Why WoW Wont End

[CaptainV]

I once created a subject a while ago noting my interest in wow had faded mostly because I was making a point of how we, as teenagers back then have grown into adults and thus have higher expectations.

Similarly, lets point out a few things that need to be put into perspective for players seemingly dedicated to the desire to see WoW Die or simply wish that their rapture prophecies were true.



World Of Warcraft will End At Level 100!

Weather that is true or not, I sincerely doubt it, what I do suspect is that level 100 will be the end game "cap" but the end of the game itself? Hell no, Level 100 is a nice even number to suggest you've reached the pinnacle of leveling advancement and I admit after that I feel the game needs to change direction, perhaps introducing heroic leveling or some other system other than using an extra 5-10 levels per expansion to add more content.

Certainly, having a level cap would give more focus to other aspects of the setting like say, the story, which would be a prime focus seemingly of late. A level capped expansion might take away from some players hunger for progression but add instead a lot more depth to the already developing universe of Warcraft even if it is very well developed already.

Story aside though, this also gives opportunity for new, harder and more forced progression to raiding content that might finally make those hardcore idiots shut up once and for all about exclusivity. Having future expansions after level 100 that focus entirely on developing hardcore only raiding content might encourage hardcore raid guilds to return and bring back competition for raiders.

Its also a good way to focus on PvP, which has long been overdue for some attention since it was flatly ignored in MoP (sorry but I don't really consider most of the new PvP content in MoP nearly on par with what they added in WOTLK 2 expansions ago). This game really needs to bring back its hardcore AV matches where things took days, in fact, bring back tarren mill vs southshore in some spiritual form, I want war again, not just arena raging.

Truth be told I think that at level 100 PvP should have two separate systems, one that focuses on BG progression and one that focuses on Arena progression so I can finally enjoy my war zone atmosphere again of having armies fighting armies for conquest of the world.

So opinions aside form my minor rant here, the point I'm trying to say is that there is ALOT left to add, not all of it requires LEVELS to add it, so even if they cap at level 100 it does not mean the game is going to die, there is plenty they can alter, adjust and adapt to continue the franchise.



Azshara, Kil'Jaeden, Sargeras whose next, the Titans? Blizzard is running out of bad guys!

I heartily agree on this point, which is why one thing that troubles me is that while WoW will never die it may run out of "themes" that haven't been left in the back lore to bring into the forefront. This is where WoW may unfortunately begin to decline after those themes have been explored, and I fear it may be what ultimately causes the game to stagnate.

However, Blizzard has pulled rabbits of out the hat before with Pandaria, so it isn't impossible to add something new to an old universe and expand on things that might not have had much attention before. I believe Blizzard could easily expand the setting beyond Azeroth to threats in the stars themselves, evidenced by Outland. Now I don't think WoW should go to the point of becoming a hybrid space fantasy but that doesn't mean it cant have a little interplanetary conflict between a new world and Azeroth.

Then there's going back in time, a theme some would hate others like myself, if done right, would love.

Time travel is a theme entirely possible if done right, leaving room for alternative timelines, potential changes to history, and even permanent changes to the canon universe itself.

However, the biggest thing I think WoW needs is a long term antagonist, we have been going through big bads like candy in this universe and we need at least ONE bad guy that not only WINS, but constantly manages to elude us from the final raid until the very end. You see, there's a divided opinion that some like the idea of a new guy every time, but I believe new gets stale when its happening constantly, and that's why we need a reoccurring antagonist for once, someone that will never quite go away no matter how much you try to get rid of them, someone we have to actually find out how to kill permanently and develop new means of doing so.

The important thing about having a constant bad guy that has the same face is that for once, you have an antagonist you can identify that you recognize their deeds, their style, their method of doing things, and it becomes familiar. That too can stale in time but so far not once in WoW have we really had a bad guy that continues to be a threat after an expansion. I am personally hoping Garrosh will be that bad guy, since hes seemingly being set up for the role of antagonist in a future expansion yet again. Sometimes its good to have a villain you can continue to meet more than once, because when you meet them again its just another sweet moment to hand their ass to them, maybe even chop off an arm this time.

Its also about context, and I think lately Blizzard has only started to touch the surface of that since WC3. They understand what it needs to make a story but for a bad guy, or a central evil that keeps being interesting? They need a little more than blow up everything or corrupt it, they need something that is PERSONAL to you, someone that YOU recognize and YOU really want to kill because they have wronged YOU personally in some painful and angering way.

Really what the next expansion needs and the expansions after that need is a personal nemesis for the hero, someone that will make your life "hell" until the day you finally confront each other for the last time in a climactic duel of fate.

Even so, Blizzard can still just make new villains and equally that isn't always a bad thing. Sha were a good idea even if they were new and consequentially lacked nostalgia which is what interests people most. We'd like to meet someone like Gul'dan because the char is familiar to lore, but like DW, having an old antagonist come into the fore might not always be a good thing. So either it has to be an old villain done right, or a new antagonist done even better, like Wrathion for example.



WoW's Dying, its player base is going to decay to nothing, WoW will go Free To Play!


WoW's subscribers are still a whopping 7 million even if that isn't nearly as much as it was. Given their credit they are STILL the most subscribed mmo to date and this means blizzard is in the right NOT to go free to play, why go free when your still the one making the most money on subs?

Blizzard also pointed out rightly so that F2P is a highly competitive market and that since a lot of other f2p games are doing particularly well (Gw2 for example) WoW going F2P might not actually be for everyones benefit in the long term.

Will WoW Go free to play? I dont know.

My foresight is that WoW's free trial will extend over time, not necessarily free to play, but the main content, for example, vanilla wow, 1-60 will probably go free eventually. Outlands, Northrend and the rest will follow expansion by expansion, but this gives Blizzard a medium to avoid having to go fully f2p while giving players enough content to let them try the game before committing to it.

I do think this system will happen, because Blizzard already has effectively done it with the level 1-20 leveling content now being entirely free on permanent trial. This proves Blizzard made a step in the first place towards making F2P in WoW and it will happen, just not the way most other F2P games do.

It makes sense for blizzard to offer more of the game as expansions go on to players that wont pay because that way they can appease a new customer base while equally attending to their main subscription audience, attracting new customers with old world content and the ability to level in it.

Plus, that means trials would get level 60 raiding, which I'm sure old school hard cores would love to revisit in some form.

So, ultimately that is what I see for WoW's future, it will go F2P, but not entirely, and I don't think that means its going to end, but it will inevitably get to a point where it stops being popular as it has been these last few years. WoW is in its twilight years, the sun is setting for its glory days, but its death is far beyond now, even when it stops being popular that wont mean it will die, in fact, WoW is probably going to last a good 10 more years even after it reaches something like 3 million subs or less.

WoW is like Everquest, its too good for its own good so even if it stopped being good it would remain valued to a large quantity of diehards, it will never quite perish from MMO gaming because it MADE the genre popular and marketable, so its existence is a template to every MMO ever made presently since its creation. This game, "MADE" Pc gaming, online gaming, and mmo gaming extremely marketable, and as such, will continue to do so for a very, long, time.





In conclusion to my point, please stop trying to think WoW will die or that level 100 is the end, because even if things change, the game wont, its always going to be here, even when "I" stop playing, even when many others after me do, it will never, die.

It will just stop being what it is now, which in many a way it already has.

As I said in my last topic, the golden age of WoW long passed, and really what we are seeing is its twilight era, like the roman empire it built, expanded and grew powerful, but now its over extended its borders and slowly piece by piece its being torn apart by smaller yet no less interesting MMO's that are gradually eating a piece of the glory that WoW made for MMO's in the first place.

WoW is not a bad game, it never was, it just became so good that it couldn't possibly live up to its own hype which nothing that good ever can.

So be content that WoW is here to stay and even when it stops being amazing it will never stop being a legacy that defined the MMO genre as a whole.

[grandpab]

Has there ever been a successful MMO to shut down completely? Don't know why it's even something that needs to be talked about.

[Blueobelisk]

Everything ends my friend. Nothing lasts forever. WoW is no exception. It's just a matter of time before WoW ends.

Not saying that WoW will end next expansion or in 3 years, but 20 years from now? Maybe. Who knows when it'll happen.

[CosmicGuitars]

WoW will not end until Blizzard either makes another game as it's successor, which is seeming increasingly unlikely with the Titan project fading away and the Titan team returning to work on World of Warcraft, or if the game stops being profitable.

To say they'd halt their main money-making machine because of an arbitrary level milestone like 'level 100' is absurd.

[Shurkuris]

Still don't understand why people see 5 million whopping loss of $15 monthly subscribers as not a bad thing or try to act like it's nothing more than getting nicked in the side.

They could of lost 8 million subscribers overnight but you people would seem to find some dash of hope that somehow it wasn't a big deal because they still have the largest number of MMO subscribers vs every other MMO.

Blizzard is a company, they are in the long run for making a profit. They don't need to believe in the consumer bullshit beliefs of F2P, B2P, cash shop, etc... Whatever gets them the biggest cash printing machine possible, they go for it. If they need to convert to F2P but put spin PR messages to make people believe they are doing the right thing, they do so. If they need to move onto WoW2 and give more PR bullshit, they will do it. (I've yet to hear anything truly honest come from them in a long time, that isn't somehow funneled through 4-5 PR managers & key members of their business political structure.)

[Sarcon]

Call me a grammar nazi all you want, but it's a little hard to take OP seriously when he opens his first argument with the incorrect 'Whether.'

[magicric]

as long as WoW is generating money regardless of how awesome or how poor the content is, it will stay afloat.
I'm an investor and I have a few properties. I don't think of selling any of them unless they start to cost me money and they become a real burden to me.
Simple economics, if your making more than you are spending, its pretty much paying for it self.

[Deleted]

WoW will not end until Blizzard either makes another game as it's successor...

Yeah. No.

WoW will not end until Blizzard stops profiting from it and my guess is that they'll still profit from it with even 500k subs.

[magicric]

Yeah. No.

WoW will not end until Blizzard stops profiting from it and my guess is that they'll still profit from it with even 500k subs.

Great minds thinks alike...?

[Orcindauh]

Gonna be a good long while before WoW ends unless next xpac they do something incredibly stupid.

[KCguy]

Gonna be a good long while before WoW ends unless next xpac they do something incredibly stupid.

I think they learned a lot from Cataclysm because that's when it started to go downhill. I also feel that if they bring back some old time charm in the next expansion, that will go a long way. The theme in this current expansion isn't exactly the best and I think many people have had enough of it. I know I've had enough of it for some time now.

[Seegtease]

Eventually, expansion packs will stop being released. I'd wager when this happens, a new MMO is being developed. WoW servers will not be shutting down anytime soon or even in the next decade. Even if they make a new game, they will likely still release small patches occasionally for WoW, and keep them running til the cows come home.

But they won't develop it forever. They will have to move on to another MMO. WoW is an old game, and even though many changes have been made to enhance it, you can tell it's an old game. There's only so much you can do without a total overhaul (as in, a new game altogether). The more they "enhance" it, the more messy their code is going to be. It's horribly unoptimized because it's just old code with a bunch of additions.

They will have to make a new game, with a new engine at some point. But WoW won't be going anywhere.

[MagicBanana]

Like Breaking Bad, all great things must come to an end.

I just hope its a glorious, epic ending :')

[magicric]

Like Breaking Bad, all great things must come to an end.

I just hope its a glorious, epic ending :')

I just started watching Breaking bad.. hehe

[MagicBanana]

I just started watching Breaking bad.. hehe

I LOVE IT!

Great acting, great story, great show. Im halfway through the 5th season ^^

[magicric]

I LOVE IT!

Great acting, great story, great show. Im halfway through the 5th season ^^

Yeah the acting is so important.
I started watching the Black list. James Spader was great but the girl that plays Elizabeth Keen wasn't so I just couldn't watch it.
Shes hot but yeah, gotta act in those sorta shows.

[Shoridayo]

It'll end eventually. They've already said as much. Then they'll focus on a different game.

[Mormolyce]

Everything ends my friend. Nothing lasts forever. WoW is no exception. It's just a matter of time before WoW ends.

Diablo 2 is still going and that's not even an MMO...

[Trakanonn]

WoW will last ~20+ more years, and when it ends, there will be huge private servers to accommodate people who want notalgia.

But, in that time, we'll See Titan, WoW 2, and whatever else BLizzard wants to produce.. But WoW will always be there. Everquest is on its 18th expansion or something and its very profitable, so much so that SOE can employee hundreds of employees.

I've played Everquest for 14 years.. Right now on my server there are 700 people on right now, and it is a PRIVATE server running a version of EQ made in 1999. Think of how big WoW is.. it is not going anywhere... but the numbers will decline, that is inevitable.... whats scary is the pace of the decline, in 2 years it could be Rift.

[nooty]

Every here sub's dropping by 1.5 Million .


I say in next 5-6 years wow should be dead .