Is wow just mismanaged or tired?

Community General Discussion
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They are huge. Extremely successful. Industry leading in the MMO department (or has FF overtaken them) anyways, for the sake of the argument lets just say they are doing great with resources.
Can they not hire someone and say "hey you, work on some customizations so these people will shtup).

Hire another person and say, “You there, work on the concerns of people that don’t raid”. “If it is tied to a power progression system don’t even think about it”

Hire a third person and say, "how about lets add some new flavor and some old flavor. "get working on archeaology or pet dungeons, or new bg’s or lets reuse some art assets and bang out this new content.

It isn’t that simple i know, but this blizzonline wasn’t inspiring to me. I time traveled and only heard about pixeled arcade games and TBC. If your gonna announce something that would have been the time.

Don’t get rid of anyone that are working on raiding and mythic+ thats doing great.

but, my god give people that don’t do a ton of instanced content something to do that isn’t a world quest or a calling.

Feel like Blizz is saying “nope can’t do that”. Other MMO’s are atleast trying to say they can. hmmm, wonder where the innovation is…if you are thinking WOW…you may have just woke up from a coma.

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I think they’re just coasting at this point.

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Mismanaged. The sheer fact that when wow has a patch or expansion, there is an enormous rise in players shows there is still interest. The problem is the management team doesnt make the game so those people want to stay subbed. Thus the exodus that follows shortly after.

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Definitely mismanaged.

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It is not impossible that they either didn’t have the resources and time to produce what they wanted last year due to problematic delays, or misjudged how quickly things would burn out or how long it was going to take for the next content drop.

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Mismanaged, leading to tiresome situations

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Think of the revenue this game brings to them every month, then look at the end product.

Even the most devoted fan must admit that SL does not look like a $50M dollar a month revenue game.

I think they are resting on their laurels and raking in the cash. They are milking the Warcraft name and good mechanical base game by creating as little content as possible, as many treadmills as possible, and using as many metrics as they can to figure out how to maximize their profit with as little effort as possible.

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None of the above, next trick question

Adding more chefs to the kitchen won’t have the effect you think it will.

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I think it is just showing its age and people are losing interest. Too many other options either via mobile games or other pc games. Are they as good as WoW individually? No, but they do not have to be while lots of options exist.

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I’m not saying add more chefs to flip the same steak a million times until its charred.
I’m saying lets have a full menu here.
Shadowlands took food off the menu actually.
Why do we have to have 5 star raids and 1 star world content?

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Currently management is thinking:

https://i.redd.it/nb5144f7prm31.jpg

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Well because raids and mythic + seem to be what the designers believe the game is made for. Look at the covenant gear, its basically handouts so people can do raid level content, even if they don’t want to. “You can’t say you don’t have the gear, now go do our favorite content!”

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We need more content that everyone is able to do even if you don’t raid. think archeology, pet battles, collection systems not tied to raids. Add more of that and think of some new things and you have a winner.
heck even play around with the player housing idea as a non power progression fun thing. people just wan to play the game and they don’t always want to be raid logging.

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both to be honest

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tired of being mismanaged

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american business is disgusting like that. they’d rather fire people to make maximum profit than hire more people to ensure quality.

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Probably both. Imagine if you are a developer at WoW who truly does want to make new, innovative, fun content but then your boss tells you have to re-design it in a way that pads MAU metrics to look better for shareholders. I imagine it would be hard to not become apathetic under those conditions.

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The management is off. I think they manage the game off a P&L statement and budget. Their fans are second to the accounting department. They will put out what matches their budget. They will cut or simplify their goals in order to maintain the revenue stream of the financial projection.

This is why many designers and employees keep leaving. They are given a aspect of the game to work on. But with a timeframe and a budget to use. They cannot fully realize a vision. They have to cut it down to fit the numbers.

That is why we see so many reskins and recolors of items. Have to minimize the time and money spent designing them. This is also why the unique mounts end up on the store, and very few make it into the game. On the store they generate revenue and have a profitable return. In game they dont.

That is why we see a large focus on systems based content. Its cheaper to develop a soulbind and conduit system, than it is to make 2 or 3 more dungeons, or a additional 3 or 5 boss raid.

That is why we see layoffs of staff, and closing or consolidating departments. That is why we see offices being closed and their operations moved to an existing office.

Its management based on Profit and Loss and a budget. We want to see X profit from Y Spent. After 15 years, the game isnt as profitable as it was. So they have to keep trimming things down and cutting costs, in order to maintain their profitability.

They arent going to dump a bunch of money at WoW, after 15 years, throw a ton of resources at a new, giant expansion, with a new class, new races, new specs, 2 raids per tier, 15 dungeons… ect. Investing that much money in an expansion’s production, could potentially have them lose money on it, or have a smaller profit.

The passion for “It will be released when its ready” and the passion for the players isnt there anymore. 15 years later, its maintaining the revenue stream, and profitability % as long as we can. Investment vs Return.

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Most of the team that made WOW fun have moved on where they have more freedom to do what is fun.

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Supposedly they’re working on a new game, but at the rate these things take to finish, and if they ever do finish, that’s a good five years out.