Please no more!

[Wazooty]

Regardless of what gameplay and content there is, the theme of a game will be instrumental in determining if people want to play it.

I imagine there are some well designed childrens games out there but do we play them? No, because we don't want to play a barbie game or whatever you want to insert there.

A game that takes place on an isle of panda humanoids that gets most of it's influences from chinese kung fu culture is a far cry from what we've had before, and you really cannot blame people for not wanting to play it for that reason.

Also, my gripe with CRZ is that it only makes leveling worse. With modern leveling, where you absolutely never need to interact with other players when out in the world. CRZ does nothing but make you have to deal with gankers from 5 different realms instead of one. An utter failure of design.

[HeedmySpeed]

Cata = 3 million subs lost (12 mill - 9 mill) (peak)

MoP = 1.3 million subs lost (9 mill - 7.7 mill)

Cata was the worst.

MoP hasn't had a full expansion life yet, so let's not call it just yet!

But didn't the casualization START in Cata?
Remember when they made Heroics hard and used it as a scapegoat for the lost subs?
Then commenced Operation No Idiot Left Behind.
Nerfed Heroics, nerfed raids.
Then LFR.

So I'm still of the opinion that OP is right. Casualization isn't good for player retention.

[Itisamuh]

Anyone who thinks MoP is worse than Cataclysm is mental.

MoP is very enjoyable with an interesting storyline.

I agree as far as end game goes. But the changes to the low level zones were better than anything in Mists.

[vindicatorx]

We still have yet to receive new 5 man instances, even thought the majority of players are asking for them

You were doing fine until you got here. Don't even use the word Majority when discussing features you want. You are not the majority, You haven't talked to the majority and you are making assumptions about what the majority of us want. I don't do 5 man content after I max level for more than maybe a day or 2 so I sure as hell don't want resources wasted on 5 man content. I honestly don't know why you posted your opinion here rather than in one of the other 101 rants of people who feel they represent the majority like yourself.

[Atrea]

A game that is nearly 9 years old is not going to stay fresh and appealing to everyone who has ever played it.

Retaining high subscription numbers is not feasible on the long term, no matter how you want to slice it.


Another thing that is worth mentioning is seasonal trends. A large group of players don't play over the summer; I only recently renewed, having not played since May. There was no reason other than "it's summer, I have better things to do than play video games". A lot of people in my guild are in the same boat.

People need to stop acting as if the world is ending because subscription numbers are down.

[Vankrys]

You were doing fine until you got here.

i notice a few people responding along those line. You people are really satisfied with current state of 5 man.
TBC for example shipped with 14 brand new dungeons, not recycle. Admitedly, those dungeons were packed by group of 2-3 to re use texture, but layout and boss were unique.

in mop, you got 9, 3 of which are heroic version of vanilla dungeon. Is that ok? Are you really satisfied?

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

i notice a few people responding along those line. You people are really satisfied with current state of 5 man.
TBC for example shipped with 14 brand new dungeons, not recycle. Admitedly, those dungeons were packed by group of 2-3 to re use texture, but layout and boss were unique.

in mop, you got 9, 3 of which are heroic version of vanilla dungeon. Is that ok? Are you really satisfied?

Yes I am satisfied, wanna know why? Because I had other things besides Heroics to have fun in. I had different options, whether it be for fun or progression there were different things.

[Terridon]

Me?
Our guild is basically more active than we've had for a long time, and we're very reluctant letting new people in.
So today we had, i kid you not, 9 active players online! this is a big increase, and clearly because mop is awesome. I also have to add that nobody have stopped playing. A few comes very seldom, but still havn't stopped playing. This is very different from other xpansions where others (and me) would leave, and only shortly emerge for patches, or even wait to next expansion.
We've enjoyed ToT immensely, though it's getting a bit boring after this long now and looking forward to next one. From what i hear from ptr SoO is great too.
The pugs we've gotten in because of people having summervacation have all been capable of not dying to random stuff much. People have improved!
Challenge modes are great fun, i enjoy brawlers(would like them to scale gear to a set lvl thogh).
PvP feels overall functional with whichever class i've played (DK/Druid/Warlock). Hunter/Mage/Shammy/rogue/Monk/Warrior/Paladin looks pretty viable too.. oh wait. .that's almost balanced in my eyes >.>

I did like the difficulty of HCs in cata in the beginning, but challenge mode makes it okay that they made HCs easier. I don't miss the endless QQ from kids standing in fire, blaming others when we wiped.

As OP, this is a rather subjective opinion, but regardless, this is my experience and it goes pretty straight against OP. And it's one that doesn't give me high blood preassure, so i like that one better. Is a lot of other things i look forward to in 5.4.
I truely hope they keep it up this way.

Only thing i loathe is the dailies which i never do, and rather spend hours on getting coins slowly than spending 40 minutes to gain them from dailies :P

[vindicatorx]

i notice a few people responding along those line. You people are really satisfied with current state of 5 man.
TBC for example shipped with 14 brand new dungeons, not recycle. Admitedly, those dungeons were packed by group of 2-3 to re use texture, but layout and boss were unique.

in mop, you got 9, 3 of which are heroic version of vanilla dungeon. Is that ok? Are you really satisfied?

Am I satisfied with content I never have ever liked to do more than I absolutely needed to? Yes, they could honestly take this out of the game and I wouldn't notice for quite a while.

[Erolian]

I think the entire Asian theme just didn't match the previous expansions at all and delivered a product that wasn't expected. Its better than Cataclysm but that isn't saying a whole lot. Raids have been fine but the feel of everything just didn't feel like WoW at all outside in Pandaria, I'll be glad to leave.

SoO will be the most "WoW" feeling moment in this expansion because we're in Org for a lot of it. Its funny how both T13 and T16 attempt to slightly escape the atmosphere of the expansion they're released in wonder if its intentional?

[Pancha]

Have you ever considered the fact that WoW is getting old and as such their core playerbase are getting older and moving on to new things? I'm working as an Engineer and rarely have the time to play anymore. Therefore they've lost three subscribers that has been subscribed almost non-stop since 2005.

MOP certainly isn't a bad expansion. It is just the playerbase getting thinner.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

I think the entire Asian theme just didn't match the previous expansions at all and delivered a product that wasn't expected. Its better than Cataclysm but that isn't saying a whole lot. Raids have been fine but the feel of everything just didn't feel like WoW at all outside in Pandaria, I'll be glad to leave.

So super advance alien race with space ships is better fit for WoW than anything in Pandaria?

[Vankrys]

Yes I am satisfied, wanna know why? Because I had other things besides Heroics to have fun in. I had different options, whether it be for fun or progression there were different things.

so less dungeon, but more side activities, understandable.

the activities that wasn't available in TBC were

LFR
Pet battle
scenario

which one do you enjoy most?

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

so less dungeon, but more side activities, understandable.

the activities that wasn't available in TBC were

LFR
Pet battle
scenario

which one do you enjoy most?

You only named 3.

[Masochist]

"Officially the most disliked expansion" only means "the most recent expansion".

Not necessarily.

Been playing wow for years. Never felt the inclination to call an expansion absolutely terrible until Mists of Pandaria came out. The only thing good about this game anymore is raiding, and thats only if you're actually keeping up with other people. Playing alts competitively is dead unless you have all of the time in the world. PvP is the worst that it's ever been and anyone who has an objective opinion on the matter has a stupid opinion.

Cata = 3 million subs lost (12 mill - 9 mill) (peak)

MoP = 1.3 million subs lost (9 mill - 7.7 mill)

Cata was the worst.

Mists of Pandaria isn't over, and if you ask me comparing Cataclysm to MoP is like pistol whipping a blind kid, even for as bad as some people thought it was. I thought that it was a great expansion. I don't get what people hated about Cataclysm, all they say is that it was terrible. Only difference from the game now and then is that it's impossible to play alts competitively unless you have a lot of time and now a raid can take 2-3 days to clear instead of just one.

[Vankrys]

You only named 3.

what else then?

dailies, arena, BG, raiding, dungeon crawling, farming for craft, darkmoon fair, various seasonal event, there were all in TBC before, i just asking about what among the new activities are the popular one.

oh yes i forgot about the farm thingy, is that any fun?

[But I Hate You All]

The sub lost seems to be quicker with mop.

The game is old is a bullshit excuse....The game now is almost nothing to what it was like when it came out.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

what else then?

dailies, arena, BG, raiding, dungeon crawling, farming for craft, darkmoon fair, various seasonal event, there were all in TBC before, i just asking about what among the new activities are the popular one.

oh yes i forgot about the farm thingy, is that any fun?

Well lets go over what TBC didn't have:
LFR
Pet battle
scenario like you said.
Solo senarios
Heroic Scenarios
Brawler's Guild
Lore Scrolls (those were awesome)
Those BoA weapons/fun items you can find while exploring. This brought a much bigger sense in exploration.
Challenge Modes
Soon to be Flex Raiding
Connected Zones
Dynamic Events

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

- - - Updated - - -

The sub lost seems to be quicker with mop.

The game is old is a bullshit excuse....The game now is almost nothing to what it was like when it came out.

You are correct on your 2nd statement. When WoW first came out classes were terrible. If you were a paladin all you did was buffs. Warriors could only tank etc.
The "game is old" argument is a valid argument to be had. Not discounting any other arguments, just saying take it under consideration.

[Jainzar]

"Officially the most disliked expansion" only means "the most recent expansion". The next one will be the "most disliked expansion" and 2 or 3 expacs from now MoP will be "the golden era of WoW".

No it won't. Golden era of WoW is and forever will be TBC and Wrath.

[Novx]

MoP is the expansion with the most losses in WoW history. With a loss of almost 1.5 million players total world wide. MoP was voted by mmogamer the most disliked expansion in WoW history.

Guess what. They have lost 1.5m subs, you know who didn't GAIN 1.5m subs? ANY OTHER GAME...Do you think Rift would have gone F2P (same goes for SWTOR) if they got 1,500,000 subs from WoW...no...ever consider people just aren't playing online games as much as they were?

Edit: To be clear, when I said "online games" I should have said MMORPG's. Poor choice of words.