Can you understand China? (and WoW)

[Magemaer]

I admit i don't understand chineses and China at all and i look for some enlightenment in this regard (maybe from players from China). As a dumb westerner, what i see is this:
-Blizzard values asian market a lot, for $ reasons ofc
-They move heaven and earth to adjust WoW to China's government demands
-They build an expansion aimed at the asian market, wholly chinese inspired.

-The expansion is out and WoW loses millions of subs in China.

That is very curious and, as i said, hard to understand. Is it because it takes the fantasy away playing on your homeland? Is it because pandaren are not a good association? Is it because they feel like their culture has been poorly represented, or not represented at all? Or is it for some other reason, related to unknown factors, like powerful competitors in the mmo market in China? If this, can you tell us a little more about these competitors, i'd like to know them!
Because what we see is a game made towards a market and that very game, which was doing fairly well, being massively abandoned by that same market.

[Rorschachs]

The asian market is smart. And they won't keep paying for a game when there are games that are better out there that are free.

[Gimlix]

I admit i don't understand chineses and China at all and i look for some enlightenment in this regard (maybe from players from China). As a dumb westerner, what i see is this:
-Blizzard values asian market a lot, for $ reasons ofc
-They move heaven and earth to adjust WoW to China's government demands
-They build an expansion aimed at the asian market, wholly chinese inspired.

-The expansion is out and WoW loses millions of subs in China.

That is very curious and, as i said, hard to understand. Is it because it takes the fantasy away playing on your homeland? Is it because pandaren are not a good association? Is it because they feel like their culture has been poorly represented, or not represented at all? Or is it for some other reason, related to unknown factors, like powerful competitors in the mmo market in China? If this, can you tell us a little more about these competitors, i'd like to know them!
Because what we see is a game made towards a market and that very game, which was doing fairly well, being massively abandoned by that same market.

I think the reason why people are leaving in china because in china there are alot of chinese MMORPG's, there are tons of those to choose out from.
WoW in other hand wasn't and was different! I think they liked that alot.
Now WoW went the chinese culture road too, they weren't pleased and went away. because there are tons of chinese MMORPG's out there and even better ones i guess that they will like alot more.

I think alot will return if burning legion or who ever will be next expansion.

[Magemaer]

Now WoW went the chinese culture road too, they weren't pleased and went away. because there are tons of chinese MMORPG's out there and even better ones i guess that they will like alot more.

I think alot will return if burning legion or who ever will be next expansion.

That's what i was wondering. Maybe WoW is attractive to them as long as it's western, with elves and dragons, spaceships and orcs. Make it chinese and it loses the enchant. And their own mmos prob handle the chinese inspiration better, creating more epic experiences. Let's agree that pandaren, mantid and mogus are not very epic, shall we? (even though technically the expansion is well made)

[Deletedaccount1]

To be fair, Korea contributes much more to the WoW community and has a fraction of the players that China does. Blizzard needs to stop posting "most sub losses in East" in all their quarterly reports because that has nothing to do with the fact that West is also losing players. Maybe not as many but clearly Blizzard is trying to cover it up with China.

[Gimlix]

To be fair, Korea contributes much more to the WoW community and has a fraction of the players that China does. Blizzard needs to stop posting "most sub losses in East" in all their quarterly reports because that has nothing to do with the fact that West is also losing players. Maybe not as many but clearly Blizzard is trying to cover it up with China.

Well people would like to know where the subs dropped, and i'm happy that EU didn't lose more then they gained.

[Deletedaccount1]

Well people would like to know where the subs dropped, and i'm happy that EU didn't lose more then they gained.

Where does it say that in the report? I'm not trying to disprove you I just didn't see where it said that.

[bigfoot1291]

I wouldn't really call 1.3 million loss "millions of losses in china"

[Gimlix]

A completely new kind of game, a sandbox MMO is what blew Blizzard out of the water in Asia.

More than 20 million chinese are playing Age of Wushu right now... the wow-killer of the east.

It has no dungeons, no leveling, only character progression, exploration and very competitive open world pvp between 8 different factions.

I have just googled it, and it looks so boring.
It looks exact same then any other MMORPG of chinese culture lol o.o

[Wondercrab]

I don't think the theming of the expansion has much to do with anything. It's probably more to do with the type of gameplay Eastern audiences enjoy.

[Gimlix]

Where does it say that in the report? I'm not trying to disprove you I just didn't see where it said that.

Well they didn't say EU lost any, and usually they do say if EU would lose any.

[Deletedaccount1]

A completely new kind of game, a sandbox MMO is what blew Blizzard out of the water in Asia.

More than 20 million chinese are playing Age of Wushu right now... the wow-killer of the east.

It has no dungeons, no leveling, only character progression, exploration and very competitive open world pvp between 8 different factions.

I couldn't take that game seriously to be honest, it looked more asian than MoP and I didn't know that possible.

[Magemaer]

Age of Wushu seems like a pretty primitive mmo, like one of the many mmos that tried to copy wow on west and created something worse. But it does seem to create a better asian experience, with cool martial arts and such, and the martial arts movements seem to be very well made. I wonder how is the combat experience, leveling and endgame, and why the hell is it so popular on asia. It must have some very solid reasons.

[Baine]

Now WoW went the chinese culture road too, they weren't pleased and went away. because there are tons of chinese MMORPG's out there and even better ones i guess that they will like alot more.

I think alot will return if burning legion or who ever will be next expansion.[/QUOTE]

It is an interesting thought. WoW, in a way, tried to fight the asian MMOs on their own thematic field.

[Magemaer]

It is an interesting thought. WoW, in a way, tried to fight the asian MMOs on their own thematic field.

And lost.

They also tried to fight for more casuals on wotlk. And arguably lost.

They also tried to fight for new players on cata. And lost.

Every front they open to increase subscribers since tbc boom has failed, and it backfired as many players got alienated and displeased meanwhile.

[Mawnix]

The asian market is smart. And they won't keep paying for a game when there are games that are better out there that are free.

In their opinion.

Opinions differ.

People need to learn this fact.

---------- Post added 2013-05-08 at 11:32 PM ----------

Every front they open to increase subscribers since tbc boom has failed, and it backfired as many players got alienated and displeased meanwhile.

And yet in current WoW, everything present should please every type of crowd, but it isn't good enough apparently.

[Gimlix]

And lost.

They also tried to fight for more casuals on wotlk. And arguably lost.

They also tried to fight for new players on cata. And lost.

Every front they open to increase subscribers since tbc boom has failed, and it backfired as many players got alienated and displeased meanwhile.

I think in WOTLK they got tons of casuals to be fair.

Cata/MoP aren't doing great sadly.

[Mawnix]

I think in WOTLK they got tons of casuals to be fair.

Cata/MoP aren't doing great sadly.

Says who?

Cata lost how many subscribers? 4 million?

Mists has lost 2 million~ yet gained a number of them at the start of the expansion.

Since then Blizzard has been working to fix their mistakes with it and listened to the community as much as they possibly can.

We'll see at the end of Mists if it was truly successful or not.

[Gimlix]

Says who?

Cata lost how many subscribers? 4 million?

Mists has lost 2 million~ yet gained a number of them at the start of the expansion.

Since then Blizzard has been working to fix their mistakes with it and listened to the community as much as they possibly can.

We'll see at the end of Mists if it was truly successful or not.

If blizzard themself says to public they expect to lose even more players then we know it wont go up this expansion.

[Mawnix]

If blizzard themself says to public they expect to lose even more players then we know it wont go up this expansion.

I'm hopeful. Guess that's where we differ.