I think the point Master Hamster was trying to make is that the potential audience of WoW players is nearly saturated.
There's only so many people in the world open to playing a fantasy computer game requiring an Internet connection and a monthly sub fee.
During Vanilla, TBC, and Wrath, that pool of people was discovering the game and signing up in droves. Even though many were also quitting WoW during those first few years, they were outnumbered by the influx of people looking to try out this new phenomenon called Warcraft.
Kind of like looking for oil. Most of the WoW audience has now been tapped. It's getting harder and harder for Blizzard to find people who might enjoy WoW who haven't played it already. This also explains why new patches and expansions cause such an influx... former players return for a bit, then slowly drop off. But new blood is not replacing them. Blizzard and investors know this... it's not exactly cause for alarm. Everyone leaves the game eventually, many just never return because they are tired of it.
It's also why the comments about how much better WoW was in TBC and Wrath because it was gaining subs are moronic. The market was untapped.
Help control the population. Have your blood elf spayed or neutered.
I understand that the pool of potential players who have never played WoW has diminished significantly. When asked about how D3, Titan, and other games draw people away from WoW, Pardo doesn't seem worried because WoW only has a fraction of the market.
Pardo's conclusion is this: "So looking at it logically, if we can get them interested, you could have the same subscriber base without cannibalizing WoW too badly."
Last edited by Aquamonkey; 2013-02-11 at 11:10 PM. Reason: Crap, I deleted half of what I wanted to say and then forgot what it was.
"There is a pervasive myth that making content hard will induce players to rise to the occasion. We find the opposite. " -- Ghostcrawler
"The bit about hardcore players not always caring about the long term interests of the game is spot on." -- Ghostcrawler
"Do you want a game with no casuals so about 500 players?"