So something like that was really decided by 381 people? I mean that isn't exactly what I would consider even remotly a scientific poll.

Originally posted by Leviathonlx

So something like that was really decided by 381 people? I mean that isn't exactly what I would consider even remotly a scientific poll.

I think they decided it based on other factors, like the massive sub loss.  The poll was just an extra . And yes I think its not scientific unless we know how the participants were selected.

Edit: And didn't picklebeast post this same thing?

Originally posted by marinrider

Originally posted by Leviathonlx

So something like that was really decided by 381 people? I mean that isn't exactly what I would consider even remotly a scientific poll.

I think they decided it based on other factors, like the massive sub loss.  The poll was just an extra . And yes I think its not scientific unless we know how the participants were selected.

 

Edit: And didn't picklebeast post this same thing?

If WoW is suffering "massive sub loss" then it should show up in their 10k.  Are people aware that public companies publish revenue statements quarterly?

http://www.google.com/finance?q=ATVI&fstype=ii#

Hey look!  No massive decline.  Actually, pretty normal.  A rise to a peak in 07, then a big dropoff corresponding to the massive recession, and since then a slow climb back up out of the gutter.  Whaddaya know!  Blizzards performance looks pretty much like most other companies performance given the economic conditions.

If WoW were bleeding subs by the *millions* do people really not comprehend that this would result in *clear* financial impact?

This idiot "survey" was *speculative*.  It's a downgrade assuming they *will* lose subs.  If they *already had* the stock would have already been punished.

None of this is rocket science, but MMO 'fans' and 'anti-fans' really are living in their own private delusions fully detached from any kind of reality.

Originally posted by mlambert890

 

If WoW is suffering "massive sub loss" then it should show up in their 10k.  Are people aware that public companies publish revenue statements quarterly?

 

http://www.google.com/finance?q=ATVI&fstype=ii#

 

Hey look!  No massive decline.  Actually, pretty normal.  A rise to a peak in 07, then a big dropoff corresponding to the massive recession, and since then a slow climb back up out of the gutter.  Whaddaya know!  Blizzards performance looks pretty much like most other companies performance given the economic conditions.

 

If WoW were bleeding subs by the *millions* do people really not comprehend that this would result in *clear* financial impact?

 

This idiot "survey" was *speculative*.  It's a downgrade assuming they *will* lose subs.  If they *already had* the stock would have already been punished.

 

None of this is rocket science, but MMO 'fans' and 'anti-fans' really are living in their own private delusions fully detached from any kind of reality.

Blizzard still makes $1B in revenue a year, but even on their most recent commercial they said they have 10 million subscribers. (Including Asia most likely).  Which is 2 million less than the most recent major announcement of subs.  It wouldnt result in an impact since they are no where near being unprofitable.  Also, Blizz's stock also includes Activisions business, meaning CoD.  That could be inflating it because if you look at the charts, even though CoD had major sales the stock hasnt really risen much at all.  So something is balancing out these high cod sales.  I dont think the negative weight from the WoW sub loss will show until its a lot "heavier" when WoW is around 8 million subs or less. 

WoW already has lost subs, I dont understand how you can deny that.  Stock's dont reply to all news and they dont always reply at the time the news is out, not to mention the other factors inflating this stock.

But yes, the survey wasn't well handled and shouldn't be used as "proof" of anything, but we will see in a year what WoW's sub numbers are at.  If they are <10 million then the trend is confirmed.

Originally posted by csthao

381 players our of 10 million and they came up with those kinds of statistics? People are always going to be leaving MMO's, but I think they would need more people to survey to get a better accuracy  on their statistics.

Its kind of funny when I think about it. You know for example when I watch the news and they bring up a comparison. So and so has dropped 50% from 5 years ago. I dont wanna know that kind of comparison. The only year they should bring up is this year compared to last year. Anything beyond that is irrelevant. Its the same thing when you're making future predictions. I dont need to know what kind of increase it'll be in the next 50 years maybe in the next 5-10 years would give you a better idea.

 

lol wow does not have 10 million subscribers or players. that is an estimated guess by blizzard about how many ppl have trued the game since its lauch nothing about it is current. and wow has been slowly declining for years. and not relevent how many subs a game has lost over 5 years how can u say thats irrelivent. it shows that over that 5 years more and more ppl leave coz blizzard are dumbing down the game. while i agree this article is somewhat pointless as it only surveyed 381 ppl but that doesnt mean ONLY those ppl are gonna leave. alot of wow players will cancel sub when tor launches, how many ppl stay in tor and how many go back to wow is another matter but taking in to account the next wow expan mists of pandaria i know alot of my ppl wont be returning.

 

and theres no way wow will last another 5-10 years so predications for the game are kinda pointless coz unless i hear otherwise i expect blizz to shut down wow when titem comes in 2014. there would be no point in them maintaing wow when all the attension will be fore titan. so wow is doomed anyway regrdless of tor. mists of pandoria to me suggest that blizzard want to dumb down wow as much as possible to get its loyaly fanbase into titan and not cling to and out dated game where things are not difficult. not to mention the stupid idea of adding panda race. bloody blizz devs enjoyed kung fu panda a little to much. emerald dream would have been a better expan

Welcome to the business cycle.  Everyone moves from game to game.  WoW toi EQ2, back to WoW, to Rift, back to WoW, to SWTOR, back to WoW...

I see a pattern emerging...

Originally posted by Dracondis

Welcome to the business cycle.  Everyone moves from game to game.  WoW toi EQ2, back to WoW, to Rift, back to WoW, to SWTOR, back to WoW...

I see a pattern emerging...

Except that EQ2 came out before WoW.

Originally posted by Leviathonlx

So something like that was really decided by 381 people? I mean that isn't exactly what I would consider even remotly a scientific poll.

 

Its a fairly traditonal way of doing polling actually.

Originally posted by alexmino

Originally posted by Leviathonlx

So something like that was really decided by 381 people? I mean that isn't exactly what I would consider even remotly a scientific poll.

 

Its a fairly traditonal way of doing polling actually.

 

The problem with this poll is that we don't know how the participants were selected.  If its not random then its like choosing 381 people from a town in Texas and baseing your presidental predictions off of those results.

The problem with this article... is that those that play and enjoy playing the game feel like they need to defend their game and their personal opinions.  They often take this type of a post as a personal attack on perhaps their favorite pass-time and then the flaming begins.

As others have stated... we know that WoW (as a game) isn't what it used to be.  In an effort to vastly improve the game, they messed with the recipe.

Think of WoW as you would Coke.  Cataclysm is 'New Coke' and WoW is 'Classic'.  When is the last time you saw a bottle of 'New Coke'? 

If and when Blizzard decides to 'unscrew' their mess, they can bring the game back around.  Doing so, however, will have its own set of consequences. 

Personally, I'm thankful that there are other games and many choices to choose from. While I don't want to be a game-hopper, if I hate what Blizz is doing right now, then I can go play SW:TOR or RIFT or eventually GW2 or Secret World. 

same old story...but there are good news! wow has a superb guild finder that will help you find a guild, when you return from SWTOR, so dont be afraid :)

see you in azeroth as always...

to be honest i think it is pretty much dead on... WoW will not lift Acti-Bliz stocks again... That ship has sailed but this article does not take in to account things like D3 and what ever new smash hit Activision might be working on, and while i agree that the sample pool might be a bit small and to be honest it is very difficult to pick up random on-line gamers and still foiund a good amount of people who know/care what WoW is per defenition since online gaming is soo much more then MMORPGs. But all in all i think we will see a delcine of around thosenumbers before WoW levels out.

And the scary point is... It will still have twice or trice the numbers of the nearest competitor.

WoW just lost 1 more customer, hurry make a news post.

Originally posted by rojo6934

Originally posted by Latronus

Originally posted by rojo6934

i may be stupid or something but.... how is this news even important when they only surveyed 381 gamers?  all i can say to this Bagga dude, go survey at least half of WoWs playerbase then post  ur numbers... Of course the competition will get players from WoW to play their games, plus the road Blizz is taking WoW to is not the best one.... i for one will play swtor, and i will switch subs between It and WoW because i like both... only 10% of WoW playerbase left WoW, nobody knows how many of those 10% will come back later on...and how many wont... and i sure as hell know that only 381 surveyed gamers wont give the correct answer to that.

So, now we know who hasn't taken statistics.  It's called a representative sample, you NEVER poll half of a demographic as large as a games subscribers, that's just a stupid waste of time and money.  Besides, if you take just North American players of 2 to 3 million (just a guess of current subs) 381 should be plenty.  You can't count the Asian "subs" that aren't subs.  Blizzard has always inflated their numbers with those. 

surveying half of WoWs playerbase indeed would be a stupid waste of time... but surveying 381 people will never give an accurate answer for the decreasing population in the game.... since u said its a representative "sample" then the information given by Bragga is just way innacurate (making it false)... why they even bother posting false info...

 

No..That us how you do a representative survey, 300 people is more than enough to read out trends and signs,..But  no where does these measurements say they represents the truth :)

Even after an extensive break from wow (mmo's in general), part of me is still itching to go back (maybe it's ecsma ^^).

Must......resist!

Originally posted by Asamof

once the players see the real quality of the old republic they'll be back to WoW in no time. though i'm sure the numbers will still be dropping regardless, after cataclysm and later pandaria

 

ROFL, your blind, the quality is fine.  Just because you don't like something does not mean the quality is bad, they have lower graphics on purpose, which was smart, if they had it your way they would of had high end graphics, and have an AOC launch because everyone would need high end machines.

The graphics looks fine, the game play is fun, the end game is fun, and the story is great. The combat an animations are done properly, being in game design I have seen my far share of crap, and SWTOR is far from it.  

Originally posted by Jerek_

381 'online gamers' and not even all of them were WoW subscribers at the time of the survey?  And they used these results to determine what literally millions of currently active WoW players are going to do?  Thats really pretty pathetic surveying.

Was about to say the same... These numbers are no representation of the 'general WoW population'. Though we all can agree that WoW might loose even more subs (with the coming of SWTOR and GW2) than the ~1.5M they lost last quarter, this survey is rather flawed. Lets just wait for the Q4 sub numbers of Blizzard early next year and see...

Side note. I think SWTOR and GW2 are partly the reason for this declining WoW subscription numbers. The latest expansion and coming (panda) expansion have done a lot of damage to WoW as well...