Saturday, July 27, 2013

WoW- The Slow Bleed?




WoW doesn't have much going on besides on PTR. Neat things look to be in store, lots of cool glyphs are heading out, I like that. A new island with stuff to do, things to hunt for, a new currency it looks like- Timeless coins. Also lots of new pets and one kick ass mount for engineering! That would be the Sky Golem Mount, check out a great video here, from MMO Champion. Plenty of new stuff churning out at a dizzying pace, a refreshing change in direction after years lacking such additional content on such a regular/quick basis. But it is the right stuff?

I'm sure everyone, by now, has heard WoW is down to 7.7 mil subscribers now. That's roughly a 600,000 loss from last quarter. That, to me, is a huge amount in such a short period. It would kill any other MMO. Sure, we still have plenty more players left but I feel the change, look at scenarios, virtual realms, they all point to the signs.

It is an old game, old by today's standards, I read that somewhere recently. Odd thing is.... WoW IS the standard, the top dog. This old, aging, in need of new character models, ever changing game is still the industry standard. While some games are trying new things and keeping afloat, nothing still has a fraction of the player base. Which will change over time (maybe?!) but it hasn't yet, nobody is bleeding out WoW specifically, just a trickle to this or that game. The biggest WoW killer, I always say, will be WoW.

Why are people leaving? I'm sure most get bored. I think it is also a combination of things. I still play, I am here though because my family plays, I do have a few friends also, and I like my guild- But I feel many reasons why people would leave, many would have pushed me away (again), had I not family playing.

I think the game has a really toxic community. Just doing a heroic last night I noticed this mage going out of her way to pull mobs just to stay top on the DPS. She didn't try to work together with the group, all she cared about was DPS. The hunter would not turn taunt off the pet so the tank was busy trying to communicate this to him, thus seemed disconnected after this point, not paying attention to anything, most likely fuming over the pet. The only two working together were Dire and I. Nobody said thanks for the run, they just all left suddenly as soon as the last boss hit the floor. This isn't all the time but I have come to expect it. Groups and raids are full of competition, they are accessible, more so than ANY other game out there (at this point in time), though when I come to think about it, they are not very enjoyable. They are a race for DPS, a fast run for valor/justice points.

When I do my daily quests, call me crazy, but I feel like I've done my homework, give me a pat, I'm such a good little girl. When I accumulate better gear from raids, I finally feel like I am part of the game, like I'm playing it as it should be. Give me a gold star, I'm doing it right! New purple to replace the old purple, I'm doing it right! Running my little heart out on this giant gear treadmill. Sometimes I feel like I've stepped into the Stepford version of MMO games. This isn't what I log on for; To feel like I'm doing my homework, completing a job, competing. I log in to play in a fantasy game, explore, just have fun and relax. Which I can do, and I do, but I feel penalized, that there really are not too many alternatives that reward anything as much as those focused on endgame raiding. Give me FLEX scenarios, heroic ones! Let them scale from 2-5 people.

I just think WoW lost a lot of it's fantasy and thrill, everything is formulated, keeping up the the Joneses. Let me look up my spec, gear, gems, enchants and rotation so I can make sure.... I'm doin' it right! Rotations, they make me want to freaking barf. I think that is a big draw to healing, you use things at the right time, you gauge when to do this or that. It is more of me thinking and reacting to the situation for myself! But the abuse tanks and healers get, no wonder the queues are so long. It is just easier to DPS and race against each other.

Class changes and tweaks confuse some players upon returning or just can turn them off totally. I cannot think of many classes that still have the same feeling they did back in classic. They have become smoother, sure but a whole lot different! That has to have some type of impact I'd imagine.

But I still do play, for reasons stated but another is probably nostalgia, there is also the smoothness of the game, it feels so polished. When it comes down to it, I hope WoW changes for the better as it ages, I'd like to see it keep going strong, though in multiple directions. It is still the standard, it still has a strong hold on the genre, but you can see the tiny cracks in the walls, the lines across the face of Azeroth, so to speak-  I think things will need to change because I think people are starting to tire of this formula.

That's it for today, have a great weekend! Some pics to prove, yes, I still do have fun in WoW :)


Standing at the summoning stone, I do miss the 'Have Group Will Travel' summon ability!

Heri and Necro took me to (finally) get my twilight drake!

My bro's and me doing a heroic scenario. Wish they scaled with more people!


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