Most of WoW’s player base was also much younger and didn’t have as much responsibility as we do now. We could just play after school with our group of friends. That isn’t as easy to do now.
the reason wow was popular 15 years ago was because you had celebrities saying they play it on tv. everyone and their mother and grandmother knew arthas the lich king and once the hype died everyone left
For me, WoD and BFA destroyed the game. WoD killed all the non raid content of the game and BFA nuked the combat by putting every ability on the GCD and making combat feel slow, sluggish and bad. Also the ability pruning can go die in a fire. I hope they never do it again.
Thankfully this expansion has breathed some life back into the game in general. Professions are now in a much better state, classes feel better, the talent trees are actually an extremely positive change. Dragonriding. There is a lot to be happy about this expansion imo.
I mean as a disc priest and MM hunter enjoyer in WoTLK, it feels about the same. Make sure to macro in spells with others if you are using that many buttons regularly. For Holy Priest, fade can be macroed into prayer of mending for example. Help/Harm macros should be used for smite/flash heal, shadow word death with power word life, renew with shadow word pain, macro in your trinket with power infusion, Dispel and purify can go together with mass dispel as an @cursor modifier on the same button as well.
Thanks for the new entries to the list. I’ve been working on this list for a while. These are reasons given by people in this forum of the major reason why WOW has failed.
When WOW was first created it was one of the only D&D like MMOs around. Now there are hundreds of new ones each year.
In an industry where 5 years is middle aged and 10 years is an antique, WOW is an 18 year old game competing with tons of new technology.
The trend these days is toward social media and mobile where WOW doesn’t play well.
Some say it’s the story writting particularly in BFA and ShadowLands.
Or it’s the toxic culture of the players that’s causing people to leave.
Others point to specific abilities like “borrowed power” that have been taken away.
Next we hear that it’s time gating
Death. Wow players aren’t getting any younger, and younger players don’t share the same attraction to MMOs… particularly ones dominated by older people.
The questing requirements are not long and grinding enough.
The questing requirements are to long and grinding.
They heard Activision say: “If you don’t like the game, go play something else.”
or… “The game is not meant for you”.
SL had too many mobs close together.
The Horde/Alliance cold war.
The China fiasco.
No regular flying at expansion launch is what killed the game.
Dear Blizz you cut this feature I loved so I quit.
Fed up with the loot system/RNG
Want an MMO with less focus on dungeons and raids
They want RPG content
No player housing
Long server down times.
People don’t like power systems.
LFR !!!
WoW is too hard core.
Blizzard cut employee bonuses by 58% despite getting a strong fiscal year.
What made WoW “good” in the first place? Timing. It was an easy casual MMO launched during a time when people nationwide were starting to get solid broadband or internet connections and it was one of the first online experiences people had. It was super social, often being used as a chat room, because things like social networks etc didn’t really exist yet. WoW was a cultural phenomena, it fundamentally went “viral” before going viral was a thing.
The guy installing my cable sees my computer and asks if I play games, because he plays WoW.
My cousins who didn’t play any other games, played WoW.
Because of all the things above. Not because of “lower damage numbers” or “slower combat”.
What is also different about the conditions in which wow exists in 2009 and 2023… or put more simply what is different today from 2009 which might also be impacting the popularity of wow?
Love all this yes, lets do it.
Disagree with this MASSIVELY!!! on the slower combat front. I like fast paced combat, if every GCD is not filled I hate hate hate the class. I like rhythmic combat, don’t like too many procs and I hate cast bars.
Damage numbers… meh when you get into the 100k per hit range, then its too much and time for a squish below that I am ok.
Quit, if enough people stop playing they will make changes, through out wow thats how they design. They keep making the game they (as hardcore gamers) want , not the game that the majority of their playerbase want (LFR/casual). Either enough casuals quit or they stay the course.
My sub runs out in a couple days, probably going to buy last epoch.
Well, timing and a very dedicated and massive Warcraft fanbase. If it would have just been a generic MMO without the fan hype to back it, who knows what would have happened.
