This week's Story of the Week is none other than Blizzard's admission that 1.1 mln subscribers have left World of Warcraft over the course of 2011.

The Story of the Week is no doubt the recent announcement that Blizzard’s World of Warcraft has lost 1.1 mln subscriptions over the course of this year.  The thread I just linked was a fury of discussion on the topic, and people were doing everything from claiming it was the end of Azeroth to merely a blip on the radar for Morhaime and crew. The truth is likely somewhere in the middle.  I have a few thoughts of my own on the story, so bear with me.

Read the rest of Bill Murphy's Story of the Week: Azeroth Loses People.

#1. The game looks old; the game is old.

#2. There used to be an illusion that Blizzard cared 50% for it's customers and 50% for profit. Activision/Blizzard has turned this into 5% customer and 95% profit.

#3. MicroTransaction / Cash Shop puts a bad taste in most players mouths.

#4. There are so many newer MMOs out and plenty more to come.

#5. Expansions are so redundant and basic. Innovation has been lost.

They locked in free D3 and a yearly subscription? Wow, that's simply genius.

That means that all those WoW players who opt for doing that will be counted towards the total sub number for the next year regardless whether they will play WoW or not. Plus it makes it easier for people to jump back into WoW from time to time even if they're playing other MMO's or just singleplayer games. Smart move.

Originally posted by precious328

#1. The game looks old; the game is old.

#2. There used to be an illusion that Blizzard cared 50% for it's customers and 50% for profit. Activision/Blizzard has turned this into 5% customer and 95% profit.

#3. MicroTransaction / Cash Shop puts a bad taste in most players mouths.

#4. There are so many newer MMOs out and plenty more to come.

#5. Expansions are so redundant and basic. Innovation has been lost.

 

I think you hit the nail on the head . The loses Blizzard are likly to incure next year will be substantually more than 1.1 million . These arn't the seasonal loses some fans would like to have us believe . Theres a whole lot of new games coming out just as Blizzard are about to release a total mistake of an expansion . It will not go well for them .

Blizzard’s World of Warcraft has lost 1.7 mln subscriptions over the course of this year not 1.1 just saying

I also think that the craze of past-WoW was like a MMO baby boomer generation. Everyone jumped on the wagon, e.g., the nerd, the jock, the hottie, etc. This has come to an end. It's all about retention now - keeping the same players active. However, 7 or so years later = people are getting older.

We are sick of it. We yearn for depth and innovation. We try to find it in other games, yet they don't offer. It's the same old bs.

This type of thread is gonna be too common.  Every week we are gonna see a thread about how many people left that week.  I think we got it.  They are finally declining.

Game is 7 years old it would be just un natural if it didn't lose players after that many years. 

Originally posted by precious328

#1. The game looks old; the game is old.

If you like the style WoW is still one of the most visually appealing games out there, it could use character updates but it still has a very beautiful world. Yes the game is old.

#2. There used to be an illusion that Blizzard cared 50% for it's customers and 50% for profit. Activision/Blizzard has turned this into 5% customer and 95% profit.

It has to maintain 50/50 otherwise it wouldn't be where its at now. People are taken care of and blizzard devotes a large employee base to maintain a happy playerbase.

#3. MicroTransaction / Cash Shop puts a bad taste in most players mouths.

Its all vanity.. i don't see the issue here. Unless you're referring to the guardian cub which isn't very effecient at making gold.

#4. There are so many newer MMOs out and plenty more to come.

All of the new MMO's out now are trash, the ones to come aren't here.. who is to know what will happen.

#5. Expansions are so redundant and basic. Innovation has been lost.

BC was good, wrath was different but got old quick and cata is good for alt-o-holics and hardcore raiders(4.3)

So what i'm trying to say is i don't get the reason for your points and i find them flawed. The game is still great unless you've played it for 7 years.. {mod edit}

its a dated and boring game, i gave up on it about the time cata came out...it doesnt allow the core fans to enjoy it and its now so boring no new players are starting.

I say it should hang up its hat and move aside for SWTOR and other large titles due out!

1. WoW ages, no doubt about it. Sure MoP gonna have better textures and models, but 2012 games will have it even better and gap will be even bigger than atm.

2. Microtransaction - even though it is vanity except RMT pet, - it allows to ramp up revenue and profits - that's for sure. Many customers are starting to wonder - hey I have cash shop here, and many "free" games also have cash shop, so what I pay subscription for?

Introducing cash shop into WoW is defeating best subscription advantage = pay flat rate and have everything.  Not to mention that imho with MoP cash shop will expand alot, as it will be many things for 'pokemon fights' there. More pets, skins, etc

3. Cataclysm was failure. Redoing whole 1-60 lvl world was not bad idea, BUT inreasing xp rate to ridiculous amounts was devaluating this redoing of zones, as people are levelling so fast they don't see most of this new/redo content anyway.

4. Gamers are just getting tired of 'same old' .

5. There is common view that WoW is on slippery slope atm, and I think it has 'snow ball' effect. WoW lost ~ 2 million subs in preety short time.  Swtor, GW2, Tera and ArcheAge and all other titles that 2012 will be full of, will drain even more subscibers. 

There is just no doubt.

Sure WoW propably still will be biggest mmorpg, but imho 2012 will make it's lose another 2-3 millions of subs.

And China has over a billion potential players to spare. Ooh look Panda's. What a coincidence!

Its no wonder their are so eager to release the game in Brazil and three tiny Asian MMO markets.

Someone is trying to compensate for losses of  "susbcriber numbers" which to them are their biggest currently running PR campaign. They desperately need some new launch peaks inflating the sub numbers again for their next announcements so every fanboy can be like "oh look they didnt drop further dohho WOW is fine even if my sever is dead now!". No mather how shortlived these peaks are...

Originally posted by nyxium

And China has over a billion potential players to spare. Ooh look Panda's. What a coincidence!

Sure panda's are highly regarded in china but i find comments like these in bad taste. They are more likely to not embrace this as much as the western world due to the fact that they are such a regarded animal. They aren't or weren't as exotic to them as they are to the west so the high appeal IMO would be stronger over here.

Lineage Eternal > Diablo 3

Just going to put that one out there, won't stop the Diablo fans buiying just becuase it has Diablo in the title.

Blizzard is a self perpetuating gaming culture, I think when the cracks start happening they will find it harder to maintain any kind of market dominance.

Its the dawn of wow.

We all were asking who the wow killer would be, and in the end there is not one but many. Wow is starting to bleed out, and when the new AAA mmos are out, every one of them will hit a big wound in wow, well lets see if it can raise again with the pandas. 

Originally posted by Durray

Lineage Eternal > Diablo 3

Just going to put that one out there, won't stop the Diablo fans buiying just becuase it has Diablo in the title.

Blizzard is a self perpetuating gaming culture, I think when the cracks start happening they will find it harder to maintain any kind of market dominance.

IT won't stop me from buying diablo3.. LE won't be released anywhere remotely close to D3.

Though thought this thread was about WoW...

Originally posted by Aori

Originally posted by nyxium

And China has over a billion potential players to spare. Ooh look Panda's. What a coincidence!

Sure panda's are highly regarded in china but i find comments like these in bad taste. They are more likely to not embrace this as much as the western world due to the fact that they are such a regarded animal. They aren't or weren't as exotic to them as they are to the west so the high appeal IMO would be stronger over here.

How can Panda's in China eating cutey wootey bamboo chutes be in bad taste? The chinese will love it. Yiyiyiyiyiyiyiiiiiiii ah ssssssso.

I try to think back why i played this game so long back in the day. only reason i could find is it had people. tons of people to group with be in a guilds with. and thats it. it never was innovative in anyway. and the devleopers were always changing stuff to the point you got nerfed every patch. i think i spent more time frustrated by my class getting nerfed then actually trying to have fun again at some point.

It's like every month they had a new direction. and they would NEVER roll-back any change even if the forums were in riot mode.

All hate talk aside. they will slowly dwindle down but never really die. it will just be made more appealing to younger people and familys and before the last xpac comes it will go free to play. i know morhaim promised no free to play, but i think it will. heck those new pokemon pets could be sold in a cash store and i'm sure you will see more F2P past 20 before it goes fully.

I wish they would have cared about us older vets the ones that help them spread the word and make the game the hit it was. but we arent the demographic they're  looking for now.

I wish them luck.