Subscriptions only kept growing in Vanilla

[styil]

Why wouldn't they keep growing when Classic is released? With an entire new population of gamers, fewer barriers to entry, stable internet now the norm, and with no requirements to buy the boxed game. There have been over 100 million WoW accounts made in WoW's lifetime. Do the math.

I anticipate that the number of Classic players will only continue to rise as the months go by.

[Ghostile]

Why wouldn't they keep growing when Classic is released?

Because it's not a fresh wind of something that didn't suck a dick, like it once was.

[Erwarth]

Is this a discussion or are you just here looking for validation ? I'd rather be sure before wasting energy arguing how this isn't how it's work

[Netherblood]

Why wouldn't they keep growing when Classic is released? With an entire new population of gamers, fewer barriers to entry, stable internet now the norm, and with no requirements to buy the boxed game. There have been over 100 million WoW accounts made in WoW's lifetime. Do the math.

I anticipate that the number of Classic players will only continue to rise as the months go by.

Vanilla attracted so many players initially because of its Warcraft IP and because it was the most casual and least grindy MMO on the market at the time. It appealed to the more casual players-base that was bigger than the super hardcore. Also Vanilla didn't have to compete with modern quick games like Apex, Hearthstone, OW, TFT, LoL, Fortnite.

[Nnyco]

Almost like it was an entire new game or somethin durin a time when mmo's were the cool big thing.

[Leyre]

Why wouldn't they keep growing when Classic is released? With an entire new population of gamers, fewer barriers to entry, stable internet now the norm, and with no requirements to buy the boxed game. There have been over 100 million WoW accounts made in WoW's lifetime. Do the math.

I anticipate that the number of Classic players will only continue to rise as the months go by.

You are a god damn idiot if you think the "mobile gaming" generation has the time to sit for hours hoping to get some satisfaction from their game

[Fawkess]

Incoming 20+ page thread I'm sure it will end up well

[Leyre]

Vanilla attracted so many players initially because of its Warcraft IP and because it was the most casual and least grindy MMO on the market at the time. It appealed to the more casual players-base that was bigger than the super hardcore. Also Vanilla didn't have to compete with modern quick games like Apex, Hearthstone, OW, TFT, LoL, Fortnite.

Wasnt the reason for Vanilla to be so succesfull because it was "Everquest for casuals"?

[Hinastorm]

Your first point makes no sense, for reasons I hope you now realize.

Second, your typical 13-22 year old does not have the patience, nor the inclination to play a game like this. Times have changed.

I still think classic will have a sizable audience among the 28+ range.

[Afrospinach]

Why wouldn't they keep growing when Classic is released? With an entire new population of gamers, fewer barriers to entry, stable internet now the norm, and with no requirements to buy the boxed game. There have been over 100 million WoW accounts made in WoW's lifetime. Do the math.

I anticipate that the number of Classic players will only continue to rise as the months go by.

Well here is the thing, sub numbers tell you nothing about subscriber churn and player retention.

[lingermaster15]

How many people that play Classic do you anticipate will stay?

[Wezmon]

Well here is the thing, sub numbers tell you nothing about subscriber churn and player retention.

Precisely this. The 100 million accounts number actually does help here. That number was released on its 10 year anniversary. So what that tells us is peak subs were 11 million, but 100 million have played. So actually player retention was terrible!

So in the early days, players came and left, but were replaced by more players as the game was fresh, mmos were in their prime, etc.

As the game got older, players still left.. but they are no longer being replaced.. because as the game got to 10 years and beyond, very few new people are going to try it out. My younger siblings would never dream of trying out a 10 year old MMO.

I don't see how this pattern changes in classic. You will get a huge influx early on and this will drop off to hopefully a stable workable population. I don't see this as a bad thing, it's what most classic people want.

[Hitei]

Why wouldn't they keep growing when Classic is released? With an entire new population of gamers, fewer barriers to entry, stable internet now the norm, and with no requirements to buy the boxed game. There have been over 100 million WoW accounts made in WoW's lifetime. Do the math.

I anticipate that the number of Classic players will only continue to rise as the months go by.

Because it was the height of the MMO market, wasn't out of date, and every few months Vanilla was getting brand new, never seen before quests/dungeons/raids/armor/weapons/etc.

Not sure how people manage to forget that Vanilla was a game in constant development. Classes were being balanced, added to, improved. Gaps in itemization were being filled. Entire game systems that didn't exist (Honor, BGs, Weather, seasonal holidays, 20 man raids, world events) were being patched in.

Classic, in addition to being out of date looking, and not appealing to a modern market that doesn't particularly like MMOs to begin with, and prefers immediate enjoyable gameplay to tedious labor for the sake of progression, is a game that is static:

Classes and class mechanics that are bad will stay bad until at the very least phase 7 if ever they change. In Vanilla you might have a bad mechanic, complain about it on the forms, and then see that mechanic fixed or improved. Blessings are a terrible, suicide inducing mechanic? Here you go new multi-target, longer-lasting blessings. In classic, you deal with with everything in its 1.12 state.

In Vanilla patches came with brand new raids with new bosses and mechanics and gear never seen before. In Classic you have a set of raids and dungeons that 99.9% of players have gone into, with gear that players have been seeing for more than a decade.

In Vanilla many things that were just plain annoying were fixed and improved with quality of life updates (having to sit outside BG entrances to do BGs, new graveyards and flightpaths to make travel easier, not having to hit wands over and over to shoot them, filling out quests to reduce the need to just outright grind, etc). All the problematic parts of Classic are part of classic and not being changed.

tl;dr Vanilla saw sub increases because, in addition to being new at a time where gamers really liked MMOs; it was a game continuously getting better, being fixed, updated and expanded, and getting brand new content.

[apples]

Precisely this. The 100 million accounts number actually does help here. That number was released on its 10 year anniversary. So what that tells us is peak subs were 11 million, but 100 million have played. So actually player retention was terrible!

So in the early days, players came and left, but were replaced by more players as the game was fresh, mmos were in their prime, etc.

As the game got older, players still left.. but they are no longer being replaced.. because as the game got to 10 years and beyond, very few new people are going to try it out. My younger siblings would never dream of trying out a 10 year old MMO.

I don't see how this pattern changes in classic. You will get a huge influx early on and this will drop off to hopefully a stable workable population. I don't see this as a bad thing, it's what most classic people want.

what you and everyone else fails to account for was that 1/2+ of WoWs popularity came from china, which didnt even have a subscription model.

whatever though. amirite

[vashe9]

Is you think they'll be more people playing classic in a year than in a week, I don't know what you're smoking...

Do you think every game "re release" (on other platforms, on morden platforms...) is as sucessful of the original release ? Of course not...

That's what "Classic" is, a game re-release like many others

[Lochton]

Why wouldn't they keep growing when Classic is released? With an entire new population of gamers, fewer barriers to entry, stable internet now the norm, and with no requirements to buy the boxed game. There have been over 100 million WoW accounts made in WoW's lifetime. Do the math.

I anticipate that the number of Classic players will only continue to rise as the months go by.

You expect that World of Warcraft:Classic is going to do what World of Warcraft already has been doing? No, there is no way I would believe classic to have the same success as progression WoW does, just for the fact that it would all be a rerun, a replay, deja-vu etc.

I can imagine it'll have ups and downs but overall, I don't see it on the same greatness or close to.

[Wezmon]

what you and everyone else fails to account for was that 1/2+ of WoWs popularity came from china, which didnt even have a subscription model.

whatever though. amirite

The sub count always used any paid for access, which included non subscription pay as you play accounts. It's moot anyway unless you think statistically Chinese players have better retention? It's just not realistic to think classic population is going to grow like vanilla did.

"World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules."

https://investor.activision.com/news...lion-worldwide

[Lurker1]

most players nowadays play mobile games Classic won't rise like Vanilla WoW sorry op but it's true.

[Elias01]

most players nowadays play mobile games Classic won't rise like Vanilla WoW sorry op but it's true.

No they dont. Reason why you see lot of people play mobile games is that everyone have mobile in their pocket. It is kinda hard to walk with pc case you know. But anyone with pc do not prefer playing movile over pc at home. There ia giant pc market. Mmorpg games never were dead. There just wasnt good mmorpg game release since tbc.

[vashe9]

No they dont. Reason why you see lot of people play mobile games is that everyone have mobile in their pocket. It is kinda hard to walk with pc case you know. But anyone with pc do not prefer playing movile over pc at home. There ia giant pc market. Mmorpg games never were dead. There just wasnt good mmorpg game release since tbc.

A lot of people only play LoL, Fifa, Dota or Fortnite or any other FPS like CoD... Mmorpg are a small part of the market...
And a lot more people only play on mobile (I'm not one of them)