What's the main reason for the dropping WoW subs?

[ravenmoon]

imo, the game just looks and feels dated.

Compare it to all the more recent games, what's WoW missing? - it looks OLD .. but is it the vintage kind of old wine feel to you? or is it more like old people's home old feel?

imo, do a WoW 2, wrap up this one in the next 2-3 years and relaunch the game and this time with an engine they can upgrade.. a more long term vision.

I'm not sure if any amount of tweaking would make a difference... do you know of anything blizzard could do to attract your friends that quit?

[Gimlix]

You know, WoW cartoonish game styled graphics is the reason i keep playing, it's in my opinion better then any MMORPG. (personal opinion)

[mikencarly]

Because its old i know shocking right has nothing to do how it looks infact in Mop they added more fxs to the game its fine the way it is now imho you can't force everybody to keep playing most will try New mmos out there come back or maybe not at all or some might even stop playing mmos all together.

[Kalcheus]

Successful action against botting accounts

[geewhiz80]

All games lose player-base over time. People get burnt out, or bored, or their tastes change. That causes people to search for new things to keep their attention and give themselves something to enjoy. WoW has done amazingly well in terms of holding as many subs as they have for so long. Even if they dropped to 1m people it would probably still be the largest mmo out there, and I don't see that happening for some years (unless they really screw something up beyond repair).

Edit: as far as friends that have quit, most of them quit due to real life responsibilities: i.e. young children and 50+ hr work weeks.

[Zaelsino]

A lot of players have been at this for going on a decade, and very few things can keep your interest that long. Not even the best formulas (WoW admittedly has a great one) can keep you invested forever. Things like static graphics and models from 2004 just highlight and remind people of that; they're not necessarily the cause. Decay would happen anyway.

That said, the biggest problem is the relative lack of newcomers IMO. The game seems to rely more on ex-players coming back to WoW than acquiring brand new ones, and I'm not sure how reliable that is anymore.

[ravenmoon]

Because its old i know shocking right has nothing to do how it looks infact in Mop they added more fxs to the game its fine the way it is now imho you can't force everybody to keep playing most will try New mmos out there come back or maybe not at all or some might even stop playing mmos all together.

yep, agreed, you have to re-invent the brand.. it's the only way to get back up to 12 million and push past.

i think they're playing it too safe. Yes there is no guarnatee your main game will recapture the success of WoW, however, you had 12 million peeps who were into it, but clearly many started drifiting a while ago, and a rehash of the pretty much the same old formular wasn't good enough.

imo, you quit while you're ahead and relaunch, make the kind of MMO everyone has been drooling over, enough to excite all your old fans back and draw in new ones?

[Otimus]

All games lose player-base over time. People get burnt out, or bored, or their tastes change. That causes people to search for new things to keep their attention and give themselves something to enjoy. WoW has done amazingly well in terms of holding as many subs as they have for so long. Even if they dropped to 1m people it would probably still be the largest mmo out there, and I don't see that happening for some years (unless they really screw something up beyond repair).

Edit: as far as friends that have quit, most of them quit due to real life responsibilities: i.e. young children and 50+ hr work weeks.

I think Eve Online, actually, has managed to grow it's base, and it's actually older than WoW. (But that's more of an exception that proves the rule, and an exception to the rule, or whatever. That thing is super niche)

[Alvito]

Successful action against botting accounts

This is the major reason I no longer do normal bgs unless I queue with a few people to make sure I am not stuck on a team of bots. I don't like playing against them either, but I can't do much about that. Sadly once you hit higher levels of RBGs you see the same 1 to 3 team comps over and over and that isn't much fun either. Kinda like raiding the same boss for all of an expansion.

[Arenis]

Tbh I think it's cartoony style is one of it's main attractions. There are a ton of MMO's that look graphically like GW2 for example, and they are way less popular.

[Gimlix]

I think Eve Online, actually, has managed to grow it's base, and it's actually older than WoW. (But that's more of an exception that proves the rule, and an exception to the rule, or whatever. That thing is super niche)

But Eve Online is 100x smaller then WoW is, It's easier to please a few thousand people then millions of people ;p

[Otimus]

I can give you the reasons I've quit: Bored with it. I don't see myself ever doing anything beyond LFR or random BGs with what the game offers. I enjoy the game a deal, but I just couldn't see myself keeping to that, and it remaining fun, so I bowed out while I was ahead. If it were free to play, or something, I'd probably go back. Or I may even pick it up again, eventually. Who knows! I don't hate the game or anything, it's more of a "Welp, this is it. Had my fun." type vibe.

For the record, though, with the introduction of LFR, that was the longest I had ever stayed subscribed in one term. (about 18 months or so, versus 2-4 month bursts). Without that, I probably would of quit a month into MoP, and not of re-subscribed during Dragon Soul. Also, I've played since late BC.

[ravenmoon]

That said, the biggest problem is the relative lack of newcomers IMO. The game seems to rely more on ex-players coming back to WoW than acquiring brand new ones, and I'm not sure how reliable that is anymore.

well I remember trying to get a number of friends to start wow, you know what was the biggest turn off? The player models.. they looked awful and out of place in the cata redone zones, but then it was also the same thing for those who didn't join before cata came out - the models were atrocious, especially the human male model. Most of my friends being male ofc, and having no clue what a Tauren or Orc or Forsaken/Troll or Elf or Gnome was, almost 8 out 10 drifted for human.

then when you compare what human looks like in wow, to what it loks like in many of the coolest new games, ..massive turn off. only the gay male friends went for blood elf.

new models won't fix it, but it would probably be the bestt hing they could do. I would also re arragne character creation on the horde side so that blood elves are more noticeable, that may help boost the horde numbers and perception, give them a more human like face for the posters. - not sure tho, having a green growling monster is also quite cool too. maybe leave blood elves where they are, but having a living human forsaken sub race to give access to human models on the horde would also help combined with new models..

Blizzard need to showcase awesome looking new character models at blizzcon, to give the game a fesh look, even if all won't make it for the launch, new expac promos should use them, even if there actual release would be staggered throughout the expansion

[Baracuda]

A lot of players have been at this for going on a decade, and very few things can keep your interest that long. Not even the best formulas (WoW admittedly has a great one) can keep you invested forever. Things like static graphics and models from 2004 just highlight and remind people of that; they're not necessarily the cause. Decay would happen anyway.

That said, the biggest problem is the relative lack of newcomers IMO. The game seems to rely more on ex-players coming back to WoW than acquiring brand new ones, and I'm not sure how reliable that is anymore.

True that, seems like a lot of people are frightened to try any game unless it's extremely hyped (GTA/pokemon).

[Otimus]

imo, the game just looks and feels dated.

Compare it to all the more recent games, what's WoW missing? - it looks OLD .. but is it the vintage kind of old wine feel to you? or is it more like old people's home old feel?

imo, do a WoW 2, wrap up this one in the next 2-3 years and relaunch the game and this time with an engine they can upgrade.. a more long term vision.

I'm not sure if any amount of tweaking would make a difference... do you know of anything blizzard could do to attract your friends that quit?

Also, if the thing about visuals were true, you'd see an upsurge in other, prettier MMOs, and from all I can tell, the MMO genre in general isn't getting the big numbers anymore. My own theory on that is, is the itch that MMOs scratched to the average player is being scratched by other things, minus the MMO baggage (Monthly fees, guilds, grouping, judging, and whatnot)

i.e. leveling up weapons in a shooter, lots of multiplayer games having a class and level system, etc. Games in general have adopted a lot of carrot on the stick tropes in the last 5 or so years.

[wariofan1]

The idea of a WoW 2 is to me nothing but a bad excuse for people to want completely overhauled graphics. Warcraft will always be set on Azeroth, so it'd just be the same zones and everything, maybe set 50 or something years after WoW, but what difference does that make? Not as big a difference as Cataclysm for sure. It'd be like an overglorified expansion really.

To me graphics will never be a reason to quit a game, sure it's probably a reason that a lot of narrow-minded people have quit, and the graphics are very dated indeed, but they'll never be the be all end all to me.

[Lixo]

WoW looks and feels great, no other game has yet matched its gameplay or even came close. Sure the graphics could be updated some but they already have been through every expansion. If you want a nicer looking game go play other games then, WoW is not dying because of graphics (or really dying at all), it's just people like you who get bored with it and think its dying and try t o come up with reasons.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

WoW is starting to suffer from the same problem that plagued most of the upstarts that were supposed to beat WoW.

The endgame (after you hit 90 content) has become cloudy and confusing.

Used to be you leveled new characters, did Heroics and Raids, or did BGs and Arena.

New characters has almost been killed off by the on-rails questing system now in use. PvE endgame has become a huge grind of gear piece to gear piece, rather than something fun. And PvP is just all over the board still.

[Erous]

Because the game is about a decade old. That's a long time for any game to be active. Everyone makes snarky comments about WoW dropping subs, but if you put it into perspective, having millions of subscribers for 10 years is a pretty phenomenal feat. Also, think about the starting age of the original playerbase. I think it was what, 23 years old at the time WoW launched and now those players are in their 30s with different priorities.

I'd be more interested to see what the trend of new subscribers is. I highly doubt they're getting the same amount of new subscribers compared to when WoW was 'The next big thing.' It's still a great game...it's just been around for a LONG time.

EDIT: To the OP...I don't think WoW looks dated. Their water reflections and shadows are still some of the best I've seen. (minus some of the newer games like Bioshock infinite). It's cartoony and their trees and player models could use some polish. It's also pretty amazing that it's hard to match how fluid your actions are in WoW compared to other MMO's. You can't compare WoW to an FPS, it just doesn't work that way. When compared to other MMO's are RPG's, WoW movement and action response time is still some of the best I've seen

[glowzone]

I don't see why this is a mystery, wow could produce the best content ever. It's still a 7 year old + game, people will get bored of the mechanics eventually.