Only 30 Percent of WoW Players Get Past Level 10

[Yopaz]

I'm sorry, but that's just hilarious. If they can't get folks passed level ten, they're doing something wrong. Dreadfully wrong.

Such as realizing the game doesn't appeal to them? Realizing that MMORPGS are a waste of time? Thinking that it doesn't deserve a spot in their monthly bills? Getting bored when there's a quest that doesn't involve shooting someone in the head with a sniper? (I have to mock FPS fans yo make some balance).

I haven't played WoW myself, but I know some brief details from my friend who played until he got hacked. It's not appealing to me because I am more interested in a rich fulfilling game experience that works just as well alone as with friends. I think I might have been one of those who didn't get to level 10.

Edit: Also I am a firm believer in paying for games once and own them for all eternity.

 

[geldonyetich]

I always thought that World of Warcraft's retention rate would be low. I predicted [http://www.rpgforums.com/forums/wow-general-discussion/12079-world-warcraft-doomed.html] it wouldn't last for very long.

I was wrong, it managed to wildly outperform just about every western-made MMORPG in existence, accumulating millions of subscribers where EverQuest only had about 550,000.

Eventually I respun my theory based on how World of Warcraft pulls a bit of a bait-and-switch - it becomes as much an old school slayer as EverQuest, and that's why it managed to hold on to so many players.

However, this article on the Escapist makes me wonder if perhaps I was wrong to second guess myself. There may, indeed, be very poor retention in World of Warcraft.

 

[Contun]

Considering that World of Warcraft has about, oh, I dunno....around 10 million subscribers 30 percent isn't actually all that bad...

Pathetic, but not bad...

 

[Starke]

I'm sorry, but that's just hilarious. If they can't get folks passed level ten, they're doing something wrong. Dreadfully wrong.

Misinterpretation.

It only takes most people ten minutes to figure out they don't like mmorpgs.

I love MMORPGs. Those with quests, like Guild Wars or City of Heroes/Villains. Also those with grind, like Ragnarok Online. I like those with PvE, like Champions Online. I also like those with PvP, like WAR.

Warcraft? I couldn't swallow. Too easy, to shallow, and to play the actual end-game stuff with other people (not like we can solo dungeons...) I must buy all three games, and level to 80 ASAP. Doesn't seem like much fun.

My biggest issue with MMOs in general is that I'm an antisocial bastard in games, and in general that doesn't mesh with an MMO's play style. I'm loving the fleet actions in Star Trek Online, but, outside of that I always have done a lot of soloing in MMOs. The removal of the ability to solo in Guild Wars was one of the things that got me to stop playing it after the Korean Beta in October '04. Almost by definition this cuts my options in MMOs down sharply.

I always thought that World of Warcraft's retention rate would be low. I predicted [http://www.rpgforums.com/forums/wow-general-discussion/12079-world-warcraft-doomed.html] it wouldn't last for very long. I was wrong, it managed to wildly outperform just about every western-mode MMORPG in existance, accumulating millions of subscribers where EverQuest only had about 550,000. This article on the Escapist makes me wonder if perhaps I was right after all, but poor retention alone wasn't enough for it to tank.

Kudos for admiting you were wrong. But, honestly with MMOs, success probably should be evaluated as a life cycle. How long does the MMO run before it shuts down? In this case, I'm not sure anything can compete with WoW except for random titles like Runescape or Anarchy Online, and those don't boast the same kind of player base.

Edit: I'm sorry Geldon, I skimmed your post and responded in an idiotic and off topic manor. I stand behind the kudos bit though. It says a lot of positive things about your character that you're willing to admit you had made a mistake in a semi-anonomous forum like this. In general, you're probably right, based on the high rate of turnover they appear to have had though. This would imply that WoW's only real sucess has been derived from a large preexisting fan base and good marketing.

 

[Amnestic]

Did not realize that the WoW trial was a different game. I appologize. Here, all this time, I assumed those $1.99 disks they were selling were a taste of the same game. But now that you've explained this to me so articulatly, I so apparent. All my life up to this moment is a waste.

Unless you're trying to say that WoW players are some different speicies, that you can only devolve to after you pay $40 to sell your soul to Blizzard. Given the "WoW players" I've seen elsewhere on the internet, there's some legitimacy to that claim I guess.

EDIT: anyway, let's nip this in the bud now. We operationalize "WoW players" as anyone who has played WoW. That includes trial players. The original poster's comment stands.

Right. You can operationalise that distinction, and I'd agree with you. The 30% number is only applied to the trial players though. What it implies is that 30% of people who get trial accounts go on to become paying customers, not that 30% of WoW players (which includes paying customers) get to level 10.

Are you being deliberately ignorant?

 

[asinann]

This does not surprise me at all.

 

[Fat Hippo]

Well, the point is - what stops growing, will eventually die. If they can't get new players, and they lose old ones... and it goes without saying that WoW might finally crumble under its own weight.

Crumble under its own weight? Oh come on, how do you imagine that happening? I'm sure the game costs loads to keep running, but even if it stops growing, hell even if it shrinks, Blizzard-Activision will still be raking in obscene amounts of money. It's still gonna take quite a few years till this baby is put to rest

 

[berault]

I used to play faithfully for about a year, but before I bought it for myself I tried the trial version after seeing a friend play, the problem with the trial is that they don't give you the full feeling, a main part of WoW is the Auction House, and last time I checked the only way to get halfway decent armor is questing, or the Auction House, it's kind of discouraging to be in only what you can from quests if you were to level past 10.

Also because the demo version is streamed instead of downloaded, you encounter some serious lag if you so much as step out of the starting area, that could be why no one levels past 10.

 

[The Great JT]

I'm sure the game is still growing, just at a slower rate.

 

[Starke]

Did not realize that the WoW trial was a different game. I appologize. Here, all this time, I assumed those $1.99 disks they were selling were a taste of the same game. But now that you've explained this to me so articulatly, I so apparent. All my life up to this moment is a waste.

Unless you're trying to say that WoW players are some different speicies, that you can only devolve to after you pay $40 to sell your soul to Blizzard. Given the "WoW players" I've seen elsewhere on the internet, there's some legitimacy to that claim I guess.

EDIT: anyway, let's nip this in the bud now. We operationalize "WoW players" as anyone who has played WoW. That includes trial players. The original poster's comment stands.

Right. You can operationalise that distinction, and I'd agree with you. The 30% number is only applied to the trial players though. What it implies is that 30% of people who get trial accounts go on to become paying customers, not that 30% of WoW players (which includes paying customers) get to level 10.

Are you being deliberately ignorant?

No, I'm being sarcastic. Bandit's comment was a freakin' joke. And you turned on it and demanded a citation. I've paid attention to this only in so much as it ammuses me. So far the most substantial thought I've given your participation in this thread is remembering that the footnote tags exist.

I'm sorry you didn't understand that, but there you go.

Now, thinking: If you want real data you need a breakdown by level of what percent of accounts ever reach that level. So level 1 is 100%, level 2 is 92%, level 3 is 86%[footnote]There is no citation for these numbers because it is being generated as a rhetorical example[/footnote] and so on. Or a listing of hours played by the same break down. 40% play past 1 hour, and so on. Good luck on getting blizzard to give you that data, but there you go.

 

[GeekFury]

Most people on the server I'm on get to level 80 then give up when they relise that getting into a raid group requires you to either raid 24/7 or know someone in there and because all the raid groups/guilds are mainly closed off 'Old Boys' clubs it's not really possiable, since leaving my old guild over the fact I got bored of their 'LOLHARDCORERAIDINGBBQSAUCE!' attatude I'm saying good bye to WoW at teh end of my sub.

Exactly. I think it's reached a stage where a lot of servers have very well established guilds that are hardcore or PuG groups that somehow find trivial things hard.
I think the achievement system may have stemmed a lot of newcomers as well since the majority of groups require you to have an achievment for content.

People that demand you show achievements or you don't get in a group need to get a freaking life, I have'nt bothered with the achievements. But imagine on the 360 if people demanded you show achievements before you enter a game/match with them. Achievements don't prove skill, just that you were in a group that could do whatever the requirement for the achievement was.

 

[Starke]

People that demand you show achievements or you don't get in a group need to get a freaking life, I haven't bothered with the achievements. But imagine on the 360 if people demanded you show achievements before you enter a game/match with them. Achievements don't prove skill, just that you were in a group that could do whatever the requirement for the achievement was.

On the 360 it tends to be people who make judgements based on gamer score, I've never seen it get to the point of kicking a player with a low gamerscore off a team, but I wouldn't be surprised. And yeah, they need to get a life too.

 

[Starke]

I'm sure the game is still growing, just at a slower rate.

That's actually part of the article. At the moment, it's not growing, it's in equalibrium. New players who are staying with the game join at about the same rate that older players are leaving.

 

[Guy32]

Plus, I suspect that there are a lot of cheaters abusing the free trials.

Was thinking something similar, but blizzard always botches the wording of all their press releases. He could be talking about 30% of characters, 30% of accounts, 30% of credit card numbers... All of which make equal amounts of sense, but mean very different things.

And Spammers. They constantly make new accounts.

 

[Abedeus]

I'm sorry, but that's just hilarious. If they can't get folks passed level ten, they're doing something wrong. Dreadfully wrong.

Misinterpretation.

It only takes most people ten minutes to figure out they don't like mmorpgs.

I love MMORPGs. Those with quests, like Guild Wars or City of Heroes/Villains. Also those with grind, like Ragnarok Online. I like those with PvE, like Champions Online. I also like those with PvP, like WAR.

Warcraft? I couldn't swallow. Too easy, to shallow, and to play the actual end-game stuff with other people (not like we can solo dungeons...) I must buy all three games, and level to 80 ASAP. Doesn't seem like much fun.

My biggest issue with MMOs in general is that I'm an antisocial bastard in games, and in general that doesn't mesh with an MMO's play style. I'm loving the fleet actions in Star Trek Online, but, outside of that I always have done a lot of soloing in MMOs. The removal of the ability to solo in Guild Wars was one of the things that got me to stop playing it after the Korean Beta in October '04.

Wait what? Guild Wars is one of the most single-player-friendly MMO-esque game there is. You can go with henchmen and heroes from level 1 to 20, from Prophecies to Eye of the North. All areas, even some elite ones, can be accessed and cleared more or less with AI.

Well, the point is - what stops growing, will eventually die. If they can't get new players, and they lose old ones... and it goes without saying that WoW might finally crumble under its own weight.

Crumble under its own weight? Oh come on, how do you imagine that happening? I'm sure the game costs loads to keep running, but even if it stops growing, hell even if it shrinks, Blizzard-Activision will still be raking in obscene amounts of money. It's still gonna take quite a few years till this baby is put to rest

When a game is adding constantly new high-end content, any new player who sees the game for the first time notices something:

Where are all the players? Off leveling to 80. You won't meet any teams before that. And you can't do the dungeons or end-game content from the basic version OR Burning Crusade. Basically, to enjoy WoW now you must all games, but you are buying the ones except for WotLK only for the classes. Equipment, skills, loot, dungeons, content - all useless. And WotLK will be a bit more useless after Cataclysm.

 

[sidereal_day]

Did not realize that the WoW trial was a different game. I appologize. Here, all this time, I assumed those $1.99 disks they were selling were a taste of the same game. But now that you've explained this to me so articulatly, I so apparent. All my life up to this moment is a waste.

Unless you're trying to say that WoW players are some different speicies, that you can only devolve to after you pay $40 to sell your soul to Blizzard. Given the "WoW players" I've seen elsewhere on the internet, there's some legitimacy to that claim I guess.

EDIT: anyway, let's nip this in the bud now. We operationalize "WoW players" as anyone who has played WoW. That includes trial players. The original poster's comment stands.

Still not getting it? You said that 70% of WoW players can't stand playing WoW for more than 3 hours. This statement implies ALL WoW players. You then gave the source for this outlandish statement as an article that said 30% of TRIAL WoW players make it past level 10.

ALL WOW PLAYERS =/= WOW TRIAL PLAYERS

Do you see the difference now?

 

[Credge]

Sadly, I wouldn't put it past the average person to lose interest/fail at getting to level 10 in wow. Not that it's hard, just...takes time (Not 3 hours though..).

Seeing as how the average person plays WoW...

 

[Stranger of Sorts]

Well it can't keep growing forever can it. The only people who arn't on it are now people who used to be on it.