Blizzards Population Gets Older yet they Make the story more PG?

Really confused by the dumbed down story plot points, PG-13 Narrative, cutesy art style etc. I mean, shouldn’t we be getting a bit more “game of thrones” as the years goes on according to the demographic not pushing completely into the opposite direction?

Legion WOD and BFA made the game darker as it progressed but something happened in Shadowlands and Dragonflight… Maldraxis for example had really cheesy one liners and grade 5 level plot points.

I remember in Legion my warlock Classhall quest showed me people getting tossed off bridges, My Deathknight killing innocents to help bolvar accomplish a task. Even in BFA you had people impaled on houses with sharp object, a child who murdered a village etc…

The story and writing really seems to be going PG and I dont like it. Feels really bad.

102 Likes

Where’s the cuteness, Lebowski??

14 Likes

sleepily reads forums

It’s 4:30 in the morning… too early!

14 Likes

10 Likes

Blizzard is trying to attract new players, that is the reason. We are already playing the game, they already hooked us and WOW is an addiction most can’t stop playing.

11 Likes

LOOOOOOOL
LMAOOOOOOOOO

/10char

2 Likes

Comparing something to one of the largest, most successful entertainment conglomerates in history isn’t the insult you think it is.

13 Likes

I don’t get people who compare WoW to Disney.
Disney is literally better than WoW in so many ways.

3 Likes

No, look at your average WoW gamer: statistically 25-40 years old, single, anime obsessed, waifu body pillows, etc etc, I think you’re getting the picture. That weirdo crowd doesn’t want real, they want cartoony meets sexy waifu. Like some Genshin Impact stuff…

Damnit, you almost made me spit my coffee out. Haven’t seen that masterpiece in a while…

2 Likes

That was the demographic when it debuted. Tack another 20 years onto that, now.

This is probably just projection.

15 Likes

Talking in general, the average gaming age is 35 now with over 75% being above the age of 18 now. Yeah, WoW might be a handful of years older on average, but most of us started when we were teens.

That would definitely make life a whole lot more simplistic lol

This has been going on for awhile. Not just that but to appeal to women. For some reason they ignore their main audience while writing for people who generally don’t play mmo’s. It’s been an interesting strategy that has seemed to have failed in spectacular fashion.

I’m not sure they can salvage the lore at this point, after they trashed it for reasons that still elude me.

22 Likes

That’s definately not true to any degree. Thats maybe a small sample from a population of Millions. Most adults are not attending blizzcon, have a regular job, wife/husband , kids etc.

Most of my Friends list is comprised of , Healthcare workers, firefighters, Lawyers, food service workers and yes some people who are going through hard times etc.

Your statement is extremely demeaning and ignorant to the player base as a whole.

23 Likes

I am 19 and hate anything with an anime art style. Every anime that I gave a chance to turned out to be the biggest waste of my time ever. If the art style wasn’t garbage enough, it is everything else about it.

2 Likes

From https://financesonline.com/video-game-demographic-statistics/:

  • The average age of a video game player in the US is 35 to 44 years old. (ESA, 2020)
  • 38% of video game players in the US are aged 18 to 34. Twenty-six percent are aged 35 to 54 while 21% are under 18. (ESA, 2020)
  • Gamers aged between 26 to 35 spend 7.5 hours a week playing, which is the highest among all age groups. In contrast, gamers over 60 years old spend the least time playing at 4.7 hours a week. (Limelight Networks, 2020)
  • 16.4% of players aged 18 to 25 said that they play video games at work. In contrast, only 7.8% of players aged above 60 said the same. (Limelight Networks, 2020)
  • 42% of active console and PC players in the US, the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany, and Poland are Millennials or those aged 23 to 38. On the other hand, 20% are from Gen X or aged 16 to 22. Nineteen-percent are from Gen Alpha or aged 10 to 15 and 19% are from Gen X or aged 39 to 50. (Newzoo, 2020)

You can dig around in the actual studies if you’d like. Those are legit numbers. Now cross reference that with:

https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2021/10/05/rising-share-of-u-s-adults-are-living-without-a-spouse-or-partner/

And if you you keep following those trends from 2019 outward, that single percentage is probably hovering right around 50%. Now start breaking down some demographics even further and you’ll likely see that number even higher like 60-70% for your average MMO player, once you cross reference with age brackets and whatnot. It’s 6am, definitely not bothering with that at this hour, but maybe you’ll start to see the trends.

Welcome to statistics.

Have you guys seen how badly people react to “normal” looking video game characters these days? Like MJ from Spiderman 2 or Aloy from Horizon, and so on… People lose their crap if it’s not some ultra sexy unrealistic waifu… So that’s a lot of the reason why you don’t see games like this going toward more realistic or gritty trends.

3 Likes

This proves nothing in relation to World of Warcraft. You just pulled a few articles to adher to your conformation BIAS. If the article mentioned World of Warcraft I would hold your points in higher regard but right now you fail to confront the issue with any reasonable specificity.

2 Likes

Laughing my fat tauren butt off.

6 Likes

Well you can google around for a bit looking up stats then, but you’ll still find they are all roughly the same; assuming they are up to date and of large enough sample sizes.

You could always ask Blizzard to release their demographics then, they’d likely closely mirror the overall trends.

Also, it’s not bias, it’s cognitive dissonance on your part and your inability to accept something that goes against what you believe. WoW’s overall demographics would likely fall within +/-15%. I know, it’s a hard pill to swallow, but that’s the reality. The playerbase here isn’t comprised of some outlier pocket of people unbeknownst to the rest of the harvested statistics.

Exactly

3 Likes

" According to one of Yee’s 2005 studies, 84 percent of “World of Warcraft” players are male, and 16 percent are female. The average player’s age is 28, and female players tend to be a few years older than male players."

Google isn’t hard.

6 Likes

These responses come from a self-selected group, or people who have decided for themselves to visit Yee’s Web site and fill out the survey. This means that the results may not represent the world’s demographics as accurately as a random sample would. Instead, it may reflect a particular subset of players – those who are serious enough about the game to research it online and to feel motivated to spend time answering questions about it.

Reading is hard.

4 Likes