2014 is going to be a harsh year for World of Warcraft

[wych]

We have to keep one thing in perspective though:
Most of the recent MMOs didn't do so well not only because they were bad, but also because they caught WoW in a very good place.
Some of them didn't had a good start and, because of that, they failed.
Let's be honest, if WoW vanilla had entered the business now against itself, it would've failed too.
But now WoW is losing some of it's space and the biggest reason, as many predicted, it's because of itself.
The game is old, we all know that, and only now blizzard is doing something to catch up a little.

With all that said, I don't think WoW is going to die, at least not for another three years.
But now other MMOs finally have some breathing room to attract players and get their thing going.

Rift and GW2 are probably the best games to show up since WoW launched and they caught WoW whilst it was "weak" and still both failed to get a large number of people to stay playing

[TheWindWalker]

I personally know tons of people who played GW2 for a bit, then came back to WoW. Aside from the people I know personally, there's also routinely people in chat talking about trying games like GW2, then going back to WoW as their main game(GW does at least have the benefit of not needing a sub, so people can go back whenever they want). And I know many more people who complain about how dead the game seems these days...and these are people who like the game and want it to succeed, not WoW fanboys wanting it to die.

I happened to know a guy who revealed he was working on an MMO. He eventually let it slip that, yes, it was GW2. He spent months talking it up and convinced a lot of us to buy it when it came out around Mists' pre-patch date. (Oh Blizzard...) He was actually fairly disappointed when those of us that played wow all flocked back to it after Mists launched and didn't come back.

[Zoneseek]

Can you guys show me the stats on gw2's low playerbase? Genuinely interested as so many people seem to think the game is low on players even though there is constantly a queue to get into the event zones.

[Valeron]

Most current wow players won't play another mmo. When I used to play, the guild I was in had a majority of players where wow was their first and only mmo. Heck a lot of them weren't even gamers.

The other games will gain players from the mmo hopers (the people that hop from one mmo to another). Some folks may stick to that mmo but most will just move on to the next new mmo. The cycle will keep on going from there.

- - - Updated - - -

Can you guys show me the stats on gw2's low playerbase? Genuinely interested as so many people seem to think the game is low on players even though there is constantly a queue to get into the event zones.

there is no evidence either way other than anecdotal

[Deleted]

I like the look of wildstar trying out a different combat style but warlords is what I'm looking forward to the mmo sphere this year. Elder scrolls is a single player game to me, I have 0 interest in it as an mmo.

[Arbs]

I personally know tons of people who played GW2 for a bit, then came back to WoW. Aside from the people I know personally, there's also routinely people in chat talking about trying games like GW2, then going back to WoW as their main game(GW does at least have the benefit of not needing a sub, so people can go back whenever they want). And I know many more people who complain about how dead the game seems these days...and these are people who like the game and want it to succeed, not WoW fanboys wanting it to die.

Hell in the past year I have gained more respect for GW2 & their fanbase than I did when it first came out as the ones who really enjoy the game still play it & support it which is good for them. They leave alone & let the people who enjoy the games enjoy them.

I sense the same thing will happen with Wildstar, ESO & EQN the people who enjoy those games will leave each other alone & enjoy them while the problems starters will continue to try & take jabs at one another trying to start things between communities.

[Manhands]

As much as I dislike Blizzard's decisions in regards to the continuation of WoW post 3.2, I admit, we were wrong for all those years. There is no third party that can touch WoW over the next year or so.

Let's follow that train of thought. WoW has 7+ million subscriber momentum and immense funding and development resources. They already have a working framework (from a technical perspective) and have been around long enough for there to be nostalgia about the nostalgia. Any new MMO would need to make a huge splash from beta to release, with fresh ideas (otherwise they are a "WoW clone"), immersive lore, and enough end-game raiding and balanced pvp to make a dent in the MMO market. Meanwhile, Blizz can cherry-pick this new game's good ideas.

This would be like trying to start a grocery store chain that competes with Walmart. Good luck!

[Deleted]

i really wish we could sage threads.

this is getting very annoying.

[Arbs]

Nobody thinks that. I think its wow fans that make that kinda crap up, nobody really cares at the end of the day if one game kills another. That's not what makes a game good, or by that definition wow isn't a good game. It didn't kill anything. UO from the mid 1990's is still an active mmo. Wow didn't kill it, or anything else for that matter, so if anyone thinks any other game is going to somehow kill wow...lol...they're wrong.

With that said, wow killers do exist on an individual level. GW2 was my personal wow killer, and I didn't even see it coming. Preordered it last year thinking it would be a fun little game to play around with. Fast forward to now I haven't been subbed to wow in over a year and I play gw2 every day. It just happens. But mmo killers are on a personal level only. No mmo kills another mmo in general, its never happened. Wow never killed any mmo's and no mmo's will kill wow. Its a ridiculous concept.

You know dam well when any new MMOs comes out people hype it up as God's next gift to the world, setting these high expectation that people start to think it will kill WoW & than bring up the conversations on forums sites (Like this). Until December Beta I had never heard anywhere except the Wildstar Reddit the word "WoW Killer" & most people on that Reddit mentioned the last 3 that carried that title & most posters told them they don't want their game compared to WoW as it would cause hype & than people will become to set high expectations for the game that will only hurt the game in the long run.

GW2 is prbly the only MMO that you could even consider successful after being called a WoW killer after all it had no sub to begin with which was a smart idea from the beginning & totally different games from each other anyway, but you & me both know that even though we say their are MMO-Killers on personal levels & we play what we like they're people out their who just hate a certain game so much they just praise any game even if they don't like it themselves.

But my main point is their are people out their who consider any new MMO a WoW-Killer & will hype it up to cause drama than abandon that game if it doesn't succeed to the expectations that people set. So saying its only WoW fans that come with it is wrong, but we all know no MMO is gunna kill WoW, but why do people keep bringing it up ?? To cause problems & to be given a chance to jab at a game they dislike.

(Now none of this is pointed to you, just your post was perfect to quote on about this type of subject)

[Fagatronics]

Are you brainless? Those games aren't even out yet so how the hell am I supposed to know if they are good?

Talk about brainless... You're undercutting your own argument by not knowing the quality of games you used as an example.

A good argument isn't:

Person A: X and Y will definitely effect the success of Z!
Person B: Are X and Y any good?
Person A: You dummy, how the hell should I know?!

[Deleted]

I guess you can say I'm a old school WoW player. I started playing WoW in December 2005 and played all the way until the end of WOTLK and quit just a week into Cataclysm. I put in 5 years of my time raiding nearly every night from 7pm to 12am. It was my second job and I enjoyed every minute of it, but the game changed so much.

Vanilla WoW was different community. Servers were islands, no cross realms stuff. Raids were hard, epic gear WAS epic. Only the top guilds could do the hardest content and if your guild could defeat Ragnaros / Netherian it was a badge of honor. For as epic as Vanilla was, it had a lot of flaws though. The old honor system was effectively grinding for gear. Classes HAD to be certain builds or they would be booted out the door. GOD, the leveling!! You had to go through 3 different zones just to get 1 lvl! 10 man regular instances. xD

Burning Crusade was WoW at its highlight though. The dungeons were hard, cross realms started twinkling in, classes were expanded, and the starting dungeons were epic. Flying mounts, new world, and the game felt like it had evolved. IMHO (considering I didn't play after Cataclysm) BC had the best raiding dungeon line up. Sunwell was an awesome dungeon.

WOTLK was good. Death Knights rocked and the map designed was the best I've seen. I spent countless hours just exploring all over the world so I can soak in all the lore. Naxxramas off the start was bad though, but it was made up with Ulduar which was a great dungeon. ICC was okay, but what I liked about WOTLK is it made alt running possible.

Cataclysm off the start was just.... bland. The zones were uninspiring, but the world overhaul was great. Nobody should have to go through the original 0-60 leveling from Vanilla WoW.

I quit and played SWTOR. It was great for 6 months until it got BORING. GW2 was great too, but I got bored of having to do 30 dailies to get 1 piece of gear.

I just haven't had a real desire to come back to WoW. I got a free 1 week trial a few months ago and I came back and meh -- it just seemed the same. I ran around the starting MOP zones and I just didn't have the drive to keep going.

[Osmeric]

Cataclysm off the start was just.... bland. The zones were uninspiring, but the world overhaul was great. Nobody should have to go through the original 0-60 leveling from Vanilla WoW.

The tragic mistake Cataclysm made with the world revamp was keeping all that content as leveling content. Who cares about leveling content? People burned through it quickly and if they weren't snared by the endgame they left.

What they SHOULD have done was something more radical: get rid of leveling entirely, and make every zone an endgame zone. Maybe keep a little bit of content for tutorial/training.

[Skulltaker]

Nobody in this thread even mentioned anything about the next-gen console MMO under development by Bungie (creators of Halo) about to release in 2014 and with a later release date for PC.

Destiny? Wasn't aware it was confirmed (or denied) for PC.

[Daws001]

It's going to come down to ESO for me. If it's awesome then I won't be able to justify $30 a month on MMOs. The fact that I can play it on PS4 is a major bonus as my PC is on its last leg and the only reason I still use it is for WoW (have a MBA and iPad for non-gaming stuff).

So, I'm rooting for the ESO people. Make it good and you can have my monies, time, and soul.

[mystblade]

As much as I would of liked a game to take over WoW, there won't be. Elder Scrolls seemed like a good fit, but they pretty much took that, and said no. It will be on par with Final Fantasy with the Console/PC with it being more geared towards the Consoles.

I just can't seem to fathom playing a MMO on a console, it just limits you on keys. That being said ElderScrolls the past two at least have been written for consoles with the PC being a port more or less. Morrowind was the last one that looked like it was written for the PC and not ported. I know time and everything is involved and ports are the easier path.

You can't blame companies for trying to bring WoW down.

[CrusaderNerò87]

To be honest, I dont think any of the new AAA mmos coming out this year will do much to wow. Sure, initially it will be noticed. But overall these games wont be what can cause issues for wow.

What can cause a serious dent to wow is if mop(and current SoO raid) drag on to long. Atleast without any clarification about release date/beta. They wont get away with that as easily as they did in wrath. This time they gotta deliver.

[Plutarch78]

Before I start - this isn't a "WoW is dying" thread and I don't want to start any fanboy flame war. I enjoy MoP, it's the best expansion so far for me and I can't wait to play WoD but I have to say that year 2014 is going to be really harsh for World of Warcraft.

1. No new content until spring/summer

I hope we will get some info about WoD beta release date in january but let's be honest - not everyone is going to be invited to the beta and people like myself won't play it because I don't want to destroy my impression until the release of the final version. And we all know that no new content = subs go down. People don't want to do SoO for another half of year.

2. The Elder Scrolls Online

TES: Online is going to be released on April 4th, so yeah, WoW will lose even more subs. And I know that in the past there was a lot of "WoW killers" and all those games went F2P after 2-3 months because no one played them. But what if TES will be a good MMO? Well c'mon, it's silly that for almost 10 years there is only one good MMO on the whole market and other games can't even compete with it. I want to see a new MMO at least as good as WoW.

3. Wildstar

Yep, another new MMO game, coming out in spring. From what I've seen so far it looks really promising. It's made by Carbine (quote from Wikipedia):




Will they make a successful MMO? We have to wait and see but of course this means that WoW subs will go even more down.

So what are your conclusions? Is WoD going to bring millions of players back to WoW? Or at the end of 2014 there will be less than 5 millions subscribers?

Dicuss.

1) You don't have any proof of when WoD is getting released.

2) I participated in the weekend beta test not too long ago. I wasn't impressed IMO.

3) So far it looks convoluted and weird. Reminds me of a sci-fi version of Torchlight. And so what if the creators came from Blizzard?

[Multibocks]

If it launches anything like its current beta iteration then you can count me out. Boring beyond anything I can describe. I felt no reason to log in after a few weeks.

[Fagatronics]

What they SHOULD have done was something more radical: get rid of leveling entirely, and make every zone an endgame zone. Maybe keep a little bit of content for tutorial/training.

That would have been amazing! Maybe have a few "easy" and "medium" zones to teach new.players and get people adjusted but I love the idea.

Hopefully they make some switch like that in the near future. The fact Blizz is allowing instant 90s now shows there are serious flaws with their reset gear/level up/endgame expansion model.

[Chewbacka]

We lose more and more sub's every year it isnt due to new games wow is just getting old and it's players are bored of it