FFXIV better stop doing what WoW's doing, because its losing millions of subs.

[Alunari]

Snip

Completely agree with this. I think part of the reason for the subs going back up to 10 million for the launch of WOD was that it was just after the 10th Anniversary of the WoW's launch and, well, we all get a little nostalgic at times.

I think one of the reasons WoW was so popular is partly because they were simply in the right place at the right time, the stars were aligned or something at launch. I played text based games, like Imperian, just before WoW launched and I can remember the talk on their forums, there were two camps, those going to play WoW, the other GW. I am not sure if the fact WoW launched first helped them win that battle but they most certainly did.

I played WoW from vanilla so I mean no disrespect to a great game, I still have a huge soft spot for it and do go back and play it sometimes, so I'm not a WoW refugee However, I can see that the landscape of MMO's have changed over the years, there are so many to chose from so people tend not to commit to one as much as they did years back. If the content dries up or gets boring for them they unsub and try something else, maybe returning for a new patch or expac.

In all honesty I would be surprised if a new expansion didn't attract many of those who have left back, at least in the short term.

[Taban]

I think ff14's biggest strength is their raid size. They release 5 raid bosses every ~3 months or so (one easy mode like CT/WoD, one hard like coil/alex) with a few primals on the side. Wow on the other hand releases giant raids with like 13-14 bosses and expects that content to last over a year. On top of that this version of wow got rid of their tome system, so those who didn't want to raid had literally nothing to do once they finished with dungeons, and those who did raid had no reason to do any dungeons or anything outside of raiding.

Wow's biggest problem though, is that it's a 10 year old game. There's an extremely high gate to entry for a new player who hasn't ever played the game, and there aren't many players now who haven't played it, so getting new players to replace those they've lost is much harder than it used to be for them.

[_Pigzig]

I think one of the reasons WoW was so popular is partly because they were simply in the right place at the right time, the stars were aligned or something at launch.

WoW was way ahead of its time. It had it's problems at launch but I don't think there was anything like it.

-SEAMLESS Open world (even this game isn't!)
-Could run on all types of PCs
-Had story built up already from Warcraft 3
-Entertaining Horde vs Alliance two faction conflict
-Unique and varied classes
-Intuitive UI. Compare it(first image) to Everquest(below)

[Alunari]

WoW was way ahead of its time. It had it's problems at launch but I don't think there was anything like it.

-SEAMLESS Open world (even this game isn't!)
-Could run on all types of PCs
-Had story built up already from Warcraft 3
-Unique and varied classes
-Intuitive UI. Compare it(first image) to Everquest(below)

[/IMG]

Oh stop that you're making me nostalgic!

I can certainly see your point though! Have to confess I never played Everquest, WoW was my first proper, none text based, MMO, although I did play a bit of WC3, maybe why I have such a soft spot for it even now

I am constantly surprised that games now have loading screens, I don't really like them I find they break immersion.

[Bishop81]

I am constantly surprised that games now have loading screens, I don't really like them I find they break immersion.

Having ultra low draw distance and limited geometrical complexity, both a result of WoW's "no loading screens" is more immersion breaking for me.

[DreadRabbit]

WoW Refugee myself (truthfully I didn't even want to play WoW. Only did so because friends did). And gating had zero to do with me being here instead.

WoW is just plain boring. Even to "casuals" like myself. Leveling felt pointless because you were rushed through it so fast. All these pretty zones and interesting characters? No time to do those because it's time to go to the next zone! By the way, unless you make an alt you have zero need to come to these zones we've worked so hard on ever again.


FF14 actually gives their zones and story purpose. It's not just a backdrop, it IS the game. Not only are the zones pretty but we're encouraged to revisit.

That and I can be every class in the game on one character. I personally hate doing all the stuff you have to do in an MMO multiple times just to try out a different class. Here I can experiment and be encouraged to try new roles without any detriment to my character whatsoever besides inventory space. That's nice and I wish more games did that.

[tymora]

So how is an old game losing subs a surprising issue?

[Gyson]

I'm sure WoW's decline has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that it's ~11 years old and people have grown tired of playing it. Better take the original poster's advice and shut everything down before you reach your 11th year, FFXIV!

[Kaedan94]

WoW was way ahead of its time. It had it's problems at launch but I don't think there was anything like it.

Ahead of it's time? Hardly. It just mimicked the other MMOs of it's time and added a Warcraft theme to it.

Using a picture from 1999 and a picture from 2004 isn't really being honest at all... EQ improved a lot over 5 years. Not to mention that EQ2 released about the same time as WoW and looked just as good if not better.

[StrejdaTom]

I don't think that gating is one of the main reasons why people are leaving WoW, atleast not from what I heard.
Please, if you hate gating, stop using WoW as your way to get rid of it.
Unfortunately I still have to see a MMO that is not built on gating or grind.