Is World of Warcraft dying?
 

500K net user loss, then another 300K net user loss. Is this the effect of the free 2 play model or is there something else going on here? Sure, it still has close to a dozen MILLION users but if that attrition rate is sustained, WOW can shrivel to a shadow of its former self

What do you think explains the trend?

http://gamentrain.com/2011/08/is-wow-dying/

Free to play games that are better and new.

WoW has been around for so long it's hard to imagine it can maintain such a massive member base for much longer. While it may be a great game, times change, people change and over the years no matter how hard you try, they will move on to bigger and better things. You'll no doubt always have that die hard fringe group that just won't let go like they had with Everquest 1 but as the sayings go .... all good things must come to an end.

Do people still sell rare items for real cash on that game?

Not ever tried it, was scared I might get addicted to it and then kill myself...

All the video game people I know are playing free to play stuff like Conan right now.

The guild I was in, and a few others, along with some solo players left 6 months ago to play Rift. A pretty sick MMO that launched almost exactly 6 months ago. When you look at other MMOs, WoW just doesn't seem to have it anymore. Their best expansion, The Burning Crusade, is long since done and over. The graphics are horrible, they constantly recycle content, and it just became stale.

Rift is cool, you have SWTOR coming out, Guild Wars 2 which looks fucking amazing! Check out some of the videos, they are bad ass:

https://youtube.com/user/arenanetofficial

I think WoW is dying, and the release of these upcoming beasts will kill it. There will always be a population, but it won't be significant much longer.

they all are losing to facebook... seems that people enjoy living in the real world 2.0.

I think some of it has to do with the fact that it has been several months now since the last patch and people have played through it all and now are taking time away until the next patch. It will be interested to see if they have people come back when the next patch comes out how many of them come back.

Blizzard needs to come out with Diablo 3 already. been waiting for that game for years.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/

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I think more people are playing that freakin MindCraft.

in tbc killing one boss took sometimes months of preparing, gathering resistance gear, then trying many times, failing and finally the boss becomes defeated, all this screaming on vent etc..

do you remember kaelthas who becomes barrier for many guilds? kaethas the guildbreaker what they used to call him sometimes.

getting all this reputation to enter heroic instance, then doing hardcore chain quests in heroic instances to unblock entrance to raid instances. all of this required gear and skill and it took time and it was challenge. many not-to-good guilds never even seen mount hyjal, black temple or even this one with kaelthas.

this was good, hard expansion.

and now? month after releasing cataclysm fucking pugs (pick up groups) are killing bosses on raid instances? wtf? they should not be allowed to even enter raid instances without passin many hard chains imo.

wow becomes to easy. far to easy.

and other mmorps? in my opinion next mmorp who will be better than wow and who beat wow will be the one released by blizzard, no one could beat blizzard so far, still even after fail of wotlk or cata. guild wars will be good but for pvp only and this is only mmorp who can get some players all the rest are meaningless. conan? ive been trying - fail. good music, graphics, good atmosphere, terrible gameplay, bugs etc...

WOW will always be my game.. that and Halo Reach.

yes.
because despite having a shitty shitty shitty shitty movie out right now, (or perhaps because of it), conan is killing it.

I think WOW becoming as easy as it has is what has sustained its huge subscription base. I first started playing when the game was pretty new and lvl 60 was the max. I joined a raiding guild and you basically had to get gear from one raid to progress to the next etc. It was like having a part time job and I burned out quickly on it. I just saw Blackwing Lair for the first time a few weeks ago when we went in so a friend could train one of the bosses with her hunter.

That raids were so hard to do turned a lot of players off. The hardcore gamers loved it, but the casual fans like me saw no use in continuing to pay $15 per month if there was nothing I could do that didn't require me to invest huge amount of time (note how they changed the PVP stuff too so getting rank and gear is easier than it used to be). I quit for a while then came back when burning crusade came out then quick and came back for WOTLK. By making the raids easier in Wrath people like me could actually do them from time to time and they actually kept me as a member where before I would have likely quit then come back when the new expansion came out.

In the end all Blizzard cares about is getting people to pay their $15 per month. They don't care if they piss off some hardcore gamers along the way.

They fucked up when they introduced Cataclysm. The expansion sucks, the content is rehashed, etc.

i want FAR CRY 3 on my table! WoW is not for me, i prefer FPS

They have been wasting time developing diablo 3.

World of warcraft will always bring in cash flow like ultima online.

Facebook, and things like PlayStation Network.

I can't wait for Bio Shock infinite, the trailer looks like the sickest game ever! But I also enjoy FPS more than MMO. :2 cents:

Conan was dying! The smartest move they made was moving to Free to Play. The publisher released a statement recently that Free to Play basically saved the game, bringing in 4 times the players and more than doubling revenues.

There are several companies in the free to play market that are becoming juggernauts. Nexon for one...

With games like these:

Vindictus - http://www.mmoden.com/reviews/vindictus
Combat Arms - http://www.mmoden.com/reviews/combat-arms

Then you have more and more games that were once purchase or free to play migrating:

Team Fortress 2 - http://www.mmoden.com/reviews/team-fortress-2

Just to name a few. MMO Games will all be free to play soon. The revenue is better for the company and that in turn creates a better game for the end user.

Been waiting for Diablo III for years... come on Blizzard :1orglaugh

About time ...

I would imagine they might be charging for the realm servers. With nearly all of South Korea playing that game, they should.

all but not the wow. blizzard is to greedy, as i remember they never let any of their game for free. diablo 1 or 2 for example. never been given away. i do not believe they will turn into microtransactions on wow. anyway they are making best games, diablo 3 will be superhit and will gather incredible number of players. you will see.

Which one do you recommend for me? I'm getting Flustered playing WoW..

Just downloaded Age of Connor... OMG who plays that???? Had to close it after a minute.

I've never played this game at all. I'm afraid if I did I wouldn't leave my place and would stop showering and doing anything physical for 6 months....i hear its fun tho.

You must have missed the announcement then, WoW recently went free to play for the first 20 levels, unlimited free, not a trial time period. There are limitations, but they are already testing the model. They have already tested the cash shop over the past two years with simple mounts and cosmetic pets. If you think the FTP option has not caught Blizzard's eye, you are mistaken.

I play Vindictus quite a bit actually, it is fun, action oriented, and east to jump in a jump play a littler here or there, or a whole bunch.

Hmmmm. Can you recommend one that is AWESOME without having to pay for enhancements?

You're a smart man. I still struggle with the jones to get back to WOW. Been off it for around 4 years now. I still get the jones from time to time. Warcrack is one hell of an addiction.

Here are a couple for you to check out...

WoW Style - http://www.mmoden.com/reviews/forsaken-world
Awesome Tank Shooter - http://www.mmoden.com/reviews/world-of-tanks
Battle Arena Style of DOTA - http://www.mmoden.com/reviews/league-of-legends
Action Instance Based - http://www.mmoden.com/reviews/vindictus
Persistant World WoW Style - http://www.mmoden.com/reviews/runes-of-magic

All the above are excellent, full video reviews of each on each of the links above too.

Thanks, Eric. Forsaken world and Vindictus look pretty good

more than half of them playing farmville for years lol

WoW is a cheesy game, all it had was a great marketing tactic. Make the game playable by every single person in the world -- then market the hell out of it.

For a game, it was ok. I played for 3 months and dropped it. For a MMORPG, it failed hardcore. Difficulty level 0... I was just a boring hunter with a TRex and was soloing their 'raids'

The pre-2005 FFXI was 10x more difficult. (yes, I kept my FFXI longer than I did my WoW acct lol -- might have been crappy graphics, but it at least gave a resemblance of a challenge) Now WoW and FFXI (and FFXIV) is a complete joke. Glad people are starting to see that.

MMORPG should be a repeatable, endless, life sucking, addicting, & home wrecking game available. Not a "ok I got the best gear, I can pwn all the newbs, now what? ..."

Diablo III I think is just one big mean joke Blizzard is playing on us. I got sick of the push backs and false news for Diablo III, I booted up my old D2 LoD and been having fun with that lmao. Paladin is just fun.

Haven't played WoW for a long time now, actually no mmorpg at all. I like making money too much :) Will check out Diablo 3 when It hits though as well as Blizzards new "unknown" one.

You are going to have to enlighten me of exactly where Blizzard has ever given a D3 release date. Blizzard has been known for there lack of giving release dates from their very beginning 20 years ago. They don't give release dates, because internally they have one simple mantra "It is done when it is done."

I have known several people who work there and a few who still do. They won't release a game just to satisfy the screaming masses. They will wait until they know they have the best product going on the door. I believe their awards speak for themself on this issue.

I hope it is.

just a bunch more competition

Na, not knocking Blizzard in any way -- and I should have elaborated that statement. The push back was not a "release date" but rather "coming 20**" -- if memory serves, 2010 (this was around the time that trailer was released, maybe 2008? 2009? idr when they released the videos). I won't be surprised if it was released in 2012. The false news: websites, review sites, and their own forums stating "expected to launch <insert info here>"

(as far as I know, no, nothing ever firm & official on an actual date -- never said it was)

Just tried to check the way-back machine with no luck,


With WoW, thats exactly what they did unfortunately -- imho. Ruined the experience for me, personally, when I bought it in the first place for the name "Warcraft." But meh, to each his own on that game. People can attack & defend that game all day long, lol.

Big thing is going to be Star Wars. There is a lot of cross over appeal there and if Star Wars turns out to be decent, that could hit WoW.

Star Wars has a production budget of $300 million!!