February 7: Blizzard Conference Call

[Hardeen]

Quality>Quantity. People don't want dailies as content. The sooner Blizzard recognizes this the better. If people were all gungho and fired up for fucking dailies then they wouldn't have been bored in the past. Dailies have existed since the dawn of fucking time and they didn't stop anyone from being bored before.

As an aside and not related to the above, this forum has so many cheerleaders it's funny. They caricature every "hater" but don't realize that they themselves come across equally as clownish when they make comparisons.

Correction, you don't want dailies as content, and if your in a raiding guild you're probably surrounded by people who share the same opinion as you. However, there are far more players who don't raid then do, though it's getting closer with LFR "raiding" and guess what, they don't want raids as content they want fun engaging and rewarding dailies which Sheildwall hit perfectly. IT's funny while I've kept my main in raiding guilds I've always had alts in casual guilds to hang out with RL friends and people I've met in game and enjoy doing dumb stuff with. Guess which guilds are by far bigger.

[Beefhammer]

Wow, I just read that. Another silly move to distort the sub number.

Because any business that tries to attract people to their product is only trying to inflate their customer count. Offering avenues for players of other games to try wow is a good thing. Plus, 30 free days does not count as a sub, only those who pay money count.

[Gurbz]

My prediction:

Lost 2million

Reasons:

-CRZ, dallies caused quits
- General Polarazation of player base
- Weak Xpac sales out the gate
- Worldwide launch (a first) no asian bounce at 1st quarter bounce
- Yearly passes are up
- Lack of posts on official/unofficial forums meaning players gave up complaining

Hell, im just hoping the dividends are up on the stock i own.....

So you are honestly going to predict a subscriber loss, in the first 3 months of a new expansion, that equals the subscriber loss of the entirety of Cataclysm over a nearly 2 year period? Really?

[Beefhammer]

It's part of the plan of those that claim Wow is dead/dying/on life support/broken/etc to marginalize subscriptions in various world regions to try and lend credence to their claim.

I think its jingoistic IMO. If it ain't 'murican it don't count.

[slackjawsix]

im just trying to see the logic behind ppls claims of a sub drop to numbers like 7 to 8 million, Cata was so much more hated and that went from 12-10million yet somehow ppl are saying MOP is going to drop from 11million to 7 or 8million, granted its down to 10.5million atm but a 2million drop is just crazy talk to say "i told you so" in the end

by honest guess is about to same or slight drop, ive seen alot of old friends rejoin the game and ive gotten new friends to play so from what ive seen thats my guess

[Pann]

No, don't put words in my mouth.
There can be a dozen different reasons why people quit, many of them not linked to the perceived quality of the game.

I am willing to bet that over the lifetime of the game the people that quit for the reasons you listed have as a percentage of the player base remained pretty constant when there is a large negative shift it is most likely down to an issue with the game.

[MoanaLisa]

It's true let's just remain ignorant because some of you people can't hand a fact thrown your way. People are actually calling for enforced ignorance. A Mod no less. Your welcome to your opinion of course but I can't believe you are actively calling for this.

Give it a rest, Bones. I'm a moderator, not a financial analyst. That said raw subscription numbers don't really tell you much and are subject to all sorts of interpretations as we've seen in the past and I'm sure we'll see this afternoon and for the next few weeks after that. I'd have a different opinion if they had any real meaning or provided some cross-tabs that show how populations change over regions etc. As it is now, it's just a mish-mash that doesn't mean much of anything and outside of really broad movement never really has.

FYI, I can handle facts just fine. What I don't handle well is someone distorting the meaning of someone else's post or putting words in other people's mouths and knowingly doing so. And while we're at it, if you feel the need to take a shot at my opinion about something do so but leave the moderation thing out of it. I would have said pretty much exactly the same thing either way.

Activision-Blizzard's financials in and of themselves provide plenty of information about the relative health of the company and by inference the game.

[ro9ue]

Dailies suck, but I don't think sub #s will reflect until the May 2013 Q1 call

[Beefhammer]

Thats if majority of the people who complained actually quit, we wont know until later today. People could of complained and than just continuing playing but still hate CRZ. I see nothing wrong with it, but thats a different opinion from a different person. I had Server queues everyday until the middle of November, But now only on Tuesday & Wednesday during prime time and not on 1 one realm but 3.

Did you play on a PvP server if I may ask ??

Also don't forget, the people on the forums are ones who tend to complain and do not represent the majority of players. And that less than 1% of all players post on the forums. Not all of them were unhappy. SO if you go by the ones saying they were going to quit it would be insignificant.

---------- Post added 2013-02-07 at 08:27 PM ----------

Doomsayers, backpatters, it doesn't matter; either way you're an idiot. Each time you play your game, you're looking through a keyhole into what is and what could be, never seeing the full picture, never able to unlock that door and experience everything at once. So just stop trying.

Guild Wars 2, World of Warcraft, EQ2, Rift, EVE, hell even SWTOR; play what you enjoy, that is what games are for. Not all this dick slapping, chest thumping numbers foolishness.

This should be the first post in all of these types of threads.

[Arbs]

After today, Majority of the WoW playerbase wont even know a Quarterly release even happened & Life will go on as it was just another day in Azeroth.

[ihyln]

Also don't forget, the people on the forums are ones who tend to complain and do not represent the majority of players. And that less than 1% of all players post on the forums. Not all of them were unhappy. SO if you go by the ones saying they were going to quit it would be insignificant.

---------- Post added 2013-02-07 at 08:27 PM ----------



This should be the first post in all of these types of threads.

We heard the same thing from people like you about Cata when dungeons were really hard. Guess what happened? There are vocal minorities on the forums for every game but expressing repeated displeasure on the forums can be extrapolated to mean something more significant. I'd say CRZ and dailies will hit their sub count but we won't know that until May.

[PriestRela]

So you are honestly going to predict a subscriber loss, in the first 3 months of a new expansion, that equals the subscriber loss of the entirety of Cataclysm over a nearly 2 year period? Really?

Yes i really am, and its because of the sheer community sundering this xpac has caused.... deathwing had nothing on that.

[Zeek Daniels]

CRZ was not intended to solve low pop server problems. They were to fill low pop zones. Let me ask you, did you ever play EQ after the third of fourth expansion? If you did, you know there was no one in any of the non level capped zones ever. In a game that required you to be in groups to progress, this made things impossible and very lonely. WoW does not require you to be in a group to level, but it can still be very lonely and depressing not seeing any one else until you hit OL and then it's all DKs. CRZ was put in to give old emptier zones more life and that is all. Blizzard has stated this and refutes your claim.

Blizzard can say anything they want, doesnt mean its true. CRZ was implemented to make the world feel more alive on low pop realms, if it wasnt then why do my friends who play on a high pop server keep saying they see ppl from other realms in Pandaria? Either im hearing wrong or they are leveling alts through low level zones. All im saying is blizzard doesnt have to merge servers, they can just expand the current systems of CRZ (and i didnt reply to someone before this who was saying things similar to what you were saying) so that CRZ wouldnt just be low pop zones, it would allow players to raid with other realms, RBG with other realms, and Arena with other realms and that this CRZ would be permanent, Grouping Low pop realms with high pop realms and these realms would stay grouped. You guys need to think outside the box and stop being close minded.

We heard the same thing from people like you about Cata when dungeons were really hard. Guess what happened? There are vocal minorities on the forums for every game but expressing repeated displeasure on the forums can be extrapolated to mean something more significant. I'd say CRZ and dailies will hit their sub count but we won't know that until May.

Cata dungeons werent hard.

[ro9ue]

Cata dungeons werent hard.

Compared to what? Heroic raiding? Compare all of the entry level dungeons for a new expansion and tell me which ones you thought were the hardest. Definitely not LK or MoP. BC entries werent hard until heroics or SH/SLabs

[Mawnix]

We heard the same thing from people like you about Cata when dungeons were really hard. Guess what happened? There are vocal minorities on the forums for every game but expressing repeated displeasure on the forums can be extrapolated to mean something more significant. I'd say CRZ and dailies will hit their sub count but we won't know that until May.

And as of May we'll have an entire new patch that alters nearly all the features that the playerbase has been complaining about, fixing them.

Which, if today is any indication depending on whether there was a small decline, large decline, small increase, or large increase, will have a huge effect on the game.

Small decrease? There'll be another small one.

Large decline? It might be slowed or continue.

Small increase? Subs may weave up and down a bit and might be down a miniscule amount as of May.

Large increase? Unlikely imo, but it'd be back down a bit.

---------- Post added 2013-02-07 at 08:40 PM ----------

Cata dungeons werent hard.

If you had a group that knew FIRE CAN KILL YOU or that MINES EXPLODE WHEN TOUCHED, then no, they weren't hard.

[MoanaLisa]

Just a word for all:

Do not turn this into a CRZ thread.

While I don't have a problem with someone mentioning it as a possible reason for good or bad results the very last thing I want to see in this thread is all of the complaints and benefits re-litigated again. There are other threads for that where you can yell at one another about it to your heart's content (within the forum rules of course). This isn't one of them.

[Nerraw]

Cata dungeons werent hard.

They were for people who had never experienced anything other than the Wrath dungeons.

[Mawnix]

They were for people who had never experienced anything other than the Wrath dungeons.

This was my case and I felt they were hard and not rewarding enough.

HOWEVER, they did accomplish in making epics certainly feel Epic again for me, personally.

Same thing with Mists.

[Deleted]

personally i think a drop of only 300-500k subs, as someone who hasnt logged on for a while, i know many people will wait untill after patch 5.2 to see if blizzard up their game. Im currently playing rift which is well fun, and reminding me of tbc/vanilla.

ps Im not a hater, i personally think blizzard did a tremendous job with mists, apart from simplifying talents EVEN more, and ignoring hunters pretty much in 5.2's patch notes DDDD

PPS - how long till the conference call?

[Z3ROR]

Where can i listen to the conference call?