The ingame shop is the reason for WoW's decline

This thread is going in circles now, please lock it as it is more or less finished

This is not a shop hate thread but rather a known fact, previously, before the shop was introduced, WoW had a monopoly in the MMORPG genre, but this was not that it was the only MMORPG out there, it was that it was the only MMORPG out there that did not have an in game shop associated with it, this in turn meant that players would flock to it as more or less the only respectable MMORPG on the market.

What I am saying is that blizzard have effectively ended their own monopoly in the market by turning the game into something that is no different to any other MMORPG in the modern era, I do not know if this was done through greed or a lack of foresight, regardless of which, the fact remains that it no longer holds a unique positon on the gaming market any longer and that is the source of it’s decline in the more recent years.

The reason I am making this thread is that I do not see anyone talking about the obvious thing nor making points towards this, the true reason for the games decline as opposed to pointing to things that are not really relevant to it.

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I wish that was true, but there’s nothing in the shop. I wish the shop was good.

You can buy some trash mounts, pets (lol), 1 transmog and 2 toys. Oh yeah, and a faction/server switch.

Like, if the shop is the reason why the game sucks, than I don’t know honestly.

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i think noone is talking about it because its pretty much not a factor as to why wow is in a decline.

wow has so many faults but the shop really isnt one.

i mean, ff14 has a way worse cash shop and its apparently thriving. so
yeah. its the game that sucks for most people, not the shop.

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Greed has ruined this game but not for the reasons you state. Just because some fancy streamers yell that the in-game store ‘IS RUINING THE GAME’ doesn’t mean it’s a fact.

The game has been on decline for a long time and it’s only accelerating with Blizzard bringing out trash expansions with nonsensical systems and mind-numbing grinds.

You think anybody would care about an in-game store if the game is good?

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Shop is so empty bro, it’s embarrassing to even call it a shop.

I have a hard time seeing how this game declines because of the shop that sells a very limited assortment of pets and mounts.

The only valuable thing in the shop are character services, not sure if that makes the game decline though.

As I said, I WISH the shop was the reason for the decline as it would mean Blizzard puts resources into the shop, but the shop has WHOLE 1 TRANSMOG. And they add 2 lame mounts a year to it to motivate 6-month subbers


It ain’t it chief.

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The store rakes in quick & easy money, so sure, you could contribute a portion of the decline to the store as keeping players engaged with content isn’t so critical.
But that is an impossible thing to calculate.

I don’t really understand your main point though. WoW didn’t lose it’s monopoly due to the Store. The store is merely adapting to the market. It is abnormal for a game, especially online games, not to have a store.

What completion does WoW have?
FF14. That is it. And the games are completely different.

Having the store doesn’t make it like FF14.

nah its not about the shop, its about upper management bonuses based on short term financial performance and not a long term / relative to competition performance
WoW should have 100 mil subs by now if the upper dudes were evaluated fairly, not based on WoW financial performance as a singe business unit in a vacuum, but compared to what opportunities it had and wasted for expansion.

Its been differing itself with some of the stupid systems we have to deal with which has lost it players.

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The game isn’t bad because of the shop lmao. FF14 has a shop and it’s very successful. So it’s definitely not the shop.

Look towards the gameplay itself and Shadowlands.

Okey, but
 There’s almost nothing in this shop ._ .

Also. Blizzard never tried to be different so hard. As I know.
They just made some things better than others. With better quality.
And that’s why most people play WoW and it’s still top1 mmo.
Because this mmo offers:

  • pve (raids, m+)
  • pvp (open world, arenas, bg’s)
  • story, open world, quests
  • regular expansions and patches (ofc sometimes with delays)
  • esports

And you can do research about other mmorpg’s and you’ll find that even in 2021 there’s still no mmo which offers this much. Every other mmo is focusing on only 1 game mode listed above. And everything else seems to be abandoned in these games or not cared properly or jsut doesn’t exist there.

So it’s not some kind of mystery why WoW is still top1

No, it’s not. There’s literally nothing of value in shop, I’ve bought most mounts and transmog, never use them.

Reason for decline is that game isn’t fun. It’s as simple as that.
Way too many times you run into situation where it feels more like a job than something fun.
You enjoy rated pvp, go play on alt, suddenly you need lot of gearing to get to even starting arena.
You enjoy m+, okay that one’s not true, maybe if you got premade, but say you do it on main, get to +15s and higher, then switch to an alt, no more valor upgrades, have to start from scratch.
Raiding’s only good thing left imo.
Casual content non existent, farming Korthia isn’t my idea of fun, compared to say Golden Saucer.

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The only good thing in that list is the Raids/M+.
PvP has been terrible for years.
Story has been all over the place.
Quests have been “Kill 10 of these and get 10 of these” like usual.
Expansions every 2 or so years and patches that (try to) fix stuff that shouldn’t have need of fixing in the first place.
Esports: Who cares?

PvP has been terrible for years.

That’s the problem of every MMO actually.
And after all pvp scene in WoW is big enough to make this mode playable.

Esports: Who cares?

It’s something unique for mmorpg. It also brings a lot of people to twitch and it helps to advertise game for young people.

E-Sports, unique for MMO-RPG? Come again?

Then what other mmorpg keeps esport scene alive?

It wasn’t a problem until Blizzard decided to ruin (World) PvP with scaling and all the other ridiculous choices like allowing essences/azerite/corruptions in PvP making certain classes one shot others or keep them in constant stun lock like Paladins with Hammer of Justice.

But is that the thing that keeps you playing this game? E-sports? Personally I don’t see how that is interesting enough to make me keep playing the game.

But is that the thing that keeps you playing this game? E-sports? Personally I don’t see how that is interesting enough to make me keep playing the game.

As you can see it’s only 1 thing from few which I wrote

As you can see I replied on every single thing and you only picked out two.

Some of the mounts are really good though