What can WoW do to gain Subs?

[FlacidGladiator]

If you want to increase subscribers, its not about releasing more frequent content but immersion of the player into the game world. Play is now formulaic. You do this many raids and dungeons to cap valor to obtain the iLvl to progress. You PVP this amount over this period of time to cap CP to obtain gear levels that give you an advantage. There isn't any solo RP immersion like the original game had. They've stripped out all the class specific quests like paladin and warlock mount quest chains, they've allowed faction changes. Undead warlock today, gnome warlock tomorrow. There is no character identification with the player. They have generalized the classes and the game where its now math and formula rather than RP and fun. They have bean counters now making content decision based on cost-benefit analysis. People that have absolutely no business in making games are throttling the creative effort and resources to deliver a product we all fell in love with years ago, but like any long lasting relationship, you fall out of love too.

[BenBos]

Ok , one contribution to this useless thread after all:

- content wise : Blizzard could include nude xxx pictures with every monthly subscription and it would not change anything.

- marketing wise: to counter all that free to play stuff: create new techniques to boost subs again

Few examples: get x packs of Hearthstone with one monthy WoW sub.
Get a monthly WoW subscription for buying 15 packages of Hearthstone.
Get a free access to Titan beta for a 6 month subscription to WoW.

Later: combine Titan and WoW subs
And repeat the above with Blizzard All Stars (Dota) etc...

A question of marketing and address the heart of the Blizzard fans...

[Dabrix32]

Anyone who suggests wow going F2P fails at basic math.

You fail at marketing. F2play games have taken off in popularity in the last few years. Thats due to actually having quality games that are fun to play like Tera and GW2 when before most free games were crap. People always say that casuals rule WoW. Well guess what most casuals dont want to do...Pay $15 a month for a game if they dont have to.

[Antbregante]

If WoW wanted subs they could always go to Subway or Quiznos.

[Santti]

Release new content, see subs raise, only to lower again after a while. There really isn't any more or less permanent solution to this.

[Deletedaccount1]

Everyone here is looking at this from a player's standpoint who has been playing the game for a long time but do new players really care about "classic servers" or LFR? WoW needs to adopt a free to play model or the subs will continue to drop. Blizzard can't hope to compete with other F2P games like League of Legends when WoW is expensive as it is. Having to pay for the battlechest + Cata + MoP + sub fees + possible transfer and race changing fees is enough to deter any new players away. Its not the game itself as much as it is how expensive and difficult to play it is.

[Deleted]

WOW is fine as is.

China inflated the sub numbers, now that is going away.

The real core of this game is in North America and Europe.

Those numbers are stable.

I shall point u the exact text from the conference call >>>

"Blizzard’s World of Warcraft® remained the #1 subscriptionbased MMORPG in the world with more than eight million subscribers, although the game saw declines of approximately 1.3 million subscribers, mainly from the East, but in the West as well.²”

Its about time people stopped inventing bullcrap about West subs r fine and blaming it all on the East losing subs...

That quote above is from Kotick himself.

THE WEST ALSO LOST SUBS

[Deleted]

I shall point u the exact text from the conference call >>>

"Blizzard’s World of Warcraft® remained the #1 subscriptionbased MMORPG in the world with more than eight million subscribers, although the game saw declines of approximately 1.3 million subscribers, mainly from the East, but in the West as well.²”

Its about time people stopped inventing bullcrap about West subs r fine and blaming it all on the East losing subs...

That quote above is from Kotick himself.

THE WEST ALSO LOST SUBS

No ones saying they didn't, but how many is "but in the west as well"? What percentage? What number?

You can't focus on the one vague thing that helps confirm your bias and ignore the other bit "mainly from the East".

Unless you have some weird definition of "mainly", it's not about "inventing bullcrap" but reading what's written.

[Hoky]

Remove panda's.

[Drithien]

What do you think is the best solution for Blizzards crisis with subscribers?

First of all, I don't think that there is any "crisis". If raking in tenths of millions of dollars each month is a crisis for a gaming company, I think almost every company out there would wish they were engulfed in such a crisis.

Now, to me, what Blizzard could do are four things: First, stop advertising sales and subscription numbers so much. They really went and shot themselves in the foot with that, then the kneecap, then proceeded to treat the other leg similarly. Doing good, even better great, commercially is a a nice thing for a company. So hire some more people, give some raises to salaries, have a party, and in general give yourself a pat on the back for your success.

Using your success to illustrate to your customers how things are going great is a good thing as well. Going out of your way to use your numbers as advertisement though is not. When you present someone with some piece of information you make them part of the world that piece of information lives in. You make them care. So as long as your numbers go up and up and up (and away) everyone is happy, some even cheering as if they worked at the company and didn't just buy its products. But what happens when the numbers stop growing that much, or at all, or even stop dropping back? For a company that is natural. Not desirable, but natural. You win some, you lose some. As long as you can make a good profit you are good. Unless you have management problems, but that is another story altogether (not that far away, but still not that close yet). But for customers? The rise of profit is a game. And although they were not directly playing, they were participating. Like football, rubgy, etc, it was something they were invested in, something that the company made them invested in. And now that their team is "losing" they are worried. Not because things are bad, but because their "game" is failing.

So, apart from all the practical aspects of the matter, Blizzard went on and created another nuisance to worry about, completely on their own. So they should, in the future, just stop advertising successes so much.

Secondly, they should stop ruining the magic, by involving the players in almost everything they do. Listening to feedback is one thing. Depending so much on what x, y, z player says, and even worse being so open about what everything is supposed to do is letting yourself get set up for trouble. I don't want to play a game advised by Dkpower or Palalol, or any esteemed "pro" player. I want a game developed by Blizzard. And neither do I want Blizzard to guide me through the game or explain every little thing there is about it. Just release the content and let me figure out what is going on myself. Conversations with the developers used to be so interesting and exciting in the past, now it's mostly about how warlocks lack x% amount of burst in pvp, or how the cooldown of spell Y should be slightly decreased to align with ability Z.

Additionally, and even worse, the direction of the game is so focused on streamlining due to all of the above, it's become depressing. Getting actually excited by an ability nowadays is a rare thing, since most cool abilities are gettign dumped down for "balance reasons". Individuality is getting dumped down for "balance reasons". Creativity is getting dumped down for "balance reasons". Uniqueness is getting dumped down for "balance reasons". Flavour, excitement, surprise, ingenuity, FUN, are all getting dumped down for "balance reasons". "A vast world, filled with adventure, mystery and danger awaits you oh brave adventurer! Just don't forget to pack your toothbrush and your vitamins and your sun tan lotion, pillow, bug spray, mr Snuggles, and don't leave the road!" Streamlining a game is good practically, but it is also boring. And most players don't play a game to have a nice, safe, predictable stroll. They want to get excited. Gripped and sucked into the magic of the game they are playing. Where did that magic that used to linger in World of WarCraft go? Oh yeah, got eaten up by the balancing of numbers. Oh my, numbers, how exciting. Exactly what I had in mind when I started playing a medieval fantasy-themed, open-world, role-playing game...

Third, realise just what exactly their game is. FRICKING HUGE that is. World of WarCraft is an immensely complex game, with so many aspects. Yet, only a few ever get proper development. PVE is about raiding and dailies. PVP is about ranked matches and some random battleground fights.

No, they are not. That is what they are trying to make the game about, but it is not about just those things. PVE is also about questing, actual questing, not dailies. There is also exploring. Professions' progression. Actual adventuring. Not running through instanced content or content that is to be repeated just as if it was instanced. And that's where, with all due respect, the developers tried to sneak things past the players. I am sorry, but that is what happened. In vanilla, when the game saw its biggest growth in percentages, and when most players were happily playing, almost none did raiding. Not just because of the barrier to entry, but also just because they were not interested. Players were out in the world playing an open-world game exactly like it was meant to be, and for those that wanted and could, there was raiding. Yet, even as early as Crusade an effort was made to shoehorn all PVEers into raiding. Why? Because it's easier to develop the game that way. An excuse of a questing experience to buy some time and then all into smashing their faces against bosses in raid dungeons. Much less work and things to worry about and spend money on that way.

People wonder why numbers are dropping. And opinions vary. But one thing most opinions agree on is because the game has gotten boring. It's only the explanations that differ. For some it's the lack of gearing through dungeons. For others the game has become too streamlined. Others claim they are bored with raiding and in general the gear grind. And most argue and fight between themselves, not thinking that perhaps, it's all of those things. Players that were happy adventuring out in the world were lured to instanced content with the appeal of epics and the lack of open-world content. At first they were somewhat impressed, too impressed to notice they were not having as much fun, but then something started bothering them, something that they couldn't pinpoint. Well, after years of getting yanked, just because, out of the content that you actually enjoy, and have content that you are not interested shoved down your gaming throat it's no wonder you can't understand what is going on. You just want to get back to doing what you enjoyed but have forgotten what that was like. And on the other hand, raiders, actual raiders not people that were forced into raiding, complain because raiding is losing its edge. What was one a sandboxy affair due to the chaotic designs of older encounters were there was not a way to win necessarily (C'thun, Kael'thas prenerf to name a few) now things are so streamlined they get predictable easily and well, the only thing that remains is a race to world/region/realm/10-man or 25-man, and trying to pawn the meters. Blizzard tried to shoehorn all players into one kind of content and all suffer for it.

So, they should recognise their plan doesn't work. If they want to have a good game on their hands, they have to develop it properly; give each activity its proper treatment. Give questing the length and complexity it had in vanilla: with multiple racial campaigns, class quests, lots of side-quests, get rid of that bloody quest helper!, quest hubs that need to be found not guided to, secret quests, etc. Give exploration a thorough revival: give it depth, create exploration skills that have to be trained and advanced, create truly hazardous environments to traverse, special equipment, etc. Give professions a thorough redesign. Make them a proper game. Involve players, make them search for exotic recipes, take apprentiships with crafting masters, create their own things, make creating something more than just pushing a button. Give variety in dungeons: from small, simple and easy, to vast, complex and painful. Small and medium ones for points and some fast silly fun. Big ones for organised, serious groups, with appropriate rewards, like better gear and recipes. Give raiding three modes finally. So that people that are genuinely interested in raiding will have a chance to participate regardless of skill.

And similarly for PVP, stop trying to push people in frigging arenas. For some it's all they want to do; for others it's the single most boring thing in WoW, ever. Also, stop trying to balance for 3v3, if a sillier thing ever existed. PVP is not only about 3v3, and neither should 3v3 become WoW's e-sports representative at the expense of all the rest of PVP in the game. Stop hurting the game just so some "pros" and wannabe "pros" end up only doing arenas in a role-playing game.

In general, the problem of the game is not the speed at which content is released, but the amount of content each aspect of the game receives. If you gave me, a questing entusiast, for example, four different distinct racial campaigns spanning several zones each, some unique and some shared, that would give me four different paths to quest in, which could keep me busy for months, smilarly to vanilla, I couldn't care less if it took a year until the next major patch; I would be happily questing to my heart's satisfaction. So, they should treat each and every aspect of the game with care and give lots of content to all, not just one aspect at a time.

Fourth and final: give something back to the community. World of WarCraft, the game that has become a legend, making what is it now, hundred of millions of dollars? More? When all it was expected from it was to, maaaaybe peak at 2 million subscriptions. And other than self-congratulatory posts, and the odd pet, what did the players get as thanks? Oh yeah, character services costing so much that characterising them as ridiculously high would be an understatement. Reduce the prices, even make them free of charge with a cooldown until the next use, gift a week or two every now and then to regular subscribers, not just emails when they don't renew their subscriptions for some time, in general to show with actions that they actually appreciate their mplayers as something more than customers. Be a bit practically grateful for once.

[Deleted]

No ones saying they didn't, but how many is "but in the west as well"? What percentage? What number?

You can't focus on the one vague thing that helps confirm your bias and ignore the other bit "mainly from the East".

Unless you have some weird definition of "mainly", it's not about "inventing bullcrap" but reading what's written.

So according to u its ok to focus on the language discussing subs drop in the East but we should ignore the language used to describe losing subs in the West... LOL

Those of us without any agenda whatsoever r reading the entire text and taking it all into account... cherrypicking doesnt help anyone.

[Deletedaccount1]

@Drithiend

Don't wanna have to quote you because you wrote a freaking book but I agree with all of your points except for the PvP one (Im more of a PvPer myself these days) but the one that really got me thinking was the first one about Blizzard advertising their sub numbers. I think if Blizzard didn't make it look like they were in a bad spot people in general would not worry about it. Anyway really good post I wish more people were as objective as you.

[wowsucks]

I dont play, but it looks like Blizzard has to keep casual players interested in keep playing after they finished "seeing the content" in LFR. May be introduce kind of LFR kind of quick join(not sure how it works now) system for normal and heroic difficulties and make normal and heroic raids rewards more desirable?

[Deleted]

Remove threads like these and similar. Should produce a net gain of subs tbh.

[phenox]

merge dead realms
decrease the time needed to be unsubed

[Arcsecant]

I think they need to do something graphically. After playing games that came out this year wow looks really old. It shouldn't have been put off this long or taken this many years to make new character models.

[Dawnseven]

I'm a casual and I do not want WoW to move to F2P. It's $15 a month, it's budgeted, that's that. I don't want to be nickel and dimed to death and end up paying more, nor do I want to get outspent by others. I just feel like if Blizz moves to F2P they might as well just sell gear in the Blizzard store and be done with it. Maybe I'm narrow minded. Someone explain how it would be better.

[Glaziola]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_mentality

Thats exactly what it is lol.

[Abysal]

I can't imagine the original devs expected the game to go on as long as it has. Keep playing and we'll keep developing.

Honestly, I don't think they can. WoW is old. The engine is old. The graphics are old. The story is old. The class mechanics are old. Young people who've never played before are less likely to go to WoW as their game of choice than they used to be. Older people who've been playing for a long time are finding better/more important things to do with their time.

At this point in WoW's lifecycle, it's simply not a good value to as many people as it used to be and I don't think anything thing they could do in game could change that. They could increase the activity of the game by getting rid of the Pay to Play model, but then they lose most of their incentive to keep working on the game.

I'm a casual and I do not want WoW to move to F2P. It's $15 a month, it's budgeted, that's that. I don't want to be nickel and dimed to death and end up paying more, nor do I want to get outspent by others. I just feel like if Blizz moves to F2P they might as well just sell gear in the Blizzard store and be done with it. Maybe I'm narrow minded. Someone explain how it would be better.

And there's plenty of people who agree with you. However, market economics suggests that in general, the higher price of WoW lowers it's demand.

[bigbadworgen]

For starters, get rid of fluffy pandas. This is Warcraft for ffs, not Kung Fu panda. If this would ever happen you'd see this alone would help the sub numbers a lot.