Wired Interview with Ion Hazzikostas, Fan Art - Cosmology Chart, Rumor - Diablo 2

[Kolvarg]

You make many valid points including that we can never know for sure if WoW had stayed truer to it's roots, game design wise, if the subscriber decline would have been greater or less than it turned out to be. That being said you do appear to agree that the original design is better at long term engagement. If that is true, and I submit it is, than it is more likely than not that if a 2004 version of BFA was released, with it's largely solo RPG / MAU focused design, WoW wouldn't have succeeded in the way it did for 2 reasons:

1) it wouldn't have generated the same level of long term engagement that was a significant factor in it's initial success - you need long termed, devoted engaged players as your base and "evangelists" to promote the game - many, if not all, of the MMO's that came after WoW never achieved that critical mass of committed and engaged players you need to become a phenomenon and;

2) a 2004 version of BFA would have meant that that version of WoW more closely resembled both Warcraft 3 and the numerous other highly popular RPG's of the time period meaning WoW wouldn't have stood out so much, been as unique an experience as it was and competing against a wider selection of already popular games and may have never got the cultural toehold that Vanilla did to become the juggernaut it was. And those, now more similar, established games that Vanilla was competing against would have most likely responded to any advantage WoW may have held (the simplicity of it's multiplayer experience being the prime one) and in the process snuff out Vanilla's flame before it took root in the culture the way it did (and the true RPG's of the day - many still very popular today - did improve upon / adopt the multiplayer systems used in Vanilla - they just weren't as direct competitors to Vanilla as they would have been if Vanilla had resembled BFA)

TLDR - I do believe that WoW wouldn't have become the cultural phenomenon it became if the version of the game released in 2004 had more closely resembled BFA.

I do believe the original design is better at long term engagement, but I'm not convinced that being better at long term engagement would necessarily result in better numbers.

Because ultimately the average person will get tired and move on to the next new thing.

If WoW had, from the start, a small, niche playerbase, then I would agree. For a game like Everquest, as an example, that iirc never surpassed more than a few hundred thousand subscribers, it's realistic to cater to a dedicated audience that's willing to invest in the game in the long term.

But WoW was massive right from the start, and imo it's just irrealistic to suggest that prolonged investment in long-term player engagement would have generated significantly better results. Maybe it would? But I'm convinced that the accessibility features did play a part in attracting new players which offset the natural unsubscription numbers, that imo would have happened even with continued investment in long term engagement.


Personally, what I think was likely a lot more significant towards the decline of the game, was the extreme cost of entry WoW had. I mean, by WotLK, you were expected to: pay for the base game, pay for TBC, pay for WotLK, and then pay a monthly subscription.

I think that did far far more to decline the game by driving potential new players away than any accessibility or hampering of social features and engagement could ever do. Especially as the industry continuously became more accessible to the point of many free games and indie/AA cheaper titles being good, quality options.

[Mysterymask]

Personally, what I think was likely a lot more significant towards the decline of the game, was the extreme cost of entry WoW had. I mean, by WotLK, you were expected to: pay for the base game, pay for TBC, pay for WotLK, and then pay a monthly subscription.

think this is an EASILY forgotton point...for a lot of people here...we just bought the next expansion as it came out..new person goes in and is like WTF...by the time Blizz got their head out of their ass...I think Mists it was already too late. Shit I believe this is half the reason Everquest started to falter...but those expansions didn't rely on eachother as much.