It's startling how fast game activity is falling

[Thulvaso]

We've been donig exactly that. Discussing the game. It's just you people come in here and then complain about us criticizing the game and offering suggestions to make it better and then insists were dooming and glooming and should move on. I've got a suggestion. If you don't like it. MOVE ON.

How about no ?

Fine, discuss the downward spiral of the game. Thanks also for catergorizing us into the "you people" are you somehow better in a way that "we" don't know about.

Since you made the same comment to me, let me do the same here..

If you don't like World of Warcraft. MOVE ON.

Since you added that little remark to your post I will respond here.

I know it isn't my site or forum, but I'm not the one saying you can't post in this thread.

[Leonard McCoy]

Nobody is discussing the downward spiral of the game. People are all so fucking sensitive. We've noted a drop in activity, suggested some reasons why and want to have a conversation about it. Instead we get guys like you telling us were doom sayers and that it's bad and we should stop. This always happens though. Any reasonable criticism is instantly met with YOUR DOOMSAYING MOVE ON etc etc kinda attitude.

[Thulvaso]

Nobody is discussing the downward spiral of the game. People are all so fucking sensitive. We've noted a drop in activity, suggested some reasons why and want to have a conversation about it. Instead we get guys like you telling us were doom sayers and that it's bad and we should stop. This always happens though. Any reasonable criticism is instantly met with YOUR DOOMSAYING MOVE ON etc etc kinda attitude.

Why would you post feedback for blizzard on a fan site, I'm pretty sure you could email them a massive list of your complaints, or make a thread on the official forums where it will be read by a employee of Blizzard. If you want action that's the place you will get it.

It's just unusual to see people who hate the game or don't even play to say "you can't post in a thread about the game you play" kind of way

[Orange Joe]

Yes sales nose dived RELATIVE to what they sold in the first week. All based on how shitty the game is. Furthermore ACTIVITY nose dived as well. Anecdotally (my players list was full of d3 players at launch but in the first week dropped to 1 or 2) and though xfire and various other sites that track these sort of things. The game is a FLOP PERIOD. It the episode 1 of video gaming. Episode 1 got shit reviews and people still watched it the second week as well.

In your diatribe about how awesome Blizzard is and their sales being the best you conveniently forgot to mention that mists didn't sell well at all. Now let's see how well the d3 expansion does.

http://www.twitch.tv/


Diablo 3 is always one of the top games streamed......

[Leonard McCoy]

http://www.twitch.tv/


Diablo 3 is always one of the top games streamed......

Hardly. Especially compared to LoL and Dota and Sc2 and a ton of other games I could name. Streams =/= activity unfortunately. The game was a disaster and making it out to be anything else is pathetic. Again we'll see how well expansion sales go.

[Deleted]

http://www.twitch.tv/


Diablo 3 is always one of the top games streamed......

And that is relevant how? Streamers are hardly the majority of the gaming community, nor are they usually casuals (which is the targeted market).

[Thulvaso]

Hardly. Especially compared to LoL and Dota and Sc2 and a ton of other games I could name. Streams =/= activity unfortunately. The game was a disaster and making it out to be anything else is pathetic. Again we'll see how well expansion sales go.

You can play Diablo completely solo, why should activity even matter. I still play Age of Empires 2 now and again, total number of people playing ? Who knows.

Quality > Activity fortunately.

[Leonard McCoy]

You can belay Diablo completely solo, why should activity even matter. I still play Age of Empires 2 now and again, total number of people playing ? Who knows.

Quality > Activity fortunately.

Activity is a good indicator of quality though. Especially for a game that isn't all that old. Diablo 3 is not a quality game by any stretch. As for playing Diablo competetiively you should have really sat down with kripparin and athene at launch.

[Kissme]

I'm still waiting to hear what would change if subs drop by 50%


You all say things will change, but can anyone say what will change and how it will effect the average player.

Well, the decreased revenue would mean that they would want to focus development on those areas that will maintain whatever the remaining customer base is, while at the same time trying to reach back out to those that have left (or another new demographic).

If you don't enjoy whatever the remaining majority does, then it's likely you will notice a decrease in quality, quantity, or both, of those activities you do enjoy.

Depending on the actual decrease in revenue, you might also see things like tiers being shrunk in size from two raids to one raid, or less bosses per raid. An increase or decrease in the number of skins, pets, art quality, etc.

You are unlikely to see massive core system changes until another expansion - but a massive sub drop makes it a coin flip about whether they invest money in a core system change or not based on whether they feel the core system is responsible for the sub loss.

Depending on how the revenue was formerly allocated you might also see decreases in quality or quantity of other products. If WoW sub revenue is used to do primary funding for development of Starcraft, Diablo, Titan, etc (which it most likely is) then you might see features dropped from the expansions of those franchises, or the Titan project might end up with less features or quality than it might have had.

A decrease in company revenue will always impact consumer experience. That impact can, however, be positive based on the consumer demands in relation to the direction the company chooses to move forwards in to address said revenue decrease.

[Deleted]

You can play Diablo completely solo, why should activity even matter. I still play Age of Empires 2 now and again, total number of people playing ? Who knows.

Quality > Activity fortunately.

It doesn't matter for the base game Diablo 3, that game has already cashed in and made a very large profit. However, activity in Diablo3 plays a very big role to how successful the expansion will be. If there are a low amount of players and the game is marked as *Epic fail* less people will buy the expansion pack.

[Deleted]

I still enjoy Diablo 3, how is it a flop ?

(I did not play the first two so all of this "D2 was better" is irrelevant to me)

I like it so it cant be a flop. Genius.

[Thulvaso]

I like it so it cant be a flop. Genius.

I was actually wondering why it is considered a flop. In my eyes it isn't.. I just wanted an answer.

[MoanaLisa]

I was actually wondering why it is considered a flop. In my eyes it isn't.. I just wanted an answer.

Because many people who expected something else complained on forums about it. That's mainly it. Calling any game a flop that sells over 10,000,000 copies and is clearly going to be one of the major games released in 2012 is detached from reality. That said, a lot of people didn't like it much and it was a personal flop for them. The additional humor of dozens of people posting on Blizzard's forums about how terrible the game was and how they deserved a refund after logging something over 200+ hours in it was a bonus for anyone who views game forums with as cynical and jaundiced view of things as I.

As I just wrote in another post, personal opinions aren't facts.

EDIT: I suppose I should realistically add that this tangent is off-topic for the thread and we should get back on track. - ML

[Faroth]

I actually would ( I didn't particularly like either game) but that isn't the point and you conveniently missed the point where I said in and of itself. Mists unfortunately hasn't had positive word of mouth and compared to what the previous expansions have sold it's not selling that well either. Again it took them a YEAR before they started to give cata away for free. Activity didn't nose dive like it has now either. Pissed off fans. All signs point to one thing. Or bury your heads in the sand. I could care less.

Where is the data that activity has nose dived, because I've not seen it. I just see people saying they hate WoW and proclaim nobody is playing it. That's not data. XFire is a pretty skewed source since it's clear it doesn't factor in people playing without it installed.

If you're only looking for like minded opinions, you wouldn't see positive word of mouth, but every time I've seen polls posted on here, or threads asking what people think there's been a large response that they are enjoying the expansion. I don't really think I've seen more complaining this expansion than I did with Heroic difficulty in Cata or lack of things to do, or complaining about LFR and the loot control or etc, etc.

Pissed off fans is the only thing that's constant in World of Warcraft. People complain about everything, even when they get exactly what they ask for they complain about it.

I've simply not seen proof this "activity nose dive like it has now" presented.

Honestly, the majority of people I know that aren't playing WoW didn't even try MoP. Cataclysm drove them away and they are enjoying the other games they are playing enough that they didn't pop back to MoP yet. That's not MoP's fault, it's still Cataclym's.

I still use Dragon Age as my example. People bought DA2 because they loved DA. DA2 burned a lot of players. Those players are going to be more reserved on DA3. If DA3 is a superior game to DA2, it might still not make the same first month sales as DA2 because of players being more cautious this time around. Same thing with MoP.

But yeah, if you hate WoW, don't play it and those who like the game are going to keep playing it. Simple 'nuff.
There's simply not that much different in MoP than past expansions that i can understand the Chicken Little responses.

[Osmeric]

XFire is a pretty skewed source since it's clear it doesn't factor in people playing without it installed.

Xfire is obviously not definitive, but is there evidence that the decline shown there is not representative? Warcraftrealms also showed a rapid slide (in number of active characters during prime time, which is not quite the same thing), although it's leveled out in the most recent few weeks.

[Eorayn]

If you don't like World of Warcraft. MOVE ON.

We should be able to talk about the downfall of the game we once loved, even though it might be negative.

[Grimtide]

Just because people aren't throwing praise at the game doesn't mean they hate it. I don't really have much positive to say about MoP, but I do like Warcraft as a franchise and would like to be able to enjoy WoW again.

[mosely]

Because many people who expected something else complained on forums about it. That's mainly it. Calling any game a flop that sells over 10,000,000 copies and is clearly going to be one of the major games released in 2012 is detached from reality. That said, a lot of people didn't like it much and it was a personal flop for them. The additional humor of dozens of people posting on Blizzard's forums about how terrible the game was and how they deserved a refund after logging something over 200+ hours in it was a bonus for anyone who views game forums with as cynical and jaundiced view of things as I.

As I just wrote in another post, personal opinions aren't facts.

EDIT: I suppose I should realistically add that this tangent is off-topic for the thread and we should get back on track. - ML

McDonald's restaurants around the globe must have sold billions of cheeseburgers at this point in time. McDonald's cheeseburgers are also pretty much the lowest quality burger on the market. You can't just point at high sales numbers and conclude that they are the result of a high-quality product.

People who say Diablo was a flop obviously don't mean that it failed as a revenue-generation product. They mean that their expectations of how enjoyable the game would be were not met. Will that stop them from buying the D3 expansion, then D4 and D5 down the line? Only time will tell.

[Deleted]

We should be able to talk about the downfall of the game we once loved

Says who?

Are these forums for people who want to pine on how they lost something, or are they forums for people who want to discuss a game they're playing?

Why the hell should you be able to talk about the downfall of the game you once loved? Because you exist?

[Osmeric]

McDonald's restaurants around the globe must have sold billions of cheeseburgers at this point in time. McDonald's cheeseburgers are also pretty much the lowest quality burger on the market.

You've never been to White Castle, have you?