Topic:
A Good Summary of Why Blizzard is Hemorrhaging Subscriptions [Locked]
Spookysheep Title: Lieker of Cheese Posts: 1,248 Registered: 2002-1-9 06:49:19
Date Posted:1/1/00 12:00amSubject:
A Good Summary of Why Blizzard is Hemorrhaging Subscriptions
myxomatosis8 posted: Has anyone at all stopped to think that this is a 7-year-old game, and that it has reached a point of a significant turnover? Teens who started in vanilla and hung on, other people moving on to bigger, better, just different things?
You mean aside from the fact that this "old" game continually and exponentially grew every single year for its first 6 years, then had a cataclysmic, sudden drop of nearly 1 million at the beginning of its 7th year?
Wait, let me guess, you and the local fanbois think that 6 is the magic number for player retention, amirite?
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Arunne Title: The Anonymous Posts: 177 Registered: 2003-11-3 14:11:47
Date Posted:1/1/00 12:00amSubject:
A Good Summary of Why Blizzard is Hemorrhaging Subscriptions
Well the fact that I have seen in the adds for Rage of the Firelands ads that one of their selling points is that there are PUG Friendly Raids. The first tier of Cataclysm raids are now more accessable!
They really dont get that people don't want it more accessable 8 months after it comes out, they want it more accessable out of the gate.
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Date Posted:1/1/00 12:00amSubject:
A Good Summary of Why Blizzard is Hemorrhaging Subscriptions
Spookysheep posted:
myxomatosis8 posted: Has anyone at all stopped to think that this is a 7-year-old game, and that it has reached a point of a significant turnover? Teens who started in vanilla and hung on, other people moving on to bigger, better, just different things?
You mean aside from the fact that this "old" game continually and exponentially grew every single year for its first 6 years, then had a cataclysmic, sudden drop of nearly 1 million at the beginning of its 7th year?
Wait, let me guess, you and the local fanbois think that 6 is the magic number for player retention, amirite?
Geezus.. haven't you ever heard of the "7 year itch".. come out from under your rock.
Spookysheep Title: Lieker of Cheese Posts: 1,248 Registered: 2002-1-9 06:49:19
Date Posted:1/1/00 12:00amSubject:
A Good Summary of Why Blizzard is Hemorrhaging Subscriptions
I think they make an ointment for that now, though.
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Date Posted:1/1/00 12:00amSubject:
A Good Summary of Why Blizzard is Hemorrhaging Subscriptions
IMO, bliz is losing customers because cata too closely mimics WOTLK in terms of grinds (exact same rep grinds, emblem grinds - just different names), game mechanic changes/redesign for no good reason except some overly emo designer had a "feeling" (don't fix what isn't broken), casual raiding was slaughtered and after opening raiding up to the masses this was an ultra stupid move, and making all 5-mans require CC and more tedium is a failure (interesting at first, interesting sometimes, miserable when it's full time or you need to be raid geared to plow WOTLK style).
The story and everything for Cata is boring and less present too compared to WOTLK. Maybe if you roll a fresh alt from 1-85 you experience it more but there is very little to tie you in or remind you of what's going on at the high levels vs WOTLK where LK was interwoven all over the place.
Of course, I can't really enjoy the lower/mid redone content since bliz won't give us more slots, I'm not deleting a developed 80/85 to reroll, and why would I play on another server when all my BOAs and friends are on one server, and I sure as hell won't pay for a 2nd account.
I don't really agree with the MMO Champ bit and definitely don't agree that 5-mans should produce gear that matches raiding (sets or whatever). Simply put, you don't NEED such gear if you're just doing 5-mans since 5-mans get progressively easier and are content that doesn't progress in difficulty itself as new content is released (at a snail's pace that's painful). There is no point in getting amazing gear just to overpower and trivialize solo and 5-man content.
Secondly, I'm not sure that blizzard is hemorrhaging anything. Losing some customers, sure, but in any game like an MMORPG that's been around for so long it's going to happen. It also doesn't help that cata as a whole is not a very good expansion and that overall design decisions have been poor since GC and the stooges (aka, the b-team) took the helm.
I love 5 mans. The cata instances were fun at first...like mini raids due to gear vs content, CCing, slight difficulty of bosses, etc - but when it comes to grinding those instances to dust to get emblems, they are utter suck. Too long, too much trash, too much hassle.
I despise the emblem revamp things bliz does (ok, now valor are jp, but valor are new valor and there's new gear, and now you can go grind all those heroics you already hate SOME MORE...and this is what you get for your montly sub...we get your money, you get low quality garbage in return).
I love raiding more and IMO, thru WOTLK, way more people had a chance to raid, way more people enjoyed raiding, there was a lot of pug raiding going on, and they flushed all of that in cata by shifting away from normal vs heroic as a way to allow more people in (and instead normal being heroic and heroic being something for the extreme few, thus returning raiding to elitists and taking it away from the masses).
Most raids in WOLTK were longer so people could dig in a varying degrees, and normal vs heroic was more suited to being a difficulty switch so hardcores could still be challenged. The shorter raids in cata start off difficult, too difficult for many who got to do some raiding in WOTLK (maybe they only cleared a wing or two in ICC and had zero chance at downing LK, but they were IN and raiding - and in cata, they're lucky to crack the first boss anywhere).
More people would like raiding more if they could actually do something other than trash runs in BOT or FL. Trash runs are boring, and excess trash in raids just makes for a lot of miserable tedium. When I raid, I want to fight bosses, not 30-60 minutes worth of pointless trash (the trash has a point, to bliz, to slow you down and waste your time, but it serves no purpose in terms of raiding and boss progression).
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Date Posted:1/1/00 12:00amSubject:
A Good Summary of Why Blizzard is Hemorrhaging Subscriptions
I'm having a blast with Cat. I love playing ranged DPS. Not so fun is melee DPS but it has it points. Tank in normal is fun but mostly because I'm overpowered. I'll see when I take the step to heroics and raids. Healing just sucks. If easy it is boring, if hard it is stressful, neither of which is fun. Other than that complaint I love Cat so far.
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Date Posted:1/1/00 12:00amSubject:
A Good Summary of Why Blizzard is Hemorrhaging Subscriptions
myxomatosis8 posted: Has anyone at all stopped to think that this is a 7-year-old game, and that it has reached a point of a significant turnover? Teens who started in vanilla and hung on, other people moving on to bigger, better, just different things?
The only (and huge) flaw with this is that Cata is not 7 years old.
Add to that, the astounding success the game was seeing during its 6th year with Wrath, and your point is completely invalid.
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Date Posted:1/1/00 12:00amSubject:
A Good Summary of Why Blizzard is Hemorrhaging Subscriptions
The_Korrigan posted:
JaconKin posted: As have I, yet, when all one has to do is watch videos of the game and realize that there is something special occurring with Guild Wars 2. You see a slick combat system, a quality of production that some games wish they had at release, and a complete overhaul to every mechanic that has become standard in MMOs since Everquest.
I was almost suckered in by WAR, thankfully I was able to avoid it due to a preorder of the CE that got me into the final stages of the BETA. Guild Wars 2 isn't even in BETA and looks better than most games in that stage. Watching videos of the games will tell you this much, once you begin investigating the game further and the passion that Arena Net has for the project and the goals they have for the game. They have stated that they aren't aiming for second best, the proof can be clearly seen.
I expect nothing less from the two remaining finding members of Arena Net who were basically responsible for making Blizzard a household name.
Not to be harsh, and no offense meant, but this is quite naive coming from a MMO veteran.
Truth is we won't know if GW2 is good or not before we played it ourself. Making cool looking videos is easy for such a company, it doesn't mean the gameplay will be as cool. I, as a veteran, learned NOT to trust videos. I only trust my own eyes, my own hands on the keyboard and mouse. Then, yes, I will tell if a game is good or not. I think of those videos like a movie trailer. Yes, they make me want to try this game. But like all movie trailers, they could be just the few good parts of a total turd.
Same goes for SW:TOR. It's not a secret that I'm waiting for that game, but I haven't pre-ordered yet. I want to see it first hand before I do that.
Well, you see that would be a good point if the only source of videos for gameplay was coming from only the Devs, like the majority of TOR videos and the way WAR was handled. This is one of the reasons like you I am hesitant on TOR. Yet, Arena Net isn't pulling the hide the game scenario from the public until 4 weeks before release when NDA is finally lifted, nor pulling down videos made by fans claiming copyright.
I will be surprised if there is even an NDA in place once the game goes to Beta.
A simple search of youtube and you'll see plenty of videos of just normal gamers playing the game, no Dev BS involved.
Here goes a player Video of the Shatterer Boss Event:
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Dev Video showing of the same thing: layer_embedded
Here goes a Bioware Video of the first "flashpoint"/dungeon of the game. Spoilers of course.
Out of those videos for the two games, which one looks more epic and exciting, and which one looks like its more ready to release?
Also, as far as video goes, yes you are quite correct, but also media and information is a big part of the gaming world. Which one of these two games does it look like is winning that battle right now?
EDIT:
Also from yesterday's blog about the Gamescom Demo, so there will be more player impressions and videos coming out this weekend.
Energy
Skills no longer cost energy. This means energy potions are also gone. (Sorry to everyone who so vehemently helped us defend their existence.) In place of the energy-potion button is a new dodge button. This allows players to use the mouse to dodge and lets players bind dodge to a single keystroke. If you are moving in a direction, the dodge will take that into account and dodge in that direction. If you are not moving, you will dodge backward. Dodging now also evades attacks, making it a more effective and understandable way to avoid big creature attacks or to get out of AoE spells. Dodging is limited by energy, which regenerates over time.
We have a new long-term replacement for the other benefits that energy potions provided to our system, but since it is not in the game yet, we aren’t talking about it.
By binding the dodge button to a single keystroke, unlike before were you had to double tap, this makes it even more akin to an action RPG, where in those you usually hold down a dodge button and then press in the direction you want to dodge.
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The-Sofa-King Title: King of the Futons Posts: 144 Registered: 2002-7-9 22:06:31
Date Posted:1/1/00 12:00amSubject:
A Good Summary of Why Blizzard is Hemorrhaging Subscriptions
GutterSludge posted: I could keep going on and on. Blizzard wants EVERYONE to be in a guild, devote 3 to 4 nights a week RAIDING, and love every damned minute of it....
I raid 1 night a week with a guild that isn't even my own. We've cleared 5/7 in Firelands at the moment. Sure, it's been cleared before, by people raiding more than 1 night a week, but you can devote a single night a week to raiding and still be successful in the current raiding system.
Date Posted:1/1/00 12:00amSubject:
A Good Summary of Why Blizzard is Hemorrhaging Subscriptions
Spookysheep posted: It is the same argument since vanilla WoW. Most players do not like raiding but the 5 mans are universally popular. Blizzard has made it where you can only partially accomplish a new gear milestone in 5 mans, but to get helm and shoulders, they tried to force players to raid.
I hate raiding for one reason, any mob that takes more than a five minutes to kill is simply obnoxious.
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