World of Warcraft is not as known anymore.

[TheSerialSniper]

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 realizing this after seeing newer generation not knowing WoW.

I really think focusing advertising on TV would get no where with the newer generation. TV is a thing for old people now imo. I think they

would do better advertising on the you tubs and the book of faces. Though at the same time, the combat of wow is outdated and I believe

the new generation would not like it.

Action combat is the new thing now, I think wow would need adapt to using action combat to hold on to newer generation people. It does

seem they tried with Demon Hunters, making a lot of their abilities not fire and forget like every other ability in the game.

[A dot Ham]

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

What qualifies you to make such a bold statement? Legion had an advertising campaign, and selling 10 million copies was a pretty solid return on that endeavor.

Blizzard has cross game promotions periodically.

They also do a fair amount of cookie advertising.

The very fact that your one and only example is "TV" shows how out of touch you are. People (younger generations especially) don't watch commercials. Netflix, online streaming, youtube, DVR, where have you been?

The "younger generation" which I'm assuming means born after the 2000s isn't interested. WoW is not striking a chord with them. MMORPGS has relapsed into being something you don't talk about, like back when the big name in the industry was EQ. It was a social stigma, and it has become one again.

[Gadzooks]

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.

Okay, I'm not going to play tit for tat with you. You're just refusing to see reality, or trolling. Believe what you want.

And, there's nothing wrong with WoW not being their #1 priority. They have bigger markets to make money from. That's the adult world - I suugest you join it.

[HuxNeva]

Well, wow's demographics are certainly more on the 'mature' end of the gaming spectrum. Nothing wrong with that.

[Teri]

The Mohawk Grenade promotion was great, I remember that

[HuxNeva]

Media studies in Belgium showed that the average age of the television viewer in the country is 54y. Younger generations do have segments that watch television, but their online/gaming access is consoles and phone/tablets. Youngsters with gaming pc's don't watch television.

[SonTensei]

Classic MMO's like Everquest, WoW, and so on captured the hearts of the 18-25 year old crowd in the early '00s.. Thats pretty much over a decade ago. Those who are in denial about the fact that young people do not feel like playing, those same people who were 20 something are late 30s if not early 40s now,, probably have kids etc the time just isnt there anymore. The amount of people who remain hardcore / consistent players keep decreasing every year. This trend will not go the other direction anytime soon. As others have mentioned some of the newer games such as Overwatch or even a MOBA like League are fast paced and dont require you to have a raid schedule to dedicate a certain time / day each week to complete. The younger people have been fed everything instanty nearly their whole lifes, they grew up on facebook feeds, youtube playlist streams, etc. everything is free, everything is fast. Wow has tried to adapt and while they still have arguably the top market share in the PC-MMO market these days, that market size is shrinking a WHOLE lot. Most kids these days dont even have a gaming PC. They have iphones, ipads, and MAYBE a ps4/or xbox. The only kids who get into desktop gaming more than likely were introduced by an uncle or parent.

Honestly, im really curious to see where MMO's will go in the future. Personally im not much of a MOBA fan. I kinda like WoW still, and also like ff14 as well but someone needs to make a new hybrid MMO that mixes the speed and graphics of a MOBA and FPS with the nuance/depth of a MMO. I think thats the direction new massive multiplayer games have to go.

[MoanaLisa]

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.

Oh boo hoo. As if the newer generation of gamers will think it's a great idea to drop $180 dollars a year on a game they can't really play on their phones and tablets. As if newer generation of gamers even watches a lot of network or cable television.

Your whole post is patent nonsense. Gaming has moved on. As it always has and always will.

[SonTensei]

Oh boo hoo. As if the newer generation of gamers will think it's a great idea to drop $180 dollars a year on a game they can't really play on their phones and tablets. As if newer generation of gamers even watches a lot of network or cable television.

Your whole post is patent nonsense. Gaming has moved on. As it always has and always will.

I agree, if you have to decide to pay for that Netflix sub or one game, im pretty sure that nexflix sub is winning in most cases.

[Ausr]

The amount of proof and evidence to show us this is amazing.

[MoanaLisa]

WoW is just TOOOOO old. This was the case years ago, but now it is really going in fast.
Like that old grandpa, that is old but still doing fine years ago, but now going downhills fast and not recovering. WOW is that grandpa.

Your own opinion from another thread posted just over an hour ago. Whether it's memory problems or that you're just trying to stir up shit, this is pretty funny.

[Polybius]

Google trends on "World of Warcraft" seems to agree:

Less people used the Internet. Today we have so many games and media that people can easily overlook WoW.

[BannedForViews]

Because younger generations have plenty of games to play, which are online, free/cheaper, have large esport scenes, with faster pace than wow and which require far less time commitment than MMORPGs?

WoW is pretty free for a lot of us. I don't pay for my sub. I get more than enough gold without farming or doing anything related to earning gold.

[Djuntas]

Because WoW has a really bad reputation as being the neckbeard anti-social game that only absolute dorks play?

Pretty much. Had a co-worker who...well we quickly chatted what games he liked, and he mentioned he tried neverwinter online...but not wow that would be a bit to much...

Hes like 30-35.

[Deleted]

for everyone here saying the younger generation doesn't play wow because they don't have the patience...

Do you play with 12 year olds? what's the age limit in your guild? I would never play with somebody younger than 16, and i'm only 22

[Tomana]

Maybe, but I don't think so. Everyone says this about every new generation, yet my generation (people in their upper 20s now, I'm about to turn 28) are probably the majority of WoW players ever. Yet, we had the attention span.

Upper 20s maybe, but it may not be the case for current teens. WoW is not R-rated after all.

Crazy idea: the sub-based MMORPG genre is dying. Or maybe Final Fantasy XIV is just too new and has too many cool new things that are making people gravitate towards that instead.

FF XIV figures would tend to disprove that hypothesis, IMHO. As would F2P MMO figures. All the subs lost on WoW went somewhere and it clearly wasn't towards other MMOs.

Or maybe people are just bored of MMORPGs.

Of course, but there is a reason why they're bored. One of them (not the only one, but imho the main one) is the incapacity and/or the unwillingness to commit long hours to the same game. This is what I call (somewhat simply) the "attention span" problem.

- - - Updated - - -

People are willing to do it on a new game, it's not fun being behind the wave tho.

What new MMO games have a population that holds up and doesn't wither? The only one that manages something close to it in EU/US is FFXIV.
It's the whole mechanic people do not want to commit to, imho, rather than this or that game.

[DeltrusDisc]

Upper 20s maybe, but it may not be the case for current teens. WoW is not R-rated after all.


FF XIV figures would tend to disprove that hypothesis, IMHO. As would F2P MMO figures. All the subs lost on WoW went somewhere and it clearly wasn't towards other MMOs.


Of course, but there is a reason why they're bored. One of them (not the only one, but imho the main one) is the incapacity and/or the unwillingness to commit long hours to the same game. This is what I call (somewhat simply) the "attention span" problem.

You know, a lot of older people have left WoW too, including myself. I have more responsibilities now for one... To be fair, I don't like the content anymore. My attention span for WoW lasted several years, I got the Insane title while it was still relevant for one, (pre-Cata) among other ridiculous time-sinks.

I, of all people, should be saying others don't have attention spans, but I don't think so. Genres come and go, get popular, lose popularity, and then get popular again. I think MMORPGs are probably just in a lull right now.

Last I checked FF XIV is doing quite well, though you didn't specify exactly which of my hypothesis's FF XIV's numbers are disproving.

[fiestatastic]

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

phone app where people can make characters and build them up that is f2p that leads them to wanting to bring those characters further to life by downloading WoW. Maybe up to lvl 100 so that when they enter WoW they're drawn in by populated new xpac content

[randomnamegenerator16]

WoW is pretty free for a lot of us. I don't pay for my sub. I get more than enough gold without farming or doing anything related to earning gold.

Yeah, for some it is free. But majority of players don't make enough gold to buy tokens, at least not constantly.

[Deleted]

Well as someone who's still playing WoW I can boldly claim that it's a ''in too deep'' scenario for me, if I never played WoW before and it was introduced to me just now I'd send it into the trash. It's a very unappealing game for casuals/newcomers since literally everyone wants to hack and slash and keep the pace high.

I know my statement doesn't have anything to do with the topic in question but if you connect the dots you kinda understand what I'm trying to say. MMO is a dead market as far as bringing fresh new faces goes.