Basically there are quite a number of stats, that can be regarded as commercially sensitive data by Blizz…in a market which has an enormous number of different products competing for players attention, especially compared to 2004.
Giving free data to forum trolls is not in Blizz’s interest…history demonstrates this very clearly.
There is no game, no TV show, no film, no book, no consumer device or software App that does not have a vocal group of haters… that’s the downside of the Interwebz, every individual who keenly feels their lack of agency in modern society, picks a famous target and manure posts, as a comfort blanket.
I get the feeling WoW has plateaued (and has been for a few years now) - as in it won’t get an influx of any new players, but will just keep rotating the existing player base in and out during patch and xpac cycles.
I think WotLK was probably the golden era for WoW in the EU and USA …the marketplace now is a lot more crowded and the customer base more splintered as a result, than it was back then…It’s the gaming equivalent of the boom in the number of TV channels.
Probably, trolling might be bad for business. I just wish they would talk to us more. Just giving us some answers in this regard now and then. Nobody expects them argue with forum trolls.
I know what you’re saying - and I’m sure many agree…
But I think TBC was the “Golden era” of WoW…
It took every Vanilla player into a better place (unless you were a diehard fan of 40 man raid, obvs).
TBC was the time when the game showed exponential growth - yes, you can argue that was on the back of the core game… and it was to an extent, but if you played in Vanilla/TBC - you played WoW imo.
As much as I support Classic and its players - and I do - you can never go home. It will never be the same.
But If we’re talking graphs and numbers - I think Wrath is where it actually plateaued in numbers - it was all downhill from then.
But, as all these things generally are, the best expansion is the one you started in.
*And obviously TBC let me play a Belf so I’m super biased after (and I’m almost ashamed to admit it) playing a Human for 6 months. Can you even imagine?