How to get 12 million subs back. Step by step guide

WoD launch would like a word with you.

It’s entirely possible. IF the game is good.

The game is good. We aren’t always going to enjoy the same things in life. The mmorpg genre isn’t as popular as it was back in the day. WoW is still holding the the throne and crown.

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agree w/ everything but making mythic 25 player, fueling a 20 person roster is hard enough, having a 25 means you’d have to fuel 30 + people and 5 of those would be rotating in/out for bench

The game is not good according to millions more players. When it comes to it that’s what should matter to a publisher.

That some 1-2 million actually enjoy the game doesn’t get rid of that fact. It’s a game that can easily score 10 million concurrent subscribers if it’s done right.

Essentially I’d rather you be disappointed than dozens of people behind you.

Oh and plenty of us are subscribed that don’t enjoy the game. Why? To support the publisher. We want change. We don’t want the dev team to be reduced to a maintenance crew while they cook up some other crazy idea for bringing people back.

Genres don’t die. Especially the MMORPG genre. Classic showed that, too. But this is a much longer discussion that eventually comes around to instanced content killing the experience of both games. Eventually.

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Says who? Where did you come up with that number?

Where are you pulling these numbers from? I live in the real world and work with real numbers, I don’t like in pretend-land.

Some players on the forum screaming isn’t new, they’ve done this since the dawn of the game. Now we just see it on youtube and twitch since players make money from it.

:roll_eyes: well that’s not how to create change. Continuing to support somethint you claim you don’t like only shows the developers that they’re doing something right since you’re still here playing their game.

Genres branch out and progress, just as music does. We’re in a much further progressed version of the game than what we were 15 years ago.

From the WoW dev who said 60% of their current subscriber base is Chinese. Though I could be butchering that quote. It’s not high in NA and hasn’t been for years.

It’s floating around in different places but you have to dig for it. Look for the interview with the dev who said the playerbase is mainly Chinese.

Actually I was wrong, the quote was 70%. See: Retail Playerbase is 70% Chinese According to Blizzard Employee

Most don’t complain on the forums. They just leave.

Participation metrics are a horrible way to gauge player interest. A better way is to just ask the players if they enjoy it. It’s not difficult!

And as I said, the worst possible outcome is they don’t have the money to sustain development on lore and Art (both of which I gladly pay for) because the game isn’t worth the price of admission. If I stop paying for it that just puts more pressure on the publisher to let people go which TBH, isn’t going to help the game.

What genres have branched out? Be specific. Are you claiming that BRs are an evolution of MMORPG or something like that?

You mean that unnamed guy from a streamer interview? Yeah, really credible source. Not only just a streamer, but Destiny. I’d put as much faith in him as I would Heelvsbabyface. lol

:roll_eyes:

I don’t think it has any bearing on who was hosting it. As Destiny is a video game streamer and I assume has some interest in WoW. The point is someone who works there got on a call with him and mentioned it. This kinda of stuff is just organic like that.

It does, he’s creating hype and getting paid to do so. He brought in some guy on his stream that may or may not have even been a Blizzard employee, for all you know it was me on the stream and I can assure you that I don’t work for Blizzard.

You believe it because it fits your narrative.

Actually it’s more nuanced than that.

Like the subscriber dent made when Classic got announced. Take that as an example. Why would millions come back right before the Classic release? Makes you wonder doesn’t it?

It also reasons that Chinese work longer hours than Americans so they have a greater appreciation for a game that is centered around 1-2 hours of play per day. Versus the NA perspective that an all day weekend day is better.

Game design doesn’t happen in a vacuum. If the subscriber numbers start to go up in China and go down in NA the developer is going to just lean heavier on design that makes China happy.

What is WoW retail moving towards? Look at the mobile industry. Specifically look at mobile RPG titles. That’s the direction I suspect they want to go for China because there is an enormous amount of money involved for that kind of simplified product. A reward loop that fits into a 10-15 minute experience. Something you can do on your phone during the commute to work.

Obviously that isn’t what NA wants. NA wants a big AAA expansion they can spend weeks or even months in.

At the expense of the players, yeah

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I mean, we’re still here obviously enjoying it paying for it so they’re doing something right. For-profit businesses do stuff that is for-profit, that’s how it works.

:man_shrugging:

Makes me wonder where you’re getting these numbers from, tbh.

Some Nielsen researcher, SubscribeStar I think.

Also let’s not forget the numbers on Twitch.

If Classic didn’t come around I definitely would’ve peaced out by now so there’s “some” merit to what you’re saying. Still doesn’t mean that it’s right.

This topic in a nutshell: How to chase away most of the casual players keeping WoW floating.

None of the suggestions in the OP is a shot at casuals.

Titanforging.

Going back to pre-Mists Class Design. Most of it was bloated and unfriendly to casual players trying to play alts. There were very few specs pre-mists that felt complete because of the bloat. And until they started pruning specs, it didn’t start working. On top of this, the talent trees forced you into cookie cutter specs.

Master Looter. You were pretty much forced to never PuG, because you never got loot. Not every casual player has time to join a guild for a regular group, but they shouldn’t be denied the chance at loot.

Try again.

Not a shot against casuals. I see no issue with the only loterry you win being the item you’re looking for drop. If anything they should go back to Thunderforging.

The talent trees right now force you into cookie cutter specs. On top of that MoP is the current expansion where people point to when it comes to good class design. It was WoD onward where people complained that the pruning they’ve been doing is bad.

Not true. You could pug in Legion and get into Forced PL groups. If anything the request should’ve been that if it’s not a 100% guild run then it’s automatically PL.

Try again.

You know what is odd about your list, you really don’t mention any content as in things to do, so I suspect blizzard could do all of this and still fail because content needs to be there.