Shadowlands: Rapidly Climbing the Ladder in Popularity

[ParanoiD84]

Isnt that every single wow expansion minus wrath and bc perhaps strong start then weak? well it's kinda hard knowing anyways since blizz desided to stop showing sub numbers and whatnot.

[Doffen]

Did you actually do a comparison, or do you just think it was quicker? The sample has far more issues than just size, as well.

And my anecdotal experience is that the same people that was in Castle Nathria on day one is still coming for raid. By now the decline in legion was at 20%, BfA 30-40. SL must be the best xpansion then according to mmo logic right

[Wangming]

Yeah yeah blame the players for the game for being shite, blame "mmo trends" for a 50% decline even before the first patch is being put out. Why do I not see FF having a 50% decline for so early into an expansion?

Because appart from two exceptions from the past seven years (!!!) They always release a major content update every 3 and a half months. Granted 5.3 had a massive delay (5 months) but it also came with the revamps of the ARR main scenario and the old world flying. 9.1 which isn't even on the PTR yet would need to release on April 1st to match the longest delay we ever had between new playable content released.

Admittedly the game has its problems, like the lack of truly high end raiding, the lack of actually magical items, the uninstanced housing or the state of PvP, but frequency and volume of content updates is definitely not one of them.

[kamuimac]

That makes it even less comparable, and muddles whether it actually had anything to do with SL.

how ? i mean how can you people say its not SL ?

he literaly tells you his friendgorup never quit like this before and you still blame other stuff not that SL is complete garbage.

ofc you will go with seasonal bs - favourite excuse of any dev that is bad at his job - do you know how many times i hearit in my job ? " its clients fault" - no its not - if you designed garbage product in fashion industry it doesnt sell - if you make good product it sells non stop in tens of thousands even if its very expensive.

its bad expansion thats why people leave.

[leorana]

I'm a WoW addict. Even asked them to suspend/ban me but they refused.

SL managed to lessen my involvement in the game like no other xpac did. The long flight paths, the torgasht gating, anima grindind, long WQ, complexity of dungeons....I haven't stepped in a single M0 since launch.

Sometimes it's two weeks between logs which never happened to me. So yeah...SL is so time consuming I had to break from my addiction bc I just don't have the time anymore. It's just not worth it anymore. It's good for me SL is so bad for casuals, yet kinda sad because it had so much potential.

[Sanguinerd]

That makes it even less comparable, and muddles whether it actually had anything to do with SL.

What...? Ofcourse it's because of SL.

[Dracullus]

What...? Ofcourse it's because of SL.

Group of people play whole BfA and all these grinds for 2 years (and no idea how long before that, Legion had pretty short drought) and quit early next expansion. Totally SL fault, never happened in WoW history ;D.

[huth]

how ? i mean how can you people say its not SL ?

Please show where i did.

- - - Updated - - -

What...? Ofcourse it's because of SL.

No, that's just what you're personally attributing it to. Based on the information you gave, we can't tell. It might not have anything to do with WoW at all even.

[Tiradon]

Most of my entire friendgroup, guild and discord community quit SL way quicker than any expansion before and it's not even a "let's wait for 9.1 patch" or anything it's let's wait for 10.0

It's not the biggest sample group but compared to other expansions it's a hell of a difference.

I think the big problem is that even with a pandemic we are seeing people quit the game to instead go to another game.

[Sanguinerd]

Group of people play whole BfA and all these grinds for 2 years (and no idea how long before that, Legion had pretty short drought) and quit early next expansion. Totally SL fault, never happened in WoW history ;D.

Ehh yeah? It is. The content was not interesting enough to keep playing and it's a pretty varied group of players, not just those that pvp, raid and/or do m+

Those of us that also RP are not interested in the lore either and the new SL zones don't really offer any interesting new places to do anything either.

No, that's just what you're personally attributing it to. Based on the information you gave, we can't tell. It might not have anything to do with WoW at all even.

No, it is exactly our reason for quitting. I can tell because we've discussed our displeasure with SL in length.

But I can see what's going on so believe whatever you want to.

I think the big problem is that even with a pandemic we are seeing people quit the game to instead go to another game.

It's a damn shame but yeah it's true.

[Lei]

Isnt that every single wow expansion minus wrath and bc perhaps strong start then weak? well it's kinda hard knowing anyways since blizz desided to stop showing sub numbers and whatnot.

I have this suspicion that rather than fighting against "tHe CyClE", which would cost more budget thrown into the game with minimal profit return (but happier players), they started to embrace this and build the game around it. Push 70-80% content out with the initial expansion release (hype + new expansion pre orders make the most money), and drip feed the remaining 20-30% throughout the 2 "big" patches for those who stayed.

I always was a player that kept my sub whole expansion, maybe quit 1-2 months here and there (cata before firelands and wod before 6.2) up until Legion. They were the ones who made me cyclical.
Let's not forget how a game can be "too good" to sustain the quality and the "needs" of the playerbase with a profit oriented attitude which ActiBlizz is, has become. See wrath and mop. Whats happening to the game is NOT a mistake. Wrath and mop was the mistake for being too good, if anything. It's not an oopsie. It is carefully planned out to balance between selling the most expansion boxes and keep players hopeful for a better future. This is why you keep hearing "oh, we've learned a LOT from this and this and this" only to make the same mistakes every 2 expansions.

[Osmeric]

I think the big problem is that even with a pandemic we are seeing people quit the game to instead go to another game.

Or quitting the game and not even going to another game. That's where I'm at right now.

Over the years, I've seen plenty of people quit WoW and not take up another MMO. They recognize the pathological relationship they had with this MMO, and don't want to repeat it elsewhere.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Yeah yeah blame the players for the game for being shite, blame "mmo trends" for a 50% decline even before the first patch is being put out. Why do I not see FF having a 50% decline for so early into an expansion? And yeah MMO is so dead that the 50% decline coincided with an upsurge in FF subs. And isn't WoW supposed to be representative of the MMO genre in the first place? Whose fault is it then that for this supposed decline in the interest of the genre?

FF14 with what little data that is released one could guess that it regularly does have such a decline if not a much larger one as they had 10m accounts it 2017 and then 20m in 2020 but are not boasting about breaking 3m subs or any thing of the like.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/final-fanta...ayer-count?amp

[huth]

No, it is exactly our reason for quitting. I can tell because we've discussed our displeasure with SL in length.

But I can see what's going on so believe whatever you want to.

Leaving aside whether or not that is accurate, you did not provide this information previously, so it's entirely your fault it wasn't being considered.

[Tiradon]

Or quitting the game and not even going to another game. That's where I'm at right now.

Over the years, I've seen plenty of people quit WoW and not take up another MMO. They recognize the pathological relationship they had with this MMO, and don't want to repeat it elsewhere.

Sure, besides wow I play a lot of other games but in your position I'd do the same.

[OMGTwitchTV]

Only the tryhards are loving SL...

I'm a casual, and am enjoying the hell out of it. World quests and bosses, mount farming, odd little dailies like the Mushroom guy and the Queen's conservatory. I also love that every zone has 2 pet battle dailies to do as well. Then again, I just do what I enjoy rather than over analyze it. I think some people see "too much" to do and simply get overwhelmed.

[kaminaris]

PvP, World Firsts, Raider IO... anyone who didn't realize competition is a part of the game needs to go back to the drawing board. Also, when you look at the four covenants, it too breed competition. But since resources are now pretty much shared and not fought over, and anyone can hit the same NPC someone else (of the same faction) has attacked, there is very little competition left in the game save for those who want to be AotC in everything. It may be cooperative gameplay, but there are still competitive edges to be seen. After all, if it were easy, everyone would be riding the M 15+ mount around Oribos.

That's cute but also entirely irrelevant. Focusing on competitive part and having competitive part is completely different.
Covenants is the only thing in SL that actually isn't pro competitive.

Game that should focus on comp. is overwatch, hearthstone and every other game where pvp is the only play mode (not including practice or bot matches).
*RPGs on the other hand should have their main focus on character development, getting stronger, roleplaying etc. Not about promoting which player has longest epeen.

- - - Updated - - -

Ehh yeah? It is. The content was not interesting enough to keep playing and it's a pretty varied group of players, not just those that pvp, raid and/or do m+

Those of us that also RP are not interested in the lore either and the new SL zones don't really offer any interesting new places to do anything either.

No, it is exactly our reason for quitting. I can tell because we've discussed our displeasure with SL in length.

But I can see what's going on so believe whatever you want to.


It's a damn shame but yeah it's true.

Had exact same experience, our group quit completely besides one guy which is prolly gonna quit soon (having hard time keeping up rooster for raids).

BUT we all play other games instead. There is a group of 6 that plays CSGO (you could say they returned to roots), a group that focuses on single player games (3 people), a PoE players (4), and a mixed bunch that plays single player games + some other online games (BDO, PoE, Overwatch).

Never had friends quit so fast. Even the most casual ones quit super fast.

[kranur]

This thread rapidly climbed the opposite direction lol.

[Santas]

Casual gamer here and I think it's horrible. Having played the game for 16 years I desperately needed some kind of new & fun feature other than the usual gear grind. It was going to be Torghast, but we all know how that turned out. However, I do believe that SL is an infinitely better 'base' than BFA was, that means they can yet salvage this.

p.s. I'm also one of these crazy radicals that think WoW should shed its old skin completely. Give it solo queue etc. go wild.

[justandulas]

My guild (that’s been together since vanilla) is teetering on the edge. It doesn’t help that im a main tank who won’t bother with m+ because I don’t enjoy the content outside of raids

People dropped off quickly in bfa too, but SL is just... soulless kinda (ironic given how valuable they are to SL). I can’t imagine my guild finishing this expac at this rate. SL needs to drop the best 9.1 ever released or it’s night night for SL