Why WoW is not dying...

[lllBlackSunlll]

Been playing since '05. In Vanilla people said WoW was dying because X class was OP, because fast mounts broke the open world, and with Nerfs it gave out loot too easily that people didn't deserve. People felt the game wasn't well balanced in PvP or PvE.

In BC people said the game was dying because the economy was so highly inflated that anyone could buy their way to t6. With Heroic Dungeons being released, the start of welfare gear began, meaning people from Vanilla who didn't have the time to gear up could now raid, and was killing the game. People felt flying was killing the game because it destroyed immersion. People felt PvP was very imbalanced in Arena, but also PvPing was the best way to gear up your character for PvE, so PvP wasn't taken seriously. People felt daily questing was mandatory to progress and destroyed what the world was. People felt raiding in general was so accessible (4% of WoW players actually raided Sunwell Plateau), catering to the casual crowd would be the downfall of WoW.

People felt WotLK was the WoW killer because it made raiding much more accessible, Heroic Dungeons were much more common with no lock out. Getting flying was easier, and with Heirlooms, leveling to 80 was much easier. Class balance was good at times, so doing things like Raiding or Arena was very active (unless you were a ret paladin). But began the content droughts because continent most players were involved in became too easy and less of a grind, so players began to become bored. Dalaran boredom trains were very common, leveling alts you would never touch again was common because nothing to do. And eventually Looking for Dungeon released, streamlining dungeon grinds and destroying server community.

Keep in mind while all these complaints and end-of-day sayers were blasting the forums, WoW continued to grow...

Cata, MoP, WoD, Legion, they also had their issues, but the game kept improving.
My point is people look their the past with rose-filtered glasses, with the past looking rosier than what people actually thought at the time. Classic servers prove this, because despite the massive complaints during WoW's first iteration, people want it back despite WoW's improvements.

Look at MoP, a very successful WoW expansion, definitely top 3. When the expansion was announced the forums were aflame, people calling for WoW's death, and ended up being a great experience.

To everyone complaining about BfA being dull in story, content that is too grindy, taking away our content, not being able to go places we once wanted to, or other hard criticisms about an expansion we frankly know little about, remember that we've heard it all before. Yet, WoW keeps getting better. Mistakes have been made, but the newest expansion always adds something better or new to the game that wasn't there before, always moving forward.

WoW is still going strong and has a great base who will stay with it, not because it is WoW, but because it is great. I am excited for BfA and nay-sayers should look at how those great experiences you had in WoW were originally viewed before it was played. People have been calling for the death of WoW since '04, yet the game keeps living.

[danielewhite]

I've played the game since vanilla as well, and I don't remember so much complaining as u are saying.......when u come from 20 million people to being barely able to keep 7m.....u cant say something is stronger.........this is not about personal opinion,but about facts.
I've actually play legacy servers and is not about rose filters in memory, cause u can go right now into any legacy server and see the difference for yourself......
its a completely different game

[schwarzkopf]

Fun fact OP - a new born baby is already dying, doesn't mean it is ANYWHERE near death.

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

I've played the game since vanilla as well, and I don't remember so much complaining as u are saying.......when u come from 20 million people to being barely able to keep 7m.....u cant say something is stronger.........this is not about personal opinion,but about facts.
I've actually play legacy servers and is not about rose filters in memory, cause u can go right now into any legacy server and see the difference for yourself......
its a completely different game

Problem is that's fact only matters to the people who collect the money. To the actual players everything is objectively better as the op says. Doesn't mean there is magic fro old expansions. Don't turn this into yet another classic thread please.

[Ryon21]

Welcome to the Internet were people love to complain that the world is ending.

I am also excited with this new expansion. For the first time Blizzard will finally touch Horde-Alliance controlled core regions and make the war we were always waiting since Warcraft 3. As always there will be mistakes but at least they are trying something new.

About people complaining that there are few zones and everything else well... I prefer less content with quality than a lot of sh*tty and boring content. We also cannot forget that this expansion are not only Kul Tiras nor Zandalar but also the major regions of the Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor and lots of places in the Great Sea. And of course the new leveling system and races etc, etc. So yeah, there isn't any content at all (Irony ^-^).

[Demsi]

I've played the game since vanilla as well, and I don't remember so much complaining as u are saying.......when u come from 20 million people to being barely able to keep 7m.....u cant say something is stronger.........this is not about personal opinion,but about facts.
I've actually play legacy servers and is not about rose filters in memory, cause u can go right now into any legacy server and see the difference for yourself......
its a completely different game

Wow peaked at 12 million, so you're wrong there.

Also i do remember a lot of whining even back then,

[Ursiel]

WoW maxed out on 12m. Your opinion seems very uninformed. People have been saying "WoW is dead" since WoTLK.

I remember people saying Aion would kill WoW back in TBC.

[lllBlackSunlll]

Not as much complaining...?
It was non-stop during all expansions.
The game going to 3 million to 4 millions to 7 million and then capping around 12million during Cata, yet during those times the forums and in-game chat were just as rampant then as they are now.
All expansions had their positives and negatives. I could list pages of criticisms from each expansion, but to keep it short, there were a lot. The game has definitely changed, it is a different game. Things have been added on and taken away. I have played on a private server and the game is different. Some people want that difference, and some don't. This isn't an argument for the existence of Classic servers, I am talking about the people who call for the Death of WoW when we've heard it before, for years.

The game has had a declining player base, yet the game has had gameplay, technical, and graphic improvements. It is a different game, not a worse game or better, it is different. But being different has proven not to be it's death. If Classic WoW was released today but with updated graphics, it would flop. Classic met the standards of the time, the expansion like Legion meets the standards of today. Both very different, but has more to do with player interests versus hard quality. Quality does play a major role though.

[schwarzkopf]

Actually we don't start dying till something like year 26 or so? Something like that.

Nope - as soon as you are born your cell Telomers start to degrade as your cells replicate.

Anyway - the point is WoW is probably only in middle age - a long way to go before death.

[princeofthawest]

Not really, this is not the death of World of Warcraft. Furthermore, it's actually pushing it away from dying if you really think about it.

[Najnaj]

WoW maxed out on 12m. Your opinion seems very uninformed. People have been saying "WoW is dead" since WoTLK.

Before that even...You had the HUGE welfare epics bitch-fest of BC which was sure to be the end of all that was good and right. The end of WoW started even before BC as a matter of fact, anyone remember tier 0.5? How dared those filthy questers think they were as good as some dude who had afk'd through MC.

Also, it might be 7 NOW but it peaks at the start of every xpac and the 12 was at the start of WOTLK...if I remember right.

[Arbs]

I remember people saying Aion would kill WoW back in TBC.

This, I remember Age of Conan & Warhammer plus so many others. Some people just love shit posting for the hell of it each Xpac announcement.

[Najnaj]

Not as much complaining...?
It was non-stop during all expansions.
The game going to 3 million to 4 millions to 7 million and then capping around 12million during Cata, yet during those times the forums and in-game chat were just as rampant then as they are now.
All expansions had their positives and negatives. I could list pages of criticisms from each expansion, but to keep it short, there were a lot. The game has definitely changed, it is a different game. Things have been added on and taken away. I have played on a private server and the game is different. Some people want that difference, and some don't. This isn't an argument for the existence of Classic servers, I am talking about the people who call for the Death of WoW when we've heard it before, for years.

The game has had a declining player base, yet the game has had gameplay, technical, and graphic improvements. It is a different game, not a worse game or better, it is different. But being different has proven not to be it's death. If Classic WoW was released today but with updated graphics, it would flop. Classic met the standards of the time, the expansion like Legion meets the standards of today. Both very different, but has more to do with player interests versus hard quality. Quality does play a major role though.

It is so much better today. With the possible exception for Argus which is a snore fest. At least you don't need 3/3 improved sap to go to Argus though. Remember mages being forced to spec frost since you had virtually all end game mobs immune to fire and arcane was a joke..then they had to spam frost bolts of a lower rank not to run out of mana...when they were not on dispell duty. How about fights where rogues were so useless that they were forced to heal other players with bandages....

Anyone that does not agree can go to a vanilla server and level a priest to 60...have fun!

[Felfaadaern Darkterror]

Seems to me people decide the game is dying when they themselves feel a need to stop playing. It's a coping mechanism. It starts when they've played too much (whatever that threshold is for them) and burnt themselves out, but they still struggle to pull the plug. Deciding that the game is dying anyway makes that all easier. After all, if they are losing enthusiasm, surely everyone else must be too, right?

Whereas personally I figure it's only natural to get tired of playing the same game forever without a break. Breaks are healthy, and there are so many other ways to enjoy life. Chances are, if you decide to come back, WoW will still be here. Shock/surprise. It won't die. Even with you taking a break.

[Schattenlied]

WoW keeps getting better. Mistakes have been made, but the newest expansion always adds something better or new to the game that wasn't there before, always moving forward.

And sometimes it takes things away that it shouldn't, sometimes it adds things that it shouldn't, things that were too early in their design infancy to be added to the live game (Legion's legendary system for example, which is why it was scrapped for BfA, never should have existed) sometimes it takes a perfectly fine and functional class that people love and butchers it (what they did to Feral when Legion launched, and Ret according to many of it's players, myself included).

Not everything changed is good... Some of it is, some of it isn't... Lets not forget that they stopped reporting subscriber numbers for a reason, it was only going lower... Nothing hints at that having changed as of yet.

[Skoll Shorties]

World of Warcraft will never die. FOR THE HORDE. BATTLE FOR AZEROTH IS GONNA BE SICK!

[Kaibhan]

Wow is what it is and will be a fine mmo for as long as the sevs keep making expacs for it the subscriber base will continue to fluctuate as it always has. I doubt it will ever reach the 12 million players it once had at the same time again but I doubt it'll go below 5 any time soon either. It seems like a lot of people are playing this game in cycles ATM.

[cparle87]

Not everything changed is good... Some of it is, some of it isn't... Lets not forget that they stopped reporting subscriber numbers for a reason, it was only going lower... Nothing hints at that having changed as of yet.

Or they were just sick and tired of all the doom and gloom every time they posted them, like I am.

[Nathasil]

WoW will not die for a very long time. Yet still the question should be allowed why every second Expansion has to be so much under par. Cataclysm had a lot of features i really, really loved. The Dungeons were great for Guild groups, it brought us Transmog, Vashjir is my all-time-favorite Zone in the game etc....yet, i know why a lot of players call it bad. Even as a fan i have to agree it had too little content and many, many flaws that were unnecessary. It simply was designed past what players wanted/expected.

WoD was a content starved brainfuck. Grommash standing next to Yrel at the end crying victory towards the 2 people HE - not Gul'dan, it was HIM - tried to genocide at the start of the expansion.....WTF. And it did not come out of nowhere. Giving us Orcs after 14 months of Siege was a bad idea. Period. It simply was a bad idea. Blizzard realised that too late and flushed whatever plans they had for the story originally down the toilett and instead gave us WTF-Grommash in the end.

When BfA launches it will have been almost two years of Legion. Two years that told ALL players - including Alliance - to love and protect Thalyssra and Suramar (+Highmountain Tauren). Giving Alliance Paladins Liadrin as a Champion. Giving us a Death Knight campaign that basically says "Fuck Horde and Alliance. We are the Ebon Blade. We will do as we see fit." Having the Horde help defend the Exodar and Velen. Having Horde players harbored on a Draenei Ship as equals.

...and now they decide to give us...this? There is NO WAY they can make this story fly. Not in a way that makes any sense for the player. Imagine leveling a new Alliance char one year from now. Highmountain, Nightborne and half of the Horde Leaders are not only your Allies but fucking personal friends and as soon as you ding 110 they become your grave enemies? What the fuck. I know a lot of players like the faction conflict. They say it was always at the heart of Warcraft or whatever. I played WC3, the game that made the franchise truely giant and one of the best RTS of all time, on and off when it was current. I don't remeber faction conflict being of any importance to that story. even if you count the gimmicky Orc campaign of TfT, Admiral Proudmore was a renegade. The Alliance - as well as the Horde - did not really exist at that point in time. Lordaeron was crushed. As was the "Horde". I do remember Tyrande, Jaina and Thrall joining forces against Archimonde, though.

BfA will not be the death of WoW. But it won't make it any better. It's a huge step back and it will drive many players away that will never come back again. Just like WoD did.

My only hope at this point is that 9.0 will put an end to the vanilla factions and give us something different, more dynamic. Every Expansion so far was named after that which died/ended in it. I really hope BfA is no exception in that regard.

BfA does worry me though, in that i see those 3 vs 3 no-story-random-islands as a cheap HotS copy. A game i do not play for one reason: The gameplay completely ignores the stories of the characters it offers. If that's the direction they are taking WoW it's not just one bad expansion to live through...it's really the end of what made Warcraft great.

[Anjerith]

I guess it bothers me that people find things to bitch about when we are presented with - basically - Warcraft 4.

Should it bother me? No. Because you clowns would bitch if Blizzard suddenly decided to refund all sub fees to all players.

Should it bother me? No. Because 90% of the people on this website things they are some narrative or game design little Jesus' when they work at Kroger.

Does it bother me? Yes. I want to believe that the playerbase of this game is *at least* competent. They are not. Grow up.