The current state of World of Warcraft

[I.Muir]

Your thoughts?

I think it's neither dead nor dying but not going as strong as it was.
I think there a direct correlation between games claiming that they will kill wow and then crashing a burning. Like saying Macbeth in the theater.
Desperately needs a texture update, new animations and models rather than being really cheap and reusing old ones like that currently are. It will cost a pittance compared to the cash they are still racking in and Ive seen much better of the three I mentioned being done by modders for free so I seriously doubt it they couldn't do it with ease.
Still is the strongest MMO out there.
Will even be improved by mists of pandaria as there are no steps backwards only forwards good and bad.
Unfortunately has become more of a corporate entity.

 

[Qitz]

Oh it doesn't need just a texture update, it needs a whole ENGINE overhaul. Don't forget, the WoW engine is the Warcraft Engine, it's hellishly old and needs to be rebuilt for WoW to do some more drastic things.

I don't see myself playing MoP because I'm losing interest in the game after WotLK and all the nerfing they did in Cata. I was one of the few people who like the Hard Heroics, when they were first released. They wouldn't have needed to completely nerf them as people were still in lawlwrath mode and trying to faceroll the instance. After some learning and gearing up, people would have been set.

 

[Jitters Caffeine]

I don't play it personally, but from what I've heard from people who DO, all I've heard is how it's about 3 years from being a ghost town (hyperbole of course). They're practically hemorrhaging players because there's nothing really to bring in NEW people and all they can do is LOSE players, the economy is fucked (from what I hear), and everyone says the newest expansion is a broken joke. It may not be dead yet, but it's certainly looking a little green around the gills. The "hot key MMO" was a series born out of technical limitations that will die out as soon as the "action MMO" gets a working model that people like and can be easily copied.

 

[Fappy]

Oh it doesn't need just a texture update, it needs a whole ENGINE overhaul. Don't forget, the WoW engine is the Warcraft Engine, it's hellishly old and needs to be rebuilt for WoW to do some more drastic things.

I don't see myself playing MoP because I'm losing interest in the game after WotLK and all the nerfing they did in Cata. I was one of the few people who like the Hard Heroics, when they were first released. They wouldn't have needed to completely nerf them as people were still in lawlwrath mode and trying to faceroll the instance. After some learning and gearing up, people would have been set.

Stuff was still too easy at Cata launch.

 

[Verzin]

I dunno. After dumping a few hundred hours into WoW I kind of regret it. I wanted a game. WoW gave me nothing but grind and social crap (which is the point of an MMO I guess.) I don't like it.
I wanted to raid..It is obtusely hard to get into a decent raiding guild with no gear (which you only get from raiding). Eventually did get into raiding guild. Then I learned about lockout timers and bullcrap like that. I literally had to schedual my entire week around my guilds raiding time. seemed like I wanted to play the bloody game and WoW was determined to stop me.

I decided to PVP shortly after that. problem was I was max level with no gear. This means the only use I had in PVP was killing other max level people with no gear and watching the godlike immortals who actually HAD gear kill me in three seconds. seriously: try to hurt someone who has top tier PVP gear when you have raiding gear on. It doesn't work. This is only till I play a HUNDRED or so games and have enough honor to buy gear.

long story short I think most MMOs are Crap because they restrict you from playing the game until you've spent dozens and dozens of hours grinding. I've had enough of MMOs. Maybe I'll check out GW2, but honestly, I think grinding is a stupid mechanic.

 

[Sixcess]

WoW is a sad shadow of its former self. It's been streamlined and dumbed down to ridiculous levels throughout Cataclysm, and 'epic' gear is so easy to come by now the term has lost any meaning it ever had. It's no longer something to work toward - it's something you get handed to you.

Cross-realm dungeon/raid finder devastated any sense of server community and led to the absurd situation we have now, where once you hit level cap you never have to leave the faction capital again. Ever. Meanwhile out in the world the people who enjoy levelling are quitting because the levelling content is crushingly linear and easy-mode is hardwired in via the most draconian level restrictions on open world content I've ever seen.

I went back to WoW for a little while earlier this year, but it felt like a farewell tour. The core mechanics are still rock solid but it's all being pissed away.

Mists won't kill WoW, but the decline started with Cataclysm and World of Pandaland will do nothing to reverse that. The game is simply too big to die quickly, but I honestly don't see how they can drag it on past one more expansion after this, perhaps two.

 

[RJ 17]

I got out right around the launch of Lich King and it seems like that was the official start of the downward spiral...they're just REALLY stretching for everything they do now.

BC: Alright, finish the story with Illidan and the Burning Legion, fair enough.

LK: Sure, Arthas is still out there and we need to kick him in the nuts.

Cata: Ummm...alright...I guess....though I'm pretty sure Death Wing either died on or was marooned on Draenor.....how'd he get back to Azeroth again?

MoP: Seriously? You're turning what was an April Fools joke into an official expansion? I understand people really did want the Pandarens...but an entire expansion based off them?

Well I guess we'll get to see how WoW does when it is no longer riding the coattails of an established major villain.

 

[I.Muir]

There are some very old engines out there that run some good games but yeah alot of stuff should change.

I don't like to pvp because of the gear you need to grind to compete with the gods which could be ironic compared to what's sitting behind that keyboard. However to forsake grind of any kind is to forsake mmos which might not be so bad if I did not have a massive amount of time to waste.

Ive seen a few things I have liked about the new expansion when the beta was working at all for me. But overall I still know very little about the scope of the changes that are taking place. I haven't seen huge losses in players but i guess I will really know when I see how many servers are totally clogged with people playing the expansion. All I know is that there are a lot of new servers so I don't think it could be going that bad. Perhaps many of the old crowd are bleeding away and are being replaced.

If I were to be slightly more pessimistic id say that signs of stagnation are everywhere but the saddest thing is that many of them would take very little effort to fix. However with the current difficulty of raids and everything else who knows if they will get the mop right or not. Also if wow is to become a ghost town which I'm not denying as a possibility what would fill the gap it widened in it's absence? More identical clones of wow because that's the only risk publishers are willing to take when funding mmos, ironically guaranteeing failure before they start?

 

[I.Muir]

I got out right around the launch of Lich King and it seems like that was the official start of the downward spiral...they're just REALLY stretching for everything they do now.

BC: Alright, finish the story with Illidan and the Burning Legion, fair enough.

LK: Sure, Arthas is still out there and we need to kick him in the nuts.

Cata: Ummm...alright...I guess....though I'm pretty sure Death Wing either died on or was marooned on Draenor.....how'd he get back to Azeroth again?

MoP: Seriously? You're turning what was an April Fools joke into an official expansion? I understand people really did want the Pandarens...but an entire expansion based off them?

Well I guess we'll get to see how WoW does when it is no longer riding the coattails of an established major villain.

Making up new lore could either turn out to be a really good or another nail in the coffin it sounds like. If they were to constantly resurface the same enemies of the burning legion, and various cults out there then they would just speed the demise and besides they are nearly out of old gods.

 

[Aeshi]

It's got 10 million or so subscribers, it'll be fine.

Cata: Ummm...alright...I guess....though I'm pretty sure Death Wing either died on or was marooned on Draenor.....how'd he get back to Azeroth again?

MoP: Seriously? You're turning what was an April Fools joke into an official expansion? I understand people really did want the Pandarens...but an entire expansion based off them?

a) Actually Deathwing went to Draenor to hide some eggs, got his ass kicked by the Alliance, went back to Azeroth and then feigned his own death to escape after getting into a fight with some Archmages. If Illidan and Arthas are threats, he most certainly is.

b) That "April Fools joke" has more involvement (Creep in Warcraft III, Hero in Frozen Throne Orc Campaign, reference to said campaign in pre-Cata Barrens) in Warcraft than half the canon races do.

 

[I.Muir]

It's got 10 million or so subscribers, it'll be fine.

Cata: Ummm...alright...I guess....though I'm pretty sure Death Wing either died on or was marooned on Draenor.....how'd he get back to Azeroth again?

MoP: Seriously? You're turning what was an April Fools joke into an official expansion? I understand people really did want the Pandarens...but an entire expansion based off them?

a) Actually Deathwing went to Draenor to hide some eggs, got his ass kicked by the Alliance, went back to Azeroth and then feigned his own death to escape after getting into a fight with some Archmages. If Illidan and Arthas are threats, he most certainly is.

b) That "April Fools joke" has more involvement (Creep in Warcraft III, Hero in Frozen Throne Orc Campaign, reference to said campaign in pre-Cata Barrens) in Warcraft than half the canon races do.

Saw that creep the other day actually

 

[RJ 17]

It's got 10 million or so subscribers, it'll be fine.

Cata: Ummm...alright...I guess....though I'm pretty sure Death Wing either died on or was marooned on Draenor.....how'd he get back to Azeroth again?

MoP: Seriously? You're turning what was an April Fools joke into an official expansion? I understand people really did want the Pandarens...but an entire expansion based off them?

a) Actually Deathwing went to Draenor to hide some eggs, got his ass kicked by the Alliance, went back to Azeroth and then feigned his own death to escape after getting into a fight with some Archmages. If Illidan and Arthas are threats, he most certainly is.

b) That "April Fools joke" has more involvement (Creep in Warcraft III, Hero in Frozen Throne Orc Campaign, reference to said campaign in pre-Cata Barrens) in Warcraft than half the canon races do.

A: That's not what the ending to Beyond the Dark Portal would have you believe.

B: I know the origin of the Pandarens in WC III and Frozen Throne, doesn't change the fact that they did an April Fools joke about making Pandarens a new race and now they're running with it.

 

[WoW Killer]

It's not dying by any meaning of the word. It has 10 million subscribers. SW:TOR has been called a failure and apparently it has 1.3 million subscribers (a respectable amount for an MMO that's not WoW actually). My prediction: in 5 years time, WoW will still have more than 1.3 million subscribers. Tell me I'm wrong.

 

[teqrevisited]

Honestly I think it doesn't have too much longer before it needs to be led round the back of the barn and blown away.

A game like WoW needs people to survive and without the right people it just stagnates and devolves. The wider community was never the best of the bunch, but even a year ago it was god-awful. Most of it came out in achievement and gear score arguments.

Solvemedia: as you wish.
Solvemedia is now a footman.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

EQ is still limping along many, many, many years after it ceased to be relevant as a major MMO player. WoW will likely still be played 5-10 years from now on aging PCs, although it will officially be in its dotage at that point.

Really, this game came out in 2004. That was EIGHT YEARS AGO. The fact that it can still be considered a relevant and major MMO is ASTONISHING. However, it is currently in the midst of a long, slow decline, and I expect FTP MMOs and some of the more polished pay to plays like TOR and Rift will continue nipping at its flanks until it descends into maintenance mode. At which point it will likely drop the sub fee and change to a full microtransaction model.

 

[RJ 17]

I got out right around the launch of Lich King and it seems like that was the official start of the downward spiral...they're just REALLY stretching for everything they do now.

BC: Alright, finish the story with Illidan and the Burning Legion, fair enough.

LK: Sure, Arthas is still out there and we need to kick him in the nuts.

Cata: Ummm...alright...I guess....though I'm pretty sure Death Wing either died on or was marooned on Draenor.....how'd he get back to Azeroth again?

MoP: Seriously? You're turning what was an April Fools joke into an official expansion? I understand people really did want the Pandarens...but an entire expansion based off them?

Well I guess we'll get to see how WoW does when it is no longer riding the coattails of an established major villain.

Making up new lore could either turn out to be a really good or another nail in the coffin it sounds like. If they were to constantly resurface the same enemies of the burning legion, and various cults out there then they would just speed the demise and besides they are nearly out of old gods.

And see, that's what I'm talking about. Until now they've been riding the fame of their past villains, but the WoW universe is running very low on major titanic threats as is required to be the main focus of an expansion (i.e. the return of the Legion, Arthas' renewed offensive, Deathwing spreading chaos).

Now it's time to start gambling on making up new stuff will pay off for them....oooooorrrrrrrr they might decide to go with what people were spreading rumors about even back when I was still playing: turn the Maelstrom into some kind of under sea continent with Queen Azshara (spelling) as the main villainess of an expansion based on the Naga.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Now it's time to start gambling on making up new stuff will pay off for them....oooooorrrrrrrr they might decide to go with what people were spreading rumors about even back when I was still playing: turn the Maelstrom into some kind of under sea continent with Queen Azshara (spelling) as the main villainess of an expansion based on the Naga.

I wish they'd done the Emerald Dream back when I still gave a fig about the game. That had huge potential as an expansion.

 

[RJ 17]

Now it's time to start gambling on making up new stuff will pay off for them....oooooorrrrrrrr they might decide to go with what people were spreading rumors about even back when I was still playing: turn the Maelstrom into some kind of under sea continent with Queen Azshara (spelling) as the main villainess of an expansion based on the Naga.

I wish they'd done the Emerald Dream back when I still gave a fig about the game. That had huge potential as an expansion.

From my understanding (based off the books), the Emerald Dream isn't an actual place or another world or something, it's what you see when you're astral projecting yourself in Azeroth. It allows the dreamer to see the world as its natural self. No cities, no civilizations, just the rolling expanses and terrains of the world as they would be if no societies ever rose from it. From there you can will yourself to certain times and locations to see events that have unfolded or that are currently unfolding.

As such, I don't think it'd make a good location for an expansion, wouldn't be much to do there.