Dropping 2 mil subs a year so if the trend keeps up there are 4 more years...

[peedei]

SO! You have 4 years to turn the ship around, what would YOU do to make that happen! Share your vision. You might change a lot, you might change a little, so what will it be?


I would have:


- new skills and talents are earned by defeating solo bosses, beating challenges or discovering them in hidden places
- highest tier raids can't be in LFR, all other raids are though
- anything you help kill you'll get your own personal loot/objective fulfilled from raids/dungeons to open world
- MVP's will get bonus loot in dungeons and raids
- no more welfare vendors, all loot comes from instances
- class tutorial quests or class mentors/companions, a mentoring system and more socially driven reward systems in general
- merge low population servers or allow CRZ raiding/AH's
- add new player models and update character animations to have unique animation for every skill, also add unique geometry for all armour pieces and not just head and shoulders
- open world partying, gathering, looting and questing should work like guild wars 2, phasing would effect the zone and not yourself
- add jumping puzzles and rewarded exploration
- add a dynamic event system like Rifts rift invasions or guild wars 2's dynamic events
- remove daily quests and replace them with a 24/7 open world BG that works very similar to the first rendition of Alterac Valley
- exp is not reduced/shared by partying and is slightly increased
- add action combat i.e. blocking/dodging/parrying are skills and not stats, also have to aim attacks, no more tab target like Tera and not Guild Wars 2

[Vampyrr]

No more bullshit threads like this one prolly

[ablib]

I would make a carbon copy of Wrath of the Lich King.

[peedei]

I would make a carbon copy of Wrath of the Lich King.

It would be an interesting experiment to make servers dedicated to certain expansions, I think the data would be very telling of what people gravitate towards, I'm surprised Blizzard hasn't tried this yet.

[Splatter]

SO! You have 4 years to turn the ship around, what would YOU do to make that happen! Share your vision. You might change a lot, you might change a little, so what will it be?


I would have:


- new skills and talents are earned by defeating solo bosses, beating challenges or discovering them in hidden places
- highest tier raids can't be in LFR, all other raids are though
- anything you help kill you'll get your own personal loot/objective fulfilled from raids/dungeons to open world
- MVP's will get bonus loot in dungeons and raids
- no more welfare vendors, all loot comes from instances
- class tutorial quests or class mentors/companions, a mentoring system and more socially driven reward systems in general
- merge low population servers or allow CRZ raiding/AH's
- add new player models and update character animations to have unique animation for every skill, also add unique geometry for all armour pieces and not just head and shoulders
- open world partying, gathering, looting and questing should work like guild wars 2
- add jumping puzzles and rewarded exploration
- add a dynamic event system like Rifts rift invasions or guild wars 2's dynamic events
- remove daily quests and replace them with a 24/7 open world BG that works very similar to the first rendition of Alterac Valley
- exp is not reduced/shared by partying and is slightly increased
- add action combat i.e. blocking/dodging/parrying are skills and not stats, also have to aim attacks, no more tab target like Tera and not Guild Wars 2

Really hate the two bolded parts. GW2 was just plain aweful and if wow went down that path that would be my sub gone. Not a huge fan of the action combat either.

Dynamic events seem fun to start with but they get old really fast. Both rift and GW2 dynamic events become more of a pain in the butt than a fun experience after the first few.

Personally i would like to see a bit more immersion in the game, from simple things like day/night cycle returning to having class quests and uniqueness like when a hunter had to tame pets to learn new skills to teach to other pets. WoW has lost the depth that made it interesting, copying GW2 style just makes the game even shallower.

[hpgupta]

The game doesn't need drastic changes to 'survive'. Blizzard is constantly trying to adapt and add features/content to it. The game can easily go on for another 5-10 years. Blizzard will support the game and keep on developing content for it. The only thing that can change is our willingness to play it if its not as popular as it is right now.

I do see WoW going F2P eventually though. Not sure when. The entire gaming industry is moving towards a F2P model and blizzard will adapt as well (not anytime soon though).

[ComputerNerd]

And predicting from such patterns if they were to be believed would have seen the game at sub 1m subscriptions about 2 years ago.
Another load of rubbish.

[peedei]

The game doesn't need drastic changes to 'survive'. Blizzard is constantly trying to adapt and add features/content to it. The game can easily go on for another 5-10 years. Blizzard will support the game and keep on developing content for it. The only thing that can change is our willingness to play it if its not as popular as it is right now.

I do see WoW going F2P eventually though. Not sure when. The entire gaming industry is moving towards a F2P model and blizzard will adapt as well (not anytime soon though).

WoW going F2P or merging servers is really bad PR which is why I think CRZ came about and isn't really finished yet either. There's too much doom attached to F2P and if the biggest P2P MMO ever made suddenly switched it would cause a &*^% storm the likes the community would have never seen before.

[ablib]

Wow will obviously go free to play someday. I predict that will happen once Titan is thriving, and Wow is down to 2 million subs (or less).

6 years from now maybe. By then Wow will be 15 years old. Pretty impressive, when most MMO's go F2P in their first year, or start out F2P because they know they could never make any money from subs.

[Thirtyrock]

If past performance were indicative of future performance Wow would have something like 20 million or more players, seeing as it went from 0 to 12 million players from 2004 to 2009 (wrath numbers in there, not sure exact dates)

This is not a good way to see the end of Wow

[Kiea]

2mill subs a year? I believe that we peaked at 12mill in mid-late 2010, during 3.3.3. Which means 1,3mill per year.

[Pull My Finger]

- new skills and talents are earned by defeating solo bosses, beating challenges or discovering them in hidden places

Impossible to balance a game like that, also a crap idea, you can't deny a class it's own skillset.

- highest tier raids can't be in LFR, all other raids are though

Less content, always a good idea! What's the great benefit behind that?

- MVP's will get bonus loot in dungeons and raids

Oh, two-tier society now? Elitists ruin games, nobody needs them around.

- remove daily quests and replace them with a 24/7 open world BG that works very similar to the first rendition of Alterac Valley

Replace daily quests with open PvP? What's that supposed to be? Sense?

- add action combat i.e. blocking/dodging/parrying are skills and not stats, also have to aim attacks, no more tab target like Tera and not Guild Wars 2

Yeah, let's make WoW a racing game while we're at it. Tab targeting is OK, different games, different systems. Action combat in MMOs is mostly crap, generally executed badly and would also result in the biggest sub loss of all time. Think for a second.

A guy like you would completely ruin the game and drive even the last of the player base off.

[peedei]

Yeah, let's make WoW a racing game while we're at it. Tab targeting is OK, different games, different systems. Action combat in MMOs is mostly crap, generally executed badly and would also result in the biggest sub loss of all time. Think for a second.

A guy like you would completely ruin the game and drive even the last of the player base off.

So just use the current formula for the next 4 years and hope it miraculously bounces back. Gotcha

Also GW2 puts all your skills points around the open world as challenges and it works perfectly fine. Come back when the stress of discussing WoW actually needing help doesn't bother you so much.

Elitist doesn't mean you're good it means you're stuck up much like yourself. MVP stands for most valued participant/person, there can only be 1 MVP. Adding LFR to the newest tier stops people from earning their way to see it, but it doesn't mean they'll never see it, every new patch allows them to see the last tier.

WoW's combat has taken the game as far as it can with the current mechanics its polished, there's a box of new tools that WoW's system could never touch in an action combat system.

[Orbitus]

It'll be much sooner than that. By the time WoW only has 2 million subscribers this will mean that NA and EU will only have a few hundred thousand subscribers left, making it smaller than several currently existing western F2P MMOs...

Which ones? Because I don't know of any MMO that has more than 500k that is free to play.

[peedei]

Which ones? Because I don't know of any MMO that has more than 500k that is free to play.

Rift has like 750k or 1 mil or something.

[peedei]

I was more thinking in the 200-400k range. But Neverwinter apparently had more than a million players so far. GW2 is still growing apparently with more than 500k active players. Age of Wushu has it's realms instantly getting 'full' too whenever they launch a new one with a few hundred thousand subscribers.

But your question is pretty much beside the point.

I'd bet that at 4 million worldwide subscribers Activision-Blizzard will already decide that it's no longer worth the trouble to maintain it and will make it go F2P with an end to major content updates.

WoW subs is more than just "profit" it influences the faith that the stockholders have in the company, Blizzard can never appear "weak" in public and by going F2P it would mean they're admitting to fighting a losing battle, it could cause many more problems than it solves. I don't think it would go F2P for a long time till they release another MMO that they can call their new flagship.

[rebecca191]

I would make a carbon copy of Wrath of the Lich King.

Wrath of the Legion King, do it!

[Amerissis]

new skills and talents are earned by defeating solo bosses, beating challenges or discovering them in hidden places

Oh God no. People with little to no skill should be able to play the game, too.

highest tier raids can't be in LFR, all other raids are though

Love to kick the casuals, don't you? Any reason why they aren't allowed to experience current content?

anything you help kill you'll get your own personal loot/objective fulfilled from raids/dungeons to open world

Sounds good.

MVP's will get bonus loot in dungeons and raids

What? Why? Being green on a forum makes you worth more in game? This makes no sense.

no more welfare vendors, all loot comes from instances

You do realise that (wannabe) hardcore raiders use their VP for upgrades and gear the most, right? It's nice being able to fill in gear for the parts that never drop. No idea why you'd call that welfare. It's not free or anything.

class tutorial quests or class mentors/companions, a mentoring system and more socially driven reward systems in general

Too vague.

merge low population servers or allow CRZ raiding/AH's

Don't mind. I do know plenty of people who would quit though. Many people like low pop realms and/or their names and won't be happy to lose either.

add new player models and update character animations to have unique animation for every skill, also add unique geometry for all armour pieces and not just head and shoulders

Too much work, too little gain and it would make half the population quit because it'd break their PC's. Unique animations PER skill is just nonsense.

open world partying, gathering, looting and questing should work like guild wars 2, phasing would effect the zone and not yourself

That would completely ruin the economy. Very stupid idea. It works in GW2 because it was there from the start, so the economy is based on the supply. In WoW supply would multiply so much, the whole economy would crash.

add jumping puzzles and rewarded exploration

Don't mind. I wouldn't do any of it, but see no downside.

add a dynamic event system like Rifts rift invasions or guild wars 2's dynamic events

Never liked the Rifts tbh. Also, this would make WoW into a different game, which it shouldn't. If I want dynamic events, I'll go play a game with dynamic events, not WoW with tacked on dynamic events.

remove daily quests and replace them with a 24/7 open world BG that works very similar to the first rendition of Alterac Valley

Wut? Replace PvE content with PvP content? That's just stupid. I don't PvP, ever. I'm not on a PvP server. Why would you take away my quests and add content I'll never do? This makes no sense.

exp is not reduced/shared by partying and is slightly increased

No, this would force you to group and level by killing mobs all the time. I don't like grinding. I like questing and dungeons.

add action combat i.e. blocking/dodging/parrying are skills and not stats, also have to aim attacks, no more tab target like Tera and not Guild Wars 2

No. First of all it would be technically impossible to completly change the combat system and second of all, it would change the game completely. If I want to play and action combat game, I'll play Wildstar (when it releases) or something. You can't just change an existing game like that.

All in all, very few nice ideas. Mostly rubbish. Go back to the drawing board. Better yet, go play another game and stop trying to change this game into another game.

[De Lupe]

- new skills and talents are earned by defeating solo bosses, beating challenges or discovering them in hidden places

Wouldn't be opposed to this as long as said abilities are not required abilities for class/spec to succeed. Things like Eyes of the Beast would be alright, but nothing like Kill Command or Hunter's Mark. Warlock felflame is a great example too. Make these fun things, optional things.

Once something that should be fun/optional becomes "required" to succeed then it stops being fun. Example: see anyone who makes the argument "dailies/LFR is mandatory." In their opinion (however wrong it may be,) those are required to succeed in the game and thus, stopped being a fun option, so they whine about it.

- highest tier raids can't be in LFR, all other raids are though

The only problem with this is that end raid content wouldn't be available until next expansion. I'd say maybe 3 months would be a better fit. Plenty of time for people who want Heroics/Normals, but not so long as to penalize the designers who created the content that would rot away every new expac...oh right, then there's the like *70%* people who raid through LFR only.

* - Number may not be entirely accurate, but it's not too far off and you know it.

- anything you help kill you'll get your own personal loot/objective fulfilled from raids/dungeons to open world
- MVP's will get bonus loot in dungeons and raids

Other than dotdotdotdotleave, no problem there.
Reward the ones who perform well, without obscure penalty to those who don't. Could go either way on that one...but, really, the reward for not standing in the fire is that you don't die because you stood in the fire.

- no more welfare vendors, all loot comes from instances

This is where we differ. You call them welfare vendors, I call them my end-of-patch gear goal. I'm all for good gear coming from dungeons, but as an exclusive option...no. Needs to go dungeons -> Heroics -> Vendor =< LFR -> N -> H. Personally think Cata did it well. Let the vendor gear be a tool to improving your performance in N/H raids, and also serve as a goal for those in 5-M.

Personally, I stopped at vendor gear (up until LFR came around) simply because I can enjoy the game just as much in watered down raid gear as I can in fully decked out raid gear, if not more so because I don't have to put up with the pain in the ass that is a raid guild/schedule. Will I ever be "the best" (notice the quotation marks) Hunter in the world with that ideology? Nope. Won't even make "best" on my realm, but that doesn't stop me from being a damn good Hunter and being in full Valor/LFR gear doesn't make me less of a Hunter than someone in full 522 (or whatever the hell the new number to beat is set)....just forces higher expectation onto them. I'll get there eventually, on my terms. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy the game for what it is...a game. Plus, of course, there's nothing I love more than beating out better geared people on the charts.

- class tutorial quests or class mentors/companions, a mentoring system and more socially driven reward systems in general
- merge low population servers or allow CRZ raiding/AH's

The Monks get a nice quest chain while leveling that offers some kind of training, plus an exp bonus. Wouldn't mind seeing that expanded upon and then added to other classes.

Realm merging, while good in intention, is not the best route.

- add new player models and update character animations to have unique animation for every skill, also add unique geometry for all armour pieces and not just head and shoulders

They're working on that...and do you realize how much work you'd put on the devs desks? Individual animations for EVERY SKILL? That's quite a high bar you're trying to force them to jump.

- open world partying, gathering, looting and questing should work like guild wars 2, phasing would effect the zone and not yourself

Never bothered with GW2 (mostly due to lack of funding), so no opinion here.

- add jumping puzzles and rewarded exploration

They did, on IoT. Agree that there could be more puzzle-type quests, but there's only so many ways you can piece together a titan relic before it turns into another bear ass chain.

Rewarded exploration = people who expect to be rewarded for exploring. Exploring IS the reward. Little cameos and things are alright, but nothing actually significant in terms of giving people things.

- add a dynamic event system like Rifts rift invasions or guild wars 2's dynamic events

They did... It was called the WotLK zombie event. People who didn't know how to relax and have fun in a game ruined that one. They are why we can't have fun things.

I'm assuming that it's not quite the same thing, but that's the best I've got since I have no clue how Rift/GW work.

- remove daily quests and replace them with a 24/7 open world BG that works very similar to the first rendition of Alterac Valley

Eeeeeee, no and then yes.

While I agree that the amount of dailies currently is a bit....overwhelming at times, flat out removal isn't an option. There have to be gates in the game, or there would be no goals. Dailies + Reputation is a good gate for slowing things down.

Wintergrasp was fun, loved it. Would love to see another one come up.

- exp is not reduced/shared by partying and is slightly increased

Only if it applies to groups actually working at level correct content, otherwise, it encourages people to group up with alts and do nothing but power grind their 90 through a zone while their 30 gets all credit for no work. The point of leveling a new toon, is to LEARN the new toon. Think DK newbies are bad now? Imagine them at max level because they just let their Paladin grind them to max while in a group.

- add action combat i.e. blocking/dodging/parrying are skills and not stats, also have to aim attacks, no more tab target like Tera and not Guild Wars 2

Cool at first, not so cool later on. If I'm making an accurate assumption about this, it would be like the Skyrim combat? If so, I refuse to play melee in games like that simply to avoid the hassle of "block this, parry that, parry this block that dodge this parry that...when do I get to kill it?" And while I am a sniper at heart, hence a natural attraction to Hunters, there's not much point in aiming when the target can be the size of a mountain or as small as a penny.

WoW is an easy-to-start, complex-to-master game and needs to stay that, otherwise you scare off new players and the game strangulates.

[Glaziola]

Wrath of the Legion King, do it!

Cant wait to see Bolvar