Balance is the reason I’m shelving it rn, lol.
Folks are just gonna come back and see how the meta has completely taken over, and just leave if they aren’t a part of it. Plus, queues are getting longer.
I don’t enjoy waiting, just to play- I’ll play something else instead.
At this point, I feel too many people have been burned by Blizzards bait n switch tactics and have just wandered off. When they say “We hear you…” and it people grimace or it becomes a meme, that’s really bad.
Add to that when they finally do give players what they want, the almost always monkeypaw it.
Maybe when 10.2 is out they can do a promotion.
Because even if they did lure people back in right now, they would see how awful 10.1 is and write off the game forever.
This patch really isnt the one to try and sell the game with.
It seems like it would be impossible for a new or returning player to catch up now.
That says a lot about the game then.
i agree we need alleria/sylvanas windrunner mt dew game fuel.
I think the problem with offering free gametime is that it doesn’t mean those people who do play throughout are going to even step foot in Dragonflight content.
I would say there are two problems with how WOW is moving forward right now and based on the promotions and sales, you can see that the guys running the finances at Blizz are aware of that.
WOW is still using an old model of MMO´s in which you release a new expansion for x amount of money each two years, while still asking players for money each month.
From looking at the market, this just doesnt work anymore, you either give expansions for free with a sub, or you make the sub free and ask for money to access the expansion.
Asking for money twice, is not what the customer will tolerate, as there are alternaties on the market. For instance, ESO or SWTOR where you can play for free or sub once, to gain access to the expansions forever.
While the token may be a move into the right direction, it´s not accessible for everyone. Making gold at WOW on a dead realm, doesnt work, so this escape route is not open for everyone.
If we now consider that D4 is 80$ people think twice about where the money goes, plus it´s summer and we are in an economic crisis.
So from my point of view, Blizzard has to adjust their sub system, either by granting expansions for free, if you sub, or make a free sub system, in which players just don´t have access to the newest expansion.
no they dont. most free to play games are garbage pay 2 win micro transation loaded dumpster fires.
WoW’s issue is that it’s super hyper focused on grinding and end game that they left the rest of the game to suffer from neglect. It’s also odd how bothersome alting is when this game has 13 classes and numerous races. Way more stuff needs to be made accountwide.
They also need to stop wasting player time. Like, why must players run back to a boss after a wipe? It only wastes time and builds anger. Cataclysm had warps. So, Blizzard clearly can do it - they choose not to.
Then look at Caverns. Poorly designed for the average players and the world quests are so unrewarding for time/difficulty investment that players just abandoned it in like a week.
Blizzard is falling back into its poor, old habits.
What is there to really do outside Hardcore Raiding, M+, and Solo Shuffle? Cuz everything else is either a massive, tedious grind or was abandoned.
You mean like…
I can’t imagine actually playing either without spending money to unlock the stuff they lock behind a paywall. “Free” is an illusion.
ESO be like “Hey everybody, if you don’t buy upgrades from the store it takes 6 months to max out your mount…that’s good with everybody right?”
This game is ancient. The trajectory of subs will continue to drop with spikes here and there but in general downward.
While I’m sure they will try and increase subs here and there. I’m guessing their larger goal is to retain the current subs as long as possible and to design and tailor the game to the group that they feel will stay the longest.
That said none of that is based on any evidence so it’s all nonsense.
As much as I enjoy the new gearing system I’m not quite sure it fits WoW’s model. And it’s very likely the thing pushing players away currently. Not because it’s bad necessarily, but because it’s too fast?
The gear system is better but it ultimately doesn’t make sense. It kind of stings getting the next highest piece of gear. Sure it’s cheap to upgrade to the previous ilvl but it just feels… Tedious?
You have to farm that specific piece of gear again for the next tier. That kinda sucks in all facets. And there’s no direct upgrade system which is a big why.
That’s kind of my thought on why people are leaving. ZC is useless right now outside of rep. You can (and should) get everything from M0-5 and raids. There is little reason to waste your time in open world.
Would be nice if there was an actually decent progression system. Like if open world players could grind the mini events to get pieces of crests. Then those pieces could be upgraded to the next tier. Then casuals could get max ilvl two months into the patch. But naw we have this convoluted multi-tier system designed to intentionally prolong the gearing process. Kudos Blizz.
i was thinking more like world of tanks.
I have to disagree. The reason why people have left or are leaving is because they aren’t having fun. They would be willing to pay that money if they were.
I told my brother, who got me into this game to begin with, and a friend I used to play this with about Blizzard’s free DF access in an attempt to get them playing again. They laughed in my face.
Everyone just needs to accept majority of the people that have left are gone for good. WoW is never going to come remotely close to 10-12 million subs again. I don’t think DF even sold 3 million copies. The glory days are over.
There are a lot of factors outside of WoW that also contribute to this. There is a lot of general dislike for Activision-Blizzard as a company and for its CEO because of the many allegations and responses to other events, like Hong Kong. Then there is also how they handled Warcraft 3 remastered and Overwatch 2, which were questionable in quality and replaced the original product.
While WoW definitely has its issues, some gamers actively avoid Activision-Blizzard games in general now. For some, they are just as bad as EA now.
You can just sub to avoid “p2w” and if more stash space is truly that evil, I don´t know and if someone gains higher XP than me, doesn´t matter either.
I don´t think WOW has a future if they ask for money twice, paying a sub and not having access to all content is just so yesterday.
Their policy in removing or forgetting about content is indeed a problem. They are trying to expose the FOMO syndrome, which is a bit shaby if you ask me.
I used to play HS when it came out, but that policy there has driven me away of it and now D4 is having the same problem.
But I still think that the financial issue is the key element why people leave. If you can afford a game, you will not unsub just because something is not your type of thing.
I am subbed since release, I even had a sub when I did not play for 2 years. When you have money, you don´t care.
But now that money is an issue for so many, they become picky, be it streaming or gaming.
Yup. Their attempt to stagger content is what made me throw my arms up and stop caring. Mostly the Catalyst…but more LFR means more chances at tier as well, I suppose.