Conspiracy of WoW ending?

[Bighammerbear]

It wont instantly shut down, that would be the biggest bone head move in the history of gaming.

I do believe that the next expansion is the last. That it will launch in 2019 (25 year anniversary of warcraft one) and be the bridge to WoW2.

WoW cannot last forever. Nothing does. It will end. But it wont end until blizzard have a compelling product to replace it with. I think progress is well under way on that. The game engine is ancient, the mechanics are dated, and you can see that the sub base engagement curve is much ,much smaller there days.

One more expansion to tie up the last threads (the old gods) and then a new game, maybe set hundreds of years in the future.

[Zka]

I used to play a play-by-mail rpg which launched in 1992. In its glory days it had thousands of active players. The game is still going on, despite only having 100-150 active players now. The revenue has probably dipped, but the revenue per player has gone up significantly. The few hardcore ones just can quit and are willing to pay 5-20 times more than in the good old times. They still pay enough to get constant bugfixes and eventual content expansions.
Just think about it.

[TheVaryag]

I don't know if someone else has ever thought about this, perhaps..but..

What IF Blizzard is preparing most hardcore and loyal players/fans lose interest of the game?

I mean it sounds actually so strange and even insane and at the same time makes sense.

What would actually happen if they would close the game instantly? ''Sorry all,we are not able to provide development of this game any more, we are shutting WoW down now. Bye! '' How many would lose their minds and start to judge the company of such move. Still compared to other MMOs WoW used to have and even now have a LOT players!

Population of WoW players are decreasing each year since Wrath of the Lich King. Perhaps that's the plan, kill game slowly so people don't go insane?

Your thoughts?

You're asking If blizzard Is preparing most hardcore players to loose their Interest In the gam-..let me just stop you there. The answer Is: Legion.

They've already discouraged hardcore playing heavily with Legion, they do their usual "Oh we have everything for everyone, casuals, hardcore... we got It all" but end up making one or the other, and since Cataclysm It's leaned more on the casual side rather than Hardcore, and oh low and behold where the subs have gone, down the drain? Possibly due to the uncharactaristic change from Hardcore challenging gameplay and good story telling to casual gameplay and minimal story and the minimal that there Is Is quite poor... all of that ever since Cataclysm, and arguably half-way since Wrath gameplay wise.

Blizzard can't let go of their corporate pride and just do one thing, casual or hardcore. They try to have something for everything, and the way the subs are going WoW will not sustain Itself for long, at least on the platoe of the most popular MMO out there for long, with It's already dwindling 3 mil subs. Or 5 mil If you're an optimistic fanboy, 10 mil If you're completely blind, but then betwenn fanboy and being blind Is little difference.

I don't think that, despite their failures since Cataclysm that they Intentionally wanted to kill off the game since... they love their game, but they love It too much, so much so that the lesson In Mists of Pandaria that was told to the player has elluded them: Pride. Corporate pride now takes hold of them, and since I feel... WoD, they're trying to milk the game of every last money It can possibly make. But Legion sure feels like It's going towards an "Ending" and If they end with WoW I'd hope for a WoW 2.0 and even a Warcraft 4 to set the story for WoW 2.0 just like Warcraft 3 set the story for the-...oh screw that, they'd never close down the game

It might not be their best money maker right now, that being Hearthstone now, followed by Overwatch I believe, WoW Isn't a priority since It's been giving out so little money, and all the features Implemented, buying mounts, wow token, character boosting... all to me seem like desparate attempts for fanboys to spend their money to "Help" keep WoW afloat, but maybe It shouldn't be afloat... just maybe... I'm conflicted too, okay ._. I love WoW and I'd love to play It again, If It weren't for the giant bias of them banning my account 2 years go for somethng I've been falsely acused of, but hey who cares right I'm just a number to them now.

I'd say, lets see what the next expansion brings, and If It's any closer to an "Ending"

[Deleted]

You're asking If blizzard Is preparing most hardcore players to loose their Interest In the gam-..let me just stop you there. The answer Is: Legion.

They've already discouraged hardcore playing heavily with Legion, they do their usual "Oh we have everything for everyone, casuals, hardcore... we got It all" but end up making one or the other, and since Cataclysm It's leaned more on the casual side rather than Hardcore, and oh low and behold where the subs have gone, down the drain? Possibly due to the uncharactaristic change from Hardcore challenging gameplay and good story telling to casual gameplay and minimal story and the minimal that there Is Is quite poor... all of that ever since Cataclysm, and arguably half-way since Wrath gameplay wise.

Blizzard can't let go of their corporate pride and just do one thing, casual or hardcore. They try to have something for everything, and the way the subs are going WoW will not sustain Itself for long, at least on the platoe of the most popular MMO out there for long, with It's already dwindling 3 mil subs. Or 5 mil If you're an optimistic fanboy, 10 mil If you're completely blind, but then betwenn fanboy and being blind Is little difference.

I don't think that, despite their failures since Cataclysm that they Intentionally wanted to kill off the game since... they love their game, but they love It too much, so much so that the lesson In Mists of Pandaria that was told to the player has elluded them: Pride. Corporate pride now takes hold of them, and since I feel... WoD, they're trying to milk the game of every last money It can possibly make. But Legion sure feels like It's going towards an "Ending" and If they end with WoW I'd hope for a WoW 2.0 and even a Warcraft 4 to set the story for WoW 2.0 just like Warcraft 3 set the story for the-...oh screw that, they'd never close down the game

It might not be their best money maker right now, that being Hearthstone now, followed by Overwatch I believe, WoW Isn't a priority since It's been giving out so little money, and all the features Implemented, buying mounts, wow token, character boosting... all to me seem like desparate attempts for fanboys to spend their money to "Help" keep WoW afloat, but maybe It shouldn't be afloat... just maybe... I'm conflicted too, okay ._. I love WoW and I'd love to play It again, If It weren't for the giant bias of them banning my account 2 years go for somethng I've been falsely acused of, but hey who cares right I'm just a number to them now.

I'd say, lets see what the next expansion brings, and If It's any closer to an "Ending"

what makes people capitalize random words middle of their sentences?

[StationaryHawk]

And... why would they be doing this? Even if Blizzard wanted to stop development on WoW, they'd be wasting good money by closing the servers or intentionally driving their players away.

[MoanaLisa]

What IF Blizzard is preparing most hardcore and loyal players/fans lose interest of the game?

Game revenues would dip by 10% or so and life would go on. It's a mistake to think that hardcore players are the financial backbone of WoW.

Besides this, Blizzard just doesn't shut games down. You can still play Diablo II today and they gave it a small update not so long ago.

Last point: why on earth would they be deliberately doing this? The game makes them a ton of money. It may no longer be making the most money for Blizzard but it's still wildly profitable.

EDIT: Whatever you think of game addiction, Blizzard isn't going to be on the hook legally for any such thing. I regularly see messages on entering the game to go outside and do other things.

[Phuongvi]

They are going to close WoW because they don't make enough money with WoW Token crap and other micro transaction.?

I bet they are making more money than the Wrath of the Lich King era even if the subs are much much lower.

[dextersmith]

So yeah, I think you're wrong. There is no conspiracy. Players may be moving on with their lives, but the WoW team will remain passionate and expand both themselves and their game with ever-increasing determination.

.......until the funding gets cut.

[iamthedevil]

Ultima Online is still running. Think about that.

[Deleted]

my bet is that they will bring the game into a "legacy" mode. (every content is scaled like in timewalking) so that people can play what they want and grind their hearths out for the mounts and transmog that never dropped.

and the transition will be made into a new MMO (maybe world of warcraft 2) with modern graphics and more action oriented controls (notice how they get more and more guildwarish with the combat for example abilities hitting a certain area around the character instead of "target the enemy and use the ability).

and they will keep up the "legacy" servers running as long as they earn money with it (by subscriptions or tokens/bnet currency)

[Super Kami Dende]

You theory rests on the assumption that a Multibillion dollar company would want to tank a game which pulls them in more Money annually than nearly any other MMO on the planet.

[clevin]

How is this not trolling the forums? I mean, there's ZERO indication that they're thinking about this. Will they eventually close WoW? sure, probably. Is it anytime soon? No.

- - - Updated - - -

Holy shit. Do people on this forum not understand the concept of a "What if" scenario? Does it always instantly have to be so serious and defensive? Just roll with the initial "What If they literally just shut the whole thing down" and answer... Even a stump knows it isn't actually going to happen. Jesus Christ.
.

Again, so what's the point? What if Blizzard shipped me $1m?? What if Apple bought Blizzard and made everyone play on iPhones??

We can do this all night long, but it's just posting for reaction.

[Jofe]

The only conspiracy I would like with WoW ending is because there's a Warcraft 4 in development and they decided to continue the story there. Otherwise I really doubt they will stop any time soon.

[Dialout]

No. Just... no.

[Banquetto]

They're still running Diablo 2 servers. How much money do you think that is making them in 2017?

[Deleted]

I don't know if someone else has ever thought about this, perhaps..but..

What IF Blizzard is preparing most hardcore and loyal players/fans lose interest of the game?

I mean it sounds actually so strange and even insane and at the same time makes sense.

What would actually happen if they would close the game instantly? ''Sorry all,we are not able to provide development of this game any more, we are shutting WoW down now. Bye! '' How many would lose their minds and start to judge the company of such move. Still compared to other MMOs WoW used to have and even now have a LOT players!

Population of WoW players are decreasing each year since Wrath of the Lich King. Perhaps that's the plan, kill game slowly so people don't go insane?

Your thoughts?

I think that if blizzard ever stop developping content for wow it won t be before bringing closure to the storyline, especially considering how the void is being foreshadowed.

If I were to make predictions I d say we re not that far from this point (1 or 2 more expansions). Beyond that nobody knows what blizzard will do with the game.

[Heladys]

Somebody needs to lay down the crack pipe, it's causing insane paranoid theorizing.

[Spiral Mage]

Just because you don't like the design direction they've gone in, doesn't mean there's a conspiracy to end the game. One thing WoW has done over the years is innovate, for better or worse. This time, many things were for the better and many things were for the worse. It's a much clearer divide than there's ever been but it's just the team trying new things to push the game forward, rather than leave it entirely the same.

[McNeil]

I still remember the days of people expecting The Simpsons to end after season 10...

... They almost wrapped up season 28 and have been renewed for 2 more seasons.

[Paula Deen]

It seems more likely they are trying to latch onto current market trends to pull in more people than to alienate what remains.