There's an awful lot of sentiment implying that if one does not subscribe 12 months a year the game is somehow failing. That's not true of course. Blizzard understands QUITE well what percentage of accounts stays for anywhere from one to twelve months a year for the term of the expansion. The bean counters understand the revenue from that and the budget going forward for the game reflects that. Everyone at Blizzard HQ is OK with this as long as there are no unpleasant surprises (see: Cataclysm). They would like more of course but are realists that the notion that people religiously play one and only one game is ridiculous. That's why it's always been super simple to leave and return.
Thanks for the nod. We agree about a lot lately. I'll have to see about that .
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I tend to agree that content and reward are meshed tightly together. They can appear separate but neither can survive very well without the other in the evolved meta that is World of Warcraft. The notion that Blizzard developers would entertain the idea that "our content should be enjoyed for what it is without respect to how it rewards completion" is nonsense. This would be suicide for the game. I'm fairly sure that it's a fairly easy case to make that practically everything you see, experience, interact with, or receive after logging on to the game is content of one kind or another.