WoD: More doom and gloom than any previous expansion pre-launch?

[Computed Lamb]

I've been around for all the expansion releases, and while there was always worry/complaining over future change, I really can't ever recall an expansion being so poorly received prior to launch as WoD seems to be. Even with Mists of Pandaria and all the "lol kungfu panda" talk, there was still a buzzing of excitement about a new expansion on the horizon.

Burning Crusade and Wotlk pre-launch people were bursting at the seams in anticipation, months in advance. I had never seen so many people who were already planning time off from work to dive in several months in advance. Even with Cata, it was much the same. Sure, there were people fear mongering, but, in general, most people seemed genuinely excited about the future of WoW. Being part of an expansion launch had become one of the most exciting moments in WoW gameplay.

But, even with 6-8 months to go before WoD, I can't ever remember an expansion being so poorly received that I've had the displeasure of viewing an uncountable amount of reports of people refunding their pre-orders, saying they're really on the fence of purchase, or those who are saying they're done (and not just on MMO-c).

I really can't remember this much doom and gloom and just general apathy prior to an expansion launch, even this far out. Anyone else seeing this, or is it just me reading too much on fan sites lately?

[MrHappy]

....yea i don't know i've never been more stoked for WoW expansion with everything that is coming and the changes begin made

[PrairieChicken]

As far as I remember MoP had way more shitstorm than WoD.

[Gothicshark]

As far as I remember MoP had way more shitstorm than WoD.

There was a shit storm while blizzcon was going just after the announcement, and a small minority of players were really upset with pandas. It wasn't until MoP dropped did 3 million people leave. Cat maintained 9-10 million subs, with a small increase for Dragon Soul. Mop had an near instant drop to 7.6 million which went up during the Blizzcon WoD announce. The current shit storm is more intense than anything in WOW prior. This is bigger than Space Elves and kidnapping the light.

[Teetster]

Yes, the shit storm around WoD is huge. I've never seen anything like it, like ever. The LOL pandas backlash was nothing compared to this.

[Pandapuncher]

There was a shit storm while blizzcon was going just after the announcement, and a small minority of players were really upset with pandas. It wasn't until MoP dropped did 3 million people leave. Cat maintained 9-10 million subs, with a small increase for Dragon Soul. Mop had an near instant drop to 7.6 million which went up during the Blizzcon WoD announce. The current shit storm is more intense than anything in WOW prior. This is bigger than Space Elves and kidnapping the light.

Actually the "OMG PANDAS I QUIT" Theads, were about the same as "OMG NO FLYIGNS IMMMA QUIT WOW RAWR" Threads

[Stonecloak]

What's that thing over there? It looks funny and it's getting closer...


AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH it's change RUNNNN!!

[Goat7]

I've been around since the beta pre vanilla and I cannot remember hearing so much whining and crying about changes. I am glad to see it tho. Hopefully the no flying and item squish will get all the lazy turds out of the WoW community for good. WoD seems like a win for blizzard imo.

[Sam the Wiser]

I'm hoping we're down to 5 million by end of WoD. Hopefully this sends sign to Blizzard.

[Deleted]

I've been around since the beta pre vanilla and I cannot remember hearing so much whining and crying about changes. I am glad to see it tho. Hopefully the no flying and item squish will get all the lazy turds out of the WoW community for good. WoD seems like a win for blizzard imo.

so your idea of a win for blizzard is them making changes that will get rid of the players you call "lazy turds"

losing subs is definitely a win, yes.

[PrairieChicken]

There was a shit storm while blizzcon was going just after the announcement, and a small minority of players were really upset with pandas. It wasn't until MoP dropped did 3 million people leave. Cat maintained 9-10 million subs, with a small increase for Dragon Soul. Mop had an near instant drop to 7.6 million which went up during the Blizzcon WoD announce. The current shit storm is more intense than anything in WOW prior. This is bigger than Space Elves and kidnapping the light.

The youtube video of mop cinematic trailer had more downvotes when it was released. "LOL pandaz I quit" crowd was NOT a minority.

Furthermore you have no idea about the subscription numbers. Cata had continuous loss every Q except DS release, then it lost 1 million after that. It never gained subs. MoP subs also took 1.5 years to drop to 7.6 and I won't say it is instant.

[Stonecloak]

I've been around since the beta pre vanilla and I cannot remember hearing so much whining and crying about changes. I am glad to see it tho. Hopefully the no flying and item squish will get all the lazy turds out of the WoW community for good. WoD seems like a win for blizzard imo.

Either they adapt or quit really. Unfortunately Blizz kind of has to rebuild a healthy culture in its game. Right now it's breaking at the seams.

[rebecca191]

Well, Cata had a ton of excitement and we all know how that turned out, lol

But yeah, people seem more divided than they were over pandas

[Milkyz]

For a sec I thought forum had bugged for me but no, there was really 5 posts from people on ignore list in this thread.

OT:

Flying and Mythic raiding are enough to cause all the uproar. Or maybe WoD is the latest xpac and community is always trying to improve it's whining potential.

[Stonecloak]

For a sec I thought forum had bugged for me but no, there was really 5 posts from people on ignore list in this thread.

OT:

Flying and Mythic raiding are enough to cause all the uproar. Or maybe WoD is the latest xpac and community is always trying to improve it's whining potential.

I reserve ignoring only for extreme cases of hostility, because ignoring blocks me from seeing the full picture.

[PrairieChicken]

http://www.mmo-champion.com/search.p...32&pp=&page=17

Search results for "panda" starting from when blizzard announced MoP. Shitstorm was huge.

[PenguinChan]

I'm hoping we're down to 5 million by end of WoD. Hopefully this sends sign to Blizzard.

That's too high for Blizzard to care, as that's still a shit ton of money to be made.

I reserve ignoring only for extreme cases of hostility, because ignoring blocks me from seeing the full picture.

I don't understand why it's not a mod only approval for ignoring, doing requests for it. Oh well.

[Thorngrove]

Gonna put some points up as to possibly WHY the shitstorm is so bad this go around. I'm one of the people "On the fence" about it, but I'll try to keep it classy.

Blizzard plays favorites. Cata Is the bigger culprit, just how slapdash it was all done. It was the height of blizzard's "Fuck the customer" thinking. You can debate on this point if you want, but for *me* personally Cata was just a huge slap in the face. MoP was *better* but honestly, they still have this "Lets fuck over half the player base and refuse to learn from our mistakes" mentality. And with Yet ANOTHER Orc expack.. I just already have "Meh" as the default setting. Cata and MoP Got me at least thinking "Oh this could be neat" While WoD is all "Here's Warcraft 2... In MMO form!"

And I don't want more fucking orcs.

Cata was Thrall Saves the Day.
MoP was Look at all these pan-ORCS ORCS ORCS ORCS ORCS.
And now WoD is going to be "PAST ORCS WOOOO!!! andsomedraenei BUT ORCS WOOOO!!!!"

Basically, the shitstorm is brewing because people are flipped to "Negative" by default now after one shit expack, and one "Decent, but flawed" one. It doesn't help that WoD is ripping things away from players. Spells, damage numbers, Stats, Flying. It doesn't matter that they're planning on "Fixing it" we've seen how they "fix" things.

Blizzard has lost it's goodwill, it's basically Bioware during "Starchild" right now. Maybe they'll pull it off and WoD won't suck, But looking at this bullshit choppers thing? Yeaaah... Not looking good.

[Beet]

I agree there was way more whine about Pandas than this.

It's funny though. I haven't been this excited for an expansion since WotLK. MoP was the only expac I didn't buy on Day 1 also. The only exciting part of MoP for me was the monk class. That was literally it.

I've been saying flying was a bad idea from the get go so if Blizzard stops letting us fly in new zones I'll be all the more pleased. People should really quit saying they're removing it, because they won't do that. You'll always be able to fly in the zones you can fly in now. There'd be WAY more complaining if they out right removed flying.

Also in regard to the orc rage. I wonder if people are playing the same game I am because MoP was 100x more about crappy Panda lore than orcs.

[Stonecloak]

Gonna put some points up as to possibly WHY the shitstorm is so bad this go around. I'm one of the people "On the fence" about it, but I'll try to keep it classy.

Blizzard plays favorites. Cata Is the bigger culprit, just how slapdash it was all done. It was the height of blizzard's "Fuck the customer" thinking. You can debate on this point if you want, but for *me* personally Cata was just a huge slap in the face. MoP was *better* but honestly, they still have this "Lets fuck over half the player base and refuse to learn from our mistakes" mentality. And with Yet ANOTHER Orc expack.. I just already have "Meh" as the default setting. Cata and MoP Got me at least thinking "Oh this could be neat" While WoD is all "Here's Warcraft 2... In MMO form!"

And I don't want more fucking orcs.

Cata was Thrall Saves the Day.
MoP was Look at all these pan-ORCS ORCS ORCS ORCS ORCS.
And now WoD is going to be "PAST ORCS WOOOO!!! andsomedraenei BUT ORCS WOOOO!!!!"

Basically, the shitstorm is brewing because people are flipped to "Negative" by default now after one shit expack, and one "Decent, but flawed" one. It doesn't help that WoD is ripping things away from players. Spells, damage numbers, Stats, Flying. It doesn't matter that they're planning on "Fixing it" we've seen how they "fix" things.

Blizzard has lost it's goodwill, it's basically Bioware during "Starchild" right now. Maybe they'll pull it off and WoD won't suck, But looking at this bullshit choppers thing? Yeaaah... Not looking good.

I reckon their are bigger issues causing sub losses (no new content), but something I find interesting is it seems Cata took a dump somewhere and WoW took a turn for the worst that it's still feeling. I don't think it's heroics or raids.