Shadowlands: Rapidly Climbing the Ladder in Popularity

[Dracullus]

Don't get me wrong, I like SL...

But there's nothing to do rn. And PVE gearing sucks dick.

What you usually did 3 months after raid release? Hunting 0.0001% titanforging piece? Grinding side content to max out artifact?

Right now it's time for alts, doing side content you usually don't have time for or just break from game. Extra layer of grinding and gearing would make people play longer, but with higher risk of burnout. Just think about BfA season 2 (if you remember) - amazing raid, most alt friendly period in WoW history (quick leveling and gearing, very fast catch up for necklace and before 8.2 essences), but people complained 24/7 after s1 burnout.

Don't really want comment people announcing end of world cause sub dropped post launch.. after 10 years it's just pathetic.

[Wheeler]

This guy made this thread literally like 25 days post-launch or something.

The people that they've managed to sink their hooks into are REALLY attached, huh?

Of course you're having fun. The game is still fresh. The raid is barely open, you're still going through the gear grind where you can get upgrades, etc.

The gameplay loop (read: Now), just isn't what it used to be. 20 year old game, and all.

[The Butt Witch]

lol and the cycle repeats

u guys that come back and try shit. U DONT REALIZE WHY U LEAVE. the fking probleems are in the core of the game guys.... its not about shadowlands features, tho it helps, but the fking core of the game is fked. LFR, catchup, patch resets. etc.. nothing matters

I would have stayed if Ion hadn't fucked up my BM hunter and continued to not acknowledge there are any serious issues with it when the forums scream at him that there are serious issues.

[huth]

It rapidly drops popularity as expected.

It took way longer than for previous expansions, so your prediction was completely wrong.

[Declaron]

From what I can gatherer, Shadowlands has had probably the best launch but also the fastest decline of out of all expansions so far.

I played non-stop from Wrath until Legion, and stopped in 7.2. BfA - I bought it in 8.3 and stopped after 4 weeks. Shadowlands I bought it on release week and unsubbed on week 9. When returning for SL, I saw that probably about 100 people on my friends list had also returned (or never left), if I login to Battlenet I see probably around 20 people playing now.

While I agree with the above poster about the raid being "barely open" (11 weeks) due to the absolutely fucking ridiculous gearing system the raid is pretty much redundant already (unless your pushing Mythic). With nothing else to do apart from +15log, the game is completely fucked right now, 9.1 cant come soon enough and for most people, there is currently no point in playing whatsoever.

[huth]

From what I can gatherer, Shadowlands has had probably the best launch but also the fastest decline of out of all expansions so far.

Actually, it was notable for having an exceptionally slow decline on top of the best launch ever, so you gathered wrong.

[Declaron]

Actually, it was notable for having an exceptionally slow decline on top of the best launch ever, so you gathered wrong.

Thats interesting. So is it to be expected then for a notable decline to occur in the first 12 weeks of release?

Do you have a source for this decline comparison please?

[justandulas]

It had a good launch, and it’s decent leveling up. But the more I play SL, the less I enjoy it

I’m at the point where I’m just raid logging, as a mythic main tank, and I don’t bother with m+, or any of the outside of the raid activities that don’t interest me

The game needs more rpg uniqueness, ways dk stand out from the crowd. A way to make warlock A different than warlock B-Z. Older mmorpgs and even older versions of WoW pulled this off in spades.

Where is the 0.01% rare drop of SL raid? Where is the raid exclusive legendary? A reason to refarm old dungeons? Etc etc

The WoW devs need to spend an entire month doing nothing but playing MUDs and original EQ, to recapture that these games are meant to be more dungeons and dragons than it is meant to be Diablo 3, and current WoW is more Diablo 3 than Eq which is a problem

[huth]

Thats interesting. So is it to be expected then for a notable decline to occur in the first 12 weeks of release?

Do you have a source for this decline comparison please?

Yes, that's fully expected. Not just for WoW, either. The timescale varies, but there's always a big surge on game release followed by a rapid decline followed by a slower decline until the next major release or dieoff. This is simply how the industry works and not considered in any way concerning.

As for source, https://www.wowhead.com/news=321234/...ymoon-phase-en.

[Gorsameth]

Thats interesting. So is it to be expected then for a notable decline to occur in the first 12 weeks of release?

Do you have a source for this decline comparison please?

The literal words of Blizzard themselves in a shareholder call where they say engagement is higher then usual at this point in the expansion?

So either Blizzard is lying to its shareholders (a crime) or your wrong.

https://warcraft.blizzplanet.com/blo...all-transcript

World of Warcraft player and engagement trends since the Shadowlands release are stronger than levels typically seen at this point after an expansion launch.

[justandulas]

Actually, it was notable for having an exceptionally slow decline on top of the best launch ever, so you gathered wrong.

Reports have shadowlands already losing 50% of the player base.

I loved the launch period to but you’d be lying to yourself if you didn’t notice people disappearing

[Gorsameth]

Reports have shadowlands already losing 50% of the player base.

I loved the launch period to but you’d be lying to yourself if you didn’t notice people disappearing

And losing 50% (or more) after launch is normal and happens every expansion.

[huth]

Reports have shadowlands already losing 50% of the player base.

I loved the launch period to but you’d be lying to yourself if you didn’t notice people disappearing

I didn't say no decline. I said a slower decline. 50% at this point in time is not bad. Previous expansions had far worse. WoD lost something like 70% within a month or two after release.

[OokOok]

I can only speak for myself, but so far, this expansion is on par to be my new favorite. It has already knocked TBC out of 2nd place and is heavily breathing down the neck of WotLK for first. I came into this game Jan 19, 2006, and after Cataclysm, have just not been impressed with the DLCs that followed. Granted, that is just my personal, subjective opinion. I am speaking for no one but myself, nor am I claiming my opinion to be imperical data on the state of the other DLCs.

Is anyone else either seeing Shadowlands move into their number one spot, or at least rapidly climbing the ranks? I know we still have a ways to go in this expac, but if 9.1 and 9.2 are anything like the launch, I have no doubt this expac will apologize for the last 4 in my book and become the new number one on my list.

Did you actually call WoW Expansions, DLC? Expansions are literally a game in their own. DLC is additions to a product you already purchased that a company wants to sell you that should of already been in the game to begin with and morons actually buy it.

[justandulas]

I didn't say no decline. I said a slower decline. 50% at this point in time is not bad. Previous expansions had far worse. WoD lost something like 70% within a month or two after release.

I may not enjoy SL but I won’t go claiming it’s WOD bad because that’s not true. I just disagree with a lot of their current design philosophy and it is causing drama within my long time crew

[huth]

Did you actually call WoW Expansions, DLC? Expansions are literally a game in their own. DLC is additions to a product you already purchased that a company wants to sell you that should of already been in the game to begin with and morons actually buy it.

DLC can cover everything from minor additions to entire expansions, so long as they're exclusively distributed through downloads. Remember that it just means "Downloadable Content".

In fact, you could argue that simple unlock keys for stuff already present in the base game actually doesn't count.

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I may not enjoy SL but I won’t go claiming it’s WOD bad because that’s not true. I just disagree with a lot of their current design philosophy and it is causing drama within my long time crew

That may be, but SL is nonetheless doing above average for a WoW expansion.

[justandulas]

DLC can cover everything from minor additions to entire expansions, so long as they're exclusively distributed through downloads. Remember that it just means "Downloadable Content".

In fact, you could argue that simple unlock keys for stuff already present in the base game actually doesn't count.

- - - Updated - - -



That may be, but SL is nonetheless doing above average for a WoW expansion.

It started off that way but it’s trending in the wrong direction currently my dude. Look back at tbc, wotlk, and legion... they didn’t lose 50% of their population throughout the entire expac let alone the launch honeymoon period.

At this point it’s trending closer to WOD than it is wotlk or tbc or legion (which gained ground)

[Declaron]

The literal words of Blizzard themselves in a shareholder call where they say engagement is higher then usual at this point in the expansion?

So either Blizzard is lying to its shareholders (a crime) or your wrong.

https://warcraft.blizzplanet.com/blo...all-transcript

Why so toxic/passive aggressive?

I didn't say anything that can be determined as "wrong." - A lot of people have stopped playing already and it felt that it was very noticeable this time around.

@huth - thanks for the link.

[Soon-TM]

Where is the 0.01% rare drop of SL raid?

Basically all of PvE gearing, not only the raid. $&#@ simply doesn't drop, vault f***s you in the ass more often than not, so you pretty much HAVE to get into the mess that is 9.0 PvP if you want to gear up at a decent pace.

[Nutri]

I raidlog and dungeonlog, and I love it.

It’s great not having a progression grind forcing me to do stuff I don’t actually enjoy but am required to do. Doing the two weeklies for the covenant and 2 runs in Torghast to bank Ash is just perfect for me.

You could say I should do Maw, but I cba with that place and my guild doesn’t have a hard requirement on sockets - so unless that changes I wont do anything in the Maw either.

Two weeklies, two Torghast and the rest is just 100% free time to do the things I actually want to do. Ace!