Blizzard Hopes Faster WoW Expansions Will Halt Sliding Subscriptions

[hunkajunk94]

To the people debating too easy/too hard:
It's not the most of the fights are too hard, it's simply that they are too long. There is absolutely no point in having a heroic dungeon with 50 minutes worth of trash and 10 minutes worth of boss fights. The bosses themselves were quite honestly very easy... I don't think any group I was in really had a problem with any of the fights except for maybe the harvester one in Deadmines because no one knew the machine. Almost all wipes we had were from trash. It tells you something is wrong when a terribly geared tank who can't understand how to pull trash can tank a boss perfectly.

 

[Baldr]

I know they are not exactly hard. In Wrath, one well geared person could carry 4 scrubs through a heroic, which made it easier to get gear. It so much harder in Cata to get the gear required for Raids and if you don't have everyone in good enough gear in Cata, it makes it just that much harder.

It not that the bosses are actually harder, the time commitment is harder.

 

[John Funk]

To the people debating too easy/too hard:
It's not the most of the fights are too hard, it's simply that they are too long. There is absolutely no point in having a heroic dungeon with 50 minutes worth of trash and 10 minutes worth of boss fights. The bosses themselves were quite honestly very easy... I don't think any group I was in really had a problem with any of the fights except for maybe the harvester one in Deadmines because no one knew the machine. Almost all wipes we had were from trash. It tells you something is wrong when a terribly geared tank who can't understand how to pull trash can tank a boss perfectly.

That's completely not the problem we had at all. Actually, I thought that the amount of trash in Cata was pretty much perfect, even in raids. Yes, even in BOT.

I caancelled mine when my account was hacked and subsequently banned and they didn't do shit about it. Just sayin'... maybe improve account security? A lot?

And learn how to rectify it better. I imagine they'd have a lot more players still, um, playing if account hacks weren't so common.

Get an Authenticator if you ever go back. The program is free if you have a smart phone, and oh so worth it.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

How about some of the things people have been screaming for since day one? Like customization?

 

[NinjaTigerXIII]

NO NO NO! Blizzard, I don't want to pay $40 for more content that you will inevitably alienate a large part of the people who play WoW. Case in point this expansion, find a way to make raiding a little more accessible for the causal player and then we'll talk.

 

[Cheesus333]

I caancelled mine when my account was hacked and subsequently banned and they didn't do shit about it. Just sayin'... maybe improve account security? A lot?

And learn how to rectify it better. I imagine they'd have a lot more players still, um, playing if account hacks weren't so common.

Get an Authenticator if you ever go back. The program is free if you have a smart phone, and oh so worth it.

Yeah, my friends had those and advised me to get one. But since they had iPhones and I didn't have any kind of smartphone, I couldn't. Which is apparently punishable by account theft.

If I do get an iPhone, I might though. If they're all still playing, that is.

 

[John Funk]

I caancelled mine when my account was hacked and subsequently banned and they didn't do shit about it. Just sayin'... maybe improve account security? A lot?

And learn how to rectify it better. I imagine they'd have a lot more players still, um, playing if account hacks weren't so common.

Get an Authenticator if you ever go back. The program is free if you have a smart phone, and oh so worth it.

Yeah, my friends had those and advised me to get one. But since they had iPhones and I didn't have any kind of smartphone, I couldn't. Which is apparently punishable by account theft.

If I do get an iPhone, I might though. If they're all still playing, that is.

I THINK it might be available for other phones, but not sure. It also comes in physical form if you don't mind paying what, $10? I had one of those, but I eventually ditched it for the smartphone one just because it was much more convenient.

 

[dragongit]

Of corse! Have us spend more cash on expansions every year on top of subscription fees to "keep" those customers. That Yacht isn't going to pay for itself you know! I mean only 11.4 million subscribers? How ever will Blizzard live with itself.

600k is a lot of people. But its still a drop in the bucket, Blizzard is still making more then enough money. I still look foward to Guild Wars 2. Hell they may have expansions, and content you CAN buy, but none of it is forced upon you, and anyone is free to play it once they bought the game itself.

 

[DaxStrife]

Maybe with WoW subscription numbers falling, Bioware won't be so scared to finally release The Old Republic?

 

[Pilkingtube]

WoW: Cataclysm was great, it brought a lot of new mechanics, interesting new zones and a great referesh for the older zones, I quit a month after the launch.

I'm done.

I've just played it enough, there is no more fun for me to have from this game, I suspect that other people feel the same way.

 

[Tragedy's Rebellion]

No they really shouldn've. As it was right before Cata, there was a huge quality gap between WotLK's leveling content and the 1-58 content, with TBC sitting in the middle of it. Potential new players were often dazzeled by commercials and info of WotLK, only to be confronted by the drabness of the Vanilla leveling content they had to deal with.

Fact is still, no matter how good the endgame will be, there's still more game content int he leveling departement. Neglecting that is making any other game complete shit except for the final boss fights, it's just incredibly foolish.

But honestly, I don't know where you got the uninspired bit from. Mechanics-wise there's more variation in boss fights and instances than ever, and there's a much more rich variation of environmental styles to choose from.

Most of the bosses are just "don't stand in the void zone" kinda thing, sure there are some "new" mechanics, but they are just too rare and far in between to be noticeable. Wotlk leveling sucked, i don't know where everyone is getting this "wotlk leveling is my messiah" idea from, because it was just vehicle quest after vehicle quest.

I agree 1-58 needed a polish, but not at that massive scale. They should've just made the quests and zones flow better and concentrate on end-game.

About the instances being uninspired i meant from in-lore point of view and them being abysmal in number. Most of them have nothing to do with the established lore, they just made the lore up as they go. The 2 recycled dungeons don't help much and now with 2 more recycled dungeons it's getting a bit out of hand. Also, you aren't "choosing" the environment, they are forcing you to do them if you want to go anywhere.

 

[archabaddon]

The solution? More new content at a faster pace.

Ahh, the old "If you throw enough crap at a wall, something will stick" development plan.

WoW: Cataclysm was great, it brought a lot of new mechanics, interesting new zones and a great referesh for the older zones, I quit a month after the launch.

I'm done.

I've just played it enough, there is no more fun for me to have from this game, I suspect that other people feel the same way.

Yeah, I felt this way about CoH after their expansion. The expansion was OK, but the game was still the same under all the new paint and such. After one plays the same game for X years, it's time for something new, typically.

 

[Roofstone]

I think the main problem is, that as Yahtzee once pointed out.

When you loose a overhanging goal, it isnt interesting.

I just poke in every now and then to roleplay a bit, but beyond that. I find world of warcraft to be utterly boring. I am 85, what now? Get purples! What for? To get bigger and better purples! And what do I do after that? I sit around and wait for the new purples to be released.. It is rather sad really.

While I havent quit yet, I aint that far away from doing so..

In aftertought, I also think that people are starting to get bored with the game. They have changed alot, yes, but it is still the same game(Dreadfully so). With same controlls, same routine fights and same tactics of "Stand far away when boss does something".

 

[ionveau]

Why WoW is bad

Terrible content updates(Honestly the best raid in wrath was naxurames and was that made in 2006)

Stuck up community who thinks playing WoW takes any skill at all

Shameless Expansion packs that take 1 step forward and 2 steps back
The game costs over $100+Sub fees for new members

Dimwitted player base that think blizzard needs to charge $20 for account transfers etc because it actually costs money rather then blizzard being greedy

Adults that want to be the "boss" and are now trying to do that by pushing guild members around.

Shameless PvP system that claims to be fair, im sorry but when a person with around 500+ more stats then me gets matched up with me how is that fair?

And lastly Why the hell do they make items so much stronger with each expansion pack original WoW you would get maybe +30 stamina on your armor Now you get around +500,

Oh ya...its so that you NEED to buy the expansion pack rather then it being an optimal choice.

I say this is a time to celebrate the devil is slowly dying


I also got a 7 day free code in the mail. My first reaction was deleting the email.

 

[Tsaba]

and as others have said...
WoW will kill WoW, so stop making "WoW killer" MMO's.

 

[LogicNProportion]

*Plays the Imperial March*

I'm sorry, was Blizzard talking again? I was FAR too busy cleaning my E-11...

On topic, here's an idea. Decide on a tone for World of Warcraft. Something that really bugged me about the game is that one second, I'm supposed to be paying attention to two NPC's talking about some grave danger, and then the next, I'm rolling on a Katamari of Death. It's like, well, the Phantom Menace. Change the tone too much and people get confused. At least, people who expect a decent story or are into the game for RP. You know how hard it was to RP that Katamari bit...?

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

Or..... You know..... You could always just make Warcraft 4... But I know you are too afraid of money and success to do that.

 

[Realitycrash]

Part of the problem, Morhaime said, is that years of experience have made players better at tearing through WoW content, after which they mosey along to other games because there's nothing left to hold their interest

Oh BULLSHIT. It has nothing to do with you guys making it easier and easier to powerlevel, to buy mounts, to do heroic dungeons, etc?
I'm all for more content, but gearing up, etc, is very easy nowdays. It's not that I fully support the endless grind that was Vanilla/BC, but since it took longer to achieve anything, player stayed longer.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I actually think releasing explansions faster will be to their detriment. I played wow since vanilla beta and I just got tired of the cycle of; struggle to gear up beat the bad guy start all over again at 0 in the next xpac.

It's a pain in the ass.

 

[John Funk]

Or..... You know..... You could always just make Warcraft 4... But I know you are too afraid of money and success to do that.

The RTS team is currently finishing StarCraft 2. After they finish SC2P, who knows? Maybe WC4.