I must confess, I haven’t logged into World of Warcraft for over two years. TWO years. And, it’s not because the game changed much, but I have, and so has the gaming community. We’ve come to expect better things. Yet, I still compare EVERY new MMO game to World of Warcraft in some aspect. My criteria for judging MMO’s has mostly been, “Is this as fun as WoW?” I know I’m not alone in using this criteria. And, for the most part, new MMOs have fallen short of WoW’s appeal. But, it’s still no surprise that Blizzard saw a loss of 1.3 million subscribers for World of Warcraft in the first quarter of 2013, and another 600,000 in the second quarter. There’s an obvious reason that WoW has lost 1.9 million subscribers in three months; people have changed.
The key to World of Warcraft’s appeal and success was that everyone was playing it; your best friends, your wife, your uncle, your mailman, your professor, your dog-walker, Mr. T, etc. This is no longer the case. The gamers that grew up playing World of Warcraft nearly ten years ago are now ten years older. Think about that for a minute; where were you ten years ago? I, myself, was in high school, with nothing else to do but neglect my homework and play video games. Where am I now? Married with two kids and a full time job. Unfortunately, I don’t have time for three hour raids and dungeon sessions. I certainly wouldn’t be able to play the game for a long enough period of time that would provide any worth to having a monthly subscription, so, again unfortunately, I go without World of Warcraft. It’s just not worth it to me anymore.
With the release of newer, more polished MMOs such as Guild Wars 2 and Neverwinter, there’s no denying that WoW’s graphics and cost model need updating. Guild Wars 2 was a one time purchase of $60, and then you can play it free for life (or until the company shuts down the servers), and Neverwinter, which will be hitting retail sometime soon, is now in a free, open beta. Free. But where WoW falls short on graphics, Guild Wars 2 and Neverwinter fall short (in one way or another) on gameplay. I’m just starting my journey with Neverwinter, so I can’t say just yet whether or not it has staying power, but if it’s anything like my MMOs of games past, my interest in it won’t last more than a year. I haven’t logged into Guild Wars 2 in six months. I haven’t logged into DC Universe Online since a week after the latest content update was released. I haven’t logged into Defiance since a week after finishing up my review for Den of Geek.
The money that I used to spend on my monthly subscription to World of Warcraft now goes to the necessities in life. On top of that point, I have to be more choosey with the games I want to spend my hard-earned money on. I can’t just go to GameStop and buy 2 or 3 games at a time like I used to when I was 15 years old without any bills to pay. So, some games are missed, and I tend to look for the cheaper options for gaming; World of Warcraft is not one of those options. It’s not like there isn’t a cost barrier for WoW to get new subscribers, either. You’d have to first purchase World of Warcraft and its first two expansions, The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King for $19.99, then Cataclysm for another $19.99, then Mists of Pandaria for another $39.99, PLUS a monthly fee? No thanks. World of Warcraft would undoubtedly benefit from a free-to-play model (which every Tom, Dick and Harry on the web is crying for). You can add my name to that list, sure, but the game would still have to be updated graphically to hold my interest.
There’s also the need for that “new-new”; gamers always want to try the newest games. Between new retail releases from big companies like EA, Perfect World, NCsoft, Trion Worlds, XBLA and PSN titles, Indie releases every week, and alphas, closed betas, open betas, etc, gamers are constantly getting new options for games to play. And, it’s nearly impossible to keep up. I can’t tell you how many games I’ve missed already this year that I, hopefully, will get a chance to go back and play at some point, simply because there isn’t enough time in the week to play all the new games and still keep up with real life. Thankfully, gaming is part of my career, so I do get to play more than the average adult gamer (awesome). Still, there’s not enough time in the week to play all of the new games that I would like to get my hands on. There’s no time to play it, and my pockets aren’t endless, so where would World of Warcraft even fit into this equation?
It doesn’t.
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Bottom line is this. You kill spiders at level 1. You kill spiders at level 85. It's a trap! WoW is a complete waste of life.
AGREE!!! that are the reasons of why i stop playing WoW, even if i miss it, but no friends in game playing and no time to waste wins
If 15 bucks is what you buy your necessities with, you need to stop playing video games altogether.
They just lost a ton of subscribers because they banned a crap ton of bots and nerfed multiboxing. That's all there is to it.
True there isn't a pot of money at the end.
However, 10 years ago there was a sense of exploring this world together with a whole bunch of people. Adventure, Camaderie, Newness. Then it just turned into being leet and raiding. Boring.
bots are mostly free accounts. Free accounts aren't subscribers.
nah there are bots in level 90 bgs. and to be level 90 you need to subscribe. But I just think everything comes to an end, and its close to WoW's time for an end. Id give it another yr or two.
If $3.99 (even better with AU$ above parity until 2 days ago) a week is a lot of money to shell out on a game I'd get a new job imao. The issue isn't the cost, it's purely the time sink required still to do dailies (plenty of them), the really crap class balance still, biased in favour of pures massively (some classes totally skilless like frost mage for example which Ghostcrawler plays himself, reminds me of Kalgan and Warrior back in TBC, they're really pathetic tbh). The move to Arena based PvP was a failure in many ways, they could have balanced the hybrids better for mass group play, but no, had to have RMP the flavour of the month (as an example) and allow PvE damage disparities of such magnitude between dps specs, healing disparities etc.
The boring grind and lack of exploration options eats away at the "newness" and obviously the excitement that is the order of the day when first playing a new fresh game.
At the end of the day you need join a guild and raid 3 days+ a week to be reasonably geared.
As you say, people are just moving on, the time sink is ludicrous along with content and new ideas, it's just finally dying, it's boring in every way, along with the poor game design the past 2 expansions in many ways and bias towards certain class specs blatently obvious.
I played from 60max to 85max, and here’s just some reflections.
At 60max, there was a SERIOUS feeling of accomplishment when you did things. I mean, it was hard, took time, and generally took help. You had to qualify for everything, be geared properly, attuned, and all that jazz. I mean, heck, it was hard.
As things progressed and new content was added, you could see Blizz trying to make things easier for newer players while correcting things that frustrated older players. It’s a double-edged sword i.e. if you make it easier, you attract newer (younger?) players, but if it’s too easy, you risk losing your veterans. I think for a while the trade-off was worth it. Maybe now they’ve hit a spot where it’s not. Maybe now it’s too easy to play and there’s no desire to continue on?
I think some of the magic is sort of lost because it’s gone from “romance” to “porn”, if you know what I mean? Instead of taking one’s time to prepare for attuning to get into Kara or gathering the right gear for Molten Core, people race to get the best of the best whatever as fast as they can without really sniffing the daisies, so to speak?
What used to be the challenge was spending the time to get ready for the raid, assembling the right people, and then having the skill to complete the raid. It took a lot of resources, BUT they were all different resources that had to be pooled together. There was a grind, of course, then coordination, and then planning/execution. It wasn’t all of one. It took them ALL.
Later in the game, it turned more into grind. Sure, SOME of the raiding was still tough, but a lot of the prep was grinding, and a lot of the raiding was grinding in a sense. And it was LONG grinding.
Of course, the grind is what kept a lot of people. Once you put in ump-teen hours to get to a place in the game, you were less likely to just dump it. The game became work . . . a career of sorts. I think that, maybe now, it still is, but the reward isn’t worth the time?
I think Blizzard may have to rethink their balance between ease and challenge/reward. It’s a shame that probably 90% of their most interesting content gets lost along the way because progression is the driving force.
What would you guys think if Blizz released a “throwback” version where certain servers were back to level 60 max . . . with all the old game stuff restored? Would people do that? I would think it would be economical as all get out. Maybe you make players non-transferable? I dunno.
I think a lot of these criticisms are extremely unfair and silly (and oversimplified.)
Killing spiders at 1, and at 85 - oversimplification. Most games have very limited gameplay options (most only have one) and I wouldn't really say WoW is one of them.
I also can't see money being a huge issue either. Playing a new game every month (or even every 3-4 months) is much more costly than playing WoW which has fairly regular content updates and a rather long lifespan (even if you just level to max level and play end-game for a bit, you are getting a huge bang for your buck.)
I will agree that community is probably the biggest factor. If you have no one to play with, the game gets older a lot faster. But that is pretty true of any game.
That being said, it's perfectly normal that people quit a game that is almost 10 years old. Nothing is going to change that. WoW is going to have a hard time pulling in new players without a drastic overhaul, and a drastic overhaul would just be pointless since they may as well just create a new game (which they are.)
If you're bored with how the game is designed, then nothing will pull you back. But for those of us who still enjoy it, and there's a ton of us, this game will still be thriving for at least a few more years and probably longer.
That shows how little you know. Most bots aren't free accounts. Most bots are either collecting mats in Pandaria, BGing or leveling up (through questing believe it or not). Also, lots of people use bots to handle their rotation in raids. Do some research because it's pretty obvious you haven't.
Most bots are level 1's. The 'bots' collecting mats in Pandaria aren't bots, they're actual people farming and selling. Bots can't quest, level, or collect mats on their own.
Once again, your ignorance is showing. I'm a botter. I make money selling gold. I farm mats at level 90 with my bots. I botted my chars up to 90 with questing. Bots chars aren't level 1. It's not profitable. Google "kick's 1-90" and take a look.
I started playing WoW when it first came out. Everyone WASN'T playing it then. In fact, most people didn't even know what an MMO was. I was 28, which was probably older than you are now. I STILL play WoW, even though it's showing it's age and can be a grind......because nothing else comes close. Panderia was the best expansion so far (even if I totally dislike the whole Chinese/panda theme) and while I don't do hard core raiding, I still enjoy playing.
Maybe you were too young to remember DAoC and SW and Everquest and how much WoW raised the bar in terms of MMORPGs. It was heads above anything else before it and, as you stated, is still the bar that other games look to achieve.
Finally, as someone said, if you can't afford the $10 a month, then you should probably stop gaming altogether.
Your priorities have changed. Good for you. Other games don't hold your interest either? That says more about you than anything. It doesn't mean WoW isn't a good game anymore. Sounds like you played it because it was a fad....now it isn't as much a fad. So, go find your new fad and take the others with you. I actually don't want to be playing the same game as my postman and Aunt.
'If you're bored with how the game is designed, then nothing will pull
you back. But for those of us who still enjoy it, and there's a ton of
us, this game will still be thriving for at least a few more years and
probably longer.'