The day the casuals leave, what happens then?

[Trassk]

It always makes me laugh seeing people who consider themselves in there 'elite status' to be the only meaningful thing in the game. Heads shoved so far up there 1% backsides they think the game is only based around them. Selfish brats.

[Akka]

More sub loss? I don't think the casuals would leave before the hard core players though, the casuals seem a lot easier to please.

Actually, that's the other way around.

[Hitei]

4+ raid nights a week and 6/7 raid nights a week at a new patch is hardcore. Anything below is a casual.

Guess all those glads are casual.

[Anonymitylol]

It always makes me laugh seeing people who consider themselves in there 'elite status' to be the only meaningful thing in the game. Heads shoved so far up there 1% backsides they think the game is only based around them. Selfish brats.

Yet we have casuals in here saying the same thing except for them yet you don't mention them. Keep up the superiority complex, really helps your case .

[Hitei]

Yet we have casuals in here saying the same thing except for them yet you don't mention them. Keep up the superiority complex, really helps your case .

I can't imagine casuals think they are elite. You don't really ever see casuals whining for heroic raids to be removed from the game either, unlike those "hardcore" people who demand LFR be removed.

[Eternal Ice]

What would happen if all casuals leave?

Well, that depends on your definition of "casual", many people seems to think that all non-raiders are casuals, personally I think that you can be casual and heroic raider at the same time or be hardcore and never step into a raid. However, for simplicity, let's consider every single non-raider as "casual" and every raider as "hardcore".

Acording to many websites, like wowprogress.com, the amount of people participating in normal raids is extremely low, the last time I checked less than 5% of the player base had killed at least one boss in Normal dificulty, it means that roughly 95% of the player base is not participating in raiding.

So what would happen if someday every single casual (non-raider in this example) leave the game?

1) WoW loses roughly 95% of it's playerbase

2) WoW goes f2p because now that model is more profitable (with a pay to win cash store)

3) LFR and LFD are removed from the game since they are no longer necessary nor wanted by the remaining players

4) New raids are smaller, harder and last for months.

5) Ironically, PvP is not affected that much since it do not require constant updates nor new content.

6) There are new players, some of them want to do both aspects of the game, others prefer either PvP or PvE. New, inexperienced players soon find out that they are not welcome in the new, harder raids and without LFR nor LFD they have not many options, on the other hand, new, inexperienced players interested in PvP have no problem participating in random batlegrounds.

7) Every day, the PvE side is bleeding more and more players and there are not enough new players to replace them.

8) Every day, the PvP side is gaining more and more players.

9) The number of players interested in PvP surpasses the number of players interested in PvE, blizzard starts to care more about keeping pvpers happy (and buying things from the store)

10) WoW ends as a PvP game.

Yes, I have lots of imagination

[Ferocity]

Casuals leave -> WoW dies.

Simple enough as that.

[Hottage]

Already been said, those whom are considered "casual" by those whom consider themselves "hardcore" make up a vast, vast majority of the player base.

Those "hardcore" may think the game should revolve around them, but at the end of the day, it never will... because being vastly outnumbered makes them a niche.

Blizzard wants to make money, and removing 90%+ of their player base will make the game none profitable. So it will die.

[zoomgpally]

I love putting a playerbase of 7m+ into 2 categories.

Its really simple: people that play 24/7 and people that DONT play 24/7

[Deleted]

Ah, the "casual WoW player"; a species so amorphous and indistinct that no two people can agree on what they look like but through their mere presence can cause controversy and alarm. When the final "casual WoW player" finally calls times on his/her sub I know I for one will miss the countless threads bickering on their influence and indeed definition.

[Deleted]

Now Im in break probably i resub for the next patch, In my opinion the main reason for the decline are

1} shared lockout between 10 and 25, in wrath was more easy to get pugs, now that my guild is disbanded and I don-t want to look for another hc raider guild after completing LFR there is no point to keep playing {without LFR I have probably quitted at all instead being interested to sub again}

2} blizzard store, found pissing that you cant have the most awesome pet and mount ingame, if I have to pay extra no point to play, if bat mount was added as reward for an achie like 5 differnt alts completing LFR throne of thunder you have had tons of people levelling and play the game, now the transmog stuff will ruin more and more the three helm plus an item set for cloth/leather/mail/plate as 496 items sets in timeless island dailies have forced people to play more too meaning no more than 5 dailies in order to have the full set in 3 months instead of a recolor of a very bad basic sets

3} as my guild is disbanded wanna move to another realm but as it is costly for all my char Im still in the same where im bored so i quitted,at the end the point is the same i still have to pay for a service that should be included in the game, and so race change, name change, faction change..


So I think that all the extras blizzard added for paying when wow was very popular now that popularity is decreasing are an incetive to quit because you don-t wanna invest more money when you are getting bored, but to have more fun you prob wanna change but if for these changes you have to pay you prefer to quit.

If I have had the possibility to earn the bat mount levelling more alts I will have continued to play
If I have had the possibility to change faction for free*in draenor ally is now dead horde do a lot of pugs I prob have had the possibility to do pugs enjoy and keep playing maybe having an incetive to enter again in a raiding guild
If I have had the possibility to change realm for free I could have joined my friends in a different realm and keep raiding, or move to an italian realm and start to speak my nativa language *missed the one month free transfer as my guild was still active at the time and didnt noticed the news

So at the end blizzard to sell more extras and earn more money lose long term players and the game is affected by this and at the end blizzard lose money

Grats to the blizzard business men GREAT JOB

[Deleted]

Its really simple: people that play 24/7 and people that DONT play 24/7

So , there's no such thing as a "casual" then? God, that was simple.

[zoomgpally]

Casuals are apparently after all the main pool of subs they are losing every quarter, according to Blizzard.

Can't find source, but i believe blizzard said less than 1% of the game population cleared heroic raids while current tier(in cata i think)

[Deleted]

I know the idea of an utopian world exists where only hardcore raiders play the game and Blizz develops content only for them, but yeah, that can't happen. Less players = less money = lesser development, simple as that. The recent loss of subs might have reduced the size of a raid, or the number of dungeons in the upcoming expansion, who knows.

[Anonymitylol]

I can't imagine casuals think they are elite. You don't really ever see casuals whining for heroic raids to be removed from the game either, unlike those "hardcore" people who demand LFR be removed.

A guy already did in this thread, the whole "Blizzard designs the game FOR ME" mentality is about as elite or even more elite than most hardcore players, and A LOT of casual players have that funnily enough.

You also can't say it's hardcore people who want LFR removes, we don't know what those players style is.

[zoomgpally]

So , there's no such thing as a "casual" then? God, that was simple.

Of course, its the people that dont play 24/7

So there is no such thing as a "hardcore", because nobody can play 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Except maybe gold farmers, those things never sleep

[Santoryu]

This thread has the distinct stench of "casual = bad"

[Deleted]

The game would stop being made. That's what.

What? The game can't be Made if it's already been made, as it was when the game came out, that's when they Made the game?

[zoomgpally]

I know the idea of an utopian world exists where only hardcore raiders play the game and Blizz develops content only for them, but yeah, that can't happen. Less players = less money = lesser development, simple as that. The recent loss of subs might have reduced the size of a raid, or the number of dungeons in the upcoming expansion, who knows.

That would just be blizzard saying: Ok, maybe its time to slowly kill the game.

https://twitter.com/Ghostcrawler/sta...33435794792449

After that quote, ill just assume they are trying the wotlk model for next xpack to see if that can stop people from leaving(if the game doesn't die before release, last tiers are LONG, and people get bored)

[mireigi]

If and when WoW drops below 3M subscribers, it will be close to the time where Titan is released. Blizzard will probably just make WoW F2P and focus on Titan instead, with a small team supporting WoW and making new content.

However, all of this probably won't happen until we have finished the history of Azeroth with the third invasion of the Burning Legion, led by Sargeras himself.