I suspect SL's hiatus will have the lowest subs in history and it will trigger events

[kamuimac]

Let's face it; most people still around from the early days of the game are 40+ year olds who start not even gaming anymore; the younglings aren't few but they don't tend to stay especially since WoW is nothing too special in the context of new games.

An expansion that just has "dragons and Alex the hot!" is not going to cut it; it might have a small peak at launch but even that may be underwhelming; the new producers will likely pull the plug entirely and possibly try something extremely new.

The nature of "extremely new" is up in the air but I have some predictions; perhaps they will delete all technical notions of 'expansion' and release it only as 'Warcraft'; what do you think they might do?

yes and most likely most of those people will be gone for good - seeing how all 10.0 announcements and wolk classic too are showing those will be again expansion catered only to hardcore toxic elitest parts of playerbase while casuals will be once again shunned and unwelcomed in game.

i just hope nobody dares to say in 2 years time that there werent clear signs of that before launch . there already are and are unlikely to be changed before release.

[Myradin]

It's hard selling a game created in 2004 to people born after 2004. It's hard seeing WoWs graphics (people's first impressions btw) be comparable to xbox-360 graphics. People were spoiled by great graphic RPGs like Skyrim over a decade ago, WoW hasn't gotten more popular since then.

WoW actually looks pretty nice on high settings. Briefly before I quit oddly enough I got a new computer that could crank everything to max, and I was honestly surprised just how great the game looks

The main problem, imo, is the character models, and not even so much the character models themselves (though this depends on race), but the armor they wear. Its just stretched textures with some 3D shoulders. This can look nice, but it can also look pretty dated.

FF looks comparatively worse when it comes to lighting, shadows, materials, etc (without Gshade of course, since thats modding). Its character models are somewhat nicer, though its gear models are far and away superior. I think part of what holds wow back in this regard is all the races are so radically different in terms of proportions. Whereas FF's are just various heights of humans, with the potatos and hrothgar being notable exceptions.

[Lolites]

Firstly, ur just wrong

https://venturebeat.com/2020/12/08/w...c-game-launch/

it was literaly all over the internet... not sure if your memory sucks or you cant read but its YOU who is just wrong...

[A Chozo]

Ah yes, the good ol' "It can't possibly be because they actually enjoy the game, no, it must be some flaw of their mentality!" argument. Never fails to show up.

I don't know what's the deal with people who stop playing wow that they get so unbelievably triggered to the point that they refuse to accept people playing it because they like it.

It's so fucking beyond me. Someone plays WoW? "They are in a toxic relationship with the game!!!!1" - says the person who can't let go and keeps shitting on WoW forums years after "quitting".

[Ezyah]

They need to fully focus on retaining players than new players. I would say be radical - remove the whole leveling experience and just turn it into something like Loremaster. Make each zone scaled to max level for solo questing. Give people literally everything they ask for. Retain, retain, retain.

Do you think they're not giving what the "omfg the game is only made for the 0.1%" people want just to piss them off ?

Looking at MMO champ, that would mean logging on a reset day, do a LFR (that would be the highest difficulty), do a mythic + 5 with no timer, experience a bit of solo story, be FULLY geared, log off and complain on social media that there is not enough content.

that would retain noone

[oplawlz]

There isn't enough competition. Not even outside of other MMOs. What else is there to play this year until Q4?

Facts. FF14 and GW2 are both good at what they do, but they just don't have appeal for a lot of people. Same with all the korean p2w grindfests.

[Neuroticaine]

There have been many many games that have leaned into cartoony graphics and have been wildly popular. Not everything has to be some grimdark monstrosity that straddles the edge of the uncanny valley.

Even then, there's still a LOT of room to improve WoW's graphical fidelity without losing its iconic style. Even taking it's artistic style into consideration, the game's graphics are still absolutely dated. But you're gonna get that with an MMO regardless, and there's not going to be much incentive to radically update a 20 year old game's visuals.

[ToxicFlame]

https://venturebeat.com/2020/12/08/w...c-game-launch/

it was literaly all over the internet... not sure if your memory sucks or you cant read but its YOU who is just wrong...

what you linked is the fastest selling PC only game. Also good job ignoring everything but the first 4 words

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ts#Video_games

- - - Updated - - -

It was the best selling PC game of all times (on release day), period. GTA/CoD count PC + console sales. So fact is, SL was the best selling release day PC game, ever.
But yeah, it's "niche". Like I've said - you may call it niche it you want, but that's one huge niche.

but its not huge, 3 million is nothing compared to the hundreds of millions of players for league, csgo, dota, gta 5, cod, fifa, etc

[Dioporco]

Ff is amazing, but replayability is so low imho..once you beat the MSQ and do all the new raids what is there to even do? .lost ark is way more P2W than wow is how can anybody really even enjoy that game for any extended period of time?

lost ark is pay2win just like wow, you pay for progress or slowly farm it.


people likes it because has all the horizontal content that wow lacks plus better pve stuff



tl;dr - people loves LA because they played WOW in 2022

[Rageonit]

but its not huge, 3 million is nothing compared to the hundreds of millions of players for league, csgo, dota, gta 5, cod, fifa, etc

There are things between "huge" and "niche". Work on your vocabulary.

[Ielenia]

but its not huge, 3 million is nothing compared to the hundreds of millions of players for league, csgo, dota, gta 5, cod, fifa, etc

League? Free to play.
CS:GO? Free to play.
DOTA? Free to play.
GTA 5? Counts console as well.
COD? Counts console as well.
FIFA? Counts console as well.

It's amazing the straws you're trying to grasp here.

[ToxicFlame]

There are things between "huge" and "niche". Work on your vocabulary.

God, just imagine what other companies would do to have a "niche games" that sells 3.7 million copies in preorder/on release day... That's one huge niche man.

thats your words my dude.

Personally, I would even go so far as to call the entire category of mmorpgs a niche let alone a single game from that genre. League at its peak alone had 10x the player base of peak wow.

- - - Updated - - -

League? Free to play.
CS:GO? Free to play.
DOTA? Free to play.
GTA 5? Counts console as well.
COD? Counts console as well.
FIFA? Counts console as well.

It's amazing the straws you're trying to grasp here.

so what if those are f2p or console as well? u can't go claiming wow isn't a niche and then proceed to only compare it to fraction games.

[Dioporco]

League? Free to play.
CS:GO? Free to play.
DOTA? Free to play.
GTA 5? Counts console as well.
COD? Counts console as well.
FIFA? Counts console as well.

It's amazing the straws you're trying to grasp here.

just like the straws that there are 3 milion players in wow atm just because they sold 3milions copies at day 1 and after 2 months people quit

[Rageonit]

thats your words my dude.

Really? /10char

u can't go claiming wow isn't a niche

[Dioporco]

double10char

[Rageonit]

just like the straws that there are 3 milion players in wow atm just because they sold 3milions copies at day 1 and after 2 months people quit

Why is it so important how many people play right now? Nobody is forced to stick with a game longer than they want to. They sold 3.7 million in preorder/on release and for sure sold some more later. And despite recent expansions being deemed "flops" by some portion of the playerbase, they continue to sell well enough.

[Dioporco]

It was the best selling PC game of all times (on release day), period. GTA/CoD count PC + console sales. So fact is, SL was the best selling release day PC game, ever.
But yeah, it's "niche". Like I've said - you may call it niche it you want, but that's one huge niche.

???????????????????


means nothing fast selling if then the product is trash like cyberpunk

[Rageonit]

Where is Shadowlands here?

What do you mean where is it? Do you have troubles reading it? Me too, it's very blurry.

[Dioporco]

Why is it so important how many people play right now? Nobody is forced to stick with a game longer than they want to. They sold 3.7 million in preorder/on release and for sure sold some more later. And despite recent expansions being deemed "flops" by some portion of the playerbase, they continue to sell well enough.

what a dumb question.

so is only important how many copies sold on day 1? rofl

people using the "BuT iT sOlD 3.x MiLiOn CoPiEs oN dAy 1" are delusional as fuck.


Compare Elden Ring to Cyberpunk to SL and we can clearly see how day 1 sells means nothing about the quality of a product

[ToxicFlame]

Why is it so important how many people play right now? Nobody is forced to stick with a game longer than they want to. They sold 3.7 million in preorder/on release and for sure sold some more later. And despite recent expansions being deemed "flops" by some portion of the playerbase, they continue to sell well enough.

because people buy shit due to hype only to realize they don't actually like the game