I think one of the big ones, is everyone wants things to move fast af, whereas if you are playing classic wow, you are probably one of those people who prefers the progression sense. I try as much as i can to Recreate this sense of progression in the retail game, but their is only so much you can do. Wow has to change, as any other concept that has been around for a long time, has to change and adapt in order to stay relevant. On top of that, things are moving into the past faster and faster. Like i don’t feel wrath of the lich king or any of the older expansions are nostalgic yet, but from the average gamer/player, those are ancient history expansions now. So wow just functions faster and faster to accomodate all that. Wow could function exactly the way wrath of the lich king did in retail wow, but i would be one of the few still playing. I do feel there are decisions that get made, and continue to get made to retail wow that contribute to the decline in popularity though, especially with the older wow veterans. I mean wow is good, but there are some changes that boggle the mind in retail.
I remember most of the time for warcrafts first couple expansions, usually changes had a pretty neutral or positive outcry and were relatively normal. A few dislikes here and there. Ever since then though in cataclysm and forward, the negativity has been really high towards the changes that get made. There isn’t really any one proven direction towards making retail wow as popular as it was when wrath was the retail version, but i feel like i would know it if i saw it. Wow is old as well, so that is also a factor with the popularity declining. I feel if you ask people to give you perspectives on what they do not like about wow, usually people start talking about changes made to wow since cataclysm and forward expansions. It rarely stems from wrath and before.
Teenagers play game that their friends play, Mostly FPS, Battle Royale and Moba. ; Valorant, League of Legends, Some mobile games…
Now MMOs are only played by someone who really really love MMOs. Mostly adults, especially WoW… I bet wow age demographic is 25+. Because They started when they were kids.
Not only is the data only counting level 60s, it ignores the people still leveling their main as well as people that might have multiple 60s. That 2 million could go way up or way down in a few months as well.
If Classic is what people are hungry for by the surge in subs it tells me that the game design of retail has drastically affected the happiness of players in a negative way. Blizz are gambling they can make revenue by selling crap on the store, pets , mogs , mounts and their most prized item is GOLD, which by the way they have been able to really sell, but if the game sucks or we are cornered into a certain playstyle , people say F that and leave. That’s why retail numbers continue to drop
Of course not, but losing 80% of their sub count from peak to now isn’t exactly a raging success either.
I mean sure, 2 mil would be good for many games but I find it hard to believe the folks at Blizz are patting themselves on the back for a job well done.
Notice how theres more lag, I lag more in retail then I did when classic relaunched. Let that sink in. Thats how terrible blizz is getting to. 100 people fighting in one area??? In an MMORPG?? What would guess… -.-
Like so many have said, it’s 16 years old. I’ve seen droves of MMOs rise and fall (and now occasionally getting reborn in some terrible ways) but WoW has remained.
There’s probably at least some players that feel as I do: There may be a swarm of MMOs but I can’t find anything better right now.
Unfortunately I’m watching it take the path of a game someone deemed dying and they’re trying to wring out every drop they can get out of it coughRiftcough…
I would bet the active sub numbers are closer to 500k-1mil depending on xpac.
Im sure right now its at a high point due to a new xpac, so im sure 2-3 maybe even 5mil people showed up for launch and will settle to around 1mil until the devs do something mid xpac to piss everyone off and it will settle to below 1mil
This game is SIGNIFICANTLY less popular that it was even at WOD. Far too many unpopular xpacs and unpopular design choices.
The realy question is, how much of a saftey net is classic wow for retail? Id really be curious to see side by side numbers for wow since WOD and classic numbers…blizz witholding this info is enough proof that its not a number they want to show off.
GAWD I can’t stand Mobile Games!!! I see people on them all the time, see an Ad, try it for about 15 minutes… Delete and go back to my PC/Console games…
This, and note back when the game had 12 million subscribers, North America only accounted for 2-3 million. Europe was a similar number, and Asia was the rest.
You wanna continue your covenant story in your downtime and see how the story plays out? Too bad, it’s a weekly thing.
Wanna see more of the maw than one island and 20 minutes of play? Too bad, assassins got you.
Like Torghast and want to do it more oft en than M+? Too bad, once you got Soul Ash there’s no reason to.
Basically, every single thing in this game is designed to just keep you running on a steady pace of subscribing and interacting with the game to keep pace. No one is allowed ahead of the pack (or curve). Everyone has to run on the same spinning wheel.
Once you realize wow is now a heavily managed experience called a live service youll see these content delivery systems make sense. Problem is those 12mil people that once showed up did so for the good RPG that wow use to be, and is no longer, and the devs in charge seem to want to bury the old game under their new content systems.
Mobile games are pointless time wasters… people are seemingly moving towards a sheer lack of commitment to anything, wanting equal rewards for less work, staying socially isolated (social media fulfills social needs while staying socially isolated in the style of social isolation I mean) and saying in a ‘safe space’. The base of the MMO genre is almost the complete opposite of this.
I have to say this… this is the biggest thing I hate about this expansion. It’s related to what I’m saying.
