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World of Warcraft is in decline... we have evidence


Badnik Mechanic

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So every year theres a 'World of Warcraft is dying' story and usually it's based off dodgy data... only this time the data comes from Blizard and it's quite a shocking drop.

 

It seems that between January 2013 and March 2013, 14% of players left the game. How many is that? Oh about 1.3 million people.

 

Not only that, but activision has also warned investors to brace themselves for further declines in player numbers.

 

Last year they released the Kung Fu Panda Mists of Pandaria expansion pack, aparently it sold just over 2 million units, only the spike hasn't kept people in the game, as evidenced by the decline which is increasing, the attraction to World of Warcraft doesn't seem to do it anymore.

 

Part of the blame is being put on free to play games, and to be honest, why on earth hasn't World of Warcraft gone free to play yet?

 

The news has knocked 5% off the value of shares for the game too.

 

Source: BBC

 

So... does anyone here play this game?

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So every year theres a 'World of Warcraft is dying' story and usually it's based off dodgy data... only this time the data comes from Blizard and it's quite a shocking drop.

 

It seems that between January 2013 and March 2013, 14% of players left the game. How many is that? Oh about 1.3 million people.

 

Not only that, but activision has also warned investors to brace themselves for further declines in player numbers.

 

Last year they released the Kung Fu Panda Mists of Pandaria expansion pack, aparently it sold just over 2 million units, only the spike hasn't kept people in the game, as evidenced by the decline which is increasing, the attraction to World of Warcraft doesn't seem to do it anymore.

 

Part of the blame is being put on free to play games, and to be honest, why on earth hasn't World of Warcraft gone free to play yet?

 

The news has knocked 5% off the value of shares for the game too.

 

Source: BBC

 

So... does anyone here play this game?

 

Because going Free to Play suddenly would cost them even more than the slow decline?

Edited by The Kid
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Well.. Wow IS free to play (up to a certain level).

 

And like the previous poster said, that means you're losing millions of $15 subscription fees. I'm sure the loss is going to be greater than they could make. I do know that games are implementing both systems for max profit.

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80% of the losses were in the Asian region(s), of which have fluctuated in subscription numbers in every expansion in recent history. The game itself isn't in massive decline in the Americas or Europe, but the player base is flocking to larger realms and smaller realms are becoming eerie.

Edit: It isn't free-to-play because it pays for Blizzard's amazing customer service. They're the best in the business in that regard for a reason.

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I dunno what you guys feel, but a decline is a decline. True WoW has millions of subs left, far more than any other P2P MMO at least, but plummeting down from its peak of 12 million to a little over 8 million in the course of 3 years is pretty nasty. And from what little I understand of business, the suits don't like to see drops period.

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I think it's because people are getting older, getting jobs and therefore don't have much time to play the game any more. If they only get some free time during the weekend, then they don't want to pay for a subscription every month.

 

A lot of people in my school are part of this decline. They used to be big fans but have now quit for some reason.

 

Probably to play Call Of Duty.

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I agree with something that someone said a while ago. WoW died with the Lich King. Since then it just hasn't been the same game. I struggle to get through the last two expansion content because I get incredibly bored of it. With MoP they haven't given us much to keep level 90 players amused. I mean, farming, literally, seriously? The same few quests for months, all just to be able to buy a goat mount?

 

I hadn't been playing WoW since December, but decided to resubscribe when I broke my leg to give me something to do. But instead of playing the new content, I've been working on a character between BC and WotLK levels. I've tried getting into the MoP content, but it bores me so much! It's no wonder others have left.

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It's true that there's been a drop, it's consistent with what a lot of players I know are noticing.

 

For example, my brother loved WoW for a very long time, and Mists of Pandaria was his favourite expansion yet.

 

And then he played Guild Wars 2. And you know what? He was blown away, and it was free. Every moment he spent on GW2 he questioned more and more how aged WoW was, and how he just wasn't keen to pay for it anymore after having something like Guild Wars 2. WoW is, unsurprisingly, becoming aged.

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^And Guild Wars 2 is the better game anyways

 

I'm more surprised that it took this long. I started hearing nothing but negativity about the game after the... Catacalysm update I think it was?

 

I'd honestly be surprised if Free-to-play MMO's had anything to do with it. Most free to play mmos amount to nothing more than anywhere from stale and repetitive to just downright bad.

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This isn't in any way news.

 

The subscriber count has been slowly dipping for the past three expansions, and it's been well documented by each and every sales report to the board at Activision/Blizzard.

 

If you want to look at it from Blizzard's side, yes a great amount of losses could possibly have been from China and the East in general, because Korea and the majority of the eastern board DO get substantially more MMO games over there and have their tastes catered to in a different way.

 

If you want to look at it from a players side, Mists of Pandaria has been more focussed on "Have everything for the player to do". Which caters to both a casual and hardcore players of all degrees. But sometimes there is TOO MUCH content and as such a casual player will do what they want to do in the game and go occupy their time elsewhere. Whereas a hardcore player will do all the things as they have more time to do it and go elsewhere.

 

Can the surge of F2P games be responsible for this decline? Maybe. There are and always have been a large amount of people who want to play MMO's but don't want to play a subscription fee. There are also a large amount of people who have played the game for X amount of years, and just want to move on.

 

At the end of the day, the game has been going for 9 years. I personally have played the game for about 7 and a half of those. I find various things to do in there, and the raiding scene I have with my guild always makes me go back for more. I don't spend every evening in there. Maybe about 3-4 nights a week.

 

But in this recent expansion, we have had more content patches over a shorter amount of time keeping the general player playing. I have seen comments and arguements from both player and outside viewer alike, which complain that this is too much content, whereas in prior expansions there have been complaints that there hasn't been enough. 

 

Where do Blizzard make the line with this?

 

Personally, I like the changes that Mists of Pandaria has brought the player, and no I'm not all about the "herp derp, kung fu panda" ideal. I play the game because I like it. There are varying things to do in the game on a daily basis, and for a monthly subscription of £7.99 I don't have the need or neccessity to go and buy the newest £40-50 game every month.

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I used to play the game, Lich King and Cataclysm (and ESPECIALLY Burning Crusade) were good, but the moment they announced Mists Of Pandaria I was just...

 

WHAT.
WHY.
WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT.
THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE MAIN LORE.
WHY.

 

And then he played Guild Wars 2. And you know what? He was blown away, and it was free. Every moment he spent on GW2 he questioned more and more how aged WoW was, and how he just wasn't keen to pay for it anymore after having something like Guild Wars 2. WoW is, unsurprisingly, becoming aged.

^And Guild Wars 2 is the better game anyways

 

Guild Wars was always a better game then WoW

Come at me WoWfans.

Edited by Jin Hakumen Kisaragi
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WoW's pretty fun, especially when you had a guild that was as awesome as mine (we played a lot of fucking stupid games like golf, bowling, and scavenger hunts... And god, their initiation into the guild is fucking awesome with the leader and admins and shit throwing a giant ceremony for all the new members in the chapel place in Stormwind, fucking parade and everything).

 

But I'll be damned if I actually pay a monthly fee for it though.

 

Besides, Guild Wars 1 and 2 are better and you don't have to pay a monthly fee for that.

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