Gaming Has World Of Warcraft finally peaked?

I can't see WoW dieing. MMOers still play Everquest 1 to this day!

 

Never tried it personally, the fact you need to invest a really unhealthy amount of time into the game if you want to get good & the fact you buy the game & then need to pay an extra regular bill it really lacked appeal for me.

If people applied the same time & effort into something else they could get amazingly good at it & I wouldn't rule out any possibilities, I think I spend enough hours playing through normal single player games but it's nothing in comparison to enthusisatic MMORPG players.

 

I will pass judement on the impending doom of WoW when the Panda's go live (july2012?).

10million subs is as one other posted, 10million subs no matter how you spin it.

I see a lot of disgruntled people who quit the game - I also know of a lot of people who basically fell into some 'pigeon holed' categories.

I have seen a number of "I quit" posts, most of which boil down to a change in personal circumstances and the amount of timer required to sustain their goals.

In short, the level of time required to play WoW and remain at the high end is not sustainable for these people anymore, the inclination to do more rinse and repeat much reduced etc...

 

Me being one of them. Nothing lasts forever.

 

let it die, and let good mmos receive new players like Rift and SWTOR.

 

Not much of a story this. Whether it has peaked or not, or infact... whether it's even alive or not, is not much of a story to me anyway. The game has already been far too big and successful, (over the course of 7 years no less!), I will only ever have respect for it. It's not my kind of game at all, only ever played it for about a month, but it has done far better than any other MMO, and has lasted longer than nearly all of them too, so even if it died today, it would still be nothing but a gigantic success.

I'm sure it is far beyond its peak though. But I know similar games which are still (just about) surviving with a population of about 300 players. They are down to 1 server and I'm assuming that 300 people paying a monthly fee is barely even covering costs, but that just goes to show how far WoW has to go before it's even at risk of being closed down. In fact, I can't even see it happening for many many years to come. I think games like Ultima Online and Everquest have shown that games like this just don't die easily. Even when better alternatives exist (sometimes even free ones...), there are still some people who wont leave.

What makes you think they are better than WoW? Just out of interest.

 

I don't agree with your idea of good, SWTOR never looked interesting and Rift got boring as a WoW clone, but it brings up an interesting feature of the MMO scene.

When you're looking at such long lifecycles of games it can be hard to get innovation because the turn over of games is so much slower. Once a games studio has created an MMO they have to wait until it dies before they can work on a new title without risking cannibalizing their own market. Blizzard's a prime example with their long rumored Project Titan, they can't release it until WoW finally becomes small enough to not worry about players moving to Titan. This leaves them unable to do anything fundamentally different and are stuck simply tacking more features on to WoW.

 

Any-bets on how long until the last official blizzard WOW server shuts down. I wouldn't be surprised if it lasts till 2020.

 

Yeah I hope they all die. I recently had a go at Star Trek Online, as soon as the words "You will find your action menu with various skills below" were uttered I closed the game, "I remember this ****, no thanks".

 

yes.

if you want it in more words then i also cancelled over a year back, it just seems so pointless these days as anything you do or earn will be given on a platter to facerollers half a year down the line and there is a terrible sense of deja vu in almost every dungeon - other than a few classes everything plays the same as everything else. game is probably the best it has ever been in terms of gameplay, encounters, things to do but it's suffering in the exact same way as stuff like modernwarfare 3 - incremental improvements instead of anything actually new and a positive reinforcement loop to congratulate playerbase for non-achievements and just being there.

so now i play world of tanks instead !

 

Just for clarification. When blizzard report numbers they only count active paid up accounts. If people are paying but are not playing that's their decision. WoW bashing on this site is obviously a hobby. You people cant see the wood for the trees...

Wow will die when blizzard determines its death. They will end the story and move onto better and greater things like Titan.

 

Another thought to consider, you never or rarely read comments by happy players. Which is a problem too on the official wow forums or other coms like mmochampion - only people not liking a certain development go there to cry their hearts out. you get tons of people raging on about quitting, yet most never actually quit and many sub back again soon after.

No matter what you can say about it, WoW has a big appeal in many ways and if you like the game, you will rarely get bored because there is always something you can do. Of course, people who'd agree wouldn't post here, as I mentioned only players who see the game in a negative way will post here or comment on this. Doesn't change the truth of it though.

A suggestion for a more interesting question though: with a hardcore-minded endgame as it was back in vanilla and burning crusade, I believe a firm player-base would have stuck with wow for basically ever, untill Blizzard would shut it down. Seeing the crazy amount of "casualisation" though, I do wonder. Being a top-end raider doesn't mean that much, you can be high up on the rankings with just 3 days of raiding. Only the World's Best will dedicate up to 6-7 days a week when a progression phase starts after a new raid launched. I would estimate there has been a huge shift in the player-base towards casual people, who maybe pvp a little, raid a little and level some chars. That makes me wonder though, how many would really stick till the end.

Surely though, we won't find out but in probably at least another 3 years time. Time will tell.

 

Well I just got offered a scroll of resurrection so i'm gonna go back and play for a week or so!

Edit: just downloaded all 22GBs of the client, played around for 30 minutes, then uninstalled.

Those visuals are just too 2004 and my old server might as well have hay bales blowing through it

 

Titles such as WOW have their ups and downs, they cause their own demise by trying to widen their auditory, which causes those who have played it previously to re-consider their choices. Cataclysm has pushed me away for WOW after a rather long addiction to it, and it was not even that hard to quit as I hated now simplified the game got. Now you do not even need any skill at all, just a number of hours spent playing it.
Despite this, WOW will not die, unless Blizzard decides to shut the project down for whatever reason. The declining numbers may be due to many reasons (as the one mentioned above), but, I think, it could be due to a natural gap in the market. WOW targets early teenage players and it could be that there are just not enough of those who have the opportunity to play. A good advertisement around schools should cure WOW for a wile. WOW is not cool, its geeky and nerdy, but that is exactly what becomes popular nowadays!

 

Or one step up from advertising near schools, just realise it on an iOS device. instant "cool"

 

I played WoW for around 4 years, playing high level content as a Human Warrior. I spent ages getting good and practicing rotations etc for Blizz to essentially nerf everything so a 5 year old could do it.

Im all for making content (Especially Paid For) accessible to all however the nerfing was too much. Anyone remember vanilla Baron Geddon ?!?!?

WoW had some good points and I had a great time playing but I think there is only so far you can go with something. I think if all the current WoW subscribers went out on a limb they would find something better than WoW.

I'm Currently playing SWTOR with some old WoW friends. Its really good and the story is amazing ! Really reccomend it to any MMO person to try.

 

you can now get WoW for free, granted you get capped at level 20 but its still a good idea for those who want to try it without having to pay between 7 - 10 £ a month, i currently have a paid account - which hasn't been played in over a year - how is miss my DK and I also have a free 1 which i play when i fancy a change so i gets played anything upto 10 hours a month but last 2 have been neglected

 

I've played since Beta and still have an active subscription, but I probably haven't logged on in 3 months (I did the yearly subscription to get Diablo III free), Cataclysm and the Goblins ruined it for me.

Slitting the throat of the games background and history to bring in a race with hot-rods and mini cars ruined the game for me. A blantant and sickening decision to grab the pre and early teen market drove me away from the game, all the stuff Blizzard push about artisitic integrity, building the world story etc were wiped away in the moment I logged into the Goblin starting area.

I still think WoW is a well crafted game that's balanced and supportive of it's user base, but I just can't face the sell-out goblins.....

If you want to know what Gobbo's should be like, play something by Games Workshop

 

I played WOW for 2 hours and nearly shot myself. The MMO model sucks out any sort of relationship a player has with the game, reduces it to generic repetition, and kills the magic and fantasy. A sure fire way to make a game feel like a graphical spreadsheet is to cheapen the experience by diluting it 10 million times over, and then extending it over and over again until it stretches so thin it just tears into shreds.

 

I played for many a year, solid for vanilla, hit rank 14, grand marshal...
Soon as cross realm came in the game was over for me. Ruined server pvp. Magtheridon was the ****!

Having a mutual respect for each other to certain horde and sitting together in AB while all the scrubs tore it up around you was glorious.

Some of the best days of my life spent on that game. Sad but true.

/Bilson