What can WoW do to gain Subs?

[Pann]

The first few months of mist they had a sub increase then a slight drop and then this massive drop people still bought this game when they could see beta footage. But suddenly this patch racism is the main issue? not the other few months when all we saw were Pandaren. Now we have had raids focused on the trolls who are jamaican and the mogu who have had major parts in the story as well but racism is defiantly an issue now. Pandas aren't even the main focus.

There was an increase in Q3 and then the subs have fallen ever since MOP was released. I honestly don't know where you get racism from no-one has said it is racist only that it has not been well received in the East. As an Englishman I find the Worgen annoying as they speak with a Dick Van Dyke British accent and this the same kind of complaints I have read about the Pandaren speaking with a Japanese accent, it is not racist just annoying.

[KCguy]

I'd say a better themed expansion. Mists of Pandaria has been great, but the theme has had many mixed reactions. Many people either love it or hate it. We need a dark themed expansion with a bad ass bad guy who gets people talking. Mists does have a dark theme to it, don't get me wrong, but nothing like BC or Wrath did. If they go back to that and if it is Burning Legion next expansion, that might be just what the doctor ordered. (or some other lame expression)

[Mithfir]

One thing I miss from my Vanilla days is grouping with fellow people from my server to do BGs or run dungeons. Over time, I made some contacts and knew which guilds had good and fun players to play with and which players to avoid. Sure it took a lot of time, but it helped create social cohesion on the server. Another thing I miss was Friday night AV on my server. I remember seeing a Horde jumping on his Alliance alt and yelling in Ironforge to queue up for AV because the Horde was about to.

Blizzard won't remove LFD and LFR under any circumstances. What they could do, is add a "same server" function with higher rewards if used. Would probably take longer to form a group, but it could be a way to bring back the social community that has been missing since Lich King. Why be nice and patient to 4 strangers you will never meet again? If the group is from the same server, there's higher chances the players will be more polite. Could add a similar feature for Pvp as well.

NPC events that are world wide. Example, a military group plans to assault a Pvp Objective, town criers call for the event to happen at X spot at X hour. No queue either. That might help bring back some fun into exploring the world and killing other faction members on a server.

[Theendgamelv3]

No it's a fair question. It's a bit insulting for me. Mainly because it is a fantasy world. Blizz could have come up with a 101 million other expansion ideas. Yet they take the panda and my culture. Then mix them up into a expansion. At first it was like......well ok. Now it's like..........really. That's all you could think of? It's like Blizz wanted Asia to like their game so much, the modeled a expansion after it. They made it really obvious who they were trying to sell the game too this time around. That is why it's insulting.

You can say that about anything in WoW. Look at Wrath, that was Nordic culture. Everything you said can be applied to it. Are Taurens insulting to the native american cultures? Are the Trolls insulting to the Caribbean cultures? The Pandaren have been wanted for years according to Blizzard and almost made the cut in TBC. Obviously if MoP was insulting the Chinese government wouldn't have even allowed it in their country. I can't argue how you personally feel, if you felt insulted, you feel insulted. However, you can't talk for all the Asians and Chinese people. You don't know why most of them left. With that said, if MoP was insulting, how isn't Kung Fu Panda which did well over there?

[Namalia]

There is more difficult content in the game if you go looking for it.

If you're having trouble putting together groups for it.... Either join a guild with like-minded individuals, or move to a server to join a guild with like-minded individuals.

I've played since Classic (Feb 2006), and I like the game the way it is. Wrath of the Lich King was my personal high point of the game, after the disaster that was BC endgame.

The simple fact of the matter is that the game is going on 9 years old and the MMO market is not what it once was, nor is the economy.

Many of the veteran players like myself have matured, gotten older, gotten new responsibilities, and just simply don't have the time to put in anymore.

On top of all of that, the gaming population as a whole has changed. Many gaming companies are realizing that the real money is in appealing to as many players as possible. Which, is counter-intuitive to what the "hardcore" player wants. But what the "hardcore" player needs to realize is that the entire industry is moving away from their line of thinking and they are a dying breed. I've been gaming a long time (since the early 80s) and I find nothing wrong with getting more people involved. Especially if it means a growing community of gamers.

As far as WoW is concerned... Having raids available that I can do with my wife (who is not the best player in the world, but at least tries), and eventually, my daughter (she's only 12, and just plays to have fun) is where the fun in this game is for me.

Would I love to see some "hard modes" that you could activate like in Ulduar? Sure! But not at the expense of the easier difficulty that others not as good as I am can handle.

[Pull My Finger]

Get rid of flying mounts, LFD, LFR, valor points, epics for scrubs, dailies and all auction houses except the ones in IF and OG, bring back bloated talent trees and useless talents, crappy and sub par hybrid specs, resistance gear grind, one-shooting clothies in PvP, low level ganking, agi/spirit leather, and, most important, let rogues buy reagents from the vendor and manually brew their poisons.

[theWocky]

Nothing, they can do nothing except attempt to stem the exodus in the form of

1. Being less greedy and allow free server transfers ~ heck, this may bring me back for a few months.
2. Release "meaningful" quest / lore content / epic quest chains and focus less on repetition/dailies to keep people busy (attunement quest chains for example).
2a - more lore, more post max level long quest chains!
3. More dungeons with randomized loot and meaningful items in chests - more focus on "possible loot drops" and less on a menu of loot for each dungeon.
4. Removal of a "credit" purchase / token system which forces people to accumulate points (sometimes in activities they don't enjoy) just to cap points to buy gear.
5. Make expansion upgrades free - I am bewildered at the need to pay for expansions / essentially content patches on a sub-based game, but hey... people pay, so why not?
6. Add some elements of F2P to make people who play a lot be able to buy game time with gold and people who don't have time to grind able to buy game time to sell for gold. This will allow true "casual" players to eliminate some of the grind.
7. Make epic gear prestigious again for the minority. "Epic" means it is "Epic", does it not? Make random-stat gear more prevalent so you when you open a chest, it's with the anticipation of an upgrade. Unfortunately, you can't remove "forging" now, so kind of a bad hole they've dug themselves into.

They can't really make people participate in the open world as the game is pretty much lobby based. They can make "flashpoints" where people can meet for different tasks, but my personal opinion is that the world is dead.

My 2c.

ps. It's not only WoW, other mmo's like Rift could learn some things from this too as they're going down the same path as WoW - seems to be a trend with sub-based mmo's. Adding "grind" instead of content is not good. People don't fall for that.

[Drithien]

@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.

Hahaha, I know. Damn, I actually thought it would be a short post this time, but it soon spiralled out of control. I blame the numerous aspects of the game, that just had to be mentioned! Anyway, thanks for (being probably the only one to) reading it

[Deleted]

As the title suggest, what do you think Blizzard can do with WoW to gain more subs, and make up for the colossal drop in Subscribers? Will releasing more content, and reducing all the annoying things people complain about help? Or do you see Blizzard going F2P with WoW in the future. Which would for sure, inflate the Sub numbers.
What do you think is the best solution for Blizzards crisis with subscribers?

p.s. If there is another topic made about this matter, I apologize.

Nothing blizzard himself killed wow by stupid features like LFR. WoW will now only drop subs. And i am pretty sure that with annoucing of titan subs will drop even more becous nobady want play game when he know there will be much better game soonTM. Ye ofc they can make comeback with some crazy expansion with uber cool new stuff or start using F2P mode. But me personaly gona quit wow after annoucing of Titan or on beta realease.

[Tziva]

I don't think they really can gain at this point. With a peak of 13million subscribers, it's totally possible that everyone who was interested in the game has already tried it, and totally new younger generation players are probably going to gravitate towards brand new games. We're two expansions into subscription loss and almost a decade into the game's life; what WoW is going through is pretty normal. I think the best they can do is try to stablise numbers by continuing to make a quality game that appeals to existing players to keep on playing. I don't think it's realistic to expect a dramatic increase in subscriptions.

[Crashdummy]

They should make the game for casuals again and stop with this stupid grinds, dailies, difficulties on raids, and they should create catch up dungeons in almost every patch. Basically, get back to Wrath and stop trying to please a snowflake elitists group that wont be happy untill casuals cant get even a blue item.

[A dot Ham]

Blizzard's strategy for WoW has been:

Focus on new players rather than on retention.

It needs to be reversed.

They also need new management. Look at any quarter report that showed a reduction in active subs... there is ALWAYS an excuse as to the loss of subs. No one is taking ownership, at what point does the number of subs drop so much that you finally recognize it as an issue.

However in terms of company growth the success or failure of wow doesn't matter at this point as long as their other franchises continue to not only pad the loss, but remain profitable.

[Llunai]

Go back from Activision Blizzard to Blizzard of the north?

You shouldn't comment on things you only half understand.

1) There was never anything called "Blizzard of the north". You're thinking of Blizzard North.

2) Blizzard North didn't make WoW.

[Svifnymr]

I'd say a big part is cost structure.
Base Game should be $20 for everything up to last expac and have your first month.
Expac Game should be $40 and include a month sub also.

So yeah, currently you pay $20 for up to Wrath, then buy Cata, then buy Mists if starting from scratch.
If you're returning to the game, you possibly need to buy Cata, then Mists, then also pay $15 for a month of play.

next issue would be updating the models/graphics and getting more interesting storylines

final issue would be the barrier to entry of the various ilvl requirements for a returning player.

[kamikaze148]

What can they do?. Nothing.

Im sorry, but this negative argument over Blizzard losing subs, and the impending doom it represents is tiresome and old and needs to be put to rest.

This game is old, real old in the scheme of things. We are coming up on a decade very soon since its released, Blizzards notion of attaining this mythical golden pot at the end of the rainbow that is "new players" really needs to take a back seat to retain the current playerbase still hanging on.

The majority of people outside the WoW loop look at its aging graphics engine, its slightly hostile established player base when dealing with new players, the intense levelling curve, skill and gearing curve and a myriad of other issues that come with an established MMO like WoW and either quit after level 40 odd or just dont even bother.

ESO comes out this year, along with a flood of other great single player games, its only natural attrition over years of players burning themselves out and leaving, or simply just finding another game, its not the end of the world and i personally am sick and tired of people seeing the loss of subs as such. Be thankful that we have what we have, one day soon within the next half decade it will dwindle down to less than 2mill and will still hopefully be one of the bigger heavy hitters on the market.

I love this game believe me, and still play it daily. But i guess ive played it long enough to recognize the signs and where its inevitably heading

[Hamz]

When people think back to the best experiences they had in wow, they always think "well me and my friends" did this or that. They have taken many social aspects out of the game. It used to matter if you were well known on a server, because if you were a troll, you never got invited to heroics or pug raids, you never got into any reputable guild except the ones that spam invites and are filled with lvl 50s all trying to get to cap. By adding in many of the features available today, you no longer need to care. It has allowed harrassment, and trolling to run rampart on servers, making even being in general or trade chat unappealing, and who needs friends in wow now? log in, queue for a random dungeon or raid, watch everyone complain and moan and try to take advantage of others by queuing as a dps in all tank gear, or with an inventory full of epics to bump up your ilvl and get carried. you calm yourself down and say this is just lfr, its easy. you manage to get through it without too much stress, and log off. That gets old quick. I'm not saying these features should be removed, but they need to be remade at the very least. They toss in a bunch of features to get people interested enough to re-activate for a month or 2 then they quit again. They change up the talent and skills system against most players wishes and remove/modify stats to make it easier for them, but less interesting for us. Leveling doesnt feel special anymore, raiding doesnt feel special anymore. earning epics isnt special anymore, because epics arent epic anymore. It's all monotonous sometimes tedious work for very little gratification. tldr; fix social aspect of game. punish trolls.

[Deleted]

Turn it into an adventure again.

At the moment everything is mechanical. Its tedious. They can save this game but honestly I think their best resources are not in wow now and we have very boring patches. More they claim but everything in cycles, where the hell is the innovation Blizzard? It's been a ling time now. Too long for a game like to survive. Get busy!

[A dot Ham]

Turn it into an adventure again.

At the moment everything is mechanical. Its tedious. They can save this game but honestly I think their best resources are not in wow now and we have very boring patches. More they claim but everything in cycles, where the hell is the innovation Blizzard? It's been a ling time now. Too long for a game like to survive. Get busy!

The story telling aspect of WoW is really really poor.

[Halicia]

I'd say a big part is cost structure.
Base Game should be $20 for everything up to last expac and have your first month.
Expac Game should be $40 and include a month sub also.

So yeah, currently you pay $20 for up to Wrath, then buy Cata, then buy Mists if starting from scratch.
If you're returning to the game, you possibly need to buy Cata, then Mists, then also pay $15 for a month of play.

next issue would be updating the models/graphics and getting more interesting storylines

final issue would be the barrier to entry of the various ilvl requirements for a returning player.

I think the cost structure is the major part thats keeping actual NEW players at bay. Considering the average lifecycle of an expansion is about 2 years, and there's additional 'service and cosmetic' fees to support expenses I still think they should be minimizing costs that discourage players in their honeymoon period from continuing to play.

I think there's a *LOT* of room for more '5 minute' content like Pet Battles and Brawler's Guild.

[frogger237]

Nothing, even if they do something to gain subs there will still be people who have gotten burnt out that will quit until it eventually levels out.

Anyone who thinks any game, especially an 7+ year old game, is supposed to continuously increase in subs is smoking meth. No game has ever done this and if a game were to it would be some sort of miracle or designed to be super addicting.