Subscription
Since the start of Vanilla the game has grown in numbers. Yes, we have seen subscription increases for over 6 years of its life (2004 - 2010). Which raises the question: Why is World of Warcraft bleeding subscribers since Cataclysm?
My take on the situation is that there is no end game. Well there is but it gets consumed so quickly that people are left with nothing to do. Raiding has been butchered into pieces over the coarse of expansions since Wrath of the Lich King for people to jump into the game again and start playing with their friends/guildies without having to raid the previous tiers rather than take the time to progress from point A to point B and then finally to point C:
(T1 - T2 - T3) RESET (T4 - T5 - T6)
Instead we see:
(T11 (SKIP) T12 (SKIP) go to T13)
We started seeing Blizzard change this formula in raiding when they released Trial of the Crusader also known as (TOC) and it was clear that the game was not the same in terms of raiding. People could grind the easiest dungeons in the game to reek better rewards then the previous patch had to offer. This caused raiders to skip content like 3.0 and 3.1 to move on to newer content released (3.2).
This formula is flawed and you may think not but it is flawed because their is no carrot on the stick scenario. You are not progressing anything since there is a reset every patch instead of every expansion like it's supposed to be. What happened to World of Warcraft's raiding?
It's not about getting there. It's about getting the most out of the journey.
2010: 12.000.000 active subscribers.
2013: 8.300.000 active subscribers.
Total subscribers lost to date: - 3.700.000 million.
Future
What's your take on this whole situation?