Would WoW have more subscribers now if...

[Balvan]

...Blizzard released expansions in a different order.

Well we alredy killed most important characters, who ppl liked most, like 4 years ago. Did Blizzard make mistake for releasing Lich King,Ilidan, Kael Thas, Vash, Kil Jaden and others so early? I know they were important for gaining subscribers at that time, but what if some of them like LK for example was not released yet? Would it hold many more subscribers attached to the game?

(sorry for bad english)

[Kelathos]

I suspect that, no, players wouldn't have waited an additional 4-8 years just for specific lore pieces to play out.

Other bosses / lore characters could have been built up to be just as interesting.

[pastar]

You do realize that Blizzard was the one that made those important characters right? As in, why do you think they can't make more important characters? People act like if it was not in the Warcraft rts games it can not be used in wow. Yes that is what WoW is based off of but that does not mean they can not make new characters for their game. Just as they did with MoP Garrosh and Lei Shen were really nice characters that were not really fleshed out in warcraft at least Garrosh Lei Shen was not in it what so ever.

[KungFuFanta]

You do realize that Blizzard was the one that made those important characters right? As in, why do you think they can't make more important characters? People act like if it was not in the Warcraft rts games it can not be used in wow. Yes that is what WoW is based off of but that does not mean they can not make new characters for their game. Just as they did with MoP Garrosh and Lei Shen were really nice characters that were not really fleshed out in warcraft at least Garrosh Lei Shen was not in it what so ever.

Lei Shen had 0 personality, Garrosh was nothing more than a classic Orc on a type of bloodlust.

[Chrysia]

Considering there are more current subscribers than total number of Warcraft 3 units sold since the release, I don't think existing lore was the major selling point for much of the WoW playerbase.

[pastar]

Thanks for you opinion KungFu.

[McNeil]

They should've released it like:

Classic > MoP > TBC > Cata > WotLK or something, just so they have all the good stuff for later. Cata would still redo the 1-60 world and all

[pastar]

Lei Shen had 0 personality, Garrosh was nothing more than a classic Orc on a type of bloodlust.

lol but i'm guessing that you would say that Grom was not just a classic orc on a type of bloodlust. Lmfao!

[Haven2011]

Kil'jaeden is not dead illidan may return. But most ppl don't don't care about chart hers much anymore they play for the content.

[Llunai]

Garrosh and Lei Shen were really nice characters that were not really fleshed out in warcraft at least Garrosh Lei Shen was not in it what so ever.

Neither was Garrosh.

[Abstieg]

No difference. The primary losses aren't due to WC3 baddies being killed off.

Lei Shen had 0 personality, Garrosh was nothing more than a classic Orc on a type of bloodlust.

Both had significant personality if you bothered to look.

[pastar]

ahh thanks for the info my mistake

[Haven2011]

They should've released it like:

Classic > MoP > TBC > Cata > WotLK or something, just so they have all the good stuff for later. Cata would still redo the 1-60 world and all

I don't think the order really matter the reason wow peak was there wasn't many new games like it.

[pastar]

But to answer the op's question. No. It would not have mattered. Subs would still be dropping because the game is 10 years old. Think of any other 10 year old game. I'm sure that game is not as popular as it was when it released. People get tired of the same old thing, and new shiny mmos hit the market and steal subs away.

[hrugner]

Considering there are more current subscribers than total number of Warcraft 3 units sold since the release, I don't think existing lore was the major selling point for much of the WoW playerbase.

I was the only one of my friends who bought WC3. Those disks got around let me tell you. The game was also made widely available at various online sources as a kind of protest to the Warden system which sent information back to Blizzard without telling the players about it. So, I wouldn't look at WC3 sales numbers as an indicator of how widely played that game was.

[Balvan]

I know what you are saying but many ppl felt attached to characters they knew from earlier Warcraft games. U cant tell me that you were hyped for Sha of Fear,Lei Shen, Ragnaros (2.0), Nefarian (2.0) or even Deathwing the same way as for Ilidan, LK, Kael Thas.
I agree they can make and they will make tons of new characters, but it only leads to hyperproduction of shallow characters with poor background story who will be there just to fill storytelling in some way. Its hard and takes time to create realy big and important characters.

- - - Updated - - -

Kil'jaeden is not dead illidan may return. But most ppl don't don't care about chart hers much anymore they play for the content.

Think you are wrong. LK as character was the biggest selling point at that time when WoW had peak in the number of subscribers. (and btw i think it was confirmed that Ilidan is dead, so we ll see him again only by using timetraveling or something).

[pastar]

With the way you talk about new characters I dont see how blizz could please you in character design other than canceling wow, starting Warcraft 4-7, and then starting WoW 2.0. Idk about you I dont want to wait that long just so you can learn about characters and get attached to them. I would rather learn about them in wow. See them over a few xpacs (aka Anduin) and grow attached that way.

[Chrysia]

I was the only one of my friends who bought WC3. Those disks got around let me tell you. The game was also made widely available at various online sources as a kind of protest to the Warden system which sent information back to Blizzard without telling the players about it. So, I wouldn't look at WC3 sales numbers as an indicator of how widely played that game was.

But you still can't extrapolate that at least 7 times the number of people who bought the game have played it. Blizzard has directly stated that there are twice as many people who have started and stopped playing WoW than there were people playing at the peak. That puts about 30-36 million people who have tried WoW to some degree. 5 million copies of Frozen Throne were sold.

[pastar]

I know what you are saying but many ppl felt attached to characters they knew from earlier Warcraft games. U cant tell me that you were hyped for Sha of Fear,Lei Shen, Ragnaros (2.0), Nefarian (2.0) or even Deathwing the same way as for Ilidan, LK, Kael Thas.
I agree they can make and they will make tons of new characters, but it only leads to hyperproduction of shallow characters with poor background story who will be there just to fill storytelling in some way. Its hard and takes time to create realy big and important characters.

- - - Updated - - -



Think you are wrong. LK as character was the biggest selling point at that time when WoW had peak in the number of subscribers. (and btw i think it was confirmed that Ilidan is dead, so we ll see him again only by using timetraveling or something).

\

Ilidan is not dead Chris Metzen confirmed it at the 2011 blizzcon. He grew so much into a demond that he could not be killed but rather banished into the twisting nether.

[jbombard]

It's hard to say.
The fastest growth overall was experienced in vanilla, and the fastest growth in an expansion was in BC. Wrath saw very little growth.

These things are usually affected by a multitude of factors, such as
1) Interest in xpack generating resubs and a large initial surge upon release
2) Quality, quantity and excitement level of patches during an expack also getting resubs and helping to reduce churn
3) Age of the game and the natural curve
4) Community
5) Market factors such as market saturation, other game releases, overall gaming trends

It is probably easier to grow the game the younger it is, so taking advantage of that and maximizing early growth would put you at a higher number when the natural decline begins. Yes factors can increase the speed of that natural decline and likely have, to what degree though is speculation. However switching around the order may have led to less growth early on in the game which might have had a bigger effect on overall sub numbers.