Would This 'Solve' WoW's Decline?

[Toc]

No

10 chars

[nightfalls]

Get rid of forced CRZ (pulling friends is fine), and start doing something to consolidate servers. The fact is that they have hundreds of servers that aren't being used. Start offering free transfers to begin with (with the idea of killing off small realms), then when a population gets small enough, close the realm for good. Let people consolidate onto bigger realms then CRZ won't be "needed" (was it ever?) and experience can be good again.

It's sad because while I think Blizzard has made fuck-ups they have done a lot of positive steps. But their refusal to admit CRZ is literally going to kill the game is pretty sad.

[Count Zero]

I hated gnomes before and I LOVED to kill them all the time. But they weren't so common as pandas are now. They are EVERYWHERE!!! Just can't stand them anymore. You can't join one faction and not having them around. It's stupid both factions have them. And I prefer having pink-pigtailed gnomes than stupid fat bears around. Also pandas DO NOT fit into game like that. Just don't. Gnomes were meant like joke, pandas are for kiddies. Do you see the difference?

Opinions here.

Yes you don't need dailies, but you still have to if you want some steady gold income for raiding without using the many other methods of making gold. Also helps get reputation much faster and sometimes only way to get it. Reputation gives you some gear and recipes you want.

Fix'd

When they put xmog into game I was exited so I could use my legendary bow again but then again they never let legendaries to be xmoged. What is the point of xmog then if you can't xmog all the gear you like?

I currently play SWTOR as I can actually wear there almost any gear I pick up

So ... you can xmog most gear in WoW, and most gear in SW, but SW is better because ... ?

[Deleted]

Some people don't want to believe Blizz actually screwed up the game more than in Cata. They'd rather blame player greed.

i have to agree, cata was a massive let down & imo pretty boring.

[ringpriest]

Get rid of forced CRZ (pulling friends is fine), and start doing something to consolidate servers. The fact is that they have hundreds of servers that aren't being used. Start offering free transfers to begin with (with the idea of killing off small realms), then when a population gets small enough, close the realm for good. Let people consolidate onto bigger realms then CRZ won't be "needed" (was it ever?) and experience can be good again.

It's sad because while I think Blizzard has made fuck-ups they have done a lot of positive steps. But their refusal to admit CRZ is literally going to kill the game is pretty sad.

It's bizarre to look at all the "we don't have time/resources" comments from blues, particularly about stuff like cross-realm heirlooms, and then contemplate on how much time they spent on the CRZ that no one was asking for and that caused far more problems than it fixed, all while ignoring dying realms.

[Deleted]

This is what would happen if people were to play official vanilla servers:

"Oh boy, vanilla servers! I'm getting on board!"

3 hours later...

"I'm not even level 10 yet? How long is it going to take to get to 60?! Screw this, I have better things to do."

[Chaosshadow]

Wow why so many people saying old servers wouldn't bring back people? I WOULD 100% sure come back to play old content are you kidding me?

Why do you think people still play counter strike 1.6? Or play in wow private servers... I also know atleast 4-5 of my friends who would love to come back if that happened. We hardly have time to play anymore and it would mean we can take our time completing old raid content. It just sounds too good to be true lol.

[nightfalls]

It's bizarre to look at all the "we don't have time/resources" comments from blues, particularly about stuff like cross-realm heirlooms, and then contemplate on how much time they spent on the CRZ that no one was asking for and that caused far more problems than it fixed, all while ignoring dying realms.

I mean, the CRZ tech that allows you to group with friends is a nice thing, but the forced CRZ is literally ruining the game. Almost nobody actually likes it, just people will troll and say they do, or griefers/gankers will. I guess Blizzard feels they deserve the most attention.

The thing is the biggest problem is that people don't want to populate low-level areas, it's that dead servers are basically leading to massive sub losses, to transfer off to a playable realm, people have to pay an arm and a leg, and Blizzard seems to enjoy milking them for as much as they are worth. Literally there's no other explanation, despite the numerous excuses.

Remember the other thread where Blizzard's own EU forum was linked, Blizzard has been saying the same bullshit drivel for literally 2+ years now about how they "just had a meeting yesterday to discuss dying servers". If that isn't evidence enough that they are full of shit, I don't know what is.

[Numeanor]

So ... you can xmog most gear in WoW, and most gear in SW, but SW is better because ... ?

I can xmog ALL gear I want in SW, in WoW I cannot xmog the gear I have put so much effort into it. It's like here is your reward for few months then we will take it back and f**k you for time...

[Sturmbringe]

This is what would happen if people were to play official vanilla servers:

"Oh boy, vanilla servers! I'm getting on board!"

3 hours later...

"I'm not even level 10 yet? How long is it going to take to get to 60?! Screw this, I have better things to do."

No. I will tell you what would happen:

I would stop subscribing to Star Wars: The Old Republic, and I would resub to WoW just to play Vanilla. I am a veteran player, I started playing in December 2005. There are thousands of people like me currently playing SWTOR or other MMOs would would return for a Vanilla or TBC server. Still others are playing Vanilla, TBC or WOTLK on private servers.

I tried MoP and I could only play it for 2 months before I quit back in January. I really could not stand MoP. The game is way too different from the WoW we fell in love with.

[lordjust]

1.3 million is a big number. Bigger than 99% of us probably expected. We all have ideas on why the game has dropped, and even more ideas on how to 'fix' it. This includes me.

One thing players have asked for for a very long time is Veteran Rewards. It's a great system, but alone, does it fix things? Possibly.

What if the time you subbed to WoW made WoW's sub cheaper and removed certain restrictions?

6 Months - 10% off the sub
1 Year(s) - 15% off the sub, 2 extra character slots
1.5 Year(s) - 20% off the sub, access to a Cataclysm Server (4.3), 2 extra character slots per realm
2 Year(s) - 25% off sub, access to a Cataclysm Server (4.3), 3 extra character slots
2.5 Year(s) - 30% off sub, access to a Cataclysm Server (4.3), 3 extra character slots
3 Year(s) - 35% off sub, access to a Cata and/or Wrath server (3.3/4.3), 4 toon slots
4 Year(s) - 40% off sub, access to Cata/Wrath servers, 6 toon slots, free character realm transfers
5 Year(s) - 50% off sub, access to Cata/Wrath servers, 6 toon slots, free character realm and faction transfers
6 Year(s) - 60% off sub, access to Cata/Wrath/TBC servers, 8 toon slots, free realm/faction transfers
7 Year(s) - 75% off sub, access to Cata/Wrath/TBC servers, 8 toon slots, free transfers
8 Year(s) - 80% off sub, access to Cata/Wrath/TBC/Vanilla servers, 8 toon slots, free tranfers
9 Year(s) - 90% off sub, access to old servers, 8 toon slots, free transfers, new toons made start at Level 80
10 Year(s) - No Sub, access to old servers, 10 toon slots, free transfers, new toons begin at L85

Would this help?

Wouldn't help because it isn't about subs but about money. How does giving things for free help making more money? Make it completely free 2 play without an ingame shop and you get as many subs as you want but would only lose money. So getting a discount on the subs is just stupid.

Giving you more character slots wouldn't help because do you really think people left the game because they had not enough character slots? Access to old content servers could bring back some people but restricting access isn't a good idea and in addition they'd need to patch and balance these servers because back then they weren't perfect. So how much people will come back to play on these servers and how much would it cost to create and maintain these servers? I can't imagine that you would make any profit out of these servers.

Just look at the blogs of big guilds that left the game. They all left because of fatigue. They played the game for a lot of years and for them it's time for a change. Also a lot of subs were lost in China and they got WotLK very late and only months after that MoP. So they had to consume the complete content of WotLK in some months and after that the content of MoP. A lot of people are just burned out because they already spent so much time in the game that they need a break.

You can also look in the official forums where lots of people are complaining that content is put out too fast so that they feel stressed to complete all content in such short time frames.

In my opinion you can't really stop the decline because you can't fit the game to everyone. Some want to have the old mechanics and some want the new ones. It doesn't matter what you do because some people will leave the game. All you can do is try to keep the subs more or less constant and that's what we're seeing since WotLK. At the beginning WoW gains a lot of subs and reaches 11-12 million players and over time they lose 2-3 million until the next expansion gets released and the circle repeats. It's a normal process that happens to every MMO out there with WoW just having ten times the players as other MMOs.

[Bladeface]

Doubt it. People aren't leaving because it's too expensive. This drop is because the game isn't worth the cost anymore.

the same thing just different words...

[Deleted]

Virtually nothing will solve WoW's decline. They already reached the pinnacle of endgame with TBC. Blizzard fucked up by catering to the whining masses on their forums. They should never have listened, although you can't blame them for doing so. Now the game is running on nostalgia. The community is toxic and tired. The outdated visuals make your eyes bleed. Pandas. Empty realms. Some of the core gameplay remains good but they made too many things too easy.

Is a little kid going to say no to regular sweeties from his parents? Hell no, he'll say "gimme gimme gimme!" Is it good for the kid? Hell no, but he doesn't care, he'll gorge on the sweeties until he's sick and can't eat them any more. That's what happened to WoW. The parent (Blizzard) caved in to the petulant, demanding, entitled little child (the playerbase). Now if Blizzard says "okay, from now on you only get sweeties if you work long and hard for them" people are like "fuck you, I don't want your sweets any more. I can get better ones somewhere else".

[Ferocity]

I don't know why many posters miss the simple fact - suggestions in OP is what is called Loyalty/Veteran program, and it is presented in many games (and not games only) out there.

Just for kicks, lets assume that only 250,000 players of the 8.3 million current ones have been around since launch. Under the current model of $15 a month, those players pay $3,750,000 a month. Under your proposed new model, they'd only pay $375,000 a month.

But it doesn't really work always like that. Veteran program gives reason to keep paying for service. What is better - have old subscribers who pay less than 15$ a month, or don't have them at all, as long-term customers are not cared about?

WoW is just old, dude. Also, why do people keep bringing up old content servers? That appeals to a tiny fraction of the userbase, and it has a very limited lifespan. You go back, level a toon, gear up a bit, experience some nostalgia, maybe do some raids and then you're done with it and never touch it again. That's just a waste of resources to appeal to a tiny minority for a short period of time.

You underestimate popularity of unofficial private servers. You might be not interested in that, however there are a lot of people who miss preCata MoP and are getting their fun on non-Blizzard servers.

All in all, Veteran Program was needed long time ago. Look what long-term customers have, especially those who are stuck on dying realms. They are expected to pay quite a significant money simply to get their toons off dying server after years of supporting WoW by their subs. All they got was CRZ - which is like salt on injury, making situation even worse. There also should be game-changing loyalty rewards - e.g. playing X years yields you BoP consumable with unlimited uses, granting you current flask and food buff, playing Y years grants you additional unlimited coin roll on any raid boss, etc. There are many ideas to play around with.
Edit: and CRZ, dailies, new raiding is just making everything opposite. People who played WoW for years are not interested in doing dailies from day to day or read pages of tactics for normal raid fights and then wipe whole night to 1st/2nd boss. The more responsibilities you get with age in real-life, the more you value relaxation/fun factor in the game, and not some competition, antisocial daily routine, rat races etc.

[Deleted]

it would be nice to have "Veteran Rewards", but lowering the prices of subs isn't going to solve anything. If it would really bring more people back to WoW and those still playing now having to pay less Blizz would have more traffic on their servers without more cash income ... that's fail ^^

the problem is that people are getting tired of an old game. i know that they did alot of improvements over the years but WoW is basically still the same.
I've played the game for 8 years and I'm completely burnt out. And i guess there are pretty many people out there that feel the same.
from about 20 friends that used to play WoW there is only 1 left after 8 years. simple as that.

[Deleted]

Nothing will help, game is old, and many of Wrathbabies are leaving because it isn't "cool game" to play anymore. When they'll be finally gone, it will be better for WoW and WoW community, i suspect it to stabilize aroud 5-6 milions of subs.

[Deleted]

My 2 cents regarding WoW decline in subs. Keep in mind that I havent played since October 2012, so I might be wrong.

One of the main problem is that WoW's gameplay is now old, its close to what 10-9 years of the old formula? Sure most people still love it but personaly I hate it, the combat is too static, ALL casters should be able to cast while moving (not one or two spells ALL of them ALL the time). My second gripe is the ability bloat, way too much abilities, too much stuff to track.

PVE imbalance, (from an ex healer point of view) I always played a resto druid and the rise of disc shields started with infest in LK HC if you didnt have X class for Y fight you were severly gimped, it got better in the beginning of cata and firelands, from what im seeing in forums and reading various patch notes the disparity between healers got worse in MOP.

Endgame content, WoW is all about endgame, its endgame was/is one of the best, but if you no longer want to raid, WoW offers little to no content that other MMOs with no sub dont offer so its hard to justify paying a sub.

Gear gating behind dailies, biggest mistake of this expac imo, sure its better now but the damage is done now and hard to rectify. Raiders didnt need gear from dailies (maybe one, two pieces of gear here and there), casuals dont have the time/will to grind dailies. Making the dungeon rewards obsolete was a massive mistake, WoW dungeons were always great experience imo with guildies and good pugs and fun to do.

LFR gearing, on paper it seemed to be a great idea but sadly it tanked, imo they should rectify this in the future with better dungeon loot.

Thats all i can think off for now, keep in mind that is my opinion from someone who hasnt played sinc october 12 and my info could be outdated.

[hasslehoof]

content they release is good but old, people want new. one of the reasons why I quit is because raiding is just a grind that never ends, and everything outside of raiding is boring.

[Phasma]

People always want what they can't have until they have it and then they don't want it. Vanilla servers apply to the previous sentence.

[Kisho]

A loyalty/veteran program would be a good idea, but god damn the OP really needs to take some sort of business class or something. Discounts on the sub cost up to and including free? Wow. That's just an awful business decision.

I certainly WOULD like to see some vet rewards... That said, remember the backlash against the annual pass? Basically a vet reward test pilot, and so many people whined about how they wanted to stop paying Blizzard but still keep the rewards. I mean, lol. Just silly.