Let's be real, most of the quitters and streamers will be back next expansion (hype)

[ek0zu]

I am among those people who keeps getting back. Since Wotlk i have not fully played any expansion due to time constraints. However, i was getting 6 months subscriptions and i was hardly playing a month or 2. In BFA and in Legion i might i have played a little more but not in Shadowlands.

Basically, i am way more subbed than i have interest in playing, but i think this is now a lesson learned and i won't do a 6 month subscription again, not because it is a huge expense, which it is not, but because i don't want to pay anymore for something i hardly play.

I am not complaining any more, WoW is a game that i really love and i want it to thrive, i guess i outgrew the game and i am no longer the target audience but what i have now realized is that whenever the next expansion drops i will probably buy it but not accompanied with my usual 6month subscription.

Another thing is that WoW, nowadays, competes with so many different live service games, it is too hard for someone to retain more than one subscription whether is in the form of monthly fees or via season passes. Many good games are coming as well which will make the competition fiercer.

[Thestrawman]

I don't think, that ignoring Beta/Alpha feedback - is core problem. Things are more complex. You should understand one thing - when game gets to Beta status, things are mostly set in stone. Because Blizzard need to release it in time. There is no time for them to fix things or even start everything from scratch.

If this is the case Blizzard needs to stop alphas and PTRs and do all the testing internally so they can do it early enough to catch these issues.

[Lionhearte0]

Let's be real, most of the quitters and streamers will be back next expansion when all the hype comes in. That's why I can't take all these streamers serious (Asmongold, Preach, Bellullar, etc.) when they say they are most likely done with WoW. We all know when the next expansion cinematic comes and the hype is off the charts they will all come crawling back again. They cannot escape the WoW cycle.

This is not only streamers but majority of the quitters as well. I have seen this happen too many times to count.

Uhhh, yeah? They all said they would check out the next major content patches as well as the expansions. Do you even know what their complaints/problems are? Asmongold has said the game is great and that Shadowlands is a great expansion, but that there is simply a lack of content and unnecessary things were put in place to negatively hinder the player for arbitrary reasons - AoE cap, conduits, etc. Asmongold does not hate the game and he's said he'll play the game to the day he dies. Preach still plays on Tuesdays with his friends/guildmates, he hasn't quit playing at all, he's just not going to cover it anymore because he feels it's fruitless spending so many hours/days on betas/PTR compiling data, feedback from his large community, sending it to Blizzard and getting no response to it whatsoever. If they don't care, why should he? Bellular is still playing as well, just because he's playing FFXIV during the "downtime" of SL doesn't mean he quit.

You literally have no fucking idea what you're talking about, are attempting some sort of "I'm Right, The Post" for your own ego trip or something? I dunno, it's embarassing.

Yeah can't wait to see Asmongold in my YouTube suggested videos (even though I asked YouTube to not show me this guy) when 10.0 comes and he will be scooping viewers with "oMg aSMonGoLd iS bACk??? Check his reaction to WoW 10.0 expansion!!! IS WoW saved?!?! Don't forget to like and subscribe!!!!" Kind of video.

I mean that's their job. This will 100% happen if they calculate they can get more viewers...

Asmongold has literally never once said "Like and Subscribe" for his videos, not even in an ironic fashion. He doesn't even make those videos, someone else does. Sounds like you're just mad/bitter/jealous for some reason and decided to make shit up.

Problem is - BFA was the same faulty xpack and yet all of you have bought SL. And BFA wasn't even first xpack, when it happened. It was MOP after faulty Cataclysm. It was WOD after faulty MOP. I don't count Legion here, because due to some reasons it's considered good xpack, while it was just BFA with extra fun whistles due to extra year of development, but problems were exactly the same. And it was BFA after Legion. So, it's already 6 xpacks in a row, where Blizzard manage to build enough hype to make players buy and even pre-order obviously faulty xpack. Why do you think, that 10.0 will be any different?

This is that same stupid ass argument from dumbasses who, let me guess, don't even play WoW anymore but still feel the need to shit on the game. You act like WoD was a -2/10 expansion, that Legion was a 1/10, BFA was a 0/10, and SL is a -5/10. Literally every expansion has been a solid 8/10 at the bare minimum, and the sales, twitch views, YT views, et al, all prove how much interest people still have in the game compared to anything else on the market. The problems MOST people have with the game are arbitrary limitations the devs put on for reasons that don't make any sense, like why we can't have all four Covenant abilities at once. But for the vast majority of people, they don't even really have a problem with that, because it's such a minor issue. Those that do have the problem with it aren't even saying it's the end of the world. It's just an unnecessarily stupid design choice.

Sure those faulty designs add up but there's a SHIT load of major problems from other MMOs on the market but if you're bitter about WoW for whatever petty reason you have, of course other MMOs are going to look like a shining city on a hill while you criticize WoW as the worst shit ever when it's not even close lmao.

[McNeil]

WoW at launch is always the most fun to play when the game actually feels active, ofcourse people would return for that. The game's longevity isn't what it used to be and Shadowlands showed how quickly people got bored by doing the same stuff that they have done in the previous 2 expansions again with a much slower content release cycle. At least it did great things for other MMORPG's (Guild Wars 2, ESO, but especially Final Fantasy 14) that finally get some more attention from the WoW refugees. Kinda surprised how wel Asmongold did to unintentionally promote FF14 into possibly being bigger than WoW at this point.

[Beastiel]

Let's be real, most of the quitters and streamers will be back next expansion when all the hype comes in. That's why I can't take all these streamers serious (Asmongold,

Asmon has to say atleast once a stream that he's not quitting wow. He says be still looks forward to major wow patches. very few people have actually said they flat out are quiting wow.

Cool uninformed speculations though I guess. I'm sure its very important to all of these people that you "take them seriously"

[Blackmist]

If you get bored and leave, you'll be back when they add more content.

If you get angry and leave, you'll be back, but you'll quickly remember why you quit and leave again.

I'm afraid the majority of people leaving now are in that latter camp. They've tried to grasp too tightly to subscribers, and they feel trapped in an endless cycle of drudgery. WoW now wastes your time and doesn't feel worth it. How many times do we accept the cycle of abuse before realising Blizzard won't change?

[Lorgran]

Let's be real, most of the quitters and streamers will be back next expansion when all the hype comes in. That's why I can't take all these streamers serious (Asmongold, Preach, Bellullar, etc.) when they say they are most likely done with WoW.

To be fair, Asmongold said, and I am paraphrasing:
"I'm not done with world of warcraft. I am just having a break. I love the game. And I'll of course be back in the next expansion, but if they can't make it better than BfA/SL, I'll probably only play it for a month or two, and then stop playing".

[Lochton]

Let's be real, most of the quitters and streamers will be back next expansion when all the hype comes in. That's why I can't take all these streamers serious (Asmongold, Preach, Bellullar, etc.) when they say they are most likely done with WoW. We all know when the next expansion cinematic comes and the hype is off the charts they will all come crawling back again. They cannot escape the WoW cycle.

This is not only streamers but majority of the quitters as well. I have seen this happen too many times to count.

Well, there is the old saying.

"You never quit World of Warcraft, you just take breaks".

[WowIsDead64]

If this is the case Blizzard needs to stop alphas and PTRs and do all the testing internally so they can do it early enough to catch these issues.

No. They just need to stop developing crappy content for release to "pad lack of actual content". If players like patches x.2 - then it's for reason. Because content flow is more dynamic, because flying returns, because time-gates are lifted, etc. They should focus on making more good content for release to avoid it's artificial stretching.

Overall problem is following. Systems aren't, well, just systems. Blizzard look on them as on content. I.e. things for players to do. They want players to grind renown, grind conduits, etc. And of course they want players to do the same on alts. And when Beta starts and players ask to "remove X, delete Y" - it actually means removing content. This means, this removed content should be replaced by something. And Blizzard don't have time/money to make new content to replace this one. That's why they just push such systems as is. Because of xpack release deadline and budget limitations. And they're fixed or replaced in future patches, where devs start to "admit", that something was wrong and therefore should be fixed.

But the biggest problem - why it happens in next xpack again? Why it happens over, over and over? Do they learn anything from their mistakes or not?

[Trumpcat]

For the streamers it depends on their viewership. Square Enix, like any other company in any other industry reaching to the consumer, has marketing budget designated for influencers' price lists. If the viewership drops, the influencers will be getting less money and will seek to ride the wave wherever it is.

I do expect the viewership to drop since it was built upon interest in World of Warcraft and even now it's based on bashing WoW and demonstratively playing other games to spite Blizzard in some form of a selective outrage or virtue signaling. So if they truly detach from WoW it will drop. They don't have personal following, it's not popular live vlogs or other self made celebrity status that people follow such as health/fashion/tech "advice".

So when Blizzard's marketing machine starts spinning out the new hype, reputation restoration, redeeming etc. I will not be the least surprised to see the influencers declaring how the game is good again and flock upon the new wave. Afterwards they will be outraged again for something and clickbait again and go about pseudo insightful rants to again generate activity.

But it's not the influencers who are the fools in this, nor it is the companies.

[TBCCLOL]

Let's be real, most of the quitters and streamers will be back next expansion when all the hype comes in. That's why I can't take all these streamers serious (Asmongold, Preach, Bellullar, etc.) when they say they are most likely done with WoW. We all know when the next expansion cinematic comes and the hype is off the charts they will all come crawling back again. They cannot escape the WoW cycle.

This is not only streamers but majority of the quitters as well. I have seen this happen too many times to count.

checking 10.0 =\= stick with 10.0

[Swnem]

Next expansion? Try a month or two.

You are being delusional. FF has an expansion coming out in november. It's not gonna stop anytime soon.

Also, maybe you don't see this, but no one is in a hurry to go back to shadowlands. Even with the next patch making some things better, people are just burned out. The next expansion is the realistic goal.

[Stormdash]

Let's be real, most of the quitters and streamers will be back next expansion when all the hype comes in. That's why I can't take all these streamers serious (Asmongold, Preach, Bellullar, etc.) when they say they are most likely done with WoW. We all know when the next expansion cinematic comes and the hype is off the charts they will all come crawling back again. They cannot escape the WoW cycle.

This is not only streamers but majority of the quitters as well. I have seen this happen too many times to count.

Is this an 'own' of some kind? People didn't all used to dip out and have to "come back" for expansions, so it's still... not good. Nor any promise that they'll stay.

Take me, after 12 years of continuous pay I stopped playing retail in like May because it's just boring and disappointing storytelling and gameplay loop to a point I couldn't tolerate. And while I'm actually really impressed that they've (surrendered) changed their mind on so many systems and QoL features for 9.1.5 but I already know I'd come back, play with that, and be done in two weeks because it's still the same miserable story and worldbuilding clogging up everything. 10.0 I will absolutely come back for... if they've fixed those things. if they haven't I'll be able to tell in less than a month. That didn't used to be the case. WoD, disappointing as it was, never came close to pushing me right out of the game.

[StillMcfuu]

Let's be real, most of the quitters and streamers will be back next expansion when all the hype comes in. That's why I can't take all these streamers serious (Asmongold, Preach, Bellullar, etc.) when they say they are most likely done with WoW. We all know when the next expansion cinematic comes and the hype is off the charts they will all come crawling back again. They cannot escape the WoW cycle.

This is not only streamers but majority of the quitters as well. I have seen this happen too many times to count.

Imagine the cope required to make a thread like this.

Of course people will come back, they played WoW for years and they want it to be good. They want to sink all their free time into a game world they love. They want to believe Blizz didn't fuck it up like they have been fucking up for 6 years now. They will probably be back even if all info points to the next expansion just being Legion 4.0 trash. They will probably be back even if all alpha and beta testing is filled with the same ignored feedback and the game is still crappy broken borrowed power crap.

That's not a failure on them, it says nothing about them other than they are foolishly optimistic.

[DarkAmbient]

People who've played the game for years may play it again in the future. Stand by for more earth shattering insights.

[Sariengrey]

Sheeple will be sheeple, its popular to hate on WoW right now, esp with the younger audience. If there is anything I have learned in my many decades of life is that there are a lot more followers than leaders in the under 30 age group.

All these You Tubers did their dramatic "good bye WoW" videos for views and to play on people during the atmosphere and bandwagon...ALL these people will be back, for sure by next xpac. PLAYED

While a great game itself, all these hardcore WoW players, content creators etc aren't going to Play FF14 for the rest of time
LMAO I got a bridge, you want to buy it?

[Berri]

Yes, but the difference is in the past they wouldn't have left in the first place because the game wasn't a mess. If WoW being played like a seasonal garbonzoshow is "success" to you, I guess they're going in the right direction!

[Kiwijello]

Let's be real, most of the quitters and streamers will be back next expansion when all the hype comes in. That's why I can't take all these streamers serious (Asmongold, Preach, Bellullar, etc.) when they say they are most likely done with WoW. We all know when the next expansion cinematic comes and the hype is off the charts they will all come crawling back again. They cannot escape the WoW cycle.

This is not only streamers but majority of the quitters as well. I have seen this happen too many times to count.

Go ahead an stick your head in the sand and ignore the obvious. The streamers only represent their bases. The drop off in subs is because Blizz is a lousy company not because some greasy streamer made it happen. Attitudes like yours, where you ignore something just because it annoys you, is why the game is where it's at. The ENTIRE picture is important, not just your little piece of it.

Most of the people leaving are moving on to better games and have no reason to come back. I am but one, but there are more like me, and I will say 100% that the crap Blizz is pulling now is insulting and not worth coming back for. Cosmetic shinyes aren't going to fix the rotten core at the center of the apple.

But I am glad you can tell the future and your beloved game will be safe from all the fake leavers...

[Hitei]

If you get bored and leave, you'll be back when they add more content.

If you get angry and leave, you'll be back, but you'll quickly remember why you quit and leave again.

I'm afraid the majority of people leaving now are in that latter camp. They've tried to grasp too tightly to subscribers, and they feel trapped in an endless cycle of drudgery. WoW now wastes your time and doesn't feel worth it. How many times do we accept the cycle of abuse before realising Blizzard won't change?

Most people who have ever left, or will ever leave, are bored. Short of Blizzard doing something like forcibly deleting everyone's characters, the second camp will never be a majority. General players do not care that much or invest that much. They simply stop finding the game fun and go play something else.

Also, god I wish people would stop it with this "abuse" shit. Talk about being melodramatic and playing the victim. "Oh no, this video game I have complete free will to not buy or play added content/systems I don't like and the devs aren't listening to me and changing it! When will they stop abusing me?"

[loras]

Let's be real, most of the quitters and streamers will be back next expansion when all the hype comes in. That's why I can't take all these streamers serious (Asmongold, Preach, Bellullar, etc.) when they say they are most likely done with WoW. We all know when the next expansion cinematic comes and the hype is off the charts they will all come crawling back again. They cannot escape the WoW cycle.

This is not only streamers but majority of the quitters as well. I have seen this happen too many times to count.

You vastly overestimate the influence these guys have, they're only going along with the flow in order to profit.

And i've seen it too, been there since vanilla, but keep in mind things always work out until they don't.
This time it seems different, more like WoD in that Blizzard has reacted both in deed and in word to the several kinds of unrest going on at the company.

Which is not to say that i think WoW is doomed, rather i think that continueing down the current track will doom it.