El Pit wrote on Nov 4, 2015, 13:21:

nin wrote on Nov 4, 2015, 13:03:

El Pit wrote on Nov 4, 2015, 12:56:

Mr. Tact wrote on Nov 4, 2015, 12:23:
Still more wow than any other MMO to date.

But no longer wow enough to tell the public. This truth is brutal. Prepare for pain.

I can't imagine any dev that wouldn't kill to have a game as successful as wow, even with it waning.

True! It's still a cash cow, although it is slowly going down. But it's kind of funny that ActiBlizz is trying to hide this. Whatever. Never played WoW and never will unless it will go free to play in its final phase.

I wouldn't say "hide" is the correct word, but obfuscate would be more apt. The reasoning behind this may be as simple as "we know our numbers aren't 10s of millions anymore, so instead of giving off the impression that the game is dying, we'll just stop announcing subscriber numbers".

Jamil20 wrote on Nov 4, 2015, 13:18:
I feel like I should give it another whirl before the end. I haven't played since a year after launch. I would like to see how it has changed since then. I wonder if my toon still exists. He would still be at level 60.

I'm pretty sure they've said they're already working on the next expansion after the one that's not even in beta yet. You have years to go.

nin wrote on Nov 4, 2015, 13:03:

El Pit wrote on Nov 4, 2015, 12:56:

Mr. Tact wrote on Nov 4, 2015, 12:23:
Still more wow than any other MMO to date.

But no longer wow enough to tell the public. This truth is brutal. Prepare for pain.

I can't imagine any dev that wouldn't kill to have a game as successful as wow, even with it waning.

True! It's still a cash cow, although it is slowly going down. But it's kind of funny that ActiBlizz is trying to hide this. Whatever. Never played WoW and never will unless it will go free to play in its final phase.

I feel like I should give it another whirl before the end. I haven't played since a year after launch. I would like to see how it has changed since then. I wonder if my toon still exists. He would still be at level 60.

El Pit wrote on Nov 4, 2015, 12:56:

Mr. Tact wrote on Nov 4, 2015, 12:23:
Still more wow than any other MMO to date.

But no longer wow enough to tell the public. This truth is brutal. Prepare for pain.

I can't imagine any dev that wouldn't kill to have a game as successful as wow, even with it waning.

Mr. Tact wrote on Nov 4, 2015, 12:23:
Still more wow than any other MMO to date.

But no longer wow enough to tell the public. This truth is brutal. Prepare for pain.

So I guess WOW's numbers will be in Box Office totals.

Quboid wrote on Nov 4, 2015, 09:55:

McTurbo wrote on Nov 4, 2015, 09:42:
they have no one to blame but themselves. wow didnt die because it got old.. it died because the developer shot themselves in the foot from lack of content and deciding they knew what the players wanted more than the players did.

Developers do know what players want more than players do. Players are idiots who fall for things like anecdotes, confirmation bias and tribalism. Devs should listen to players and consider what's said but ultimately the developer has to have the overall vision.

Yep, well put. WoW is a great example of that. The amount of improvements WoW brought to the genre is insane and while they homogenized and streamlined far too much for my personal taste, the impact on the whole market was very significant.

Blizzard makes great games and I look forward to whatever they're up to next.

Every MMO developer would love to have their problems.

Quboid wrote on Nov 4, 2015, 09:55:
Developers do know what players want more than players do. Players are idiots who fall for things like anecdotes, confirmation bias and tribalism. Devs should listen to players and consider what's said but ultimately the developer has to have the overall vision.

Reminds me of this Crendor video.

But really, the only thing that could kill Warcraft is Blizzard and they've been doing a pretty good job of it for the past few expansions. Just a little list off the top of my head:

- They turned Azeroth in to a sterile, boring environment when Cataclysm hit and ran with it
- They kept trying to reinvent the wheel with their talent tree...
- ...and when they ran that in to the ground, they fuck up class balance even more
- Classes lost their identity due to pruning and homogenization
- Their dismissive behaviour towards feedback (especially beta/balance)
- Taking until Legion to essentially split the talent tree for PvE and PvP
- Destroyed any sense of community and accountability
- Slow content delivery
- Take a drink when they say they lack the resources in order to create QOL improvements or content
- Having 'Celestalon' and Holinka in charge of something more than delivering mail
- Crafting becoming more and more of a joke
- Mindless story development in such a rich universe of stories

The bottom line is that they've streamlined the game to such a degree that it feels like you need to wear a helmet and water wings when you log in.

This comment was edited on Nov 4, 2015, 13:06.

Still more wow than any other MMO to date.

WoW numbers not so wow anymore?

Cutter wrote on Nov 4, 2015, 11:32:
Blizzard games from Diablo on were never that good. Addictive? Sure but they were designed that way intentionally. They were the first company to use psychologists in game design with the expressed intent of hooking people on their games with the virtual endorphin rush. Yes, Diablo had oodles of style but the gameplay itself isn't anything impressive when you really consider it. They've been a design by committee and function house forever now. I've enjoyed their products, sure, but I wouldn't say they were good 'games'.

They were the first company to use psychologists in game design with the expressed intent of hooking people on their games with the virtual endorphin rush.

Now put that into the smartphones and LOOK were people are today : people living there lives through the "smart" phone......zombies

ahahahahahah

Blizzard games from Diablo on were never that good. Addictive? Sure but they were designed that way intentionally. They were the first company to use psychologists in game design with the expressed intent of hooking people on their games with the virtual endorphin rush. Yes, Diablo had oodles of style but the gameplay itself isn't anything impressive when you really consider it. They've been a design by committee and function house forever now. I've enjoyed their products, sure, but I wouldn't say they were good 'games'.

Necrophob wrote on Nov 4, 2015, 10:43:

InBlack wrote on Nov 4, 2015, 09:58:
I'd say they had a pretty good run. Pretty good, what the fuck am I saying? They had the best damn run anyone could ever Imagine. Even though IMO WOW is Blizzard's worst game to date. Still to those naysayers who think the downfall of WoW is equal to the downfall of Blizzard, well they have proven you wrong before. They will do so again.

I would have agreed with you, before Blizz was sucked into the Borg collective (Activision). They were a once great company that used to actually make games. I'm not sure how they could have butchered Diablo like they did.

Yeah Diablo was a pretty huge fail. From a gaming and artistic perspective. It was still damn successful though.

Darks wrote on Nov 4, 2015, 09:40:

nin wrote on Nov 4, 2015, 09:38:
Pulling a microsoft, eh?

It wont be much longer now. Ill bet they even get to the point of reducing their server count down to half.

The might is finally falling. and Blizz has nothing waiting in its wings to take its place.

Blizz is to concentrated on trying to compete with LOL that they are missing the boat.

<cough>
http://gamerant.com/heartstone-profit-monthly-900/
</cough>

InBlack wrote on Nov 4, 2015, 09:58:
I'd say they had a pretty good run. Pretty good, what the fuck am I saying? They had the best damn run anyone could ever Imagine. Even though IMO WOW is Blizzard's worst game to date. Still to those naysayers who think the downfall of WoW is equal to the downfall of Blizzard, well they have proven you wrong before. They will do so again.

I would have agreed with you, before Blizz was sucked into the Borg collective (Activision). They were a once great company that used to actually make games. I'm not sure how they could have butchered Diablo like they did.

InBlack wrote on Nov 4, 2015, 09:58:
Still to those naysayers who think the downfall of WoW is equal to the downfall of Blizzard, well they have proven you wrong before. They will do so again.

They don't have to prove anything. They got the numbers, they got the projections and they know where their revenue is and where it will be coming from. And based on all that they just decided to spend almost $6bn on an acquisition.

So megarofl @ "downfall of Blizzard". They are much, much, much more than just WoW and have so many options (Warcraft 4 would instantly sell 10+ million preorder copies and prolly another 10 million within the first year or something like that).

Blizzard will be just fine even if WoW goes insta-poof. But it's not even going anywhere. They will keep raking in hundreds of millions per year from subs and microtransactions even if the subscriber numbers go south. They would also keep raking in hundreds of millions if it goes F2P. SWTOR has become more successful than ever thanks to F2P (and SWTOR's F2P is not even good).

I'd say they had a pretty good run. Pretty good, what the fuck am I saying? They had the best damn run anyone could ever Imagine. Even though IMO WOW is Blizzard's worst game to date. Still to those naysayers who think the downfall of WoW is equal to the downfall of Blizzard, well they have proven you wrong before. They will do so again.