If they're sticking to the release schedule from ~two years back, the expansion after Pandaria was meant to be the point where they go F2P w/ subscription for 'added benefits'. We'll know at Blizzcon for sure.
World of Warcraft down to 7.7M subscribers (600K decline in 3 months)
- Thread starter maniac-kun
- Start date
If they're sticking to the release schedule from ~two years back, the expansion after Pandaria was meant to be the point where they go F2P w/ subscription for 'added benefits'. We'll know at Blizzcon for sure.
Maybe someone over there is thinking "People really loved killing demons, and not dragons and Panda men and what not" so we might see the return of the Burning Legion
Unless another continent pops up somewhere on the map.
I really hope they do not introduce new races, there is no need, a new class would be welcome and hopefully those new models for original 8 races as they promised.
Unless another continent pops up somewhere on the map.
I really hope they do not introduce new races, there is no need, a new class would be welcome and hopefully those new models for original 8 races as they promised.
It's been pretty obvious since the start of the expansion that the next expansion would focus on the Burning Legion. The legendary quest chain that has been going on all expansion constantly makes references to them preparing to invade again. Blizz has said themselves they think out the next 2 to 3 expansions ahead of whatever the current one is, so, it's not really surprising.
Yoshichan
And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
Is your avatar Illidare/TBC-related in any way? The green + red background reminds me of it...
TheContact
Member
Still a lot of people but it's disappointing. Wow was so much fun at the height of its popularity
-MD-
Member
I spent most of my time with the game during BC, I joined at the tail end of vanilla. My only regret is not playing earlier to experience vanilla more since everything after BC was meh to me.
Speschal K
Member
I completely agree with this with regard to WoW, as when the new expansion drops, the questing "greens" are near or above the item level of the previous expansion's raiding tier gear, however with Everquest this was not as much the case. Despite it's name, there weren't many quests in Everquest, at least not the quests that we think of them now, and rarely did they provide gear rewards. The quests that existed would span multiple steps and zones such as the epic weapon or key/zone access quests.
When the new expansion came out in EQ, it was still essential to do previous expansion raiding content (if you were not in the 1% of guilds that already had it in farm status) so that you could gear up and do the new raiding content. I recall when Shadows of Luclin came out, a feature such as alternate advancement points (AA's) made it easier to do the previous raiding content from Scars of Velious, but did not render it obsolete. Similarly, when Planes of Power came out, my guild was working on killing Emperor Ssra and gaining access to Vex Thal (Luclin end game raiding zone), and we continued to do so, the extra 5 levels that PoP introduced made it easier. I would like to see those kind of progressions come back from expansions and, as much as I like gear and as much as I hate this saying, less of the "welfare epics."
To put in my own 2 cents for WoW, I have done exactly what Into said, which is play the WoW expansion hardcore for the first 1-3 months and then my interest dwindles until I eventually cancel my sub and wait it out for the next expansion. The biggest issue I have with WoW is the lack of sense of community. I can still remember names of people I played with in EQ over 13 years ago, but can't remember a single person I've met or connected with in WoW as I've played off and on since 2004. This is due to various reasons, but the one that sticks in my mind the most is that there just isn't really a need to connect with people. You can solo to the max level, you don't have to talk to anyone to form a group or complete a dungeon, you can finish the raid content just by queuing LFR. You could see and complete all of the content without speaking to a single player. That's what's wrong with this "Massively Multiplayer Online game."
Kacho
Member
It's been almost 10 years at this point, so not totally shocking.
Vanilla-WotLK was amazing times. I'll always cherish those memories. WotLK was by far my favorite expansion. Loved the zones, lore, and music.
Cata pushed me away in 2010 though. I just couldn't get into it. Mists was good and I enjoyed my time with it earlier this year. But between getting married and having a baby I just don't have the time for it anymore.
Vanilla-WotLK was amazing times. I'll always cherish those memories. WotLK was by far my favorite expansion. Loved the zones, lore, and music.
Cata pushed me away in 2010 though. I just couldn't get into it. Mists was good and I enjoyed my time with it earlier this year. But between getting married and having a baby I just don't have the time for it anymore.
That's very subjective though, as community was excellent during Vanilla and still very good in BC. Even in Wrath I met a lot of new people. Cataclysm and MoP not though.
Especially Vanilla, since I really met some great people during those times. I've even met some awesome people during Wrath and near the end of Wrath. I guess it depends on your luck and whether or not you join guilds.
Making friends and learning new people is optional in every MMO. And really, in what MMO can't you solo to max level? The true destroyer of community was LFR and that wasn't in the older expansions.
I never got into this. I played F2P starting in 2005 with Flyff and then Rohan. The Eden Eternal. Then I played Aion P2P and a bit F2P Aion.
I still have respect for it being the biggest MMO, and a lot of what it does got copied by others
Now Im on GW2 and Neverwinter a bit.
TERA is amazing, too bad they fucked up the framerate otheiwize I would play that.
New MMOs are still comming out, Blade and Soul seems popular in korea so far
I still have respect for it being the biggest MMO, and a lot of what it does got copied by others
Now Im on GW2 and Neverwinter a bit.
TERA is amazing, too bad they fucked up the framerate otheiwize I would play that.
New MMOs are still comming out, Blade and Soul seems popular in korea so far
I think the focus on LFR really screwed things up a bit. When we wanted to raid in the old days we had to actually talk to folks and all that. I met a lot of folks in the game all the way up to Wrath. Can't say the same with Cataclysm. It's a little bit better with Mists, because world bosses need some sort of people interaction. I've met some nice people recently because of that. Making LFR really was the nail in the coffin for that kind of thing.
WoW got much better peaking with Wrath.....
But you actually get cred if you killed vanilla KT
People like to call Wrath the most casual expansion, but imo it had one of the best raids ever - Ulduar.
And Arthas on hard mode was just so amazingly difficult, I'll never forget that battle.
I think people just hated the fact heroics were so easy with AoE, but I can't help but think it wasn't that bad. Sure, you flew through heroics but I thought it was fun nonetheless. Figuring out how to tank those patrols in Shattered Halls heroic or how to cc mobs in Steamvaults heroic during BC might have been more challenging, but that was no fun if you had a shitty group.
And Arthas on hard mode was just so amazingly difficult, I'll never forget that battle.
I think people just hated the fact heroics were so easy with AoE, but I can't help but think it wasn't that bad. Sure, you flew through heroics but I thought it was fun nonetheless. Figuring out how to tank those patrols in Shattered Halls heroic or how to cc mobs in Steamvaults heroic during BC might have been more challenging, but that was no fun if you had a shitty group.
Tertullian
Member
Damn, 7.7 million subscribers still? That's damn impressive. For years and years and years every new MMO was a tentative WoW killer, and there still has never been a WoW killer. Now the genre of strictly subscription-based traditional MMORPGs is on life support. WoW basically was that genre. Is WoW the most profitable video game of all time?
People seem to forget that the reason the LFD was added was because of all the wipes and such in those dungeons. Oh, how I enjoyed reading all the bitching about Heroic Loken. No one in their right mind would run Occulus, so people who had quests there were totally screwed if their guild wouldn't run them through. Heh, yeah...good times.
The dungeons were punishing, but not overly so. Unlike the Cataclysm dungeons which were a bitch, but overly so. Running with randoms was just a lesson in frustration.
I'm an expert
Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
My friend and I just came back two weeks ago after a hiatus since second month of Cata, so plus two for them. Cata didn't do it for me, but Mists has been shockingly good. I was a hardcore raider from vanilla to Wrath so I already had my fill of guilds, community, drama over the years. I enjoy the casual nature of puging and raiding a lot more now. If anything, it's pvp that seems to have suffered the most.
It is sad for me I miss WoW so much yet after first tier of cata I just couldn't keep playing.
Hell I even quit during WOTLK and missed Ulduar patch. was reading the fires of heaven forums during Ulduar patch. Rejoined when it was old hat for everyone and my server Coilfang alliance still never cleared Ulduar nor hardmode Lich King kills until nerf patches/end of expansion.
yeah the magic of the internet ruined MMOs.
Old Blood Guard from Stonemaul horde, left Stonemaul at BC to join Coilfang Alliance, in retrospect it was such a mistake to have joined that server and stayed on it till I died and hated the game.
I wanna sub to WoW and play now but its just not exciting enough for me, no community.
Hell I even quit during WOTLK and missed Ulduar patch. was reading the fires of heaven forums during Ulduar patch. Rejoined when it was old hat for everyone and my server Coilfang alliance still never cleared Ulduar nor hardmode Lich King kills until nerf patches/end of expansion.
yeah the magic of the internet ruined MMOs.
Old Blood Guard from Stonemaul horde, left Stonemaul at BC to join Coilfang Alliance, in retrospect it was such a mistake to have joined that server and stayed on it till I died and hated the game.
I wanna sub to WoW and play now but its just not exciting enough for me, no community.
TheContact
Member
Original WoW was great because it didn't hold your hand as much, BC really did improve the game, and imo the game peaked with WoTLK, but kept getting worse after that with each subsequent expansion
DigitalDevilSummoner
zero cognitive reasoning abilities
i downloaded a trial of WoW once...
Look what I had to cover my face with... 'tis all because of evil GAF comments that made me do it
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/Mal'Ganis/Yoshichan/simple
Don't worry man. I'm warming up to Troll females.
Rockandrollclown
lookwhatyou'vedone
Really looking forward to the cross realm stuff, this is really the first expansion where the game has felt dead for me. Probably doesn't help playing on a server being outnumbered 3-4:1 by the other faction.
Robin64
Member
Having to beat on mobs to level up weapon skill because you got a new type.
Talent trees that were just right and wrong answers.
Not seeing content because of preferring to play with close friends rather than a large guild.
Yelling in cities to form a pug for a dungeon, then travelling there and finding out nobody has the key.
Grinding for resist gear from low level dungeons to do a raid.
Being a fire mage and thus having no place in Molten Core.
Getting laughed at for being a shaman/paladin/druid that wasn't a healer.
Yeah, I sure "miss" vanilla too.
Talent trees that were just right and wrong answers.
Not seeing content because of preferring to play with close friends rather than a large guild.
Yelling in cities to form a pug for a dungeon, then travelling there and finding out nobody has the key.
Grinding for resist gear from low level dungeons to do a raid.
Being a fire mage and thus having no place in Molten Core.
Getting laughed at for being a shaman/paladin/druid that wasn't a healer.
Yeah, I sure "miss" vanilla too.
mangochutney
Member
Shouldn't make a difference. Your game should continue to be relevant to newcomers as well as fresh to existing subs.
That's what you have to do in a subscription model.
My phone providers is decades old, but I'm subbed as their current product is relevant to today's world.
Unfortunate since MoP is a great expansion, but not too surprising in my opinion. I think it'll keep declining until they hit a certain core base that will hold steady for the foreseeable future. No more 8 figure sub numbers.
But as someone who is still enjoying the game, I just hope they don't go off the rails with things like the real money store in some mad dash attempt to get everyone back. That may be a naive hope, but I'll keep the faith for now.
But as someone who is still enjoying the game, I just hope they don't go off the rails with things like the real money store in some mad dash attempt to get everyone back. That may be a naive hope, but I'll keep the faith for now.
I remeber vanilla most fondly, followed by BC. The opening of aq was my favourite memory this decade when it comes to mmo. Going thru outland with litterally full servers for weeks at a time was incredible. The world pvp was outstanding. But the ship sailed once lich king kicked in. Lost its charm and burnt too many older fans. Didnt bother with cata and havent been back since. Any other mmo out there right now would love to have anywhere near those numbers.
I miss talent trees, what did they really achieve by removing them, not only in WoW but Diablo 3? I remember them doing several blogs how they wanted to remove "clutter" and what not.
Its not like we have more (or even less) options today, at least talent trees gave you the illusion that this was your own unique character and you had something to look forward to when you leveled and got that 1+ point to spend. It was progression, you had the entire "i just need to play a bit more to get my new talent point" kind of hook, now you just play and the game does the rest. Less choice for the player now after several expansions than people had a launch, that is very backwards.
There was nothing wrong with them, and ive never seen anyone complain about them. Now you just get abilities automatically and make a few choices towards your way to lvl 90.
Its not like we have more (or even less) options today, at least talent trees gave you the illusion that this was your own unique character and you had something to look forward to when you leveled and got that 1+ point to spend. It was progression, you had the entire "i just need to play a bit more to get my new talent point" kind of hook, now you just play and the game does the rest. Less choice for the player now after several expansions than people had a launch, that is very backwards.
There was nothing wrong with them, and ive never seen anyone complain about them. Now you just get abilities automatically and make a few choices towards your way to lvl 90.
krameriffic
Member
No king lives forever.
Tailoring everything around shitty people and their shitty skills was where it all went wrong.
mysteriousmage09
Member
Vanilla was brilliant and BC sealed the deal. That era of WoW had it all. Now days, while the content is still interesting, is blown through way too quickly leaving you with only norm/heroic raids to do after a couple weeks of a content patch release. Even if the next expansion is the return of the Burning Legion, it wont matter, it's way too late. With Blizz's current mentality, the content will be too easy for it's own good and will last a month until the point comes to finish off the remaining, new, reputations afk through LFR, and do norm/heroic raids or PvP, rendering the game world pointless once again.
Really hoping Everquest Next is the MMO to finally add depth, community, challenge, and a true living, breathing world. The theme park MMOs has overstayed their welcome and the genre needs a change.
Really hoping Everquest Next is the MMO to finally add depth, community, challenge, and a true living, breathing world. The theme park MMOs has overstayed their welcome and the genre needs a change.
Interfectum
Member
Inaccurate and irrelevant anyways.
While 7.7 million might be a lot of users you have to remember that Activision Blizzard has built a business model around WoW having over 10 million. Years of success has bloated salaries, budges, employment, you name it. They need to get that number back up soon and/or find a replacement game or they'll be laying people off.
I'm an expert
Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
Talent trees were awful since vanilla as there was only usually one path down each tree for the optimal build. Some talents/abilities were just pointless or, while technically interesting, didn't add much to pve or pvp utility. What the new talent design does is get rid of cookie cutter builds and give options, even if it's literally one or two, that are viable no matter which you choose.
Example: as a prot war, while there are technically (and not even really) 2 or 3 must have talents from the 6 tiers, 2 or 3 of them are genuinely up to me to choose. Piercing Howl or Disrupting Shout, Shockwave or Dragon Roar, Safeguard or Vigilance. All of them are actually viable depending on the situation.
RPGCrazied
Member
The next expansion just really needs to come out. This coming September Pandaria will be a year old. Then 2 month wait for Blizzcon, they will surely announce a new one, but then we have to wait another 6+ months for it to come out. I hope by Blizzcon they have a lot of the new expansion done, and won't have to wait as long.
I just realized that Blizzard is probably the only developer on the planet that can spend years building a game, iterate that game many times, then drop kick the code into the Pacific and start over at the beginning. Valve may come a close second into having that kind of freedom.
I would as well. If just for the chance to see the changes Cataclysm made in Azeroth, you rarely get to experience nostalgia with a twist.
Yeah but my math shows that the other talent on the same tier that adds a x% damage boost proc to spell y% is up to 4.82% better in isolated simulated scenarios (that never happen in real play, but that's hardly relevant!). You should pick that instead because I'm smrt and because of reasons.
True enough, but I'm afraid there's just too many mediocre players out of raids (guild raids, that is).
So yeah, I didn't mind them making heroics easier, raids were still hard enough in Wotlk. I'll admit new Naxx was a cakewalk, but stuff like Ulduar and ICC was pretty hard, and I'm not even starting on the hard modes.
I'm an expert
Formerly worldrevolution. The only reason I am nice to anyone else is to avoid being banned.
The only talents that really gave choice were ones like warrior's weapon specs, and how did that end up? Sword was the go to in vanilla, nerfed, then stunherald, nerfed, then axe, they remove the specs.
Napalm_Frank
Member
Man, I sure have wasted more time on this game than I dare to even remember and I only played Vanilla, Wrath and Cata. But as much shit as Wow gets there really is no other experience like it for me. So many good, bad, sad, every type of memories. Made some new friends online and had adventures with real life ones too. I think the peak for me was Vanilla when indeed there was so much wonder. Those 40 man raids felt epic as all hell and I did kinda miss them in Wrath even tho they were a total mess to manage 
. I played a warlock in vanilla and I remember that I needed always to arrive at the raid dungeon way before others to farm for soulstones and summon all the lazy fuckin bastards! But damn it was all worth it when you got dat first fellheart set item and your first epic.
. I played a warlock in vanilla and I remember that I needed always to arrive at the raid dungeon way before others to farm for soulstones and summon all the lazy fuckin bastards! But damn it was all worth it when you got dat first fellheart set item and your first epic.I always mysteriously went AFK until just before the raid started. Funny how that was.
Robin64
Member
What I see nowadays is because you can choose if you want to tackle the content at an easy difficulty or at a hard difficulty, everyone chooses the easy version and then complains it's not hard enough.
I want to know how many people that complain about easy raids actually defeated Ra-den.
I want to know how many people that complain about easy raids actually defeated Ra-den.