WoW: Drop in players, but best is yet to come (plus 4.2.2 patch)

Blizzard's last financial report stated that World of Warcraft had 11.4 million subscribers. That’s a drop of 600,000 gamers – nearly 5% – since the heady days of 2010 at the launch of Cataclysm.

While many gamers are pointing and laughing, using the numbers to illustrate WoW's obvious and inevitable fall from grace, Blizzard itself remains optimistic, believing simply that the company's peak – indeed the game's highest point – is yet to come.

...and it's coming some time after the 4.2.2 patch, which brings hotfixes to pave the way for the eagerly anticipated 4.3 whopper.

[ATi_Elite]

So a 5% drop off in subscriptions now leaves WoW with 11.4 million players paying $15 a month so that makes Blizzard around $171,000,000 a month.

plus i believe WoW has 2 more planned expansions in the pipeline which raise subscriptions every time!

Gee Whiz wish i was dying!!

[Gazondaily]

Silly amounts of money man! ATi- lets team up and build a MMO of our own- with hookers....and Blackjack!

[ATi_Elite]

San Andreas already does that!!

http://www.sa-mp.com/

PC it only does Everything.....but FOR REAL!!

[MagicAccent]

Blackjack and Hookers? That's disgusting and outrageous!

If anyone wants me, I'll be in the Angry Dome!

[Gazondaily]

Haha ye fair play. I've transitioned to my PC. Odd that I was playing on consoles so much when I have a decent gaming rig with a razer naga mouse and a sexy face.

[Spinal]

An as a happy wow player an pc gamer in general i look forward for things to come. New wow xpac, battlefield 3, Diablo 3, Guild Wars 2 an Swtor.

[ATi_Elite]

And....

Tera, Planetside2, Firefall, Red Ochestra 2, ArmaIII, Nuclear Dawn, Hawken, Black Prophecy, Tribes:Ascend, Natural Selection 2, The Secret World, STALKER 2

so yeh as a PC Gamer i have plenty of AAA non-console titles to look forward too!

[Lazy_Sunday]

But they don't want to talk about it. They've been having huge issues with China which had dropped them a substantial amount of subscribers in June. The number has yet to be revealed but it is apparently larger than 600k. Sites rumor it's around 5-6 million, but that sounds like a little much.
I think WoW is dying because the game loses it's fun after a good week or two, and the fun you had enjoyed turns into what seems like a chore. After a month, you'll average a good 4-8 hours in a day, which starts to feel like you're working. Then you realize, you've hit the level cap, and then what do you have to do? Work some more for your Gearscore. After the expansions you've spent around $100-130USD. After your first month you pay $15 a month. You're essentially paying Blizzard to work on a character with outdated mechanics. There's too much repetitive play, and the combat system is sluggish. The fact that people are copying this abortion they call a game in modern day is disgusting. Even worse still is that people are even in 2011 deluded by the game itself.
We really need a new kind of MMO. One that doesn't involve the anti-fun. And so far, we're not getting farther than WoW. Every game has to have that 10 function command bar, every attack must have a cooldown, and every death must have consequences. I understand that, but there's definitely got to be a more fun way to balance and create a game so it doesn't feel like such a chore.

[icewater85]

WOW is not going anywhere anytime soon. So get used to it. Star Wars won't affect it as much as you think b/c most of the people that play WOW will keep WOW even if they have Star Wars. I haven't played WOW in a couple of years but I'm happy they are still up and running.

[Lazy_Sunday]

In fact, I don't know that Star Wars will make any more of a dent on WoW then DCUO did. My point was that WoW is outdated and boring--it scares me that people still work 6-8 hours a day on their characters and pay for WoW, since at BEST, in 2011, WoW is like a very weak strategy game at it's core: whoever has the highest number will most likely win. The game is built around cooldowns and time-wasting. It drives me absolutely nuts how terrible this game is. I know firsthand, I played the game for a good 5 solid months, hit the 80 level cap, got my GS up, then when Cata came out started back up but instantly was bored once I hit the cap, realizing that all my work for my character was for nothing and I had just spent $45 to play Cata.

All I'm saying is that there must be a better way to make an MMO that has fun that lasts. And WoW isn't amazing, it's upsetting nobody's trying anything other than the WoW strategy. There is more to the MMORPG genre than a ten button command bar and cooldowns. Someone in the industry needs to understand that.

[Spinal]

You just have it all wrong dude.

Wow is not the same game since it came out in 2005 each expansion has changed the game alot how each class works an how most of all ur talents an spells work generally refreshin the game alot. Thats what maked wow stand the test of time an the fact that they constantly add features which improve the replayability of the game. Ive been playin since launch an tried many of the new mmos like age of conan warhammer an aion none was able to keep me interested. Wow has done very well at settin a standard which is hard for many to accomplish. I look forward to guild wars 2 mainly an a lil swtor but none will make me cancel my wow acct unless blizz make me do it.

[Lazy_Sunday]

Not once did I hear you use the word "fun." All the work they've done on the game to refresh it, and that's what kills me. Yes, they have made major improvements to increase re-playability. Yes, they have completely reworked the talent trees, classes, and everything else to no end. But that's not my point.
My point is, there is no MMO that changes the style of play to keep the engagement enthralled. To make the game feel, how do I put this... 'fun,' to no end. Why can't MMOs be played like Action Adventure games, or maybe hack n' slash Diablo/Torchlight style, and yield instant gratification? Why does the combat system have to be so slow and awkward? Why do all the quests feel tedious and created just for the sake of killing time? I mean, every aspect of WoW is based on wasting time:
-Cooldowns: combat system, mounts, professions, etc.
-Leveling: slow, tedious, boring, and takes several hours--yet somehow yields a slight bit of a rewarding feeling.
-Combat: 1-2 mobs at a time, slowed by c'ds.
-Speed: walking speed is incredibly slow, grounded mount speed is slow even at epic.
-Questing: boring, cloned, most based around killing or gathering.
It's sick how terrible the strategy is for this game. There is no reason to have these strategies other than to keep you playing longer and waste more of your time, so you think the game is longer than it actually is.
There has to be some other way to make an MMORPG without it getting boring and lame, operating off of the same WoW mechanics. That's all I insinuate.

In my opinion, WoW IS outdated and boring--and if you want to enjoy even a fraction of life, I suggest you steer clear of that game. It gives the substitution for a job in an actually more boring fashion. This is why I demand a 'fun' MMO. If you're going to waste your life away, waste it with good reason--have a game that can equate the same level of fun you can get from partying into an MMO. It's 100% possible, it just requires a lot of time and work. But if you're hypnotized by the fictitious notion that you enjoy it, more power to ya. Keep supporting the game that's dragging the MMO generation backwards, and enjoy the fuck out of it. Because for whatever reason, you're too stupid to understand that the only Zero Punctuation video that was never over-exaggerated about it's shortcomings was the one about WoW: http://www.escapistmagazine...