Has World of Warcraft jumped the shark?

[Deleted]

For me, yes, when they announced the whole time-travel thing, I got the feeling that it was a jump the shark moment, I even read the book and I was like... seriously?.

I actually enjoyed leveling in this expansion, and I still like the garrisons, what is ruining it for me is the lack of dailies/scenarios and lack of flying. The ground design is just stupid, obstacles everywhere, don't even get me started on the nagrand design... it used to be my favourite wow zone... Now I hate it with a passion.

I'm not raiding anymore because I don't have the time to commit to it, I think that the game has nothing for me anymore, outside of raids it seems like there's not much to do (and I really don't like pvp). So right now I'm just logging in before work, doing garrison stuff and log out, log in at night, do garrison stuff and log out. :/

[PixelFox]

Games (subscribers really) have a lot of inertia, so it can take a long time before you realize things are really going bad as a result of lost subscriptions. But the tendency is to look at when the subscriber numbers started dropping precipitously and try to go back to what you were doing just before that, when in reality that might have been exactly the thing that started the decline in the first place.

WoW is really in serious trouble at this point, and we'll have to see if Blizzard has the perception to see the problems and the guts to do what it takes to fix them.

[Honeyprime]

I am a big WoW fan but seeing how MUCH negativity WoW has atm, it's insane.
It never had this much not even near so much, everything they post has like a 90% dislike towards them.

Something is happening in WoW's life time, and i think it's for the worse.

Agreed. I have never in my 10.5 years of playing WoW seen this much negativity or such a huge drop in subs in such a sort time after the release of a new expansion. Even me, who enjoyed Cata and Vashj'ir immensely, thinks WoD is total shit and am only running one subbed account. I can't help think something major changed and for the worse.

I'm still going to keep some faith though that Blizzard can sort things out. I hope.

[MagicMert]

Are you talking about the lore or the gameplay?

Id say both if im honest, The gameplay is far too simple and classes far too similar in playstyle and the lore this expansion is just meh; OH big bad warlords? Lol nope most dead already. OH alternate time line so anything that happens here will have no real impact on our world? kk. No villain worth a wank? (Gul'dan could have been this but we have seen him what all of 3 times?)

[Csnyder]

i disagree. you seem to be grasping at straws. seems like such a waste of a life.

[SL1200]

I think wow jumped the shark in mop. idk if it will ever recover especially with the people in charge... In charge.

[Chain Chungus]

I would say yes: shark has been fully jumped.

[Deleted]

In relation to the OT: You tell me. I can fish for more kaplan quotes if anyone appreciates these. Back when they actually talked about and explained their design vision;

[Vulcanasm]

While I used to shrug at this question, or answer "yes" out of spite, at this point I think the game well and truly has.

The reason is not one thing, but a combination of circumstances, stubbornness, and personnel. In order of importance:

• "All in" on garrisons. They're too entrenched to back out. Doubling down in 6.2 has the makings of a train wreck, but it's so late in the development cycle that they can't refocus. I suspect some (if not most) of the development team would like to change course, but with expected patch release 3 weeks away, there's no time left.
• Apexis crystals are the only non-raid content in 6.2. Players don't want to grind currency. They never did. Adding an apexis grind to the legendary quest made this ten times worse; as any government on Earth could tell you, requiring people to do something is exactly how to make them never do it.
• Lack of flying is seen as a slap in the face to many players, whether or not it really is. I'm not going to turn this into another debate about the merits of flying vs. no flying. The point is that it's perceived as a serious enough insult that it's driving people away. A subscription-based game that isn't trusted by its' players isn't going to last long.
  [i]It will be months before the next opportunity to correct course. How many leave in the interim? How many return?
• The people in charge are bad at creative thinking. I'm sorry, but my observations are that Afrasiabi is a petty loudmouth with an ego the size of a building, Holinka is supremely arrogant and doesn't seem very smart at all, and Hazzikostas suffers from a bad case of S.K.I.R. (Smartest Kid in Room) syndrome. People like that don't come up with the original ideas needed to salvage a bad project. Moreover, each for independent reasons, they seem loathe to admit they're wrong.

Don't count on them changing course anytime soon. In the event they do, count on them not knowing where they're headed. Whatever patch finally bursts the Mythic raiders' bubble, count on that patch looking like it was designed by schizophrenics.

How far will WoW decline? I don't know. But I'm certain we've seen the end of the "10 million subscribers" era and I'm equally certain 6.2 launch will be a complete disaster.