Off and on, yes. Any time I play another MMO, it feels like I’m just re-learning WoW, and why would I want to do that?
Retro RPG nostalgia is short lived, and most all single player games feel like the same game.
I’ve never questioned that tbh. I see it as a blessing to have experienced it with others. Because wow is my go to during my downtime. We all have things we like to do, different hobbies. And wow is mine. I’ll play it until it ends or if I can’t anymore, or maybe if it changes way too much. Then I’d probably play a “classic version”.
You seem to be forgetting the fact that in it’s heyday all other MMO’s were crap and fortnite type of drop in for 20 mins type of games didn’t really exist.
People also grow up and move on with their lives. They get jobs and have families. Or some people simply find other games.
WoW will never get back to 15 million subs simply because people have options now.
But I’m willing to bet that WoW is still the highest subbed MMO out there.
People need to stop with the whole “WoW is dying because we don’t have 15 million players anymore”
No, it’s not. You need to look at it realistically instead of living in this negative “burn everything to the ground” fantasy.
I never said it was dying, i just think we need to be realistic, the game (and the genre as a whole) are in decline. I don’t think it’s helpful to be all doom and gloom, but it’s equally unhelpful to bury your head in the sand and pretend everything’s fine when it isn’t. The current business model of milking more and more money out of a smaller and smaller subscriber base isn’t sustainable long term, at least not within the corporate mindset of demanding growth year after year after year.
There are things happening in the game now that would have been unheard of back in the day, Blizzard selling gold, creating a chat channel where people can sell runs for money, Blizzard selling all kinds of character services like race/faction changes, selling boosts, even boosts that come with gear now lol
It’s the whole classic frog in hot water thing, we’re not at outright/direct pay to win yet, but we’re creeping there slowly but surely, and that will be the time where people will be more justified in saying that the game is in its death throws.
With my luck ill be isekaiʻd as a lvl 2 boar in Elwynn foest
If I am here 20 more years I will be in my 80s. I humbly request that y’all carry me in raids. I’ll be your sweet, dotty old granny.
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Like the MDI tournament?
And they’re going to exploit this kind of complacency by barely adding anything or maintaining their game. They’ve already started to do so.
You mean the tournament that runs about once a year lasting only about 4 weekends that anyone can sign up for? 
Hey, you wanted an example of competitive wow.
More specifically, I was asking for an example where Blizzard really pushes the eSports angle. Kind of like how they did with the Overwatch League.
But the MDI, like the RWF, is more a celebration of the game than an actual eSport. No eSport pro would ever be able to live off of something like the MDI or RWF as they are so infrequent (and from the criticism by the very MDI players, the reward amount compared to the time investment required is so low that they were making less than minimum wage in some seasons.)
And that’s to say nothing about the fact that the way the MDI is played is not the same as the way M+ is played live. (Even the commentators will tell you that many strats used in the MDI are simply not necessary for pushing live keys.)
Basically what I’m trying to say is, just because you CAN turn something into a competition, it doesn’t mean that something was DESIGNED for competition. (E.g. there are hot dog eating competitions; does that mean hot dogs were designed for eSports [“e” for “eating” in this case]? 
)
Will even use the cooking profession to make everyone cookies.
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That’s because there is no other MMO that is a competition. A lot of MMOs came out in the past 20 years. Some died and others are now free to play. If there was another MMO on par with WoW, a lot of people would switch to that.
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I turn 70 years old at the end of this year. I doubt I will see 20 more years.
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I probably won’t… but that’s because I’m old and slowly moving up Death’s To-Do list lol. The game will probably outlast me.
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To be fair I’ve stopped playing mmos in the past and never returned. It’s not that hard. Wow is doing a pretty good job in driving me closer and closer to that each expansion. I stopped playing wow for almost a year this time around. Most of it isn’t even the fault of the game but it brings out the worst in the community and since it’s a mmo that’s really bad.
I’ll be here as long as I still feel like playing and am able to or until the servers perma shut down.
Yes, it was more difficult, but this was a response to what players had asked for, so this should not have come as a shock. And it’s not like these mechanics could not be dealt with, but half the community decided they didn’t want to engage with the game’s mechanics and quit, while the other half found it frustrating trying to find like-minded players in a cross-realm RDF, so they, too quit. Hence, the huge sub losses.
Blizzard decided to err on the side of the solo / casual players who were complaining that the content was “too hard” and nerfed the dungeons and made them less relevant in the following two expansions.
It really wasn’t until Legion with M+ that dungeons became both fun and relevant again.
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WoD had a lot of people that couldn’t earn Silver PG in order to queue for Heroic which was largely pointless later on anyway. I’m not sure if it was Legion that started seasons and upgrading even base dungeon loot every season, cause I don’t recall this being a thing in Mists or prior to that for older dungeons. I also remember them wanting us to run the raids in order from first to last so we could gear up in Mists.
I also don’t think M+ made things fun or more relevant. They just catered to a group of players that were able to push super high up in keys and wanted a leaderboard system. M+ ended up being required for raiding or you were probably benched, and later on became the way people got their gear anyway cause they thought raiding was bad. The truth is the game has lost people also because it catered to people who have little to no patience.
Started playing in my 20’s, now I’m almost in my mid 40’s. I have slowed down a bit re: play time, play style. I really have no idea if I will be here in 20 years if the game is still around, but maybe. It’s a hobby and it keeps me happily occupied, so that’s enough for me.
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