The real problem is not being able to get any new players. Every new player I have talked to quit for similar reasons. The old design philosophies don’t work anymore.
2 Likes
All of that plus people growing up plus kids interested in their own generation games, like Valorant and Roblox and League of Legends.
1 Like
Ex-players are jaded. New players join into a buggy imbalanced mess. I can say with complete honesty that the only reason I keep coming back to this game is because I can’t just abandon everything I put into it and if I were a new player entering into this, I would definitely walk away.
6 Likes
I’m the most casual player there is and it seems like there’s just nothing to do in DF. In Shadowlands, I played throughout the entire expansion, logging back in for every content update and grinding through the new zone and accompanying gear set. I think having the quests gated behind a rep grind is what basically made me stop playing. I’m not sure. I don’t look too deeply into this stuff. I just play when there’s stuff to do and stop playing when there isn’t.
The world quests at level cap are monotonous and the transmog rewards don’t feel meaningful. Also, it takes too long to level up your profession skills, and I feel like I’ve been punished too harshly when I go down one sub-specialization and realize I would have preferred to go down another.
1 Like
That I feel. I bought into the hype and got a six month sub before DF hit. But I hardly play and recently just uninstalled WoW for other games. Used to say I will play till the servers shut down but now its changed. Every now and then I get the urge to play but every time I log on I’m just like what’s the point.
4 Likes
Because Shadowlands broke the spirit of a lot of people. I didn’t play it for about 7 months before DF.
3 Likes
That’s not a surprise. I believe in the reasons near the top:
- 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.
It’s remarkable that WoW is still doing as well as it is considering those factors.
1 Like
Classic(s) revealed there is still a void to be filled as players still hunger for that experience that no one else is providing. The problem there is that it grows stale quickly when it has a very visible end.
Sometimes when you’re lost, you just need to find your roots.
2 Likes
A lot of older players being loyal is the main reason but we are getting into the big slide now for WoW and I don’t expect to see a slow down in the slide of sub numbers.
The only way to avoid this is to change which they are unwilling to do.
2 Likes
yeah, i think subs are going to crater in the next few months. there’s just not enough gratifying content to sustain interest for very long, even for the most casual players. Blizz thinks the Trading Post will keep people subbed through the doldrums, but i think it’s going to fail. we shall see.
4 Likes
This is definitely one of the bigger issues plaguing WoW and is completely overlooked for some reason. WoW simply does not appeal to new generations of gamers. WoW basically lives on an aging playerbase that grows out of the game every single year.
New generations of gamers have their games they like, just like we did with WoW. It also doesnt help WoW has a pretty hefty barrier to entry with sub costs, box costs, etc when most newer generation gamers can play most games for free(Valorant, League, etc).
So WoW just keeps chugging along, milking its playerbase that we both know probably averages in the mid-30’s to 40s in age, and inevitably quit gaming or WoW at some point with no one new coming in.
I honestly dont think there is a fix to this outside of an actual new game; sequel. But that also just runs the risk of killing the game entirely if it doesnt catch on, and thats why we wont see it for a very long time.
5 Likes
Change what? There are many theories on what needs to change but no concensus and some theories directly oppose one another.
WoW seems to have peaked around the time of Cataclysm. At about that time young people of the day were turning to social media and mobile. The kids were more interested in their own lives than they were with fantasy D&D lives.
Also, it’s an old game built in early 2000s technology with old avatar technology.
- Second Life did an entire rewrite of their avatar system to moderize but then Linden Labs doesn’t have to worry about content because the “members” take care of that.
- FF14 shut down for a few years for a rewrite but do you really think Blizzard could do that and relaunch WoW?
So if you were in charge what would you do to solve those problems?
1 Like
The only thing Blizzard can do is make a new game. Nothing is going to magically fix WoW. Its old. Its playerbase is old. It doesnt appeal to younger gamers. Only a new title does. But they cant make a new WoW, because they risk killing the old one, and it might just not catch on anyways. They will make a new WoW one day, but its going to be when WoW’s playerbase plummets to the point they are forced to.
Cata really was the turning point because so many things released after Cata. The game had already peaked in Wotlk, then LoL released in 2011, and decimated the PvP playerbase. Minecraft released in 2011, and decimated the casual exploring playerbase. You can keep picking games that released during those times that siphoned off players, on top of Social media becoming way more prevalent for gamers.
One thing that added to WoW’s popularity at hte time was it pre-dated social media, and was basically the social hub for gamers, and was a one-stop shop for gaming. Well going into Cata, tastes changed. People swapped back to wanting more specialized gaming experiences, people started using other forms of social media.
I guess what I’m trying to say is old WoW will never come back. Theres no magic pill that can recreate early to mid 2000’s landscape. And theres nothing that appeals to younger generations in current WoW, so its just an aging playerbase slowly dying off, figuratively and literally, and the only thing Blizzard could really do is drop another new MMO title, but they wont do it until they have squeezed every bit of life out of WoW 1.
3 Likes
Because of reputation and playerbase. Blizzard has built a bad reputation in bfa and shadowlands. Wouldnt matter if dragonflight was a perfcect expansion players have been driven away and thats hard/maybe impossible to get back. The playerbase that is still around and sticking with it are getting old. Nothing lasts forever.
1 Like
These are what you are saying the problems are. I don’t think that is the real problem. Sure, it may cause some problems. Also, Blizzard can’t afford a complete rewrite of this game.
The problems are related to no progression system for all players and basically too many chores. This is what most of the feedback I have received is centered around. Giving every player a progression system for their character would be tough to do coming from the old forced group progression systems. Until Blizzard figures it out the subs will continue to fall.
1 Like
Don’t we have a progression system? As you advance you get new tallents, new gear, you can advance in professions, etc.
That’s probably true but then it’s unlikely that any game based on 2000-2004 technology is going to become a supergame. However people talk about WoW as if it’s on its dying gasps while gaming magizines are still rating it as one of the top D&D style MMOs.
Yeah, all players don’t have a gearing progression system.
Going free to play would likely bring players, though.
I think this might end up being where it goes after Riot’s MMO. Especially if it overtakes WoW in the MMO genre.
2 Likes