Dragonflight Free This Weekend For Returning Players

thx blizz..would be nice to merge bnet and classic acounts tho

We're about 3 months into this expansion and it already looks like late stage WoD. Event after event to try and get people back. Sales here, recruit-a-player there, special goodies for a 6 month sub. And now a free weekend. Bruh... until you stop adding carrots and systems to lure us into the treadmill and make the actual treadmill a fun experience people would play even for no reward, you're wasting your time.

Originally Posted by Foulfrost

We're about 3 months into this expansion and it already looks like late stage WoD. Event after event to try and get people back. Sales here, recruit-a-player there, special goodies for a 6 month sub. And now a free weekend. Bruh... until you stop adding carrots and systems to lure us into the treadmill and make the actual treadmill a fun experience people would play even for no reward, you're wasting your time.

Recruit a friend started in 2008 (so 14/15 years ago), 6 month sub "goodies" were introduced in 2018 (so 5 years ago), sales are nothing new and welcome back weekends have been around also since 2018 (so 5 years ago). Oh and none of these (except recruit a friend) were in late stage WoD.

Man, again?!?!? Fuuuuck lmfao.

Originally Posted by Foulfrost

We're about 3 months into this expansion and it already looks like late stage WoD. Event after event to try and get people back. Sales here, recruit-a-player there, special goodies for a 6 month sub. And now a free weekend. Bruh... until you stop adding carrots and systems to lure us into the treadmill and make the actual treadmill a fun experience people would play even for no reward, you're wasting your time.

Late stage WoD, when they already cut content, were coming off the tail end of people still being mad over flying, a patch that just had Twitter integration.

Meanwhile, Dragonflight is on its way to deliver a second patch already, giving a major rework to a spec that desperately needed it, adding new world content to participate in, actually listening to feedback, gave us a content road map.

Yeah, it's totally the same.

oh god, here comes the "Wow is dead" crowd.

Originally Posted by Foulfrost

We're about 3 months into this expansion and it already looks like late stage WoD. Event after event to try and get people back. Sales here, recruit-a-player there, special goodies for a 6 month sub. And now a free weekend. Bruh... until you stop adding carrots and systems to lure us into the treadmill and make the actual treadmill a fun experience people would play even for no reward, you're wasting your time.

God damn business trying to get customers to use their products. The nerve.

I'm glad the best companies with the best products in the world don't have to spend any money on marketing, because when the product is THAT good, you don't need to promote it, right? ... for example: Apple, Coke, Nike, and McDonalds.

does that apply to inactive accounts that DO own dragonflight?

/reads through fine print

*No WoW Subscription or Game Time is required to play World of Warcraft (including Dragonflight expansion) through March 12, 2023. Does not include WoW Classic titles

heh... I guess I'll do the trading post tasks then....

eh i could do it for the clown costume on the trading post since i have no interest in the dull content of this expac but im caught up with other games atm and i dont even have wow installed anymore soo im gonna pass. still, something's not quite right with all these free weekends and discounts, oh well considering the state of DF im pretty sure we'll be seeing more of these free weekends in the near future so i'll take a look around the game when that happens, maybe.

Alright now I'm really curious how much DF sold

Originally Posted by Jester Joe

Late stage WoD, when they already cut content, were coming off the tail end of people still being mad over flying, a patch that just had Twitter integration.

Meanwhile, Dragonflight is on its way to deliver a second patch already, giving a major rework to a spec that desperately needed it, adding new world content to participate in, actually listening to feedback, gave us a content road map.

Yeah, it's totally the same.

If anything, the fact that DF generally being viewed as being in a much better state as a game but still needing to do promotions as much as it does makes it even more concerning. I'm not gonna go into "WOW IS DOOOOOOOOMED" mode, especially since there's legitimate positives to go upon (Better retention rate than SL, generally viewed more favorably than the past two xpacs), but doing these sorts of things this early in the expansion cycle is not a positive sign.

The game is dead, oracles on this very forum decrees so. Why are we talking about this? Game is dead btw. I mean, there is a whole thread dedicated to the fact that the game is dead, why don't people understand!?

Originally Posted by Chilela

If anything, the fact that DF generally being viewed as being in a much better state as a game but still needing to do promotions as much as it does makes it even more concerning. I'm not gonna go into "WOW IS DOOOOOOOOMED" mode, especially since there's legitimate positives to go upon (Better retention rate than SL, generally viewed more favorably than the past two xpacs), but doing these sorts of things this early in the expansion cycle is not a positive sign.

I mean, BfA ended with the quarantine and SL started with it. They definitely benefitted heavily from that, hell I had friends come back who haven't played since WoD during that time. But SL was not a good impression for some of them. I can see why Blizzard would want to push DF so heavily now to get people back when it's definitely improved upon feedback.

Also, the start of the expansion is actually the best time to be doing this, since you can hook them in for the entire expansion if they like what they're seeing. Im not saying that wow is in perfect condition, but this is the kind of things they should have been doing every expansion to get people back in.

I paid for WoW for 16 years, which was about 11 years too many. WotLK was the last expansion that I really liked.

If Blizzard wants me to come back, they should make it totally free-to-play.

Originally Posted by Jester Joe

I mean, BfA ended with the quarantine and SL started with it. They definitely benefitted heavily from that, hell I had friends come back who haven't played since WoD during that time. But SL was not a good impression for some of them. I can see why Blizzard would want to push DF so heavily now to get people back when it's definitely improved upon feedback.

Completely fair, since DF has some strong "Win back positive favor from the playerbase and build the foundation for future expansions" vibes to it.

Also, the start of the expansion is actually the best time to be doing this, since you can hook them in for the entire expansion if they like what they're seeing. Im not saying that wow is in perfect condition, but this is the kind of things they should have been doing every expansion to get people back in.

While it's probably not fair to compare a live service game like WoW to a normal box game, there's a general pattern of big-name games doing promotions early if they underperform. It's a completely valid assumption that they're doing it to try to bolster their playerbase, but even within the context of WoW specifically, they usually pull this sort of thing after the playerbase has significantly receded in numbers, again going back to the late WoD example. But if they're confident that promoting the xpac this early in for what seems like the first time in WoW's history, more power to them. No one really loses out in the end.

After how bad BFA was (friend wanted to try so I resubbed from quitting in WOD we had it uninstalled before the subs ran out) I put a hard rule not to buy\play retail unless I can play a ranged survial hunter again (may not keep me playing but the one thing that would get me to at least try it again).

*just noticed I got an E-mail from Blizzard today - You Have Been Gifted A Level 60 Character Boost,

*was excited for LK and sub for it in BC Classic to prepare, then the Dev ended up with coming up with LK reforged instead of Classic LK and I dropped playing classic

I did not purchase DF at all. First WoW expansion I did not purchase. I saw the free weekend and thought hey lets see for myself how it is since its free... i quickly remembered all the reasons why I no longer play and wont be purchasing it.

I will say the two biggest turn offs for me were

1: When i logged into my character i was in Org. I noticed I had massive chat spam going on, I took a look and say it was the services tab? wtf this is new... so i moved it to a new window next to my trade window. What was sad about it was it was massive spam of people selling boosts for M+ or something of that nature. For me, this is pathetic and sad to see and why I stopped playing to begin with, hard enough to get into high M+ key groups if your not the meta class, even harder if everyone and they brother selling boosts.

2: How easy the game is. Yes I know it gets challenging in Mythic raids and high lvl M+ keys and high lvl PVP and that is great, however getting to that point is soooo boring. Leveling and killing mobs for quests, open world events, regular dungeons while leveling, everything is so brain dead my monitor is turned off face roll easy. I really do not like being bored

Originally Posted by Foulfrost

We're about 3 months into this expansion and it already looks like late stage WoD.

i have more abilities and world actually alive way more than WoD
i hate doomsayers, do u even remember what u hated about WoD? for me it was easily non-existing content outside of raiding, even challenge mode had fotm format
u can hate SL as much u want but SL pvp is liveliest it ever was, and DF is still continuing that path, WoD was purely human + shaman dwarf or nelf druid for healer in pvp (u can check that on wow official youtube channel), while be it pve or pvp DF has most diverse class it ever had in its history, this is first exp that actually make most classes viable for both pve and pvp, SL who had balance pvp had a joke of pve with DH or bust to tank and no paly/priest for healing (if i remember right, u can check it anyway on youtube channel if u want)

Originally Posted by Spikeychris

Recruit a friend started in 2008 (so 14/15 years ago), 6 month sub "goodies" were introduced in 2018 (so 5 years ago), sales are nothing new and welcome back weekends have been around also since 2018 (so 5 years ago). Oh and none of these (except recruit a friend) were in late stage WoD.

but i don't remember 2 free playtime before first patch, u can see i'm against his talk but also DF struggling is sadly true, no idea due to how fucked world economy is and i know if i had 13 euro i can spare i'll spend them on wow, but thanks to inflation and being in WORST country in inflation on earth for 2 months in row so far, my entire salary now became 186 euro, and they all go to bill and food (yes i don't even buy clothes or anything, we going Venezuella route finally)