Dear Blizz Classic Team and relevant Execs,
Classic progression guild leader here. Like so many, I would like Cata (and beyond) to be getting a lot more dev attention, especially with regard to bug fixes and other things that could impact player retention.
I think you are leaving a lot of money on the table by neglecting the quality of the Cata experience and ignoring the voices of the classic progression player base.
And I think you could prove it to yourselves if you wanted to evaluate the value of your future investments into classic progression.
So I propose you run some targeted reports. Do some database queries. Specifically:
Current and Past Size of Classic Progression-Only Player Base
- how many paying customers have played ONLY Classic Progression each year – this year, last year, on back to 2019 – including players who have spent less than 10 hours, or 20 hours, or 100 hours per year, in all other game modes combined?
- how many paying customers, who have maintained active subscriptions for 4+ months, tried out Classic Era, SoD, MoP Remix, etc for less than 400 total hours each, but after quitting those modes, continue to be paying customers and continue to log into Classic Progression?
- how many paying customers have played MAINLY Classic Progression, year over year? Here, I’m talking about active subs that have spent more than 50% or 75% of their in-game time, in Classic Progression.
Classic Progression Player Engagement & Retention
- each week or month, how much time are players logging into Classic Progression servers vs other Classic modes and retail?
- how many paying customers signed up for a sub when Classic Progression first launched but then canceled their sub within 3-6 months? and for each expansion launch, same question: how many people signed up for a sub at the launch of TBC, WotLK, and Cata, and then canceled their sub within 3-6 months?
- how does this compare to retention among retail players and Classic Era players?
- of those players who signed up during significant Classic Progression launches but then canceled their subs 3-6 months later, what percentage of them filed a bug report or ticket within 2 months of canceling their subscription? how does that percentage compare to the percentage of retail players who file bug reports or tickets?
“Permanent Retail Quitters” Player Base
- how many paying customers came back to WoW after canceling their WoW subscription and staying away for 2 years or more, and then returned at some point after Classic Progression was launched, and have continued to be paying customers since re-subscribing?
- same query as the previous, but specifically within windows of time around the launch of Classic Progression and each of its expansions?
- how many paying customers haven’t even downloaded The War Within or logged into retail since its launch? same question for Dragonflight, Shadowlands, and on back as far as you’d like to go. and how many total months have those customers paid for subs during those time frames despite not playing retail?
Bridges Burned by Classic Progression Bugs
- how many former paying customers stopped playing both retail and Classic Progression during general spikes of high bug reports and support tickets specifically related to Classic Progression?
- how much did spikes in Classic Progression bug reports and support tickets correlate with reduced play time and disbanded guilds (across all WoW modes), and canceled subscriptions?
- over time overall, how many guilds were being created and disbanded in Classic Progression during the 2019 launch, each expansion launch, and during periods of 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months after each launch?
- and the optional deep dive: how much WoW Forum and Reddit r/classicwow activity, stating that the poster’s dissatisfaction with Blizzard’s dedication to quality for Classic Progression was leading to an intention to leave the game, was correlated with actual subscription cancellations?
Speaking as one of the “permanent retail quitters”, I have long term plans as a Classic Progression guild leader – plans that depend on better retention of players on my server. You are kinda the Disney of gaming companies – there is no reason you can’t leverage Classic Progression to tap that audience for more money, more vibrant servers, more customer loyalty and retention across all game modes, and more industry goodwill.
You just need to prove to yourself that it’s worth the resources to do so. Please check the math.