Is it just me or did Shadowlands do big damage to the playerbase in a way that it has not recovered?
Because I remember the N’zoth patch of BFA, and I remember that, even though the expansion was horsecrap, there were many many players and even these forums were lively
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Shadowlands started with hype, I remember that. I think it was the content drought that was the first massive blow to the playerbase, that was when alot of people stopped playing and went looking for other MMOs.
Then the Cosby suite just on time for 9.1 was another huge blow, alot of people were so upset by this that they stopped playing. Plus 9.1 was quite a bit .
And then in 9.2 Shadowlands went out with a whimper because, judging from the general reactions on the internet, 90% of the playerbase (including me) hated the lore.
I feel like Shadowlands was bleeding players from when the content drought started up until the end of the expansion. And it seems to me that Dragonflight has only won a fraction of players back. The community was very active in BFA for all its bad content, and it seems to me that that is not the case anymore. Roleplayers and players in general are significantly less than they used to be, and fan projects like machinimas are few and far between nowadays.
I think Dragonflight has done alot of things to win the players back, sometimes playing it a bit too safe, but I think that we will need a really good expansion with outstanding lore and gameplay to win all of them back/get more new players (if ever).
It did and no DF hasnt recovered, as predicted im pretty certain ion said he didnt think it would either.
The problem with launching 2 back 2 back expansions and spendong 6 years dying on a hill that players want removed (borrowed power)
Means people dont trust the situation to return, theyd rather remain cut off, instead of finding out because its reopening a addiction they get away from.
WoW needs consistent positive returns on its content for quite a while prior players willing to dive back in.
I think DF did very well at bringing players back however. The games very alive. It just isnt 11million booming at the doors alike BFA nzoth.
Also remember.
Ur talking covid era. The gaming market as a qhole was quadrupling numbers across the boards. Countries were considering cutting house hold internet during work periods due to how much traffic there was.
That’s fair. Yes, the game will need to get consistently good, but let us not forget that it is an old game, and we need something VERY good to spark interest back into it
That’s true. I did not say that we don’t have players right now, just that -like you said- in BFA they were probably 5x and I guess I just miss that.
I don’t think it was shadowlands, its been a slow trickle since cataclysm and got worse around the time of legion.
The newest patch is so underwealming its borderline not even a patch, raid is dull, M+ has devolved into an ego race, story is honestly horrible and this patch felt like we were chasing Fyrakk into the depths of the dragon isles just to lose interest and start doing a side quest instead. And now you have a new earth warden that refuses to fight…even tho thats his title…to ward…the earth…
Anecdotal, but most of the old guard players I know who left during bfa and sl have no intentions of returning. I think WoW’s future will be in attracting a new wave of players. How they do that though I’m not sure.
That’s the most accurate description of it I’ve read.
Of course the playerbase peaked at Wrath, but you can’t seriously tell me that the people playing BFA were few. Yes, it has been a downwards spiral since cata, but it was in Shadowlands that it was just a complete DIVE to the bottom.
Dude I am not saying that nobody is playing. But if you think that the playerbase is anywhere near as big as it was before SL you are living in a myth.
you guys need to realise that it’s not just about shadowlands, it did get better by the end and if dragonflight was appealing enough, people would return, it’s a game so it’s not that deep, they probably checked df and didn’t like what they saw. the ones that liked are playing now, forums are filled with ‘’ i left in shadowlands and i’m back’’ posts but that’s it
crowd doesn’t show if the game is doing good or not because of sharding , the only way we can see if it’s good is if we see queues to log-in and , other than that crowd tells very little . m+ queues are not showing much positive data either, it already turned into +20s thing in 2 weeks.
Unless you play Classic that isn’t really a thing. The tech is much better.
If sharding was doing it’s job it would be quieter not busier. I would have welcomed aggressive sharding today but you simply had to put up with it being busy. If anything the quest line should have been instanced.
that is tho, sharding brings people together on hubs and campaign quests usually, it’s very rare doing someting solo in wow but that never shows if it’s doing amazing or bad, it’s just tech making u feel like you’re socializing
The game is busy. I know people want to hate on it but even with the current MAUs WoW is still a busy game. It’s like an absolute sin to feel the game is not dead or dying. It is even worse to express you like things.
Back when the gaming population was higher and we were realm based it was dead levelling alts. You can see that on Classic now even though the realms are much bigger capacity wise than the original expansions.
Sharding is about load balancing. Cross realm is about making the world feel populated. Cross realm has had various changes over the years. It used to be that the current expansion was exempt unless you invited people in. Now they shard as and when necessary. There are a lot more WM off shards than WM on shards (another system that didn’t exist until BfA prepatch). WM on also tends to have more cross realm than WM off. Especially on busy realms.
The state of dead realms is a testament to how the game has declined since Wrath. They don’t seem to want to do more realm connections. Whether or not the last lot of connections caused too many issues or it’s just not something they can pursue any longer, we simply don’t know.
wow will always be a busy game that’s not the point, you will never see this game as empty as asian mmos , it will have at least 200k subs at its worst, the problem is , with current mindset of both players and management, wow will never thrive either.
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