So at least you got the Anniversary year right....

[Dispraise]

Do you really want devs spending time working on stupid gimmicky crap for the 9th anniversary instead of actual content for the expansion?

Yes. It would require minimal effort, and show a little love to the community.

Am I gonna throw a tissy, and threaten to /ragequit about it? No. That would be asinine. Is calling people spoiled, entitled crybabies because they express some disappointment over such a lackluster milestone also asinine? Yes.

[dashflash890]

I laugh at so many people all they do is bring up this 7 million people crap. You will never see 1/10th of these players so whats the point of even spouting it. I see more people out in the world in other MMOS about 5 times more than in WoW. If I brought some of my friends to play multiple MMOs I doubt they would think WoW has 7 million players since you rarely see them compared to other games.

[Deleted]

What do all those games not have in common with wow?

7 mil subs.

They can offer a xmog gear, mounts, and xp bonus on the number of years a person played and it would never be enough.

But WoW used to have 12 mil at it's peak and is losing subs, especially now. End of expansion nothing to do, new one won't be out for at least 6 months? Maybe. I guess they could be looking at 5 mil in Q1 2014. Sure some of them will come back for WoD but Blizzard has to realize that a lot of players just keep playing out of habit or addiction. After taking a month or more off, many of them will just move on if there are alternatives that treat their customers better.

[Frostshok]

Can you people please stop acting like you logged in today specifically for this and you weren't going to play today otherwise? You know you were going to play and when the FoS went off you were reminded of the occasion. Just play like it's any other day and just use the 9% as a little something extra...which is exactly what it was intended to be. Next year will be something big, quit whining.

[Hitei]

Yes. It would require minimal effort, and show a little love to the community.

Am I gonna throw a tissy, and threaten to /ragequit about it? No. That would be asinine. Is calling people spoiled, entitled crybabies because they express some disappointment over such a lackluster milestone also asinine? Yes.

If I had called anyone spoiled or a crybaby, sure. That would be a bit silly.
But the fact of the matter is, it IS entitlement.

You pay Blizzard to play WoW. And you should be paying that sub because you enjoy the game and want to play it.
Not because you're paying to support Blizzard like some sort of charity and expect to be rewarded for it.

I'd much rather they spend the "minimal effort" that would have been wasted on a gimmick tabard, item, or pet-- on something like the texture of one of the new mounts we're getting, or it's secondary animations, or on refining spell effects, or boss mechanics, or a hundred other things they could work on instead.

[Dequanacus]

Can you people please stop acting like you logged in today specifically for this and you weren't going to play today otherwise? You know you were going to play and when the FoS went off you were reminded of the occasion. Just play like it's any other day and just use the 9% as a little something extra...which is exactly what it was intended to be. Next year will be something big, quit whining.

Well...actually...

[Thetruth1400]

I do think if they offered even a minor incentive for people to resub just for this month it would help. Some vanity item of sorts. WoW players love that. The 9%, while nice and all, isn't all that exciting.

It's like a husband giving his wife the cliche same flowers year after year. The effect is lessened as time goes on unless he does something extra.

I agree with this. I've been on the fence if I wanted to come back to WoW and level my characters up to get ready for WoD and this could have easily been the thing to draw me back in for at least a month. If Blizzard had offered something other than a minor exp boost, I would have most likely been resubbed. As it stands now though, I'm going to be waiting for the end of the month and hoping the black Friday ads are correct and I can get some game time for $5. If so, I'll be back then, but if not, I won't be returning, probably until WoD goes on sale, then most likely only a month or two like I did for MoP.

They really need to start thinking about the customers they do have, not the ones they could potentially get. They're not attracting enough customers to make up for those that they're losing, it should be extremely obvious where they need to focus their attention, but sadly, it isn't. If they can only draw in 100,000 new customers, but they lose 350,000 customers in the process, they're down 250,000 customers. On the other hand, if they only bring in 50,000 customers, but lose less than 300,000, they're still ahead in the numbers.

Retaining one customer is better than gaining one and losing that other former customer. Even gaining that one, all you're doing is replacing the one lost. Instead, keep that one customer you have and give them some incentive to either stick around or bring others into the game.

[Zervek]

But WoW used to have 12 mil at it's peak and is losing subs, especially now. End of expansion nothing to do, new one won't be out for at least 6 months? Maybe. I guess they could be looking at 5 mil in Q1 2014. Sure some of them will come back for WoD but Blizzard has to realize that a lot of players just keep playing out of habit or addiction. After taking a month or more off, many of them will just move on if there are alternatives that treat their customers better.

"Omg blizzard you aren't giving me A FREE PET AND/OR MOUNT AND I HAVE BEEN SUBCRIBED FOR YOUR GAME FOR OVER 9 YEARS!! I AM GOING TO UN-SUBSCRIBE TO A COMPANY THAT GIVES ME FREE STUFF EVERY YEAR BECAUSE I AM ENTITLED!!!

That's all I'm seeing from most of these posts.

[mbrmbr]

I'm out (of this thread) just want to end with this ;

Criticizing Blizzard for doing something über lazy =/= Being a spoiled entitled kid

[Hitei]

I'm out (of this thread) just want to end with this ;

Complaining about Blizzard not doing something extra == Being entitled

Pretty much.

[beanman12345]

"Omg blizzard you aren't giving me A FREE PET AND/OR MOUNT AND I HAVE BEEN SUBCRIBED FOR YOUR GAME FOR OVER 9 YEARS!! I AM GOING TO UN-SUBSCRIBE TO A COMPANY THAT GIVES ME FREE STUFF EVERY YEAR BECAUSE I AM ENTITLED!!!

That's all I'm seeing from most of these posts.

You sir have serious reading comprehension issues. Not one person in this entire thread said they'd un-sub because of this.

[Orange Joe]

I'm out (of this thread) just want to end with this ;

Criticizing Blizzard for doing something über lazy =/= Being a spoiled entitled kid

Not giving you a gift on their anniversary is not being lazy.

[mistahwilshire]

Sometimes warcraft players can be such tools for blizzard.

As the op says, so many other games, even games that DON'T have you pay a subscription, show they appreciate the players for playing there game for so many years.

You'd think wow devs would show that to its playerbase, instead of giving crap excuses like 'we're working on an expansion, its really important!', so important they can't go one day without doing something for the players, a pet, a tabard, a mount, anything.

Well, this is the 9th year, this time next year we're be at wows 10th. You'd think by then the devs would should some serious appreciation for players, esspecally long time subs, for keeping there fucking company alive. If they don't give some kind of appreciation to us by next year, then it'll just make what everyone says about blizzard true, that its not about the players, but the money.

What an utter load of dogshit.

And frankly I'd rather them continue working on an amazing expansion instead of wasting a day on some retarded mount or tabard or whatever. Anniversaries are such a greedy and retarded human construct. Creating an arbitrary milestone for the sake of celebration. So stupid.

[Boreaz]

Yes. It would require minimal effort, and show a little love to the community.

Am I gonna throw a tissy, and threaten to /ragequit about it? No. That would be asinine. Is calling people spoiled, entitled crybabies because they express some disappointment over such a lackluster milestone also asinine? Yes.

"Omg blizzard you aren't giving me A FREE PET AND/OR MOUNT AND I HAVE BEEN SUBCRIBED FOR YOUR GAME FOR OVER 9 YEARS!! I AM GOING TO UN-SUBSCRIBE TO A COMPANY THAT GIVES ME FREE STUFF EVERY YEAR BECAUSE I AM ENTITLED!!!

That's all I'm seeing from most of these posts.

And on the same page too.

Have yet to read anyone say they're quitting over not receiving something more than the buff, most just seem a bit disappointed.

[Deleted]

"Omg blizzard you aren't giving me A FREE PET AND/OR MOUNT AND I HAVE BEEN SUBCRIBED FOR YOUR GAME FOR OVER 9 YEARS!! I AM GOING TO UN-SUBSCRIBE TO A COMPANY THAT GIVES ME FREE STUFF EVERY YEAR BECAUSE I AM ENTITLED!!!

That's all I'm seeing from most of these posts.

Not what I meant, but these things do pile up. I don't care about anniversary reward or pets personally however I do have a similar example..

Back in Vanilla and TBC, if the servers had problems and prevented players logging in for most of the day, usually after maintenance, they gave 1 free day for that. Then at some point soon after merging with Activision they stopped doing that. Now I would not quit over 1 day but it still translates into bad customer service, arrogant etc. and coupled with other reasons it can be that proverbial straw that prevents someone from returning or makes them quit.

Most people dont think "omg no free pet for anniversary? I quit!!!" It's more like "well, they did this and that and I hate these changes and there is the nerfs to my class and I hate the expansion and now THIS too!!", that does it! /unsubscribe

[Belian]

"Omg blizzard you aren't giving me A FREE PET AND/OR MOUNT AND I HAVE BEEN SUBCRIBED FOR YOUR GAME FOR OVER 9 YEARS!! I AM GOING TO UN-SUBSCRIBE TO A COMPANY THAT GIVES ME FREE STUFF EVERY YEAR BECAUSE I AM ENTITLED!!!

That's all I'm seeing from most of these posts.

You quoted the wrong person or what? He doesn't says anything about the rewards and he doesn't talk about unsubscribing, what he is saying is true, a lot of people are going to unsubscribe until the new expansion and they might even quit the game entirely, just like it happened to Cataclysm and Pandaria. I hope I am wrong but I don't think WoW subscription numbers are getting any bigger and I am pretty sure Blizzard knows this and that's why they're working on other projects.

[Dequanacus]

Please continue ignoring what people posted and continue going "STOP ASKING FOR MOUNTS AND PETS! ENTITLEMENTS! 0 READING COMPREHENSION"

Not everyone is asking for something stupid.

[Ayla]

I don't see how hard i would be to toss us one of those unused mounts that never made it into the game. Crimson/golden/green Water Strider anyone? Azure/jade heavenly cloud serpent? That wouldnt have even required effort.

[Veyne]

"A man can beat his wife because he pays for the food on the table", is basically what you just implied.

Wow. Are you serious? THAT is what you got out if it? Jesus Christ...

[Bad Ashe]

comparing wow to those games doesn't rly work, also they said they plan a big thing for the 10th

ya, but....

that was what they said at the 7 year ann. "no new stuff for you for 3 moar years"

in other words they just dont care, which is the whole point of the OP.

which really IS a shitty thing to do, on the anniversary of your customers keeping you in business and all, to just shuffle it off and say "nah, here's something you dont want, and really dont need, but keep by all means paying us for the privilege of acquiring such drivel"