WoW Lost 300k Subscribers, Patch 4.3 this year, Blizzcon 2011 Tickets, Blue Posts

Originally Posted by Beyond2

You're missing the point. I do not want to be forced to raid. I do not enjoy raids. I do not enjoy anything about them.

Lets examine that in the frame that WoW is a GAME. Yes, a game. Why do we play games? To have FUN.

Okay. That out of the way, what was 'fun' for me was completing my tier set. Five man dungeons with close friends ARE fun. Raids with 4-21 people I don't know are NOT fun.

Wrath had a system in place where I could play WoW, with my friends, have fun, and eventually meet my goal of having a complete armor set. That was all it took to keep me paying, honestly.

I don't care that I can get "my two piece bonus" - I'm not in it for the power upgrade. I want a complete, coherent armor set, preferably one that looks halfway fucking decent. None of this "dungeon blues look like vendor trash, tier set looks like you're a superhero" bullshit. Actual effort into a tier set that is rewarding to finish, obtainable from dungeons. That's all I ask for. The game code has unused recolors of the current tier sets. Wrath had Tier 10, sanctified tier 10, and heroic sanctified. Why can't Blizz see that they took the casual's loot progression away?

Further on the subject of the "you can earn three whole pieces, stop bitching": Mismatched armor sucks. That's all there is to it. Its a "compromise" that is not any good for the casual player. Oh you mean i can have the shiny hands, chest, and legs (which all by the way have no unique polygons, those special effects are reserved for the head and shoulders!) but be stuck wearing this shitty blue chest and troll dungeon helm? I want a complete set of armor. That's it.

And For all the people complaining that I want it too easy, no. I want it like Wrath. Raid-point acquiring outside of raids was slower than shit in Wrath. I don't think I should be able to get the same armor in the same time as a raider. But I think that over time it should be COMPLETELY POSSIBLE to finish the armor set without being forced to raid. So you can put me on record as saying "Getting the same amount of raid tokens for not raiding is stupid" I think that was a poor choice on their part, and a part of their "compromise" to try and keep people like me from unsubbing. Now Instead of working for my tier, I get three pieces handed to me and told to fuck off to my five-mans. That's worse. Three pieces with no effort, but unable to finish the set? Yeah, no. Blizz screwed the pooch here.

Also, you can take the rings, trinkets, necks, backs, and boots and shove them. I don't give two shits about any of the loot that has a minimal impact on how your character looks. Those could be completely raid drops and I wouldn't give a shit. If all that could be bought for tokens was a COMPLETE tier set, and that was it, just five pieces, I'd be completely content.


Oh, and one more time to drive the point home. I DO NOT CARE HOW EASY A RAID DUNGEON IS. PERIOD. I DO NOT ENJOY RAIDS. I DO NOT ENJOY THE ATMOSPHERE, I DO NOT ENJOY ANYTHING ABOUT RAIDS. I WOULD SOONER UNSUB (and did) THAN PAY TO BE FORCED TO RAID FOR ANY HALFWAY DECENT LOOKING ARMOR.

I'm sure someone's going to say "good riddance, blah blah blah" news for you, people unsubscribing is going to get a response from blizzard. Wrath had a lot of customers, Cata is seeing a massive fallout. Guess what? They catered to the hardcores at the start of cata. Guess what formula they're going to try next?

You're still here? If you absolutely refuse to raid then quit bitching and moaning about getting your hands on a shiny tier set and unsub already (Assuming you haven't done that already). How did they cater to "hardcores" at the start of Cata anyway? You couldn't get your silly 3 piece tier right away?

I should also add that it's impossible to please the entire 11 million subscribers with everything they do. There will always be someone who hates it and someone who likes it.

Activision Blizzard latest earning call revealed that World of Warcraft lost another 300,000 subscribers last quarter, following the loss of 600k subscribers announced last quarter.It's also worth noting that despite the loss of players, Mike Morhaime pointed out that the new trial system resulted in an increase in new account creations.More trials, less subscribers. Meaning they're still bleeding subscriptions and people who try the game see it for what it is: crap.Content is coming slow as before and very shoddy. The "4.2 patch will turn the numbers" prophecy did not come to pass and I don't see 4.3 doing so either. How many paying subscribers has WoW got now? I think most of the earnings now come from vanity crap at the blizzard shop and payed server transfers for all the people who get left behind on dying servers as everyone else just quits.Feel free to hate...

Focus on casual gameplay is wrong move. In short period of time it will bring more players and more money but in long time period its useless. Casual players dont want to play same game for years. They want try this and now this. In WoW is everything so easy to obtain. Thats why casual players are "full" of WoW. WoW is only about making alts and spam dungeons. There isnt learning curve or something like "from zero to hero".

I play for my guildies and friends right now. They're a great bunch. But indeed, there are problems. Is WoW actually dying off completely? Nah. I mean, if people are still playing UO and EQ in small amounts 10-14 years later, I'm sure we'll still see WoW players for a very long time. Is it getting less popular? Yeah, I think so. I agree I don't think it's completely a time thing. Yes, I'm sure the fact that the game is aging right now has something to do with it-but I really don't think 900,000 people just said ''well, WoW's in it's 7th year, time to quit!'' No, there are other issues. What they are seem to vary from person to person.


Thinking back to Vanilla, raiding wasn't very accessible. Yet WoW gained subs through all of this. TBC had raiding not terribly accessible either. Yet its subs continued to rise. Then LK came about and made raiding accessible(I sadly do not have a graph on me to chart WoW's subs over the years, I'm sure one exists somewhere), with hard modes mixed in for the real tough raiders. And it had it's highest subs. But then it also introduced things like LFD which helped fracture the community. Now they brought raiding to a more 'quasi-accessible' level. Some bosses pre-nerf aren't so bad for casuals who don't care much for optimization(I don't want to flat out call casuals bad players.) But it's more ''accessible after a nerf'' level, generally. Well, so was ICC. But I don't actually think the step back of accessibility of raiding even cost all the subs. IMO; it was sort of just...a mix of everything. Some folks think the game is too easy, some think its too hard, some think there isn't enough content. (I fall into the camp of I just don't think their content is as fun these days. Just an opinion. I also feel the 5 levels at the end just didn't feel satisfying like going from 60-70, or even from 70-80. When I think BACK to Outland and Northrend, and when I stop by and visit them-honestly, I don't think they're as bad as I thought when I was leveling alts through them *during* the respective expansions. I started to get to see the cool things again-like Howling Fjord's music and whole theme and Storm Peaks' vast hugeness. I also felt that the Dev discussions over the past few months have slowly declined in their answers-I sensed a lot more skirting around issues than I remember.)



I actually think about it sometimes-what if Wrath-raiding had been more like TBC raiding? Would subs continued to have come in anyway? Would people have risen to the challenge? I think one problem between Wrath and Cata was that Wrath was that gave *a lot*, and then Cata took it(somewhat) away. Vanilla and TBC saw constant subs coming in, I suppose mixed with community(this was pre LFD, though when cross-server BGs came in that was sad for me), the fact that it WAS the game everyone was playing. Not having something in the first place i think might affect things a bit less than having it and getting it taken. (For example, I think if LFD/Xserver BGs had been there from the start, the server communities may have developed differently. Of course, they may not have gotten so close, unless they had cross-server friends like they do now.) Well, it's a lot of ''what ifs'' of course.


Bah, I've gone on way too long. I wonder what the 4.3 plans are, when they say ''huge.'' (I'm actually thinking the Pandaren thing is going to be something different.) I wonder just how huge it will be in terms of new dungeons and raids, and how long it will take to come out.(I also wonder if they'll be going back on their ''we think 7 bosses is a good size'' comment.) I can't say I expect all 900,000k to come back for it, though. I do think WoW, while still bigger than any MMO to date by far, has reached it's peak already, and is definitely on a decline. How fast or slow this will be is a guess, though. Maybe they can pull some stuff out to slow it considerably.

I have Read alot of QQ from both sides and all of them blame blizzard . To make this problem crystal clear lets look at the 3 major areas of the game Raiding PvPing Questing each one of these areas have the more active and the less active, WoW is designed to be a game where the more you put into it the more you get out of it. You want more out of WoW? Put More effort , Time and energy into it. Don't sit back and say you deserve it cause you pay for it . there are many other MMOs out there who will gladly take you dollars for gear.

if you ask me the game is getting better. Weeding out the people who do not want to play makes the enviroment better for those who do

They lost 900,000 total people in two quarters. Ouch! I have been a casual player since 2006 and this last expansion was the least fun I have had in the game.(I mean super casual no raids, instances or pve grind) I crafted made alts and pvped on all my alts since I sated this game.

Honestly they made wow too easy from bottom to top(as much as I have played anyway). This expansion I leveled 3 toons from 80-85 , leveled their professions and then grinded out 100k gold just to set a goal, and pvped a lot.. This lasted like 1.5-2 months,then I stopped logging on. In 2006 this would have taken me 6 months+ to do.
Maybe I just sucked more back then, Idk.

My 6 month playtime card runs out tomorrow, and I'm not even sad. Two yeas ago I would have renewed because I was excited to play in my same casual way, now there is no good reason to. Maybe they will draw me back for a few months with their next expansion? Hope their new mmo project is fun!

lets not forget steams recent sale - i got portal2 all the assassins creed games, torchlight and all the prince of persia games for less than it would cost to get a wow account open with all expansions and theres quite a few months gaming there (esp at my snails pace)

I like how you people hate wow SO much, but you're still checking up on it often enough to comment within 24 hours of this news.

the reason there losing people is there is nothing changing there only just revamping the same shit and no one sees that as a bonus to play the game if they bring out new dungeons instead of the same ones with a higher level no one really cares but bring out new ones that no one has seen or play years ago its will get more attention.As for raid gear they should bring back the 8 piece set that was achievement to earn and a challenge to get as well this 5 piece is just boring and crap too easy to get and complete then you back to the boring game with nothing better to do then hit the pvp scene.. so really they need a whole new area like they did with burning crusade and WoLk that made the game enjoyable well more then the old shit being recreated

i like the cathedral window like wallpaper

Shit game. Hmm ok that's just the current state.What I really mean is, this game's gone to shit.

Once Activison took over, WoW was no longer driven by creativity, rather it was purely profit based. I realized the overall goal of any company is to make money, but Activision has sacrificed a lot of what made WoW enjoyable in the name of lowering the operating costs. All the major changes in the game over the last 3 years are built around the concept of providing content as cheaply as possible. Class homogenization means reducing the need to hire developers to balance 9 completely unique classes. Achievements are essentially a free way to create a reason for players to keep subs active so they can grind things already in the game for the reward of seeing a little box pop up. Recycling old content is a great way to keep players busy for very low cost. Selling mounts and pets in the store for real money (something Blizzard said they would never do before their merger), another easy way to make fast money. The real money based AH in D3 is really sickening, no question at all that their next MMO will have that as well. Absolutely blatant money grab. I loved Blizzard as a company, but I no longer want to support them because of their affiliation with Activision. Im glad WoW is losing subs and I hope it continues. Activision's greed should not be rewarded.

More of this crap again? 300k subs lost, Blizzard is the devil, blah blah blah. In regards to Blizzard trying to make money on this game, Its business people this is what you do when you have a popular product. Im sure Blizzard cares about the people that play there game but at the end of the day people need to make money. You can call Blizz greedy all you want but I seen enough articles of the donations from them to contradict all that.

Also I notice people clapped for joy when Blizz announced Heroic Deadmines and SFK. But then they did the same for ZA/ZG people did nothing but cry like little f*cking babies. Has anyone bothered to stop and think that ZA/ZG is new to some people? When I 1st started playing 2.4 was 4 weeks away and ZA was going to be obsolete and people were only doing ZG for that stupid tiger mount. So as far as I care ZA/ZG is 100% new to me since I never done them.

I also cant help but noticed how old vets of the game say how Vinalla and BC were the best times, when I remember reading alot of forums clearly saying how much BC was a fail of an expansion back mid 2007 and now today poeple pretty much love BC now. I even remember the WotLK days how people were bashing that expansion back then. Now people were praising it now. And now its Cataclysm turn to be bashed and watch how fast everyone loves Cata once then 4th expan comes out. This whole crap with ppl bashing current expasion and liking it once another comes will never make any since.

Get off the sinking ship while you can because the game is all downhill from here. You know it. get over it. It's had a very long run and after losing nearly 1mil subs they are slashing prices and trying to stay afloat... also love the fanboys... "WOW ISN'T DYING! UGH!"
Quit 2 months ago. It was honestly the best decision ever. Think about it. and instead of making a "documentary" on "raiding". Someone should do one on how awesome things get after you quit WoW. Hmmm...who would want to work on this? Over and out.

and before I go, remember, please feed the trolls. It's what makes the internet awesome.

Now can I PLEASE get a ban?

Originally Posted by muchtoohigh

Once Activison took over, WoW was no longer driven by creativity, rather it was purely profit based. I realized the overall goal of any company is to make money, but Activision has sacrificed a lot of what made WoW enjoyable in the name of lowering the operating costs. All the major changes in the game over the last 3 years are built around the concept of providing content as cheaply as possible. Class homogenization means reducing the need to hire developers to balance 9 completely unique classes. Achievements are essentially a free way to create a reason for players to keep subs active so they can grind things already in the game for the reward of seeing a little box pop up. Recycling old content is a great way to keep players busy for very low cost. Selling mounts and pets in the store for real money (something Blizzard said they would never do before their merger), another easy way to make fast money. The real money based AH in D3 is really sickening, no question at all that their next MMO will have that as well. Absolutely blatant money grab. I loved Blizzard as a company, but I no longer want to support them because of their affiliation with Activision. Im glad WoW is losing subs and I hope it continues. Activision's greed should not be rewarded.

That was a pretty good way of putting it.

As one of the 300,000, it was pretty simple for me:

The content ins't worth the the subscription cost.

I actually came BACK for 4.2 after having been away for 4 months. Let's just say the only department doing their job is marketing, because Firelands sounded like it was going to be awesome. Unfortunately it only took a few weeks to discover it was all malarky and just more daily quest grinding for sub-par rewards, re-hashed dungeons that destroy cross-server pugs, and a 7 boss raid with way too much trash and no interesting new boss mechanics.

Originally Posted by muchtoohigh

Once Activison took over, WoW was no longer driven by creativity, rather it was purely profit based. I realized the overall goal of any company is to make money, but Activision has sacrificed a lot of what made WoW enjoyable in the name of lowering the operating costs. All the major changes in the game over the last 3 years are built around the concept of providing content as cheaply as possible. Class homogenization means reducing the need to hire developers to balance 9 completely unique classes. Achievements are essentially a free way to create a reason for players to keep subs active so they can grind things already in the game for the reward of seeing a little box pop up. Recycling old content is a great way to keep players busy for very low cost. Selling mounts and pets in the store for real money (something Blizzard said they would never do before their merger), another easy way to make fast money. The real money based AH in D3 is really sickening, no question at all that their next MMO will have that as well. Absolutely blatant money grab. I loved Blizzard as a company, but I no longer want to support them because of their affiliation with Activision. Im glad WoW is losing subs and I hope it continues. Activision's greed should not be rewarded.

Sadly some fanboys will come out and flame the crap out of you most likely but you put it into great perspective right there.

As someone who quit about a month and a half ago (though some friends still play so I check mmoc every now and then), I see alot of similarities between wow and the usa. ship is obviously sinking (because of greed) and everyone has a different opinion on what's to blame and how to fix it, but nobody is right. wow will die, and another great mmo will take its place, just like america.

Well its because they making a game just for few ppl? How many raiders/ppl are doing hardmodes?=very few, not even an 0.4% so this is very low. End of tier 11, how many guilds have downed all 3 last bosses from the 3 respective raids in hm ?=not even an 0.1% from the guilds that was having 12/12 on normal modes. Mostly is because is hard to find a good/guilds , another thing is that most of the guilds are becoming 10 man leaving a large population outside and i mean dpsers. All this make some ppl and i could say many ppl eventually leave the game simply because they cannot enjoy anymore.Me and another 5 ppl from the net(netline) we were in a semi hardcore 25-man guild with 9/13 hm . At start of FL we were having a 4/7 as 25-raid progress and 7/7 with 10 man. Second week gm wanted to do some heroics modes and 25 man was >dead and doing all week 10 man with few dedicated ppl and eventually got 1/7 heroic.3rd week again with the 10 man so many of ppls that we were more than 40 online , years playing together just leave the guild since this is how the system goes. Only for few dedicated ppl to actually enjoy the game so unless they remove the hardmodes or atleast put more bosses and like you proceed make them harder, at least something else so more ppl can enjoy the pve environment. I dont wanna say make them easier to everyone can have loots but give something that would make the majority of ppl to enjoy more the game . I speak from the semi-raiders because hardcores-raiders are very few and i dont thing that those ppl are actually keep wow alive with they're money but like we know the majority of simply raiders with casuals are keep wow alive.

Originally Posted by Sanctioned

Sadly some fanboys will come out and flame the crap out of you most likely but you put it into great perspective right there.

Indeed.

That said, it's...not a trend? Meaning WoW might be okay. For now. Time will tell.