BfA is not a major expansion?

[Raelbo]

so I've little hope for It and hopefully blizz knows that as well with literaly half of their "Subs" being wow-token users who still have the tokens from their WoD times of when Gold was easy to get and tokens cheap to buy.

Literally, no.

The whole design of the token system makes it pretty much impossible for more than about 10% of the playerbase to pay for their game time using tokens. "Easy gold" doesn't make the slightest difference to the equation.

- - - Updated - - -

Friend, why do you think the subscriptions was high there? Could it be because the exposure for the game was due to ad campaigns? the fact that wow was in the face and in the news, that causes more people to want to play, cause they are curious.

Then, friend, explain to me what happens when a game is NOT exposed as much, it relies on word to mouth from one player to another and that will drop the amount of subscriptions because people does not feel the expansion.

Everything is about perception, if someone sees a company not really putting an effort into promoting their game, then they will assume it is not a great game.

While on the other hand, if a company does a massive launch event, then it will be that people gets curious and thus they want to play, they buy the expansion, they buy subscriptions and money is coming in.

Thats why I question why Blizzard SEEMS to be spending less money on announcing , developing in the media, this expansion.

Mark that I use words like perception and seems, because I do not know, I guess, so my worry is that there will be less subscribers, thus less money for Blizzard and Activision and that will lead to cutbacks in world of warcraft.

They need a huge BANG success to get the subscribers back to over 10 million.

Don't you agree?

Simple explanation: WoW is an old game. Its core subscriber base is made up of people who have been playing for many years and most of the people who are likely to play the game either have played it and moved on, or are still playing it. The prospects of pulling in new players is slim, regardless of the marketting budget or the quality of the expansion.

This is why their marketting is directed at those of us who play the game. We all know the expansion is coming and what it's about, and most of us already have our pre-orders in place.

[Dystemper]

Blizz has been spending less and less effort to maintain WoW (including the various expansions) since Wrath...you can actually verify this with their financial statements up until mid-WoD when they merged all on-line properties into a few line items. It is more notable this time because there is really pretty much nothing really worth talking about this expansion. WoD seemed more interesting because of the over-hyped (but eventually watered down) garrisons.

This time around, we are looking at pretty minimal updates to classes (with a few exceptions), new "races" with minimal lore and features compared to baseline, return of older concepts with minimal changes (single legendary that is upgradable, scenarios that will be competitive), and a new RTS mini-game.

Even if you like how your class works in Legion, the lack of change is going to make this expansion very boring as you are more likely to burn out having your toons doing the same thing for 2 solid expansions now. Add to the fact that if you want the new racial armor, it is a full grind from scratch to max level to obtain...using one of the classes that, again, didn't really change from the last expansion.

Deep down, Blizz knows this...hence the lack of advertising campaign. Even they are embarrassed by trying to sell this as a worthy expansion.

This is why I say that we will see the biggest exodus if devs from wow ever. I am almost 100% sure ion is going to be let go. you

[Deleted]

Allied races might be used as a smokescreen here too.

[Metallourlante]

Nothing like minor or major expansions. Just more successful ones than others (go figure).

Hurrah weekend threads on mmo-c... nah, not really.

uhm....WoD was definitely a minor expansion, or half expansion if you want.

[Dystemper]

Wow needs a complete over haul to attract new players. A new wow2 . But unless they been working in that for the past 10 years in secret , it will never happen. The morning market could come back in a big way but I don't think blizzard is the one to do that any more. The talent is not there. So every expansion we get from now on will feel like a filler expansion.

[SirBeef]

There is no such thing as a filler expansion in reality. It only exists in peoples heads.

[Azyure]

Each expansion should be taken and remembered for it's own content. All anyone has one in this thread so far is unfairly denegrate every single expansion up to now for some subjective (or outright false) reason or another. BfA will be fine. Even WoD, usually referred to as the 'worst' expansion, was still played by many people. Every pre-xpack timeframe is dominated by this kind of pointless talk. Just wait and play, and if you don't like it, unsub until the next xpack comes out. No big deal.

[SirBeef]

Are you seriously malfunctioning somewhere in your brain?
I was not judging the content of the expansion, I was asking about the exposure of the expansion.
Marketing analysts will all say that based on the amount of exposure an expansion gets determines how much money initially it will make.

take a look at this...


This does only show until Mists of Pandaria, but it clearly shows that WotLK was when subscriptions was soaring and also the last time
that Blizzard really exposed their expansion with lots of ad's etc. As I do not know the current subscription nor the numbers for Legion etc
it is hard to predict where it will go, but everyone knows that unless you advertise something there is not going to be equally as much
subscribers and sales.

Hence my question... why did they not launch an all out campaign with BfA?

You start to get the idea of my question yet?

Vanilla and TBC is when they were soaring. WotLK is where it plateaued. Funny seeing this comment, back then it was all WoW really only had 5-6M real subs since most are Chinese accounts that pay a fraction of the sub cost.

I see no point to spend a lot on advertising for MMORPGs, they are a dying breed and the gaming populace is trending away from them. Regardless of advertising I would still expect a typical product life-cycle arch.

[Kyphael]

I wouldn't label it a "non-major" expansion but I know what you mean. It does feel like a prelude.

[Huntaer]

I come in here to point out that there is still over two months until launch and the ad blitzes for WoD and Legion didn’t start until the final weeks before launch. I see, however, that the doomsayers are already out in force and this thread has devolved into stupidity.

- - - Updated - - -



You really don’t want to open this can of worms, trust me.

*Cata was small compared to wotlk and mop.*
*Cata added the most quests and zones of any expansion ever.*

- - - Updated - - -



nope, he hacked and got banned, then he makes threads every few months changing his story to try and get us to pity him.
look in his made thread history, at one point he got hacked, another his brother hacked him, another he let his brother play his account and he hacked. etc

Oh dayum ok, good riddance then lol.

[Deleted]

That is ridiculous.

The story is really interesting. I am very excited to play it. There is a lot for Zandalar and Kul'tiras to join their factions. Neither one seems very receptacle to the idea at the beginning. Warfronts seem to be really interesting and island expeditions are a variation in case you get tired of world quests.
It has the same dungeons and the same raids it's always had.

All you are telling me is that in all this time, you never learned anything and will just be dragged along with any half assed opinion you hear.

What is even a major expansion? You come up with an arbitrary description to say that BfA isn't big for you. I have never seen a non-major WoW expansion. They always release a new landmass, new dungeons and new raids. By that definition BfA is as major as any other expansion before it. Stop the nonsense.

[Maudib]

BfA has always looked like Legion 2.0:

1) Artifact weapons are now Artifact Necklaces

2) Artifact Power is now Azerite

3) Tier sets gone in lieu of Azerite Gear

3) Mission Table still there

4) Flying not available til expansion is passe

The only real difference is the new "Warfronts" and the GCD changes. New mobs and zones. Same crap.

Sorry, not interested.

[Highwhale]

BFA is Cataclysm 2.0

WotLK was end of W3 era. Cataclysm started new that continued up to Legion (that ended another old era - Burning Legion). So BFA is first step in new era. Also:

Filler expansion that used as test ground for new tech/ideas (AI, GCD, Class Changes, Allied Races). This tech/ideas are probably then will be used for something bigger in future (expansion 9.0).

[jstnw89]

it's a filler expansion to bide time for the kickass expansion that comes after. This has been the cycle with WoW since forever .. bad to meh xpac -> good to great xpac -> rinse / repeat

[SpellCleave]

BfA will be crowned king of enjoyable xpacs

[The Stormbringer]

being finally horde vs alliance again after all the soft cuddly stuff. But as far as storyline goes

>Potential apocalypse with a demon invasion
>"soft cuddly stuff"

Sure buddy, sure.

[Jotunhammer]

Vanilla and TBC is when they were soaring. WotLK is where it plateaued. Funny seeing this comment, back then it was all WoW really only had 5-6M real subs since most are Chinese accounts that pay a fraction of the sub cost.

I see no point to spend a lot on advertising for MMORPGs, they are a dying breed and the gaming populace is trending away from them. Regardless of advertising I would still expect a typical product life-cycle arch.

This made me giggle.
I played m.u.d. games even before world of warcraft.
they said m.u.d. games was going out of style, but even before last year I still was playing it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD

[Duravian]

Having played a bit of the beta, I can tell you this expansion is much, MUCH richer than any before it so far. Hell, just walking into the first village of Stormsong Valley has left a huge mark on me. The landscape and npc detail is crazy, and everywhere you turn is something to do. Of course I can't speak to endgame but I'm definitely more hyped for the new zones in this than even Legions (and I was HYPED for Highmountain). It's gonna be great, and I love the classic theme too.

[Nyel]

That was Legion mate.


Hard/heroic mode was added part way through WotLK, it wasn't in TBC.

Legion wasn't WoD 2.0. Legion had lots of content and features, something WoD and BfA were / are lacking.

Heroic dungeons were added in TBC. And even in TBC were "hard modes" for raiding encounters.

- - - Updated - - -

BfA has always looked like Legion 2.0:

1) Artifact weapons are now Artifact Necklaces

2) Artifact Power is now Azerite

3) Tier sets gone in lieu of Azerite Gear

3) Mission Table still there

4) Flying not available til expansion is passe

The only real difference is the new "Warfronts" and the GCD changes. New mobs and zones. Same crap.

Sorry, not interested.

The point is, it's not Legion 2.0, it's Legion 0.5 because many features are getting removed or pruned. Azerite is a watered down artifact so that isn't a step forward, it's a huge step backwards.

[Maudib]

Legion wasn't WoD 2.0. Legion had lots of content and features, something WoD and BfA were / are lacking.

Heroic dungeons were added in TBC. And even in TBC were "hard modes" for raiding encounters.

- - - Updated - - -



The point is, it's not Legion 2.0, it's Legion 0.5 because many features are getting removed or pruned. Azerite is a watered down artifact so that isn't a step forward, it's a huge step backwards.

I agree brother... which is why I have no interest at all in buying/playing it. For the first time since starting to play WoW... I can honestly say they have brought me to the point that I truly don't care anymore. I miss the addition I used to have and share will millions... but this game? Isn't anything worth my time.