Please no more!

[Deleted]

Well after a long guild meeting last night. Almost all of what was left of our guild unsubscribed. The game just lost about 16 good players for good, all of us from BC.

I quit World of Warcraft along time ago. I quit frankly because I didn't agree with the path the designers started going down. I stopped playing at the end of Wrath of the Lich King.

I left right after MoP release. I came back a few times, in hopes it would improve.......it didn't

You seem to quit an awful lot....

[Maxilian]

We all know that:

1- Cataclysm was way worse

2- MoP is really good, the problem is that the idea of PANDAria drove many people away

3- Wrath wasn't a really good expansion, but it did have a great raid (Ulduar) and had something MoP don't have, back story, everyone saw Arthas as an enemy we HAD to beat..., in MoP for most people, the bosses were only loot bags...

[Deleted]

Blizzard lost 25% of subs from wow's peak in wotlk. I can hardly say it's something scary. Let's talk again when we're sitting at 6 mil.

[Feindy]

Blizzard lost 25% of subs from wow's peak in wotlk. I can hardly say it's something scary. Let's talk again when we're sitting at 6 mil.

you mean 35%. and theres still 1 more year of this crap

[Ceece]

I like what Blizzard is developing for their game. I couldn't be thankful for more content. However, I think they're ignoring core fundamentals, in favor for newer projects.

[Buu]

"Officially the most disliked expansion" only means "the most recent expansion". The next one will be the "most disliked expansion" and 2 or 3 expacs from now MoP will be "the golden era of WoW".

Except Cataclysm. Cataclysm will NEVER be praised beyond the refurbished Azeroth.

Cata = 3 million subs lost (12 mill - 9 mill) (peak)

MoP = 1.3 million subs lost (9 mill - 7.7 mill)

Cata was the worst.

Told you so...

[Deleted]

you mean 35%. and theres still 1 more year of this crap

Imo, the leavers who wanted to leave are gone. This level will remain steady until the release of wildstar and teso, then we may see some more fluctuating. Or these MMOs will turn out to be crap, which will work in Blizzard's favor.

[NeverStop]

I hope all the casuals leave so we can get rid of LFR and go back to TBC raid progression.

[Rizendragon]

It's at this point I have to ask...When is enough, really enough. We have saw for ourselves that mass casual play, is not working. However neither is mass hardcore play. When will we have the much needed middle ground? When will Blizzard begin to take a real notice to so many serious issues. Since the start of MoP my 25 man guild has dropped in membership. At MoP start we had over 400 members and 3 25 man teams. That didn't last. Players quit left and right. Most leaving due to being unhappy with the state of the game and the poor changes. Leaving the game, and not returning. We are now down to one 10 man group. We barely get by sometimes. I am not a hardcore player by any means. However I also do not consider myself casual. I understand the need for both types of players. However our guild recruitment has dropped off. The quality of players has dropped off as well. New recruits standing in boss aoe abilities, and saying it wasn't their fault. That they did in lfr.

You are in the very very very small minority. Most 25 man guilds died in Cataclysm. I'm on Zul'Jin which is a very high pop realm, and I want to say that the 25 man guild population has dropped from 20+ during 4.0 to around 7 currently.

If you are recruiting players that are that bad then you need a new recruiting officer.

Guilds die, people move on, and the game moves on. The story is better than it has been in a long time (on par with BC and Wrath if not better). LFR is a catchup mech/"see the content mech". The new scenarios are your new 5-mans (though I don't play scenarios at all because I'm not a fan of them).

Just because YOU aren't enjoying this expansion doesn't mean that it is a bad expansion. You are facing a ton of guild drama, raiding frustration, and the exodus from the game (on your realm at least). You need to remember that those of us taht started between launch and the end of BC have been playing for 5-9 years. That is a very long time in the gaming world. In the low end of that range people have gone to college and graduated. On the high end of that range people have gone to college, got a time consuming job, got married, and have spawned tiny gamers of their own.

Don't blame all these outside influences on the content before you. The content of the game is great. Your experience is being jaded by everything else going on

[Ronduwil]

I hope all the casuals leave so we can get rid of LFR and go back to TBC raid progression.

You won't get rid of LFR. If all the casuals leave Blizzard will respond by trying to get them back. That means less raids and more content that's geared towards casuals. Be careful what you wish for.

[Grogo]

Anyone who thinks MoP is worse than Cataclysm is mental.

MoP is very enjoyable with an interesting storyline.

Pffft. MOP is horrible. cata was indeed much better. MOP will end up losing way more subs than Cata ever did. I would list the many things wrong with the game currently but why bother? We have all heard it a million times by now.

- - - Updated - - -

The figures for MOP are incorrect subscriptions rose from 9.1 million as of June 30th 2012 to "...more than 10 million..." as reported in the Q3 2012 earnings call at launch of MOP. By the end of Q4 they had fallen to almost the same level as Cata with 9.6 million, Q1 2013 saw them drop even further to 8.3 million and the latest results report 7.7 million subs.

Thus MOP has lost a million more subscribers than you have written and at nine months in has lost 600k less than Cata lost throughout its entire lifespan it is reasonable to assume that by the time the next expansion is released the losses from MOP will exceed those from Cata.

I tend to agree with this as more realistic.

[SodiumChloride]

GC was right. Letting the community make decisions with regards to the direction of the game is a bad idea - not that the community could though as we will never agree on anything LOL.

I would argue WoW is losing it's player base because of it's obsession with raiding.

IMHO the vast majority of players (you know the ones that pushed WoW's numbers to 12 million) started playing WoW because they thought it was an RPG, an RPG with a vast (ideally endless) living and breathing virtual world to explore and do stuff in. Over the years, the illusion faded and reality set in. WoW isn't endless, but that's not really a problem, as long as Blizzard keeps adding stuff players could deal with the finiteness of the world. The problem is, Blizzard didn't.

8 years. Crafting hasn't improved. Still as shallow as on the day WoW when live. Story "depth", didn't increase much, there wasn't much for players to geek out over - all we got was laughable hamfisted writing to push the game along. Player housing? ETA unknown.

In the end, the game effectively boiled down to raiding and PVP in a box, and that is where Blizzard put the vast majority of their resources. If that is not your cup of tea, it wasn't for those that started playing for the "RPG world", tough luck. So players left.

I wonder if this is the result of Blizzard's "monoculture" / "echo chamber" - they hire raiders to their development team, who hire more raiders ... so on and so forth. I laugh my ass off when they exclaimed that they were surprised at how popular pet battles were ... seriously have you been living in a sealed cave, Pokemon is a multi-million (if not billion) dollar franchise. I really wonder what other things they would be "surprised at".

[Grogo]

I would argue WoW is losing it's player base because of it's obsession with raiding.

People got into raiding bigtime PLUS the 5 mans were much better in terms of technical skills/teamwork. They focused on that, when they did the numbers increased because people expected that level to remain.

The technical skills/teamwork was at a place where it was harder but fair and raids were fine because of more than just tuned raids, it could be said (easily) that heroic raids currently are harder now) and they are but BC was a good hard, more fair and less gimmicky. Did not have to have 10 stages of a fight, easier to learn but hard to master.

[moremana]

So we all know that MoP has officially lost 1.3 Million players. It's story line is bottom of the barrel. It's content is saddening. At the start of the expansion we saw mind numbing dailies and rng. Then the crz crisis. We saw the stream lining of lfr. We still have yet to receive new 5 man instances, even thought the majority of players are asking for them. Now Blizzard is adding a cash shop and connected servers. This can only be to recoup the massive subscription losses this expansion.

It's at this point I have to ask...When is enough, really enough. We have saw for ourselves that mass casual play, is not working. However neither is mass hardcore play. When will we have the much needed middle ground? When will Blizzard begin to take a real notice to so many serious issues.........

Join the crowd, our guild is gone pretty much, a few still do LFR just to have something to do, GM stopped logging on, officers left the game and others transferred off or quit playing.

Blizzard isn't going to change its way of doing things as long as GC runs it.

All good things must come to an end, the end is here whether the mass casuals believe it or not. I still log on, do some dailies, pvp and world bosses, other than that, I found other games to play and keep me occupied when not at work or doing rl things.

I enjoyed it while it lasted, wow was a good game for a long time, I hope another game comes a long that can keep me entertained for many years like wow did.

[Deleted]

Im alittle curious do people expect wow to have a high player base forever ?

I mean can any1 name a game there had a longer time span than wow without lossing players ?

does going back to raids for 5% of player base helps getting back to 12 mil. subs?

[But I Hate You All]

I hope all the casuals leave so we can get rid of LFR and go back to TBC raid progression.

Ha the game would be f2p than

[Celawien]

The last half of Cata was disappointing for me. I stopped playing after my guild downed normal 25 man Cho'gal. Played some other mmos for about a year or so. Then came back at the very end of Cata and started at the beginning of MoP. MoP imo is ok as an expansion, not the best but I can deal with it more then Cata. PvP is still borked but what game isn't today?

[-Psypher-]

The length of DS and the early grind of Mists killed the guild I founded and led for two years. Granted, real life had never favored us, as we were constantly losing people and attendance due to marriages, births, and unemployment/new job hours and the like. It finally came to a head in the first month or so of Mists, and I no longer had the energy to constantly recruit. The planned 25-man roster I made in the week before Mists launch was filled with people committed to their spots, with a generous month-long lead time for leveling and getting 463s. By the end of that fourth prep week, we had perhaps 4-5 people ready (including myself), the rest in quest greens or not even 90. Some never even purchased the expansion. People's desire to play the game had waned (at least those in my guild), and the intensity of the reputation grinds as a necessity for VP gear and increased importance on dailies as a result, and BOOM, dead guild.

[elderamy]

From my perspective this expansion is A LOT better than Cata! Probably better than Wrath overall!

I'm saying this based on raids, ofc, since its the content I play for! Raids are better than ever!
Not only better but harder overall!

[-Psypher-]

The technical skills/teamwork was at a place where it was harder but fair and raids were fine because of more than just tuned raids, it could be said (easily) that heroic raids currently are harder now) and they are but BC was a good hard, more fair and less gimmicky. Did not have to have 10 stages of a fight, easier to learn but hard to master.

Maybe it's because people bitched too much, but I noticed a distinct lack of class-specific roles in raid fights in both Cata and Mists. I was a warlock who raided through Sunwell in TBC, and recall with fondness our guild's mage in PVP/stam gear tanking Krosh during the Maulgar encounter, and myself and our other warlock trading enslaves and banishes. I miss having to collect FR gear in order to tank Leotheras in SSC (although that was short-lived), myself and the other lock tanking Capernian during the KT fight (which was probably one of the most epic of all time), and tanking Illidan in Phase 4.

Raiding has seemed to boil down to extreme awareness checks (Alysrazor, Wind Lord, Iron Qon) or synchronization (soaking attacks, preventing adds from spawning, "get closer" or "get farther", etc.). I further feel that yes, while they homogenized the classes somewhat, there hasn't existed the need to use all of your class' abilities in some years. As a raiding warlock in TBC, I regularly used enslaves, banishes, searing pain, judicious uses of soul shatter, and other spells that haven't had a legitimate use since.

Granted, locks were succy-saccing shadowbolt spammers back then, but we had a lot of additional utility to employ to make up for that boring single target rotation. Farming shards also sucked, but it was what it was.

There just doesn't seem to be a need for separate classes anymore, aside from the obvious reasons of "so and so is more DPS, can offheal, or has a particular spell that helps us ignore mechanics."