What does Blizzard need to do to hold subscribers throughout this expansion?

[Deleted]

It must be really sad being a WoW/blizzard hater these days ...

WoW being at 10.000.000 subscriptions while most of the rest is struggling to retain 10% of its players in free to P(L)AY cash shops with loading screens.

At least that's the situation in Fantasy based MMO's.

But it must be REALLY scary that Blizzard came out with multi server play as early as 2006 in BG's and dungeons in 2009.

[...]

great post, i wholeheartedly agree.
most people dont even realize that for every feature you get, new tech has to be developed and a lot of things that blizzard introduced during the last years are incredible and makes the competition look even more behind in the future.
but haters probably don't want to see this ofc.

[nekobaka]

Blizzard take their time because they like to provide quality content, they do endless testing internally and on the PTR every patch that is released to make sure that its as bug-free as possible.

Like releasing LFR even though they knew that the loot system they wanted was not ready until the next expansion. Then the releasing of CRZ which was effectively beta tested live and still has some bugs.

[ati87]

Now this is blatant fanboism...whew!

You forgot to mention: Elder Scrolls Online (being produced by Bioware, sadly Bethesda elected not to do it inhouse); and what I'm waiting on...EQNext.

EQNext will be the next-gen MMO people have been talking about, with customization not seen before (they're already testing the live emotes in EQ2).

I really want EQNext to succeed, because WoW needs a good kick in the butt. Innovation doesn't come from sitting on the laurels, it comes from competition.

And while you were trying to call RIFT as being washed out, it took RIFT to get us AoE looting after all these years trying to loot mobs buried under each other. And you can thank GW2 for all the self-healing.

Each MMO that will come will have Blizzard thinking "oh", and it's surely needed as monopolies are not healthy, especially for game development.

I'll never be a fanboi, my loyalty is to gaming itself. By gamers, for gamers not one franchise.

You aren't a fanboy but a hater.

Honestly the biggest reason why every MMO since the introduction of WoW has failed is because people like you are calling every new MMO the next WoW killer. The moment of the launch the new MMO becomes the greatest disappointment of the year because the game either looks to much like WoW or because it lacks important quality of life feature's.

Blizzard took the right direction in MoP, people currently force themselves to grind every day because they believe they will get stronger. In Cata (and to a lesser degree in WOTLK) you could just log on in the evening, raid a few hours, log of and never do anything else. This kind of game design may be good for the enjoyment of the game (less distractions) but it isn't good MMO design because people become less active.

Another smart thing Blizzard did is to introduce smaller content patches like patch 5.1 which doesn't really add any dungeon or raid (as far as I'm aware of), but it does add some new excitement. Hell you almost forget the fact that MoP isn't even out so long since patch 5.1 seems something so close.

[Deleted]

I salute you det as you are one of the limited number of people in this post that have a clue what they are talking about. So far, i think Blizzard have been doing an amazing job and being a lore junky I am looking forward to patch 5.1 (mmmmm tasty soundfiles...) GAting content is a far better way to do it as i felt that at the start of cata I had to ruch through the first raids to get to the next so its nice to know you can sort of take your time with raiding and you'll get a reminder from a blue so you know when to pick up the pace. Dailies... are good, albiet a little forceful. Imo Blizz has really pulled their shit together this time and to keep a steady sub base keep doing what they are doing and to improve, releas content a little faster and try to add more features like The brawlers guild around that akward time spacing between end raid and new xpac

[Deleted]

If you were in Blizzard's shoes, what changes would you implement to slow population decay?

There isn't much that Blizzard can do. Their game is simply old and old games don't attract that much attention.
Subscription numbers will only go down. They will briefly go up again with the release of an expansion, but in the long run they will go down.

[Deleted]

In order to hang on to at least 1 sub, they need to fucking fix windwalker monk pvp.

[Danifilth]

If blizzard wants to hold subs they need to stop making the game so complicated for the average user every time i go to raids or heroics no one knows how to dps tank or heal its so bad. And the nerfs need to stop seems since launch of cata its been nerfs left and right all the time longer fights mobs having a crap load of hp. I'm waiting for my time to run out on the 25th i started leveling my warrior 86 for pvp then i saw gag order got the bat so i said im done any class i play gets nerfed.

[Beefhammer]

Decent content at a fast rate. Look at how Rift releases patches. Blizzard needs to mirror Rift in content speed, and I could see a slow gain in subs. Could even have 12m again if they do it.

WoW released 12 content patches prior to TBC. Rift is doing the same. Most of WoW's and Rift's pre expansion patches were near ready or already planed at the time of launch so they could be released in a timely manner. I keep saying this however, if Rift still releases 10+ content patches per year then we can hold Blizzard's feet to the fire.

[Darksoldierr]

For the sake of the human race, leave Kevyne-Shandris alone, dont feed him. Hes a troll / hater. Every time you reply to him, he grows in strength.

[Zeek Daniels]

What blizzard needs to do to hold onto subscribers is hope that the Guild Wars 2 launches in China and Korea dont steal subs. The reason the whole notion of their never being a WoW killer is because of the misguided notion forum posters have. WoW has a Global reach. Everytime new MMO's are released they are released primarily in US and EU. You do get ppl from across the world playing but if it isnt localized they can have a hard time accessing servers or even buying the game with reigion restrictions.

So the fact that WoW can get subs from All of north america, Most of south America, All of Europe, Some asian and african nations as well as Korea, Japan, Oceanic countries, as well as All of China makes ppl who call games like Rift, Swtor, and GW2 WoW killers b4 they have even been released Morons.

There is no way a game can kill WoW until it distributes Globally. Once a game or multiple games start expanding globally then WoW will decline in a hurry. The problem is how do you profit in a market like china? Well Blizzard partnered with a company over their and they worked out a deal and seem to be happy with the profits. ArenaNet has done the same and will soon if not already have begun distributing in china. <<<< That is how you kill WoW.

[Deleted]

If blizzard wants to hold subs they need to stop making the game so complicated for the average user every time i go to raids or heroics no one knows how to dps tank or heal its so bad. And the nerfs need to stop seems since launch of cata its been nerfs left and right all the time longer fights mobs having a crap load of hp. I'm waiting for my time to run out on the 25th i started leveling my warrior 86 for pvp then i saw gag order got the bat so i said im done any class i play gets nerfed.

It's a plague that affects most MMOs: The Plague of 1000 Keybinds.

Apparently MMO games MUST have tons upon tons of abilities and their respective keybinds, otherwise they suck or something.

[Deleted]

lol wut, dailys were not in at launch. Dailies were not added until tbc.

I think he meant rep grinds

[Deleted]

Personally I want them to expand the variety of things to do.

Sick of dailies? Here do X instead.
Don't feel like doing a heroic? Do Y instead.

I for one like the pet battles and the upcoming brawlers guild for this reason.

my 2 copper

[averykey]

Decent content at a fast rate. Look at how Rift releases patches. Blizzard needs to mirror Rift in content speed, and I could see a slow gain in subs. Could even have 12m again if they do it.

This 10character

[ati87]

If Blizzard finally manages to bring out the warcraft movie then you will see a popularity increase, at least if the movie is of decent quality.

[Deleted]

Subscriber churn is a big problem for MMO games.

...bla bla bla...

Yeah. There are like two western (not talking about purely Asian games here) post-WoW MMO's total that have had a subscriber base above one million. Currently WoW is most likely the only one. Every single other one has slowly died off to a couple hundred thousand subscribers.

You're talking about big problems for MMO games. Dude. Every single other MMO out there would be happy to lose a million subscribers, and still have TEN. WoW's problems aren't other games' problems.

It's such an unimaginable disconnect people have. "WoW is dying", or some other shit, when it's got more subscribers than all the other western MMO's that have come and gone during it's lifetime.

What do you think people would do if they quit WoW? It's not like they'd go play any of the other lesser MMO's. That's always been a choice, and the subscriber numbers tell the sad truth; people aren't interested in SWTOR or WAR or Conan or Aion or some other shit. Not like they're interested in WoW. Would people just not play anything if they quit WoW?

WoW isn't dying, nor does Blizzard have to do anything, until there's an actual replacement for it. Some do, after half a decade or more of no-lifing in WoW, choose life. It's not like they suddenly start playing some other MMO. They just choose not to play anything. Why would Blizzard want to get those people back into the game? Why would you?

People who started WoW in 2004 and 2005 are now 7-8 years older. Their lives have changed. They've grown up. They've possibly moved on. You can't expect there to be a new 13-14 year old noob kid getting into an 8-year old WoW for every older gamer who has moved on.

Quite frankly, when you realize that every single other western MMO has, despite the hype, died off to hundreds of thousands - not millions - subscribers, some gone free to play, some shut down completely, and none of them has peaked over 1 million subscribers except SWTOR I think, and all the while WoW has held 10 million or so subscribers for years now, it's a complete and utter detachment from reality to be talking about the "decline" of WoW and how it's "dying".

Brainfart much?

[Deleted]

Ye i agree, the amount of raidcontent is sure to keep alot of players subbing

[Lazuli]

Nothing really, just continue their flawless track record of never balancing pvp and putting out new and exciting content every 6 months will keep 10mill+ subs np.

[Heltoray]

more actual content, no more daily grinds. Because that isn't content.

[Conscious]

They've got to do something, if it drops below 9 at any point during this expansion, including the in-between expansion lull, they're going to have a hard time getting them back.

Take a look at the recent numbers, they're hard fought to even break 10 million. Any losses they take will be that much harder to restore, as it truly is a slippery slope right now.