The ultimate end of an era... what's next after WoW?

[Cheze]

They will keep running WoW (and releasing new expansions) as long as people are buying them. They obviously don't have any problem cannibalizing their own lore to do so (see: WoD.)

Fucking Everquest is still up and running for god's sake. WoW will probably still have a server up 50 years from now when we're all playing from an old folks' home.

[Deleted]

I'm a dingus

It was a joke I was mocking him, ya dummy.

[therealbowser]

..and it is still a pointless answer to the guy you quoted. And full of misinformation. . What does "Vanilla WoW was the peak" even mean? Creatively?

Tetris was the peak of Gameboy gaming. What does that have to do with the price of fish?

Well..WotLK was financially the peak and even if subs are dropping (whatever the reasons may be, they are certainly not what you think), 10 million..even 7 million subs is still nicely raking the cash in for Blizzard.

Other than that? "The ultimate end of an era" Hyperbole much? Who knows what happens in 5...10....whatever years? If other games can sustain on 200 000 players, then it is a loooong time before Blizzard kills the WoW franchise. If at all.

The only thing Vanilla WoW was the peak of, was community quality. The game was pretty awful and raw back then, which some people may like but very few people do. It was like a sandbox experience without actually being a sandbox experience. Some of the perks, sure, but not all of them, and virtually all of the negatives from both sides.

Of course I don't need to explain this, most people already realize this. Especially after the Molten Core experience came back for a couple months.

- - - Updated - - -

They will keep running WoW (and releasing new expansions) as long as people are buying them. They obviously don't have any problem cannibalizing their own lore to do so (see: WoD.)

Fucking Everquest is still up and running for god's sake. WoW will probably still have a server up 50 years from now when we're all playing from an old folks' home.

Blizzard has been fucking with their own lore since The Burning Crusade. You need look no further than how they brutally destroyed some of the greatest characters they ever made so that they could have loot pinatas. Kael'thas, Illidan, Zul'jin. I'm sure there are more.

But never have they actually gone to the lengths they have in WoD. At least with WoD the content is enjoyable and we're not really throwing away heroes. WoD may be a retcon but honestly, the retcon for most of this stuff is better than the stories they had previously. Ex: Ogres as stupid savages versus the roman Ogre empire led by cunning sorcerers.

[clevin]

Companies don't close down product lines to focus on others. They hire to fill needs. They might close a product if it's unprofitable or if the profit is marginal and they feel that the people working on it can product more of a return elsewhere (though they don't close product A to develop B, they simply shift resources and don't update A as much).

WoW still has millions of subs. It's not going anywhere anytime soon. Can't speak to SC or Diablo - it depends if they feel they continue to shop new versions and make money.

[Irian]

They won't close them down. That's just senseless when they're still profiting them.

What they will do is put in minimal effort and half-ass them all the way to the last 100k players or so.

Also, even if by some crazy twist they do eventually shut down WoW, Diablo 3 and SC2, they will undoubtedly make sequels and use the franchises' characters in other games (hearthstone, HotS, etc.) because familiar characters and nostalgia are powerful selling points for a game. Look at Nintendo, they survive and even thrive solely on their old titles and the gaming community's love for them.