Hear me out,
I`m living in a decent sized city, with 4 gaming caffes , that I normally visit when I wanna play with my friends (some other games ofc). I always have to install WoW on their computers, as NOBODY ever plays it. Is it the same everywhere else?
I know the WoW population is reaching its 30s or even older or much older. I suspect that they cant be bothered after a stressful day at the job, to get more frustration in game, thats why people keep quitting the game and the numbers get lower every expansion.
My questions are:
can this game ever attract new players and get out of its boomer game stigma?
is it realistic to hope for Blizzard to drop the “punish for mistake” 20 years old mentality, as they do in m+ and pvp arena?
how much can Blizzard surf on its players paying subscription for nostalgic reasons?
is Blizzard happy that a lot of its player base dont touch end game content and just farm mounts instead ? are they even aware theres very little “middle class” anymore, and its just either mythic gamers+glads OR extremely casual mount/toys/xmog farmers and boost buyers?
do you think that maybe the Jailer should have won and end it all?
Im really curious about peoples opinions, maybe theres other issues I missed out, what do you guys think?
I want to begin with saying;
Boomer: Born between 1946 and 1964. I think they’re a bit older than 30.
As for point 4, dragonflight world content is super easy whereas m+ got raised “difficulty” in terms of scaling above +10 and then there’s the raid which has more mechanics than ever to cater to addon usage in this game.
So… super easy world content and atleast the intention for harder raid and m+. But we all know the current m+ rotation are not equal in terms of difficulty level .
Point 5, The game will continue to exist in some form as long as there are people paying for it, be it more expansions or maintenance mode.
No. WoW has a defined playerbase that it’s not going to deviate from in a hundred years. Maybe Blizzard’s marketing campaigns, or the developers new gameplay features can lure in some new players every once in a while. But they will always amount to a few percentages of the playerbase where the majority consist of veterans who’ve played for several years.
No. The reason being as stated above; WoW has a defined playerbase, so Blizzard have no incentive other than continuing to cater to that.
A lot. Even with 2-3 million subscribers Blizzard are effectively earning every month in subscriptions what most other games only manage to earn on their release.
It’s not called a cash cow for nothing.
Yeah. It’s cheaper to produce 10 new mounts to farm than to produce an entire new raid.
I’ve always liked the story approach of Heroes of Might & Magic III where the climatic showdown does occur as the Sword of Frost and Sword of Armageddon clash and the world is destroyed. I think that was a satisfying way to deliver on a story that had been built up to biblical proportions.
Blizzard will not do that with WoW, because like mentioned above, then it’s a cash cow, so the goal is to keep it going, not to end it.
WoW is a dead horse that Blizzard keeps beating for the amusement of old folks who find the spectacle entertaining and are willing to pay money to keep it going.
I never thought of it this way, its true…whats the cost of producing a mount and recolor it 10times, than an entire raid with lore, mechanics, design and whatnot
My opinion is, the game in its current state doesnt benefit or intrigue new players. Whether thats leveling being too easy, or the world no longer being emmersive. I always suggest WoW Classic for new players, because that was the experience that got all us old timers playing the game religiously, regardless of the state of it.
Retail is very much about the current players and not particularly getting new ones. Particularly for me, retail is what I want. Ive played this game for over half my life (sad I know), I have connections with my characters and I dont get much time to play. So being able to just log in, play what ever I want and not have to worry about grinding systems etc, is perfect. Thats why Im loving Dragonflight.
Plus, the players who are really trying to min max, still can. They dont feel like they can because Dragonflight is very casual friendly, but Ive not even scratched the surface of Dragonflight and Im more than happy. People that are playing 8+ hours per day are most likely doing it as a job or just very addicted. If I got a day completely to myself I would probably just sit and play WoW, because its few and far between that I get to do that. Its just fun down time for me where I can switch off and in that time I could level an alt and probably get full PvP gear and just enjoy the content I like.
I recent that boomer aegument. It is like people over 40 or such are irrelevant and not contributing to the game at all.
As of fact Boomers, as you may call it, is a central core of the game.
Wow will only lure in new players with a levelling revamp. The old zones need to be put into hibernation. They should still be accessible but not part of the new player journey.
I think the complete opposite. WoW compared to other mmorpgs is extremely outdated. Raiding and m+ is really hard to get into as a new player. WoW is a hard game. Not only gameplay wise but the incredibly toxic elitist environment definitely adds to it. I can’t imagine that’s something generation anxiety is into.
I have no data to back this up but i believe the vast majority of the playerbase are at least 25+ yr old people who keep coming back for nostalgia or still enjoy playing.
Me and many others don’t sub for nostalgia, because we don’t have any nostalgia for wow. I think there is just a certain demographic of people with a bright fantasy, that gets hooked by games like wow easily. The game has actually new players, I’m not joking. I’ve seen many in DF. For example, I had a mage asking me recently in Boralus how to reach stormwind. Wow sadly has many growing dead cells (tumors) from the past, and they can’t cut it off without cutting some long term players off aswell, that may feel attached to this tumor (i.e. mythic 20 man raiding, or 3v3 premade arena as the only “valid” pvp mode according to some), and I think once newer players reach those tumors in their journey, I have the feeling, that they quit, or they become really casual, and just farm old content. I think solo shuffle at least gave people a nice alternative to 3v3, but the pve issue is not solved entirely. LFR is a big help though. What puts me off of pve for example is how I have to send a CV to them basically, then sign up to all those third party raid managing sites with discord, then they ask me to farm M+, because my gear is lacking behind for pve, then everyone is tense, and there is some sweatlord trying to lead the raid with bad vibes, blaming people, and everyone is just following their commands. Afterwards people look at eachother’s logs without understand the classes, and just say “why is not yellow??!”. I havent’ raided myself, but I observed those scenes, while I was a social in some guilds as a newbie. I rly dislike wow pve. I don’t think raiding is a good social experience. Group pve content could be improved by lowering the number of players, because it will create more familiarity, and people invest in eachother more long term. The raids should also be way faster, because ppl have jobs.
This. I finished it without using a single add on at all, no problem. Infact I cleared all of WOTLK and most of Cata without a single add on.
People have always MASSIVELY overstated how important they are. The game clearly indicates through voice lines or on screen messages anything you need to know. At the most you just need to watch quick youtube vid first so you know what you are doing.
Add ons have gone to far IMO, like loook at dragon glyphs, personally I had a ton of fun finding them without add ons (the game gives you tons of hints where they are), other people just got that add on and boringly flew to them in an hour or two with no hunt at all, and then complained on forum that there is nothing to do. They should’ve started banning certain add ons (more than what they ban already) years ago for the health of the game.
people who play wow usually can afford their own computer.
this game requires a big time investement, so going to an internet shop, will not cut it. also i guess setting up ui and addons would be a disaster which are required to play this game.
so of course no shop has this game installed. those shops cater to people that play CS, mobas or single player stuff
Probably not. The game is old, and the playerbase got older.
Young players have other stuff they like - and sure there’s going to be SOME kids/young adults that will try WoW, maybe even because their parents are playing… but it’s never going to be like the old numbers.
Don’t think so. They have different difficulties/tiers/rankings for a reason.
It’s not ONLY nostalgic reasons. The game can still be genuinely good and enjoyable.
They’re aware. I’m sure they’re fine with it; as long as those players keep playing/paying.
No.
Although I do wish they’re already secretly developing a sequel to WoW.
Probably wouldn’t be an MMORPG as such anymore, but rather a multiplayer open-world game as a service.
.
Well, I admit to not having first hand experience, just got that impression.