World of Warcraft players hit level 100 hours after Warlords of Draenor launches

[rashdanml]

Most MMOs fail because they try something new, not because they don't.

GW2 is a success in terms of sales and player activity. Regardless of how people feel, they DID break the trinity, and the only issue with PvE is that it's focused too much on DPS (which was only one side of ArenaNet's Damage-Control-Support trinity). Doesn't mean that Control and Support aren't viable, it's just sub-optimal. When I say it broke up the trinity, I mean just that: you don't ever have to wait for a tank or healer, and 5 pure damage dealing classes can complete all dungeons. Interestingly enough, this setup still requires supporting each other by buffing up the group to do more damage and mitigate damage. 

 

WvW becoming a zerg is inevitable, practically all RvR PvP becomes a zerg. Solo roaming in WvW and picking off stray targets is where GW2's PvP really shines, and it shines even brighter in structured PvP where gear doesn't matter - only your chosen playstyle and how effectively you play it. 

 

Emphasizing the last point you bring up: that's not entirely the reason. A good portion of WoW players are probably looking for the next big MMO. They want a refreshing experience, one that reminds them of how they felt during the early days of WoW. When a game does deliver a refreshing experience (GW2 does), these same players try to play it like another WoW ... and fall flat on their face. A game that's trying to bring out something new and change the way we see MMOs can't be approached using the old mindset, it requires a shift in mindset. 

 

An example of an ex-WoW player discovering GW2: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2m8cfm/new_to_gw2_holy_hellthis_is_refreshing/

Examples of why GW2 is better: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2mb7o5/what_makes_gw2_special/

 

There are other players who try to liken the new MMO to WoW. In some cases, like Aion or Tera, this assumption is fair; most MMOs that come out with a P2P model are cookie cutter MMOs with a fresh coat of paint. GW2, on the other hand, is vastly different from WoW in every aspect. The end result might be similar, but the approach is completely different. These players are also quick to say "It's just another WoW, I'm going back to WoW", often because they're too invested to give up on WoW. 

 

Almost all MMOs that failed in recent years are cookie cutter MMOs with quest hub grinds - they're no different than WoW. They bring out some nice concepts, but the quest hub grind destroys it. 

 

TL;DR: Players do want something new, and either don't adapt to the new game or try to liken it to the old and end up disappointing themselves.

 

WoW is also bleeding subscriptions. The numbers come back for an expansion, but drop down shortly after, and is on a downward trend. Suffices to say that WoW is losing popularity as more and more people get tired of the same old formula. 

[Altecice]

Congrats! You (not as in you, but the players that did it) no-lifed the game. Now what..?

 

Raids/PVE. WOW is all about the end game content.

[Sauron]

The sub fee says I don't care (and never have) ^^

[suicidalfranco]

No game no life

Best spring 2014 anime!

[suicidalfranco]

Meh, already completely focused on black desert online

[IdortMasterRace]

Its been dead to me since buring crusade, just money grubbing from blizztards by wrecking the lore & adding bullshit stuff, thank god i got out when i did.

 

Oh look, someone latched on to nostalgia. MoP was one of the best expansions since TBC/Wrath, and WoD is looking even better.

 

I played WoW once, made it to level 10 during a free trial.

 

Boring and repetitive.

 

So you didn't even finish the tutorial, neither did you actually play ANY of the main content (dungeons, raids, PvP, etc.) and yet you decide to call the game repetitive. Yeah, I'm definitely taking your opinion seriously-- oh wait.

 

This is not surprising in any way. WoW needs to die and let the MMO genre advance a bit.

 

Do they still not even have voice acting?

 

Yeah, these constant absolute flops of MMOs are really advancing the genre. The Old Republic, Wildstar, even Destiny.

 

Totally.

 

WoW is also bleeding subscriptions. The numbers come back for an expansion, but drop down shortly after, and is on a downward trend. Suffices to say that WoW is losing popularity as more and more people get tired of the same old formula. 

 

8,000,000 subscriptions is "losing popularity"?

[HerEscutcheon]

So you didn't even finish the tutorial, neither did you actually play ANY of the main content (dungeons, raids, PvP, etc.) and yet you decide to call the game repetitive. Yeah, I'm definitely taking your opinion seriously-- oh wait.

Dude, if you're a fan, that's fine. I'm not calling you wrong, I'm just saying I'm not a fan of that gameplay style. 

[rashdanml]

8,000,000 subscriptions is "losing popularity"?

http://www.statista.com/statistics/276601/number-of-world-of-warcraft-subscribers-by-quarter/ 

 

7.4 million isn't 8 million. 

Also notice the general downward trend. The increases you see every 2 years or so is due to expansions, and after the expansion, more people leave than the number of people who resubscribed for the expansion. You can see it quite clearly with MoP with an increase in Q2 2012, and a significant decrease after that. Same will happen with WoD. 

 

WoW IS bleeding subscriptions. Loss of popularity will be one of many reasons why that's the case. 

[Foxxer]

Nah, played WoW for 6 years, use to wake up at 4 am to join raids with people in US servers. There was no EU that time.

[xentric]

I got to level 100 on the second day of release. The server issues are bad and the long server queues. I'm really enjoying expansion. A lot of fun changes with followers and how they changed quest to move you along in the zone. Not one main city you keep coming back to, then get new quests. I also played A LOT on the beta.

[Aeriumm]

Used to play but as I'm from the SEA timezone, I had to wake up to join raids most of the time. Stopped when I realized that not only I was losing money, I was losing my life as well.

[Torg73]

bloody Troll's don't you hate them.  With WoD WoW looks better then ever and with new contact its still a fun MMO to play 10 years on, not like the others I played where the longest I played another MMO was about 2 years before they missed up big time and that was Rift.

 

WoW has been the go to game that I return to after all other games fail big time like Warhammer Online.  Am taking my time time to level up to 100 (atm 95) and enjoying it a lot, splitting my game time with ACU witch am enjoying a lot too

[Valentyn]

bloody Troll's don't you hate them.  With WoD WoW looks better then ever and with new contact its still a fun MMO to play 10 years on, not like the others I played where the longest I played another MMO was about 2 years before they missed up big time and that was Rift.

 

WoW has been the go to game that I return to after all other games fail big time like Warhammer Online.  Am taking my time time to level up to 100 (atm 95) and enjoying it a lot, splitting my game time with ACU witch am enjoying a lot too

 

Same here, I skipped Pandaria, but Draenor is nothing but pure fun! Even the levelling, and the new Garrison, agent and building mechanics are brilliant.

It feels like I'm halfway between Warcraft 2 and WoW. 

I do feel a tad silly being one of 5 Pandaren I've seen so far. Although despite looking out of place it's all so fun and refreshing again.

 

It feels and plays like a massive single-player RPG if you're just going through the storyline. Great voice acting, amazing ingame cinematics, and just plain damn fun.!

[IdortMasterRace]

http://www.statista.com/statistics/276601/number-of-world-of-warcraft-subscribers-by-quarter/ 

 

7.4 million isn't 8 million. 

Also notice the general downward trend. The increases you see every 2 years or so is due to expansions, and after the expansion, more people leave than the number of people who resubscribed for the expansion. You can see it quite clearly with MoP with an increase in Q2 2012, and a significant decrease after that. Same will happen with WoD. 

 

WoW IS bleeding subscriptions. Loss of popularity will be one of many reasons why that's the case. 

 

It probabably is a lot higher than 8 million currently. I'd estimate 9-10 million, this is one of the highest selling expansions due to not only its TBC roots, but how every single one came with a free 90 character.

 

You make it sound like WoW is at deaths door, which is an incredibly stupid thing to say. Even browser MMOs like Runescape don't even require a subscription to play, and are still alive and well today at around 100,000 subscriptions - 80x less than WoW.

[Unclescar]

+ the $360 it takes between those expansions.

you mean the $20-25 you pay for the box set that includes the original game and the first four expansions, which is on sale for $5 a few times a year, and then the $40-60ish (different versions) for the most recent expansion, which is on sale for $10 a few times a year?

 

This is not surprising in any way. WoW needs to die and let the MMO genre advance a bit.

 

Do they still not even have voice acting?

I have been on and off with WoW since end of wrath of the lich king. Yes there is voice acting, not for quests givers, but all conversations related to a quest during said quest is voiced out. every cutscene has full voice acting, and everyone you interact with has a fully voiced script, dungeons and raids are fully voiced as well. do you know how big the game file would be if they added even just a single file for quest offers and a single file for turn-ins? I'd have to get a second SSD!

 

In relation to the "news" about this, this is actually the easiest expansion to level in, even the extra 10 levels that are added in the expansion its self. Towards the end of the previous expansion you can get to max level (90) in just a few days. Hours for 10 levels is not that crazy, especially considering that each level on its own  takes far less effort to reach than a single level in other expansions, even after the experience requirements were nerfed for old content. I'm not able to sit down and play a game that many hours in that short of a time period due to IRL stuff, but I won't deny having done it a few times with a few different games at some point when my free time allows, and anyone who's ever "gamed" should be able to admit that they too have sat down and played a game for more than 6 hours at a time. Besides, people will hit max level just by playing the game. Them playing through the initial part of the expansion in a few hours isn't news or surprising at all. This would be far more interesting if the biggest baddest bad guy had been killed on hard mode hours after launch. reaching maximum level isn't difficult.

Honestly I think bigger news is the stability of their servers with so many people trying to play at once. At launch there was the most hilarious lag I've ever experienced and servers were crashing and resetting over and over all night. They lowered the population cap of how many people can be on a server at any given time which solved the crash and lag issue, but isn't the most optimal fix as it has resulted in HUGE queue times just to log in. Many people who play on the most popular servers have had time to log in, sit in queue, go to work, come back home that evening, cook dinner, tuck the kids into bed and kiss the wife good night and still be able to browse the interwebs before they can actually log in. That is a far bigger issue than people staying up all night enjoying what is likely their favorite game.

 

When the phrase repetitive comes up.. I chuckle. what game isn't the same few (or many) mechanics for the entire duration of the game?

FPS.. point and click. even "objectives" in FPS games are basically "push X for cutscene."

Minecraft, you destroy blocks, you place blocks, you build the same blocks over and over and over, yet this is more popular than many popular games combined and IMO quite fun. I run a server for family and friends.

RTS is the same few factions fighting the same few factions on the same (relatively few) maps fighting for the same few resources and the same few goals.

hell even mario was just run and jump on/over stuff, with the occasional fire ball that let you kill something without having to jump.

 

These games are all repetitive. its the opponent playing differently than the previous opponent that results in the variety.

From what I'm reading here on these forums, almost everyone saying bad things about the game have either never tried to play, barely tried to play and never really gave it a chance, or tried to play when it wasn't at the quality it is at now. I played casually for a few hours last night (I've been on a break for a few months before hand) and I will likely stay subbed for quite some time, this expansion (if you can log in and play it) is quite fun and the only bad reviews it deserves aren't for the game itsself but for the issues that blizzard is already in the process of fixing long term.

[rashdanml]

It probabably is a lot higher than 8 million currently. I'd estimate 9-10 million, this is one of the highest selling expansions due to not only its TBC roots, but how every single one came with a free 90 character.

 

You make it sound like WoW is at deaths door, which is an incredibly stupid thing to say. Even browser MMOs like Runescape don't even require a subscription to play, and are still alive and well today at around 100,000 subscriptions - 80x less than WoW.

You do realize "number of sales" is a pointless metric here right? The existing subscriber base of 6.8 million each needs their own copy to continue playing. The sales figure doesn't mean that all of those numbers are completely new players.

 

We're left with active subscribers as a decent indicator, and peak concurrency (number of players at any given time). 

 

I'm not saying WoW is at death's door, but it's making its way there if the downward trend continues. Every expansion loses more players than it brings in for the expansion, and that's a simple fact looking at the subscription numbers. 

 

You're really bringing runescape into this? Their F2P version of the game is painfully limited, and their peak concurrency is way down from what it used to be. That game lost most of its popularity years ago. 

[Semper]

you mean the $20-25 you pay for the box set that includes the original game and the first four expansions, which is on sale for $5 a few times a year, and then the $40-60ish (different versions) for the most recent expansion, which is on sale for $10 a few times a year?

No... I meant that $15 a month, however, if you'd like to add those to the cost, by all means.

[IdortMasterRace]

You do realize "number of sales" is a pointless metric here right? The existing subscriber base of 6.8 million each needs their own copy to continue playing. The sales figure doesn't mean that all of those numbers are completely new players.

 

I never mentioned a WoD sales number. I said subscription number. I estimate it's 8-9M currently.

 

You're really bringing runescape into this? Their F2P version of the game is painfully limited, and their peak concurrency is way down from what it used to be. That game lost most of its popularity years ago.

 

You're moving the goalposts. The game has had a consistent 100-150K player base for years and is still very much successful, no where near death's door.

 

Also, just because the subscriptions have gone down, it doesn't mean it is a continuous trend that will carry on, and it especially won't happen at the same speed.

[MonkeyFace]

How is this even remotely tech news or a review?

Games been garbage since wraith come out and only continues to get worse and more noob friendly it needs to just die already.

 

Here we go, another Vanilla/BC preacher based on nostalgia rather than reality. Accessibility and difficulty is not the same.  

 

If you weren't raiding from the beginning, you weren't gonna see the end content. 

[Lord Baal]

Here we go, another Vanilla/BC preacher based on nostalgia rather than reality. Accessibility and difficulty is not the same.  

 

If you weren't raiding from the beginning, you weren't gonna see the end content. 

Oh it's not based on nostalgia at all.

I was in the top raiding guild on the server and at both lvl 70 and 80 had Gladiator titles but the constant changes to the talent system dumbing it down and all the stupid phasing that pretty much killed world pvp made the game incredibly boring and noob friendly.

PVE was always easy and boring to start with if you were in a large enough guild and wraith's AOE fest was laughable. they've yet to make a single change since they removed mp5 and bonus healing/spell damage in favor of generic spell power that's not been an effort to make it more noob friendly including all that silly looking for raid and cross server crap or the way over simplified talent system.

I didn't say they made it easier I said they made it noob friendly which in turn made it less engaging to better players and far more boring my girlfriend still plays it but before I left the game it had turned into logging on doing some arena then logging off and having no reason to log back on for a week so no reason to pay $20(AUD) to play roughly 2 hours a week.

Diablo suffered the same fate Diablo 1-2 were good Diablo 3 was over simplified so pretty much the only difference between 2 mages would be gear without the stats or the need to learn spells I finished it's story in a matter of hours and had no reason to ever play it again.

[HermanT]

you mean the $20-25 you pay for the box set that includes the original game and the first four expansions, which is on sale for $5 a few times a year, and then the $40-60ish (different versions) for the most recent expansion, which is on sale for $10 a few times a year?

 

I have been on and off with WoW since end of wrath of the lich king. Yes there is voice acting, not for quests givers, but all conversations related to a quest during said quest is voiced out. every cutscene has full voice acting, and everyone you interact with has a fully voiced script, dungeons and raids are fully voiced as well. do you know how big the game file would be if they added even just a single file for quest offers and a single file for turn-ins? I'd have to get a second SSD!

 

In relation to the "news" about this, this is actually the easiest expansion to level in, even the extra 10 levels that are added in the expansion its self. Towards the end of the previous expansion you can get to max level (90) in just a few days. Hours for 10 levels is not that crazy, especially considering that each level on its own  takes far less effort to reach than a single level in other expansions, even after the experience requirements were nerfed for old content. I'm not able to sit down and play a game that many hours in that short of a time period due to IRL stuff, but I won't deny having done it a few times with a few different games at some point when my free time allows, and anyone who's ever "gamed" should be able to admit that they too have sat down and played a game for more than 6 hours at a time. Besides, people will hit max level just by playing the game. Them playing through the initial part of the expansion in a few hours isn't news or surprising at all. This would be far more interesting if the biggest baddest bad guy had been killed on hard mode hours after launch. reaching maximum level isn't difficult.

Honestly I think bigger news is the stability of their servers with so many people trying to play at once. At launch there was the most hilarious lag I've ever experienced and servers were crashing and resetting over and over all night. They lowered the population cap of how many people can be on a server at any given time which solved the crash and lag issue, but isn't the most optimal fix as it has resulted in HUGE queue times just to log in. Many people who play on the most popular servers have had time to log in, sit in queue, go to work, come back home that evening, cook dinner, tuck the kids into bed and kiss the wife good night and still be able to browse the interwebs before they can actually log in. That is a far bigger issue than people staying up all night enjoying what is likely their favorite game.

 

When the phrase repetitive comes up.. I chuckle. what game isn't the same few (or many) mechanics for the entire duration of the game?

FPS.. point and click. even "objectives" in FPS games are basically "push X for cutscene."

Minecraft, you destroy blocks, you place blocks, you build the same blocks over and over and over, yet this is more popular than many popular games combined and IMO quite fun. I run a server for family and friends.

RTS is the same few factions fighting the same few factions on the same (relatively few) maps fighting for the same few resources and the same few goals.

hell even mario was just run and jump on/over stuff, with the occasional fire ball that let you kill something without having to jump.

 

These games are all repetitive. its the opponent playing differently than the previous opponent that results in the variety.

From what I'm reading here on these forums, almost everyone saying bad things about the game have either never tried to play, barely tried to play and never really gave it a chance, or tried to play when it wasn't at the quality it is at now. I played casually for a few hours last night (I've been on a break for a few months before hand) and I will likely stay subbed for quite some time, this expansion (if you can log in and play it) is quite fun and the only bad reviews it deserves aren't for the game itsself but for the issues that blizzard is already in the process of fixing long term.

 

I completely agree with you. People say so much crap, from ear to ear. It's not a coincidence that WOW has the biggest user base in MMORPG genre. I'm gonna go and say that the first mmorpg was diablo 2 (dont comment me on that), you could only kill monsters and level in that game, THATS IT/ Was it fun? yes! repetative? yes! did peaople like it and played it? absolutely! Wow is repetitive - yes, every mmorpg is. And yes you can grind, if you like. Wow is actually the least grind mmo I know - you level fast, and you are all set in a PvP world. Of course you can grind achievements, you can grind powerful items or raids, crafting skills... all of which is a choice. I've played wow about 3 months on cataclysm, I was sitting in battlegrounds (pvp) all the time, I leveled there, I got items there, I had fun there - playing against real players, pros and noobs alike, grinding for fun if I may.

 

WOW unlike other mmos is what I'd call "pure", ok, it is not tainted by ingame shops where you buy useful items for real cash. You cant buy yourself powerful items for cash, you cant spend 1k usd and be a master in the game. The only thing you can buy in wow for real cash is mounts, that are just cosmetic, that's it - ifi you want, buy, if you don't want, ignore, either way you are the same noob. You cant buy progress. That is why wow has monthly pay subscriptions, and its fine. I cant name any other mmo that has no ingame shop, every other mmo is free to play and hence tainted and gets shitty in the end (lord of the rings online was as fun and as pure as wow until warner brother bastards bought it and made it another revenue street, added an in-game store and on and on).

The game is fast, fun and decently balanced (i know its not perfect, its hard to balanced an mmo. But if you know how to play, regardless of the balance you will be on top. you have no idea the balance crap some mmos have).

 

And Linus wants to play it, so on behalf of Linus: "Everyone just needs to calm DOWN!"

 

_________________

 

yeah its no surprise. I just hope there wont be another lvl first from 0 to 100 achievement that makes someone die again...

[HermanT]

Oh it's not based on nostalgia at all.

I was in the top raiding guild on the server and at both lvl 70 and 80 had Gladiator titles but the constant changes to the talent system dumbing it down and all the stupid phasing that pretty much killed world pvp made the game incredibly boring and noob friendly.

PVE was always easy and boring to start with if you were in a large enough guild and wraith's AOE fest was laughable. they've yet to make a single change since they removed mp5 and bonus healing/spell damage in favor of generic spell power that's not been an effort to make it more noob friendly including all that silly looking for raid and cross server crap or the way over simplified talent system.

I didn't say they made it easier I said they made it noob friendly which in turn made it less engaging to better players and far more boring.

Diablo suffered the same fate Diablo 1-2 were good Diablo 3 was over simplified so pretty much the only difference between 2 mages would be gear without the stats or the need to learn spells.

yeah I agree with you. Over simplified the skill tree. It was good to see that they made more skills from other trees available to you irrelevant to what tree you choose, but they way oversimplified it. Lack of choice.

I liked that they moved more general rotation skills to lower levels, meaning starting at lvl 20 you can do ok pvp, unlike before, when you had to go to max lvl to open key skills...

[MonkeyFace]

Oh it's not based on nostalgia at all.

I was in the top raiding guild on the server and at both lvl 70 and 80 had Gladiator titles but the constant changes to the talent system dumbing it down and all the stupid phasing that pretty much killed world pvp made the game incredibly boring and noob friendly.

PVE was always easy and boring to start with if you were in a large enough guild and wraith's AOE fest was laughable. they've yet to make a single change since they removed mp5 and bonus healing/spell damage in favor of generic spell power that's not been an effort to make it more noob friendly including all that silly looking for raid and cross server crap or the way over simplified talent system.

I didn't say they made it easier I said they made it noob friendly which in turn made it less engaging to better players and far more boring my girlfriend still plays it but before I left the game it had turned into logging on doing some arena then logging off and having no reason to log back on for a week so no reason to pay $20(AUD) to play roughly 2 hours a week.

Diablo suffered the same fate Diablo 1-2 were good Diablo 3 was over simplified so pretty much the only difference between 2 mages would be gear without the stats or the need to learn spells I finished it's story in a matter of hours and had no reason to ever play it again.

 

We can agree to disagree. I'm in favor of the new(er) talent tree, is it watered down...yeah, but there is no "must have" talent or "cookie cutter" talent spec. It's up to an individual's play style.

 

Btw, I'm on the same boat as you. I tried coming back to WoW for the last couple of months, I couldn't do it. My subscription ended on WoD launch day  

[Unclescar]

We can agree to disagree. I'm in favor of the new(er) talent tree, is it watered down...yeah, but there is no "must have" talent or "cookie cutter" talent spec. It's up to an individual's play style.

 

Btw, I'm on the same boat as you. I tried coming back to WoW for the last couple of months, I couldn't do it. My subscription ended on WoD launch day

I actually like the new talent system so much more than the old one.

I play feral almost exclusively and dabble in guardian. I used to have two feral specs, one for dps and one for tanking, and there was only two or three talents that were different between the two specs, and they weren't that relevent or interesting anyway. With the new system, The talents I use as feral can be completely different than my buddy who also plays feral. I often switch between different talents on occasion depending on which arena map or battleground  i'm playing on.

 

as for sub, well when there isn't new content for a while, and IRL things add up, I let my sub lapse as well, but I did resub for WoD since I bought it when it was announced (even knowing that I'd quite for a while before hand) and I gotta say, it is actually so much better than people give it credit for.

[rashdanml]

I never mentioned a WoD sales number. I said subscription number. I estimate it's 8-9M currently.

You bring up the number by saying it's the "highest selling". Keyword "selling" which means box sales, not necessarily all new subscriptions. Frankly, all of those new sales could have been existing subscribers buying the game to continue playing. 

Until Blizzard reveals official numbers since gaining 600k a few weeks back, the number is most certainly not 8-9M as per "your estimate". http://www.polygon.com/2014/10/15/6981137/world-of-warcraft-subscription-numbers-blizzard-draenor

 

The next time they reveal numbers, which will probably be end of December, we'll know for certain whether or not the number ever went up to "8-9M". 

 

RE: Runescape, take a look at numbers.

www.07tracker.com/playertrack 

Peak concurrency is very easy to determine as both RS3 and OSRS makes that number public at any given time.