Is the future LFR/Flex?

[Stacie]

OK, most people I know have gone casual as time has gone on. I admit I don't stray outside of the guild to make new friends and the ones i have i have known for many years.

Most reasons they have gone casual are Lack of time, children, work, etc etc. Most played during college, Uni, school with little commitment. I see this as a very valid reason most would go casual (i myself have a child now and have gone from a very hardcore player to casual.) I don't see many new players joining the game and the older you get normally the more responsibility you get and less time online.

I feel with the lack of new players, and aging player base work more responsibilities people have less time, with less time less people raiding and more people entering Flex/LFR and being done with wow for a bit so they can carry on with lifes outside of the game.

I can't see a way anyone can be hardcore and have a full time job or children part time job etc etc and a social life outside of wow at the same time.

So do you guys think like me that LFR/Flex will be the future of WoW and what most players hit? Maybe soon we will see no more 25 man raids or something.

I am thinking something like the below in the future with no 10/25 raids:

LFR
Flex
Flex Heroic

[Cyrops]

Flex Heroic is Normal. Just to point that out.
And even when people have a lot of real life stuff to do, having 1-2 raid nights is no biggy. And in those 1-2 nights you can accomplish a lot unless you are bad at the game. "Skill" and "Time to Play" have nothing in common untill a certain level.

[Mirri]

If you don't stray outside your guild to make new friends and meet people, how can you claim there are no new players joining the game ? Seems a bit ignorant imo. Sorry but I don't see the logic in your statement.

Yes subs are dropping, BUT that doesn't mean there are no new players. It just means there are more people quitting than joining. And I would like to be optimistic and believe that these new people watch heroic videos and are inspired to raid too thus injecting new blood into the raiding scene.

I might be wrong, but I doubt we will see the heroic raiding scene die away.

[kwakwa]

While I dont think the hard core raiding community is going to drop anytime soon, I personally would like to see a "Heroic" Flex mode where the heroic mode abilities are in the fights, even if it still doesnt drop gear worth normal mode. It would be nice to see the fights in there more complicated form, just because im casual and dont get to raid much more then flex and occasional normal doesnt mean me and my friends wouldnt like to see/do the fights with the heroic complications

[Barnabas]

I think flex will just be flex. It serves so many purposes. Lets say you have a 25 man raid and you only get 16 online one night. You can pug it with another guild, friends and/or randoms in trade channel.