WoW revenue down 54% in seven months

[Aikouka]

I knew plenty of players outside my guild on my old server. If you were pushing a certain level of progression, then you saw the same players a lot. I'm not even talking raid instances, but even pushing clearing tougher dungeons like Stratholme, Scholomance or Upper Blackrock Spire while everyone else was getting lost in Maraudon or scrubbing it up by talking to Windsor too soon in Blackrock Depths.

EDIT:

Although, I'm sure we weren't as big as Illidan as our queues weren't nearly as bad on big patch days or expansion releases. I think we were more of a high-medium population server as we'd have a few hundred in our queue.

 

[Arsinek]

I wonder how long WoW will last. Lesser games have held on for years. Makes me think even a dying wow might last a decade or more.

 

[smackababy]

I wonder how long WoW will last. Lesser games have held on for years. Makes me think even a dying wow might last a decade or more.

Oh yeah. WoW will last for a good while longer. Even if they go F2P, they won't go the way of StarTrek Online for a good, long while.

I knew plenty of players outside my guild on my old server. If you were pushing a certain level of progression, then you saw the same players a lot. I'm not even talking raid instances, but even pushing clearing tougher dungeons like Stratholme, Scholomance or Upper Blackrock Spire while everyone else was getting lost in Maraudon or scrubbing it up by talking to Windsor too soon in Blackrock Depths.

EDIT:

Although, I'm sure we weren't as big as Illidan as our queues weren't nearly as bad on big patch days or expansion releases. I think we were more of a high-medium population server as we'd have a few hundred in our queue.

A few of our main raiders didn't get home until like 10-15 minutes before raid time and would have someone else log them in and sit in queue while they drove home.

 

[Joeydubbs]

Oh yeah. WoW will last for a good while longer. Even if they go F2P, they won't go the way of StarTrek Online for a good, long while.

A few of our main raiders didn't get home until like 10-15 minutes before raid time and would have someone else log them in and sit in queue while they drove home.

WoW will be around for a good while, many are still helplessly addicted

IMO the dungeon finder was the best addition in WoW's history, too bad it really didn't translate well in LFR (the casual guild killer)

 

[AViking]

Well what happened for me is that from the starting zone I made friends. I had a group leveling in vanilla easily from that point on. Harder instances like Diremaul though were pretty much outside of the groups ability. At least the tribute run. So one day I see "LF Rogue with max lockpicking for Diremaul". I go, perform well, and from that point on I could get a tribute run with very good players who taught me a thing or two. We ran that for weeks and I picked up nice gear. Lower blackrock, UBRS, Strat, Scholo were the same thing. One of those guys would recommend me to someone who was looking for another player. At max level I knew people who knew I was good and it was smooth sailing from that point on. Total time for me to get a group in trade was generally less than a minute. Later they recruited me to a raiding guild they created.

I was on both small and large servers and this remained true. If you were good, people knew. Even later it wasn't very hard for people to notice you when you pug something like vault and do 35%+ of the total groups DPS.

 

[AViking]

http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/06/14/wow-archivist-memories-of-dire-maul/#continued

 

[Veliko]

Well what happened for me is that from the starting zone I made friends. I had a group leveling in vanilla easily from that point on. Harder instances like Diremaul though were pretty much outside of the groups ability. At least the tribute run. So one day I see "LF Rogue with max lockpicking for Diremaul". I go, perform well, and from that point on I could get a tribute run with very good players who taught me a thing or two. We ran that for weeks and I picked up nice gear. Lower blackrock, UBRS, Strat, Scholo were the same thing. One of those guys would recommend me to someone who was looking for another player. At max level I knew people who knew I was good and it was smooth sailing from that point on. Total time for me to get a group in trade was generally less than a minute. Later they recruited me to a raiding guild they created.

I was on both small and large servers and this remained true. If you were good, people knew. Even later it wasn't very hard for people to notice you when you pug something like vault and do 35%+ of the total groups DPS.

You seem to be confusing a small clique with a wider community.

 

[AViking]

It's possible. My experience was that if you were good though you could get a group. Easily. Friends who were unknown (or bad) had a hard time getting a group if I wasn't online to help them out.

Some common sense was needed too though. If you were a druid and you refused to heal or tank but complained about finding a group that was a problem. For basic 5 mans you didn't have to be a pro on all 3 specs but some versatility really helped. Our initial group was a Rogue, Huntard (literally, he took every weapon from my poor Rogue), Paladan, and 2 Druids. That gave a lot of versatility. Later on alts helped too. If you were willing to tank on your alt then someone else would be willing to do you a favor later. Friends were made and you always were able to find a group. Always.

 

[Tweak155]

You must have been on a backwater server with 15 people. I couldn't name anyone outside of my guildmates (except Skilljones) on Illidan. And if I could remember any names, it sure wasn't people I met in random groups.

It happened on my server all the time.

Usually it was alts that didn't run with the guild or if they missed the guild run for that week and needed to do it before the server restart.

Also there were guilds that had a strict recruiting practice but wanted to split their 25 mans into 3 10 mans for their alts when content was new. If you were in good with the guild, they would fill out those raids with the same people not in their guild.

 

[justoh]

For those complaining about lfr being too easy, go ahead and queue for the second part of soo and tell me how long it took you afterwards. Third boss yesterday required 7 stacks of determination, meaning 7 wipes. Lol. 4th boss about 4 stacks. 4 bosses took like 3 hours or longer.

 

[bshole]

For those complaining about lfr being too easy, go ahead and queue for the second part of soo and tell me how long it took you afterwards. Third boss yesterday required 7 stacks of determination, meaning 7 wipes. Lol. 4th boss about 4 stacks. 4 bosses took like 3 hours or longer.

I'm a 543 hunter. Whipped right through it and I mean RIGHT through it. What an utter joke. Averaged 170k dps and there were 2 other doing better than 200k dps. Actually flex raids are ridiculously easy as well using OpenRaid. The problem comes on normal. It simply can't be done without geared players and I literally can't find 10 geared players to run normal on. So I end up doing runs with at least 5 people who have no business being there. It is impossible to carry that many people.

 

[Aikouka]

I saw this article about Final Fantasy XIV and ease of accessibility on Ars today, and it reminded me of this thread:

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/...alm-reborn-impressions-proud-to-be-an-mmorpg/

It does talk about WoW a bit, but it mostly focuses on FF14. However, some MMO aficionados might find it to be an interesting read.

For those complaining about lfr being too easy, go ahead and queue for the second part of soo and tell me how long it took you afterwards. Third boss yesterday required 7 stacks of determination, meaning 7 wipes. Lol. 4th boss about 4 stacks. 4 bosses took like 3 hours or longer.

It sounds like what you're really telling me is that people in LFR are just that bad.

 

[smackababy]

I saw this article about Final Fantasy XIV and ease of accessibility on Ars today, and it reminded me of this thread:

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/...alm-reborn-impressions-proud-to-be-an-mmorpg/

It does talk about WoW a bit, but it mostly focuses on FF14. However, some MMO aficionados might find it to be an interesting read.



It sounds like what you're really telling me is that people in LFR are just that bad.

You know, I got in the FFXIV beta and never tried it. I might actually check it out after reading that article. Wildstar is also something I am looking forward to though.

 

[Aikouka]

You know, I got in the FFXIV beta and never tried it. I might actually check it out after reading that article. Wildstar is also something I am looking forward to though.

Without playing both, I can't be too sure, but I think I may be more interested in Wildstar. I have Final Fantasy XIV, and the game is definitely involved, but in a way, I think it might be too involved. The article does mention the rather cumbersome crafting system, but a more intricate crafting system was also present in Final Fantasy XI.

Although, if you're used to WoW, one thing may really bug you about FF14's combat: the 2.5 second GCD.

 

[smackababy]

FFIX had such a silly complicated crafting system for no reason other than to be complicated.

 

[justoh]

I'm a 543 hunter. Whipped right through it and I mean RIGHT through it. What an utter joke. Averaged 170k dps and there were 2 other doing better than 200k dps. Actually flex raids are ridiculously easy as well using OpenRaid. The problem comes on normal. It simply can't be done without geared players and I literally can't find 10 geared players to run normal on. So I end up doing runs with at least 5 people who have no business being there. It is impossible to carry that many people.

It's just that before it was easier for a few to carry the many, but now they've arbitrarily decided to make it nominally challenging, when 80% of random people have no inclination of learning how to play. They better make this crap easier or people will stop doing lfr completely.

The best is when all the lazy/stupid people leave because they don't have any patience or appreciation for the determination buff, the only ones left are the guys who didn't need it, and you're constantly getting a new set of noobs with no buff.

Stupid game. That's why people are quitting. At least for casual but earnest players. The best strategy right now is to convince people to pre-emptively suicide 10 times on each boss to save time. Probably take an hour instead of 3.

It did seem better in the US than in EU. The english servers are full of non english speaking people from regions not important enough to have their own language realms. At least the 2-3 realms i've tried playing on. This is why they ask for 535ilvl to do heroic scenarios. Nobody can communicate.

 

[styrafoam]

http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/06/14/wow-archivist-memories-of-dire-maul/#continued

This is true, Wow loses a little character each time they make one of the old quest chains obsolete. I would much rather see them find a way to keep them in the game rather then remove them entirely.

 

[StrangerGuy]

I can understand new players that might give a whirl but I do not understand why would long-term players still continue to pay into the same old and old gear grind statflation treadmill. It's like a gaming Stockholm Syndrome.

It's not like I didn't played it myself for 3 years either.

 

[smackababy]

This is true, Wow loses a little character each time they make one of the old quest chains obsolete. I would much rather see them find a way to keep them in the game rather then remove them entirely.

I don't understand this opinion. "Oh man! They removed some quest line I haven't done in 4 years and replaced it with something new and fresh! WoW sure is an awful game!"

 

[yottabit]

I'm a 543 hunter. Whipped right through it and I mean RIGHT through it. What an utter joke. Averaged 170k dps and there were 2 other doing better than 200k dps. Actually flex raids are ridiculously easy as well using OpenRaid. The problem comes on normal. It simply can't be done without geared players and I literally can't find 10 geared players to run normal on. So I end up doing runs with at least 5 people who have no business being there. It is impossible to carry that many people.

Obviously you're outgearing Flex/LFR. LFR definitely isn't a joke (especially the second wing) if you get a group that's in fresh 496 timeless island gear. On the wing 2 I ran last night we had one, maybe two people consistently well over 100k dps, and a few (like my alt) hanging right around the 100k number. Made things take a looong time.

I can't believe the number of people that have been queuing for SoO LFR and their gear is mostly a mix of timeless isle pieces and blues, with no gems and enchants.

I think they could make the newer SoO LFR's run really smoothly if they just made the ilvl requirement a little higher. Blizz kind of shot themselves in the foot since Timeless isle 496/535 gear isn't really as good as comparable raid gear, but it's still inflating people's ilvl just as much.

And forget about trying to explain not to attack during defensive stance. My fault for not running LFR on Tuesday I guess. The Flex runs I've done for SoO have gone a lot smoother than the LFR's I've run lately.

 

[styrafoam]

I don't understand this opinion. "Oh man! They removed some quest line I haven't done in 4 years and replaced it with something new and fresh! WoW sure is an awful game!"

The line of thinking is that things like the class quest chains, quel'serrar, etc were fun and added personality to the game. It would seem that it would be almost as much work to completely remove them as it would to just fix the broken links in the chain. If I enjoyed them, future players may also.

I don't really recall saying wow was awful or these things only matter to me because of some strange ocd type attachment to a quest I completed long ago. Odd bit of inference you came up with there.

 

[justoh]

Obviously you're outgearing Flex/LFR. LFR definitely isn't a joke (especially the second wing) if you get a group that's in fresh 496 timeless island gear. On the wing 2 I ran last night we had one, maybe two people consistently well over 100k dps, and a few (like my alt) hanging right around the 100k number. Made things take a looong time.

I can't believe the number of people that have been queuing for SoO LFR and their gear is mostly a mix of timeless isle pieces and blues, with no gems and enchants.

I think they could make the newer SoO LFR's run really smoothly if they just made the ilvl requirement a little higher. Blizz kind of shot themselves in the foot since Timeless isle 496/535 gear isn't really as good as comparable raid gear, but it's still inflating people's ilvl just as much.

And forget about trying to explain not to attack during defensive stance. My fault for not running LFR on Tuesday I guess. The Flex runs I've done for SoO have gone a lot smoother than the LFR's I've run lately.

Well, the other 6 bosses so far are still a joke, thankfully. But they need to nerf that shaman dude and the flying axes guy. Otherwise if it's going to take 3 hours, people may as well actually raid. Some developer actually said lfr could be done during one's lunch break. lol?

 

[Saylick]

Although, if you're used to WoW, one thing may really bug you about FF14's combat: the 2.5 second GCD.

Hahaha, although I've stopped playing WoW 5 years ago, I was watching my brother play FFXIV and even I couldn't help but comment on the ridiculously long 2.5 sec GCD, or Recast as it's called in FFXIV (still prefer it being called GCD...)

 

[Veliko]

The line of thinking is that things like the class quest chains, quel'serrar, etc were fun and added personality to the game. It would seem that it would be almost as much work to completely remove them as it would to just fix the broken links in the chain. If I enjoyed them, future players may also.

If there's one thing that Catalsym brought to WoW, it was a huge improvement in the quality of questing and levelling.

To those who actually enjoyed vanilla quests, I have to ask how old you were at the time and what your experience of RPGs was beforehand. I was about 28 when I first started and had already experienced games like Baldurs Gate 2 which had immersive storylines and quests. I come into WoW and by the time I got to level 25 I was wondering if the story was ever going to start. It was just an endless series of 'The knolls are stealing our food! Bring me 10 tiger eyes from that cave of endlessly respawning enemies."

Cataclysm is released and that underwater Vashjir zone was a huge breath of fresh air. The story was actually interesting and the world changed as you progressed from one plotpoint to the next.

People say that old WoW was more open, but it certainly didn't feel like it. You might have been able to go to different zones but you were doing virtually identical quests for virtually identical reasons no matter where you went.

 

[AViking]

I liked Vashjir - I really did. However the reality is that while Vanilla might have had "collect 30 furbolg fingernails" it was replaced by phasing and dragging your friends down to quest only to find out that all 5 of you are in 5 different phases. Dear fucking god was that annoying. World PvP basically is non existent in a phased zone and if you are getting ganked getting help is very difficult.

So basically while I could quest with anyone at anytime in vanilla in the new content you had to start a zone with someone and end with them since it was very difficult to coordinate a group otherwise. Try to play catch up or help people catch up when you can't see them.

Vanilla had content that was explorable and diverse. Diremaul is a very good example. I can use raiding as well though. When I quit most of the raids consisted of zoning in and either being in one room or turning left once. Conclave, Baradin Hold, the one with Sinestra, the one with 3D, Malygos, ToC, etc. It was not very exciting. Recycling Naxx? Not cool. I enjoyed a few new mechanics and as a Rogue Valiona was very fun in the shadow realm and healing Valithria was cool but for the most part it was not that exciting when you compare to a zone like Karazhan. I might not have been a fan of the entirely red instance that was Molten Core but at least it wasn't a one room instance with nothing to explore.