What can WoW do to gain Subs?

[Drithien]

The story telling aspect of WoW is really really poor.

I don't think that he is talking about the story, which arguably was never good after WarCraft III, but adventuring in the world of the game like the older times, when travelling to a far-off zone to continue on a questline was an exciting journey filled with danger and mystery. The game has become too much about its instanced content and its repeatable content that could as well be instanced, rather than maintaining the one thing vanilla did right: offer a huge coherent world for players to... play in. We went from tenths of zones, multiple campaigns, class quests, off-the-beaten-path quest hubs, exploration and immersive gameplay, to five-to-seven zones, just two campaigns, a handful of group dungeons that are neither interesting nor big or complex, some by-luck exploration, and worst of all from playing to have fun and uncover some more of the world of the game to... gathering points.

And all that to make more instanced and repeatable content, and try and lure everyone that likes to PVE into that content because it is easier to make and cheaper. The problem is not the dailies; there are people that like them. Neither the challenging raid content; there are people that like it. The problem is that different people like different things. And the game seems to only focus on some of those things each time. Most players were quite happy playing out in the world in vanilla, doing some dungeon runs every now and then, and the occasional PVP. They liked it. And more of that would be fine. But the developers cut back on that type of content, by a lot, and tried to shoehorn everyone into dungeon running and raiding because it's easier to make such content. First they bribed them with some easy epics, mostly from PVP in Crusade. Then gave them a good foothold in raiding and more epics in WOTLK. Then, after failing to convince them to play better at the beginning of Cataclysm, they went on and even tried to get them into heroic modes. All the while the problem was that most of these players were not interested in raiding, and only did it because there was nothing else to do in the game. And now, well, they run out of options. Hence the boredom and the departures.

They should never have cut down on the overall amount of content they provided for the game. All aspects should have been treated equally. Questing, exploring, raiding, group dungeons, world PVP, battlegrounds, arenas, proffessions, role-playing; everything. And they had both the money and the time to do it. The game's phenomenal success offered them a stupidly high amount of money, and they should have invested more of that back into the game to keep it going. A game as big as World of WarCraft is extremely hard to renew normally, but their success was anything but normal. They had the chance to make something great of it and they blew it sadly. I really hope things get better, and all kinds of players are given the content that they want to play, but I don't see anything changing in the near future.

[Talzar]

Where are people getting the info which proves that NA/EU numbers are stable? Activision's stock dropped 5% after the last call. If China was really to blame then I would expect them to have said 79% or so was from China to remove the sting. NA/EU players probably spend a lot more on item shop, paid services etc. than players on game cards do. Investors aren't stupid. They know spin the instant they see it.

The fanboy response was the same at 11 million, 10 million, 9 million, and now 8 million. At what number can we stop blaming the east and admit that the game is old and will keep dropping until its subs reflect that of an old game?

[Apollet]

Honestly? The best thing they could do to increase revenue reliably "subs" would be to license private servers. I would be willing to bet there's on the order of a million players in the world who regularly play some sort of emulation realm. What if Blizzard sold licenses and royalties to small developers who just want to take a piece of old code and spice it up a bit with their own flavor? Yes there would have to be some tough policing of the private servers (i.e., no KKK united servers, or Muslims Must Die realms), but they could honestly divert lots of their resources that are currently devoted to attempting to bring back players with nostalgia revamps. Imagine having 20% more development hours on quality, up to date content for retail, while you have nostalgia enthusiasts using their own resources to bring in that "on the fence" player base, while Blizzard still gets a good cut.

[Conscious]

Where are people getting the info which proves that NA/EU numbers are stable? Activision's stock dropped 5% after the last call. If China was really to blame then I would expect them to have said 79% or so was from China to remove the sting. NA/EU players probably spend a lot more on item shop, paid services etc. than players on game cards do. Investors aren't stupid. They know spin the instant they see it.

Yeah see, that's what I don't get. Their stock wouldn't have taken such a punch if the overwhelming majority came from China. Considering the revenue difference, I'm willing to bet more than a third came from NA/EU.

The fanboy response was the same at 11 million, 10 million, 9 million, and now 8 million. At what number can we stop blaming the east and admit that the game is old and will keep dropping until its subs reflect that of an old game?

The game could have the population of these forums and people would still cry that is has more than 'xyz MMO'.

Rather people should focus their energy not on denial of a problem, but potential solutions to it. We're all on the same ship.

[Mormolyce]

Honestly, very little other than what they're doing already. It's just old. I'll probably still be playing 10 years from now if the servers are still running but not so many other people will. Same thing happened in D2 a few years after LOD. Who knows what we'll be playing then?

Of course, easy answer is that they could go F2P. Obviously that would increase the sub count, but at the same time massively reduce the revenue they make and if you don't think that would have an impact on the game quality then you're living in a gumdrop house on lollipop lane.

[rebecca191]

When did they maintain a sub increase? There have been many complaints coming out of the East regarding MOP one of them being they used Japanese voice actors for the Pandaren surely they should have known better after the complaints when Pandaren artwork first surfaced featuring them wearing Samurai armour?

WOTLK was fairly stable. May have had a tiny drop somewhere in there, but most people came back to see Arthas.

[Mormolyce]

Where are people getting the info which proves that NA/EU numbers are stable? Activision's stock dropped 5% after the last call. If China was really to blame then I would expect them to have said 79% or so was from China to remove the sting. NA/EU players probably spend a lot more on item shop, paid services etc. than players on game cards do. Investors aren't stupid. They know spin the instant they see it.

The fanboy response was the same at 11 million, 10 million, 9 million, and now 8 million. At what number can we stop blaming the east and admit that the game is old and will keep dropping until its subs reflect that of an old game?

Yeah see, that's what I don't get. Their stock wouldn't have taken such a punch if the overwhelming majority came from China.

What. Are. You. Talking. About???

Investors don't give a shit where the subs are from. A sub is a sub, it's lost revenue. Stop trying to understand investor data from the perspective of a player (who presumably doesn't care about Chinese subs because he doesn't play on a Chinese server... not entirely sure why players care about subs at all frankly).

And Chinese players spend less on the Blizz store? Where are you even getting that? That revenue is just icing on the cake anyway.

---------- Post added 2013-05-14 at 01:54 AM ----------

WOTLK was fairly stable. May have had a tiny drop somewhere in there, but most people came back to see Arthas.

Well according to this graph:

http://users.telenet.be/mmodata/Charts/Subs-1.png

The first significant plateau/drop occurred around Wrath launch. Cata didn't hit until 2011, WoW peaked in 2009.

So I guess you could say "stable" but really it looks more like subs continued to increase until Wrath was launched, then slowly declined with a little spike just before Cata launched.

[Conscious]

What. Are. You. Talking. About???

Investors don't give a shit where the subs are from. A sub is a sub, it's lost revenue. Stop trying to understand investor data from the perspective of a player (who presumably doesn't care about Chinese subs because he doesn't play on a Chinese server... not entirely sure why players care about subs at all frankly).

And Chinese players spend less on the Blizz store? Where are you even getting that? That revenue is just icing on the cake anyway.

Chinese players pay less than US/EU players.

They don't pay nearly as much as we do, therefore losing those subscriptions shouldn't have made that big of a dent in a stock price.

[THoyt]

I would think it's a pretty simple answer; Offer the players more.

Whether thats new content, "cooler" content or a complete revamp of the game with variations in the current quests, zones and graphics.

Personally, I'd reup just for some deeper quest and story content. Would be great to see some individual class quests/content added.

[Underwolf]

If you listen to people who lament the good old days, WoW cannot stop losing subs, because Blizzard betrayed all that made WoW such a huge success during Vanilla and BC eras.

If you listen to today's panda loving fanboys, WoW cannot stop losing subs, because it is too old and too much banged up to attract new players.

This is the only time you'll see these two groups agree on one thing which is "WoW cannot stop losing subs".

Cheers!

[Ikkarus]

Change....

[Gamerguy3223]

There was an increase in Q3 and then the subs have fallen ever since MOP was released. I honestly don't know where you get racism from no-one has said it is racist only that it has not been well received in the East. As an Englishman I find the Worgen annoying as they speak with a Dick Van Dyke British accent and this the same kind of complaints I have read about the Pandaren speaking with a Japanese accent, it is not racist just annoying.

Finally some one gets it.

[Kraenen]

Increasing the level of immersion is the surest way of holding onto subs. If people feel they have a bigger commitment to the game they will feel less likely to leave. Such can be accomplished by removing the almost cliche subjects of LFR/LFD/CRZ. Cliche it might be, but it's still true. People feel less involved in the game and its community and have less friction in leaving when certain contingencies aren't evident.

[nyc81991]

Space Ships.




But Seriously, I think if they just keep releasing good content at a fast pace it will help. Along with adding new fun things to do outside of Raiding and PvPing. For example, customizable player housing and other things like that.

[Mormolyce]

Chinese players pay less than US/EU players.

They don't pay nearly as much as we do, therefore losing those subscriptions shouldn't have made that big of a dent in a stock price.

Where's your source on that? I know they have a different sub model because a lot of Asian players play in cafes rather than their own houses.

Regardless, they're almost half the WoW playerbase and a major video game market (especially for MMOs) so it is still extremely important from an investor point of view.

[Azgraal]

Go back from Activision Blizzard to Blizzard of the north?

I'd hate to add an extra passenger to the Activision Hate Bandwagon, but this would be a great thing, in theory...

[Conscious]

Where's your source on that? I know they have a different sub model because a lot of Asian players play in cafes rather than their own houses.

Regardless, they're almost half the WoW playerbase and a major video game market (especially for MMOs) so it is still extremely important from an investor point of view.

Here.

And yes, I get they're extremely important, as we all play the same game. But my point is, financially speaking, they're not going to have an impact on stock prices, like losing say, mostly NA/EU players as the revenue stream is bigger for us.

I still think we lost more NA/EU players than Blizzard is willing to let on.

[LTCrystallite]

As a lot have said before, it's just an old game. People who still like the lore and come back to play will, but the engine is outdated. No matter what they do to improve the current engine, there's many mechanical/terrain/animation issues they can't ever bypass without using an entirely newer engine. Gameplay isn't going to change much.

Some to date MMOs use unit collision mechanics, some use a non targeting "free action" combat system, some allow player units to climb walls or to grab ledges, and WoW's engine wouldn't be able to accommodate most of those things. Raids are new, some changes here and there, different functions for skills, but all in all, the gameplay remains mostly the same. People just get bored over time.

[nooty]

Game is dirty cheap 15 dollar its like buying a pizza for dinner or watching movie with cokes and fries .

I know many friends who don't play still subscribed to game or just login once or twice a week just to chat with friends .

so now i call people playing wow have life and not " No life " Like before .

[Hooked]

I used to like the epic world drops of gear and recipes. It kind of made it more interesting killing mobs.