Article: World of Warcraft subscriber count in the decline

[JD]

You can view the page at http://www.ownedcore.com/forums/cont...in-the-decline

[cukiemunster]

I will be with WoW as long as there are still servers

[Fisher]

It's too late. Blizzard is being idiots, as usual, and other companies think that WoW has a formula for success, so they copy parts/concepts of the game and use it, making the mmo market full of World of Crapcraft copies. PC MMO had a bright future, but I don't think much can be done. Sure, you can go claim that Blizz has a huge fanbase, but whats next? They set standards in MMO gaming and then they crushed them , while no other companies can do anything about it. GW2 tried, and made a PVE game out of full PVP game. Lineage 2 tried, made a click-to-move game with mounts and bunch of other useless stuff WoW has. D3 was a complete disaster. SWTOR same, blue WoW basically, with lot of cinematics. APB as well, lack of content, bunch of other stuff. Someone needs to make a breakthrough in MMO gaming world, or its done.

On the other hand, its 2013. I have a phone in my pocket packing octa core cpu with 2 gigs of ram and quad core gpu. That sounds like the right device to run a game on, don't you think? And indeed, Gameloft is taking some rapid steps (very painful, but still rapid) to bring mmo gaming to android/ios. There are no more barriers, many games work on all phones, and are extremely fun. Sure, you can argue it can't be as complex as PC mmo, but I say give it a year or two. Dungeon Hunter 4 (Gameloft) or even Arcane Legends came very far from the first game ever on android that had mmo stuff in it. I think the future of pc gaming is moba or fps games, while mmos are going mobile.

Sure, WoW is fun. But can I play WoW @ school under the desk, or while waiting in line?

[Fumi]

I think they should move towards the concept that are in League Of Legends, free to play, but pay for exclusive stuff.

130% mounts 10$
5.4 with 4 new raids? 10$

honestly i would feel better paying for stuff ingame than for the time, i feel like i NEED to play a certain time a day/month/year to make it worth paying for.

[Maccer]

Fumi, that's not gonna happen. Blizzard is not some shitty half-scripted private server selling OP stuff for real money.

[Augury13]

@Fumi(also), that'd easily make me and a lot of people i know quit because they don't wanna be spending that extra buck when they are already paying the 15 a month.

[#ClumsyWizard]

@Fumi(also), that'd easily make me and a lot of people i know quit because they don't wanna be spending that extra buck when they are already paying the 15 a month.

Note he does mention FREE TO PLAY. Suggesting that's the route they should go first, and then have Raids/Mounts unlocks for an extra buck. It's like EA's F2P for SWTOR, but not as evil.

[#ClumsyWizard]

@tamnowen/DanzaKuduro: I believe Fumi suggested that the game go Free to Play before suggesting $10 for Raids/Mounts. Paying $15 a month, and then asking for an extra $10-$15 for extra content is in bad, bad taste.

It'd be better to go Free-to-Play, and then gate the content for extra money. For free people it'd be paying Blizzard a small fee to get it, but for people who still Subscribe it'd be free.

See what I'm getting at?

[Harambeqt]

It's too late. Blizzard is being idiots, as usual, and other companies think that WoW has a formula for success, so they copy parts/concepts of the game and use it, making the mmo market full of World of Crapcraft copies. PC MMO had a bright future, but I don't think much can be done. Sure, you can go claim that Blizz has a huge fanbase, but whats next? They set standards in MMO gaming and then they crushed them , while no other companies can do anything about it. GW2 tried, and made a PVE game out of full PVP game. Lineage 2 tried, made a click-to-move game with mounts and bunch of other useless stuff WoW has. D3 was a complete disaster. SWTOR same, blue WoW basically, with lot of cinematics. APB as well, lack of content, bunch of other stuff. Someone needs to make a breakthrough in MMO gaming world, or its done.

On the other hand, its 2013. I have a phone in my pocket packing octa core cpu with 2 gigs of ram and quad core gpu. That sounds like the right device to run a game on, don't you think? And indeed, Gameloft is taking some rapid steps (very painful, but still rapid) to bring mmo gaming to android/ios. There are no more barriers, many games work on all phones, and are extremely fun. Sure, you can argue it can't be as complex as PC mmo, but I say give it a year or two. Dungeon Hunter 4 (Gameloft) or even Arcane Legends came very far from the first game ever on android that had mmo stuff in it. I think the future of pc gaming is moba or fps games, while mmos are going mobile.

Sure, WoW is fun. But can I play WoW @ school under the desk, or while waiting in line?

How can you not call it a game/formula of success? Blizzard have done a great job, but try please 10m players yourself they are not facing an easy task.
They should lower the monthly cost, it will get players back and new players will get more interested in playing.

[Synrithh]

Most of the players as stated were from the East. I guess the request for in-game gold is not such a lucrative business anymore and people are quitting buying gold making many goldfarmers quit their subscriptions, because it's not hard to get gold in wow anymore(in my opinion, never).

And World of Warcraft will ALWAYS have their loyal subscribers, probably around 1-2 million players at least, and the game would'nt be dead with those numbers aswell because you would'nt notice it with the merging of servers and bringing people together with only high populated servers.

8.3 million subscribers is still a vast amount of players.

World of Warcraft is dead when YOU stop playing.

[Fisher]

How can you not call it a game/formula of success? Blizzard have done a great job, but try please 10m players yourself they are not facing an easy task.
They should lower the monthly cost, it will get players back and new players will get more interested in playing.

If it was, then any company copying them would make the same success but they don't. Blizzard was merely the first to publish something like that, and players always compare stuff they play to WoW. I'm not saying getting 10m players is easy, however, you can notice the article about their loss of players. They ain't really doing a good job anymore, but other companies don't figure that and still try to copy pasta stuff from WoW. My point: it's time for a change. Blizzard is much like Guinsoo used to be, adding stuff and adding and adding, but rarely looking back. So you end up with current wow, having 10000 skills, having pokemon battles, but it took them only what, 2-3 years to add another arena?!

I could go on and on where Blizz got it wrong, but that's not the point - I will gladly discuss this if you want too. They are doing it wrong, and they need to open their eyes in order to sustain competition. Sure, as vast as mmo market is, there isn't real competition to WoW as one can't simply make 7 or 8 years worth of content that fast, however, watch what happens when the next best thing hits the market.

[Guinness]

Why the **** would they go F2P when quite clearly they are still making a profit, with a development team that is larger now than it was when the game initially launched? The game will continue to see swings up and down as content is released. It will just get more and more drastic. Hence why they now have a much larger dev team and are actually trying to release content quicker. It's a rat race until they can bring Titan out. But even then WoW will continue to be a major cash cow for them for another decade. People are so doom and gloom over the sub numbers when they blow every other MMO out of the water. You could add up the next 5 MMO's sub base and probably still be short of WoW's. Not the sort of position where you are "struggling".

[gkelter]

Guinness has it exactly right. This article genuinely pisses me off. It's so reflective of the American media's fear driven campaign to boost product consumption.

[Sklug]

It's too late. Blizzard is being idiots, as usual, and other companies think that WoW has a formula for success, so they copy parts/concepts of the game and use it, making the mmo market full of World of Crapcraft copies. PC MMO had a bright future, but I don't think much can be done. Sure, you can go claim that Blizz has a huge fanbase, but whats next? They set standards in MMO gaming and then they crushed them , while no other companies can do anything about it. GW2 tried, and made a PVE game out of full PVP game. Lineage 2 tried, made a click-to-move game with mounts and bunch of other useless stuff WoW has. D3 was a complete disaster. SWTOR same, blue WoW basically, with lot of cinematics. APB as well, lack of content, bunch of other stuff. Someone needs to make a breakthrough in MMO gaming world, or its done.

On the other hand, its 2013. I have a phone in my pocket packing octa core cpu with 2 gigs of ram and quad core gpu. That sounds like the right device to run a game on, don't you think? And indeed, Gameloft is taking some rapid steps (very painful, but still rapid) to bring mmo gaming to android/ios. There are no more barriers, many games work on all phones, and are extremely fun. Sure, you can argue it can't be as complex as PC mmo, but I say give it a year or two. Dungeon Hunter 4 (Gameloft) or even Arcane Legends came very far from the first game ever on android that had mmo stuff in it. I think the future of pc gaming is moba or fps games, while mmos are going mobile.

Sure, WoW is fun. But can I play WoW @ school under the desk, or while waiting in line?

lol this post is funny. Even if Cell phones had the power of the new XBOX infinity and PS4 and couple play any current gen game it doesn't matter. Mobile games have a completely different market. Mobile games, in large are designed to be play in short spurts, on the go, or casually with one or 2 fingers. Angry Birds has sold over 1 billion games worldwide... 1 BILLION! Yet, that doesn't put a dent into the normal console/PC realm of gaming. Why? Completely separate market. MMOs on cell phones are not going to replace MMOs on PC.

[wowsc4p3]

It's too late. Blizzard is being idiots, as usual, and other companies think that WoW has a formula for success, so they copy parts/concepts of the game and use it, making the mmo market full of World of Crapcraft copies. PC MMO had a bright future, but I don't think much can be done. Sure, you can go claim that Blizz has a huge fanbase, but whats next? They set standards in MMO gaming and then they crushed them , while no other companies can do anything about it. GW2 tried, and made a PVE game out of full PVP game. Lineage 2 tried, made a click-to-move game with mounts and bunch of other useless stuff WoW has. D3 was a complete disaster. SWTOR same, blue WoW basically, with lot of cinematics. APB as well, lack of content, bunch of other stuff. Someone needs to make a breakthrough in MMO gaming world, or its done.

On the other hand, its 2013. I have a phone in my pocket packing octa core cpu with 2 gigs of ram and quad core gpu. That sounds like the right device to run a game on, don't you think? And indeed, Gameloft is taking some rapid steps (very painful, but still rapid) to bring mmo gaming to android/ios. There are no more barriers, many games work on all phones, and are extremely fun. Sure, you can argue it can't be as complex as PC mmo, but I say give it a year or two. Dungeon Hunter 4 (Gameloft) or even Arcane Legends came very far from the first game ever on android that had mmo stuff in it. I think the future of pc gaming is moba or fps games, while mmos are going mobile.

Sure, WoW is fun. But can I play WoW @ school under the desk, or while waiting in line?

WoW isn't the kind of doodle jump game which you can play waiting in line. It's not meant to be one of those games. It's more of an escape from reality type of game. If you like to play games whilst waiting in lines, you should be looking at doodle jump or arcade games, not MMO's.