and when raid time comes (the bulk of the enjoyment) it is cancelled.

for quite a lot of my friends who i've been playing wow for years, right now it's mostly the case of 'we have the time for raiding but we don't really time for much stuff outside of raids' like farming ap / herbs / m+ for gear / legendaries and that's why plenty of people in my guild quit

granted, we're mostly in 24-30 year old range, you just don't have that much free time for playing now

all in all, i kinda hope expansion after legion is WoD 2.0 where you can just log on for a raid and not do anything else in the game and still do reasonably well in mythic raids , or at least mists model where dailies / mats farming felt much lighter than in legion (well, dailies after they eased up a bit on them, at the beginning it was kinda crazy :P)

[Noxina]

World of Warcraft is a really old game, a game that takes a lot of your time to keep up with if you want to stay any kind of related to the harder content (mythic raiding).

It is a lot easier to log on LoL and do a game that last 20-40minutes, or play some FPS games where matches last like 10minutes.

To play WoW at a higher standard, raiding, keeping up with AP, farming m+ and all that jazz, you need to set off several hours each night. Not everyone can put off that kind of hours for one single game. When they can play a bunch of others just as serious, but a lot less time consuming.
Of course you can play WoW casual, and only log in for raid hours, or only do m+ when ever you feel like. But is that really that satisfying?

And advertise on TV, lol. Who watches TV now? I think my parents still do, but even they find it better with HBO and Netflix when ever they want to watch a show.

[Saucerian]

WoW is as known as it ever was. It's known as an old game with an even older IP; with a purchase price, sub, and fair amount of time investment even with paid boosts; in the age of cheap ass throwaway F2P shit.

That's why it's in managed decline mode. We who still insist on hanging around ought to be happy we're getting halfway good expansions at all.

MMO was a niche genre before WoW and to niche it will return.

[Kallisto]

You guys with your filthy rich parents .

Just knew some owners of second hand stores to get major discounts, helped that dad knew how to repair computers.

[ComputerNerd]

Plus the community has shown itself to be hostile to new players.
Those who actually ask questions are too readily shoved off towards wowhead, icy veins, MMO-Champion, google, etc.

They can't advertise an experience which they do not entirely control.
The players have more control over that early experience than blizzard do.

[MrPaladinGuy]

Seems more likely after almost 13 years it's stale.

[Deleted]

Then tell me how to advertise. Since Online advertisement is already being done.
I assume you are older then me.

E-Sports E-Sports E-Sports E-Sports

Current Income of $696 million, a year-on-year growth of 41.3%. Brands are expected to spend $517 million, broken down into $155 million on advertising, $266 million on sponsorship, and a further $95 million on media rights.

It is here where Blizzard need to hit and hit it hard especially when they own a top E-Sports IP - Over Watch & Star Craft

[Nmkyungri]

E-Sports E-Sports E-Sports E-Sports

Current Income of $696 million, a year-on-year growth of 41.3%. Brands are expected to spend $517 million, broken down into $155 million on advertising, $266 million on sponsorship, and a further $95 million on media rights.

It is here where Blizzard need to hit and hit it hard especially when they own a top E-Sports IP - Over Watch & Star Craft

TOP IPS that dont have more views than your streamers. Timthetatman and Seagul have more viewers than 99% of OW and sc2 tourneys. the only OW toruney with good views was blizzcon, the top esports take 1-3 spots when a tourney is active. ATM dota 2 with the kiev major qualifers, yesterday with CSGO: Beyond the summit LoL with their league stuff,

[Flextt]

inb4 the term "millenials"

[ingsve]

YES! They should definately roll out som TV ads to catch the younger generation. And they should use those teen favourites William Shatner and Mr T to really get the message through.

[Tierbook]

YES! They should definately roll out som TV ads to catch the younger generation. And they should use those teen favourites William Shatner and Mr T to really get the message through.

I remember back when Mr. T was used for advertising..... was Shatner used as well?

[Heladys]

Hey OP, I bet we could put some notable characters on promotional Pogs! We can give those out as a freebie when people try the new "Whopper" they're calling it at Burger King!

That'll really get some exposure with the hip young crowd.

[Snackpack]

I'm okay with WoW being less known and less Gen Z people coming in.

[dextersmith]

Blizzard can easily get new subs from the newer generation by just advertising ALOT on TV etc. Yet they do not.

I disagree. Many people know of wow, but it's hard to entice them with such an old game and graphics unless they have a friend trying to get them in.

[Faenskap]

Screw getting the new generation, I've referred my parents to the game. While I doubt they will be doing any Mythic+ or even normal raiding, they still really enjoy it.

But how?! I think it'd be cool to get my family to play, but they're all like "meh".

I have seen new players in WoW, both in WoD and Legion. If I were a new player, a couple of things would turn me off: 1. The confusing and big world (though I'd get it eventually) and 2. The community. You're expected to know your way around dungeons, understand bosses, and there is very little room for explaining, and patience towards the individual, which is a shame

[Gadzooks]

Simple as that. Plenty of places i notice lately, when there is a WoW reference or picture, nobody seems to know it.
Not even the simple WoW cinematics some still wonder what game it is.

The new generation right now has no clue what WoW is.

Blizzard can easily get new subs from the newer generation by just advertising ALOT on TV etc. Yet they do not.

I feel like Blizzard is abandoning the game itself bit by bit, just realising this after seeing newer generation not knowing WoW.

I'm sure the well paid people in the marketing department at Blizzard have a better grasp of where to engage their audience than you do. Blizzard actually does large media buys, and they went all out for Legion.

In the old days, if a band wanted exposure to sell albums and concert tickets, radio was the venue - not only did they get paid to be on the radio through publishing royalties, but that's where teenagers engaged. These days, kids don't listen to the radio. Most teenagers these days don't even own a radio. They engage through the internet, through spotify, Pandora, and YouTube. They also occasionally buy tracks from various online stores. A band that pays today to get their music on the radio is pretty much wasting their time.

Same for video games. More and more people only engage with TV through Netflix, or Hulu. Kids don't really watch tv, in a way that an ad buy would make sense.

All in all, WoW and Overwatch and Hearthstone are some of the better games represented online. Younger people aren't engaging with WoW, because they don't care. They're not potential customers. And, I'm sure that's something that's been heavily discussed and researched at Blizzard. Blizzard isn't abandoning the game at all, they still plow hundreds of millions of dollars into it. It's just not a game younger kids want to play, despite your fantasy that they'll come in droves if they just advertise the game right. The idea itself is laughable - WoW found it's market, and like anything else, that market had a shelf life. Be content that they still have enough interest in the game to keep developing it. But, unless there are some widespread fundamental changes in that demographic, that interest just isn't there, and most likely never will be. It's nobody's fault, per se, it's just how things go: things change.

BTW - 25+ years working in and with marketing teams across multiple industries. When it comes to marketing, I kinda do know what I'm talking about.

[Mysterymask]

*shrugs* welcome to what the Fighting Game community has dealt with since...I guess Street Fighter 3 was released...

[Deleted]

Reported for constant thread spamming QQ. Blizzard isn't your ex you know. And the game is old, like very old so it's only natural that the perception of it's existence is small.

[Gimlix]

I'm sure the well paid people in the marketing department at Blizzard have a better grasp of where to engage their audience than you do. Blizzard actually does large media buys, and they went all out for Legion.

In the old days, if a band wanted exposure to sell albums and concert tickets, radio was the venue - not only did they get paid to be on the radio through publishing royalties, but that's where teenagers engaged. These days, kids don't listen to the radio. Most teenagers these days don't even own a radio. They engage through the internet, through spotify, Pandora, and YouTube. They also occasionally buy tracks from various online stores. A band that pays today to get their music on the radio is pretty much wasting their time.

Same for video games. More and more people only engage with TV through Netflix, or Hulu. Kids don't really watch tv, in a way that an ad buy would make sense.

All in all, WoW and Overwatch and Hearthstone are some of the better games represented online. Younger people aren't engaging with WoW, because they don't care. They're not potential customers. And, I'm sure that's something that's been heavily discussed and researched at Blizzard. Blizzard isn't abandoning the game at all, they still plow hundreds of millions of dollars into it. It's just not a game younger kids want to play, despite your fantasy that they'll come in droves if they just advertise the game right. The idea itself is laughable - WoW found it's market, and like anything else, that market had a shelf life. Be content that they still have enough interest in the game to keep developing it. But, unless there are some widespread fundamental changes in that demographic, that interest just isn't there, and most likely never will be. It's nobody's fault, per se, it's just how things go: things change.

BTW - 25+ years working in and with marketing teams across multiple industries. When it comes to marketing, I kinda do know what I'm talking about.

If they went all out then they would have tried on all platforms and all way possible to advertise.
Advertisement was very limitted this expansion.

It is very clear that Blizzard is putting their main focus on Overwatch/Hearthstone.

WoW isn't their first prio anymore.

[Linri]

requires a lot of time to invest in an mmo, atleast to make serious progress

lots of people just play shooters now anyway...