We players of World of Warcraft seem to think that everybody in the world knows about Wow. Well maybe they don’t. 2004 release of Wow was a major gaming event. After a while the game had over 14 million players world wide. Yes the good old days. Much of the hype was passed along by word of mouth by Warcraft I, II, and III. Fans. The existing mmorpg players like those playing Everquest etc. Kept aware of Wow’s development. Which blossomed the hype. But that was 20 years ago. Some of those players grew up. Others have become middle age and senior citizens.
Yes the old veterans holding the line. The ever thinning long line for Wow.
But now Wow has only 1 million players. Why? How can a major game such as Wow lose so many subscriptions? We the gamers’ know how good Wow as a mmorpg is. It has been the example for many other mmorpgs, the blueprint on how to develop and maintain an excellent mmorpg.
So why the dwindling sales of subscriptions and the emptying of servers due to dwindling player populations.
I say the culprit is the Blizzard Advertising Department. Hey, does Blizzard even have an Advertising Department these days??? I have not seen any ads any where for Wow. Have you? No TV ads, or Internet ads, or radio, or movie theater ads. The only thing happening right now is some YouTubers posting videos about Wow. But that only works if people already know about Wow and are doing searches for Wow.
So then the responsibility of bringing an awareness about Wow to the general public falls squarely on the shoulders of the Marketing and Advertising Departments.
Blizzard has some creative and professional people that can produce some astounding
Cinematic movies. Blizzard can blanket the mass media with very good cost effective ads.
Which would make people aware that Wow exists and is the prime mmorpg to play with 20 years of excellence behind it. Tons of content. And a wealth of quality of life improvements. And we even have free trials for people to try out.
This isn’t rocket science either. Through out the History of business the primary factor has always been advertising. Any business person worth their salt knows you got to get the word out there to the general public about your product to garner interest. Then if your product is a good product you acquire new customers. Sales shoot up. Great profits are made. More money for improvements and upgrades and running expenses.
So Blizzard please wake up the Marketing and Advertising Departments. Get them working again.
As my humble suggestion: An Ad that I think would work is the following:
Opening cinematic scene:
Cold winters night with a group of (RPG) adventurers trudging through a forest covered in snow at twilight. They see a glow from the distance. Following the glow they arrive at a tavern in a clearing, they approach appearing cold, tired and hungry.
They enter the tavern and are greeted with friendly smiles from the other tavern goers. The group sits at a table by the warm glowing fireplace. The Tavern keeper appears bearing a large platter of food and Ale. Glowing text above the scene appear;
“Welcome Home.”
Edit for explanation: A poster criticized my Ad idea. so I’m clarifying my intention;
Please keep in mind I’m not a professional writer of any kind. What I was going for with my humble “Welcome home.” Ad idea was targeted to all RPG gamers who range from table-top dungeons and dragons to console rpg gamers and mmorpg gamers who may feel that the gaming industry has abandoned them by shifting priorities to faster twich based gaming. These RPG gamers may feel that they have been left out in the snow as it were. So my ad would provide them with an truely rpg home in Wow.
Of course if it appeals to ex-Wow players and incentivizes them to return. All the better.
Of course there should be many ads some with exiting exhilarating combat and events. Those I leave for the professionals to create. In fact I would love to hear your suggestions to what you think would make a good ad for Wow.