The massive MMORPG collapse - MMORPG Center.com

[Wolfie]

You have zero reading comprehension.

And shame on me for replying to you.

[Blarp]

"In the end, people don't want an easy game; they want a game where there's something to aspire to. Even if they know it's beyond their reach."

That's an odd thing to say since there's millions of people that apparently do. WoW still offers something to strive for; not every player is going to be able to do heroic raiding or high level PVP. People cheer and boo for different guilds going for world first kills. There's a mad dash every time there's a content patch -- guilds on the same server are always competing to finish first. A lot of people would love to be a part of something like that, and work towards it.

People are so discontented with WoW because they've been playing it for over seven years. The majority of people still love the game. It's just like any other MMO; the malcontents are the loudest, but it's never representative of the larger population. WoW lost ~2 million subscribers. They still have ~8 million players who still enjoy the game. I'd say they're doing something right.

[Sidious]

That's an odd thing to say since there's millions of people that apparently do. WoW still offers something to strive for; not every player is going to be able to do heroic raiding or high level PVP. People cheer and boo for different guilds going for world first kills. There's a mad dash every time there's a content patch -- guilds on the same server are always competing to finish first. A lot of people would love to be a part of something like that, and work towards it.

It's not strange at all. WoW's remaining population is a remainder of what it achieved in the past. Trends show a sharply declining population. The ones that remain, myself included, do so mostly out of habit. Some are further enticed by the prospect of getting Diablo 3 for "free".

Heroic raids? They're a tiny sliver of content, and not enough to set the tone of the game as a whole. When people get their easy-mode "raid finder" gear, they look almost identical to heroic mode raiders. Why bother doing normals or heroics? Some aren't after the challenge; they want to emulate the best, and now they do with relative ease. Once they do that, however, the realize that they're bored. So they leave.

Cross-server dungeon and raid finders have considerably dampened the need to interact with people on your own server. As a consequence, most people don't even know who the top guild on their server is anymore-- let alone individual personalities. You interact with random people from the entire battlegroup that you will never see again. Mad dashes for content have not stemmed the tide of losses this past year; Cataclysm hasn't posted a single positive quarter since its release.

The reasons behind its failure are too numerous to list here. To give you an example of what WoW is like right now, however: You stand around in Orgrimmar (or Stormwind) and either queue for one of three new heroics, or you queue for raid finder (which is the "easy mode" raid). If you're in a guild, you may also attempt to do the Dragon Soul raid on Normal or Heroic mode(s). All three of these options supply you with "valor points", up to a weekly cap of 1,000 (150 per heroic, 500 for completing the entire easy mode raid, etc). It doesn't matter if you're a casual or a hardcore. That is the extent of WoW's PvE content right now-- I'm not even exaggerating. No progression, no reason to do anything but those things I listed. It puts everyone on a level playing field, but is it worth 15 dollars a month? The clear answer is "no."

In short, what WoW had/has is irrelevant if the current game is so dumbed down and so shallow that it cannot gain and retain new subscribers to replace those that leave.

People are so discontented with WoW because they've been playing it for over seven years. The majority of people still love the game. It's just like any other MMO; the malcontents are the loudest, but it's never representative of the larger population. WoW lost ~2 million subscribers. They still have ~8 million players who still enjoy the game. I'd say they're doing something right.

No. North America has had WoW for seven years, other countries have had it for substantially less. Brazil has had it for less than a year, for example. There are still far more gamers throughout the world who have not yet played WoW. The difference now is, as I mentioned before, WoW is not retaining people like it used to. There's nothing to aspire to because everyone is an equal now; there's no reason to remain a long term sub. It's as simple as that. I remain subbed 1.) Out of habit and 2.) Because I can get Diablo 3 for "free". That does NOT mean the game is currently enjoyable.

[Onji_T]

The blatant WoW bashing article is indeed poorly written. There wasn't a single constructive thing said in it. The people that ok articles like that should really take the time to read them first.

WoW is a successful mmo and there is no denying that. While I think it lacks innovation and challenge it offers a lot to casual players. The problem with the mmo market today really isn't that WoW was successful, it's that other companies are trying to copy that success rather than move forward and be innovative. I think the genre will be fine when companies figure out that they can't copy WoW they need to move on and do something a little more original.

[SniperRifle]

Playing 4 hours a night 5 days a week, someone was able to beat Sunwell Plateau during The Burning Crusade with the other <2% of WoW's population.

The possibility to maintain a life outside of computers/school/work, and still perform a once in a life time feat. For someones 75 days playlog, WoW surely delivered.

[zergasaur]

I do agree with the article in some limited way though. Games have become easy and boring as of late. And game companies have lost their way. Its all about $$ instead of releasing a quality product. A clear example of this:

Dragon Age

Do you guys remember how fantastic that game was? How long did it take you to beat it? Most would say over a week. Every minute was glorious. Then the expansion came out. How long did that take you to beat? 5 hours for me. ( Really? Well okay, its an expansion. ) Lastly, how long did it take you to beat Dragon Age 2. 1 day ( WTF! Every dungeon uses the same map! ).

Command & Conquer 6??? I forget...and don't care anymore

Beat the single player on highest difficulty in 6 hours. On all previous versions, I would spend 6 hours on 1 level alone...
What Happened?!

[Cichy]

oh god I woke up to a world where Bioware = quality /facepalm

[Elexia]

Wow i almost coughed up blood when you said mortal kombat pushed the genre forward lol... FG are nothing about customizing or anything like that lol..

Is that why fighting games have been adding customization or in the case of SC, let you change your style/weapon choice? Guess I've been playing the wrong fighting games then, but then again, I don't play a lot of games that get localized to the west so maybe that's why I actually have different insight on them.

oh god I woke up to a world where Bioware = quality /facepalm

If we're not allowed to hate WoW because of success you're not allowed to hate on Bioware because of success either.

[Firon]

Is that why fighting games have been adding customization or in the case of SC, let you change your style/weapon choice? Guess I've been playing the wrong fighting games then, but then again, I don't play a lot of games that get localized to the west so maybe that's why I actually have different insight on them.

FG are not about customizing chars at all that stuff is put it for a few casuals who buy those games. FG are all about game mechanics and among other things. It's a reason SF4 is the most popular fighting game atm cause it has very deep mechanics etc. Its like saying SC(star craft) enhanced the genre due to more colors and stuff -.-

[Defmetal]

The thing I have about WoW now is, I don't have any memorable Cataclysm experiences. FFXIV even had a few but lately its so blah.

In FFXI, EQ1, DAoC, WoW Lich King, UO, etc, because of the community and common goals with your allies you'd strive for an accomplishment, get knocked down 30 times, and eventually overcome incredible odds and difficulty to achieve a new plane.


Let me list a few examples of some incredible experiences in MMOs:
FFXI - Defeating Alexander as a Thief. Lost about 8 times to it, that win was such an incredible feeling.
Same with Chains of Promathia or the Shadow Lord. FFXI put in road blocks, and challenges, sometimes where even the road to the boss fight was just as difficult as the boss (CoP). You'd struggle to learn strategies, gear up, find the right methods to win, and then finally earn your prize and recognition.

EQ1 - Planes of Power was one of the most memorable times in that game. Sure vanilla was great, but the progression through the Planes of Power. Going through the Plane of Nightmare, Plane of Earth, Fire, etc until you got to Time to defeat Quarm - along with all the previous bosses. That was a pretty epic and fulfilling time in the game history.

Ultima Online - Joining a Faction and taking over the world as your faction. Being on the Council of Mages and stealing the entire server from those True Britanian bastards, then holding onto the server. Being nominated to be President of the Council of Mages through the elections and then managing the towns resources.

WoW Lich King - The entire journey was pretty fun. The dungeons, the raids, the PVP. Having all of the story modes tied together, working through with friends to eventually beat the Lich King.

Even Old Republic - Coming up as your Jedi, defeating the Sith Apprentices, working your way up to getting even with your nemesis at the end of Act I. Then working along your journey to free the entire galaxy from the Sith Emperor. That's been a fun journey albeit single player.

Cataclysm destroyed the social boundries by adding cross-server raids, and groups. I didn't get to know a single player in Cataclysm who I didn't know already. I didn't gain a reputation because half the people I grouped with were on different servers never to be seen again. You can't make friends that way.

I think what helped FFXI was the small community of players where everybody knew your name and what you had done.
FFXIV has that still sort of.

MMOs are about community, and it doesn't matter the content as much if you can create and hold onto a community. Where FFXIV is failing is, the community is being destroyed. Your friends are quitting, your guildmates are logging off for months at a time, and the servers are not bringing in any new players. When your core group of friends stops playing, the game begins to stop being fun if you're paying $15 a month for repetitive content.