The bitterness is strong in this one. Of course that was the case even when he still played WoW, but the stubborn refusal to just go away is a little laughable at this point...

 

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And no surprises.

 

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IMO Bliz needs to wake up and diablo-fy WoW. The genre needs something slightly different and there isn't that much room for serious variation on the MMORPG formula. By diablo-fy I mean add some element of randomness. When your pace of new content production is snail-like at best, your content needs an element of randomness. Completely static instances with bosses so static their abilities can be tracked with timer addons has no spice at all. The new MMORPGs are copying this exactly. Give us randomized dungeons with randomized content and unpredictable bosses that make you pay attention to the bosses instead of an addon and wake up the player base.

Bliz shot everyone in the foot with cata which was plain dumb. Lots of people said it was gonna happen before cata was close to hitting. Bliz upper management allowed whatever idiots were making all the design changes continue. They deserve to lose subs. They stripped down and redesigned core systems for a game that was perfectly fine. They made some aspects of the game so stupidly easy (leveling) that even with revamped leveling content it's insanely boring and generic. They shifted raiding from being open to tons of people to being limited to the elite, which was their dumbest move of all after opening it up to more people than ever during WOTLK.





That's kind of a genre thing though. Other games aren't going to help much other than give you some new content to digest the same gameplay slightly differently. You could blame WoW for being so amazing for 5+ years that it causes people to play so much that burnout is a high possibility.

IMO, Rift is no real substitute - it's WoW 1.5 or 2.0 - different graphics, different content, almost the exact same gameplay and endgame, without the polish or sophistication in content. It's a nice diversion but unless you are burned out on the genre and done entirely for now you'd probably stick with WoW where endgame is done better.

I'm also doubting SW will do much for most WoW type players. All you have to do is watch some gameplay footage where there's 10 minutes of dialog before you start an instance. The instant gratification ADD types that dominate WoW will never be able to sit still thru that stuff without breaking their ESC key. And again, it's going to be more of the same except with screwball classes doing the same roles, and IMO, historically, sci-fi never feels as good as fantasy for the holy trinity, SW or not.

 

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Reasons For Reduction?

5 f***ing additional levels (should have been 10 at least)
Insufficient content (redoing all old world is good and fine...but we need new content in buckets and spades)
Classes/abilities nerfing/buffing/nerfing....ad infinitum
overuse of horrible annoying "phasing" technology...(you will do our content when we say and how we say)
Not addressing casual content/needs
Less than engaging primary and secondary professions
Archaeology - the pain....it still burns.....
Instances and gaming the ilevel requirement
Pvp screwed up - melee Vs caster pendulum


Overall - disappointing as an expansion. Feels like a "get it done quick for the financial reports...We can fix it later in patches"

I do love the game, but lost my will to play.

Boone,

Spook did not name a single soul.

You can't run and jump under the bus and call foul play, and expect action against the bus driver.


If you are going to place yourself in the category he mentioned, then it's all on you.

 

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EXTRA EXTRA!!! Read all about it!!! Game losing subscribers after 6 years!!!! EXTRA!!!!

"In fact, it's actually lower than the milestone reached in 2008 with the release of Wrath of the Lich King."

That is another quote from the article. Sub numbers have reached pre-2008 levels. Spin it however you want, it is declining. And if they don't start fixing the underlying problems- this 5% reduction in subs is just the beginning....

 

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And having a direct competitor, described as WoW 1.5 or 2.0, that was released this spring and that has gained from what I understand to be 1 million subs has no impact on that?

Look I get that a few here really are not happy with WoW for a number of different reasons, but to totally discount Rift as the probable reason for the dip in subscriptions? As Monday Night Countdown would say....Come on man.

 

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The question is:

How many would have "left for Rift" had it launched during Wrath of the Lich King?

 

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Who can really say? I imagine probably about the same, but that would just be an educated guess based on that there has always been a good chunk of people who flock to any new MMO that releases for a number of different reasons, but usually boredom with their current MMO of choice. In the past they usually return within 30 days due the new MMOs pretty much sucking, but Rift may be different. I have not tried Rift so I can't talk about it's quality or lack of it.

Edit: I hope that Rift does push Blizzard. I won't complain one bit if another MMO pushes Blizzard to release content faster and improve the quality of that content due to competition.

 

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