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World of Warcraft returns to growth with over roughly 7 million players
HeisenbergFX4
Member
By far my most played game.
I still fire this up and play for a couple of months, get bored then shelf it for 6 months but always return
I still fire this up and play for a couple of months, get bored then shelf it for 6 months but always return
rodrigolfp
Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
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Once it starts dying that's when we will see the console port to infuse it with new players.
Mossybrew
Gold Member
That had been my cycle in past years but Dragonflight was the first expansion I never got around to playing. Guess I'm finally done with this game, though I still wish it well. I think the only thing that would ever bring me back at this point would be a console version, which is highly improbable.
Cyberpunkd
Member
I almost didn’t play anything else from 2005-2015. Still remember my first characters and hardcore raiding in TBC and WotLK. Especially questing at the beginning of Wrath and seeing Northrend - incredible gaming experience that will stay with me forever.
Didn’t touch it since before Shadowlands.
Didn’t touch it since before Shadowlands.
rodrigolfp
Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
Hardly. They already said they don't want to "downgrade" mechanics to controller. And giving mouse+kb support only is not an option.
mayham2199
Member
I haven't in a long time but I used to do the same thing. I got into a rhythm where I would just max out a character, sell it, then start again. I really enjoyed the leveling process in WOW I thought they made it damn near perfect.
HeisenbergFX4
Member
Was always my favorite part as well, the leveling, I had like 10 "mains" because I would rather level than raid.
Was in a cutting edge raiding guild for quite awhile and it just became too much work
GamesDontSuck
Member
I am ashamed to admit I have never played world of warcraft. Not even once 
Thick Thighs Save Lives
NeoGAF's Physical Games Advocate Extraordinaire
We're so back gif
Silver Wattle
Gold Member
This number is pure speculation, the title is a rumour at best.
PaddyOCanager
Member
My friends and I are having a blast with Season of Discovery. I seriously can't remember having this much fun in WoW, ever.
Pop
Member
Not really. See Blizz used to give sub numbers years ago. Pretty easy to determine roughly based on this new info
AV
We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Not really shocking given they've now got 4 versions live.
That said, WOTLK Classic is all but over and I think a lot of classic players will bounce with it. It's a shame because Cataclysm's actually a really good expansion, it just had the disadvantage of being not as good as the one before it, and had to follow up the ~5 year journey to kill Arthas. I think Cata will definitely get a bit of a reappraisal when Classic hits.
That said, WOTLK Classic is all but over and I think a lot of classic players will bounce with it. It's a shame because Cataclysm's actually a really good expansion, it just had the disadvantage of being not as good as the one before it, and had to follow up the ~5 year journey to kill Arthas. I think Cata will definitely get a bit of a reappraisal when Classic hits.
Vyse
Gold Member
Been forever since I’ve played. It was my favorite for a number of years. Should dip back in from time to time like you.
ShadowLag
Member
We're so back gif
If this image is real, there are some very, very obvious takeaways that Blizzard had better be paying attention to here.
- WoW Classic release had the highest subscriber jump for the modern era, even more than Legion which was considered to be a banger of an expansion by most players.
- Dragonflight, despite being pretty okay and making changes in the right direction, failed to bring in very many people at all (less than even BFA which was a terrible expansion).
- A variation of Classic released after Dragonflight brought the player count higher than the release of Dragonflight itself.
- Chris Metzen, OG Blizzard creative director, has rejoined Blizzard and is back in the chief creative role for Warcraft. He personally announces a brand new expansion trilogy that he's the narrative lead on, on stage at Blizzcon, while reminiscing about the good ol' days to a room full of fans. Talks about re-establishing the heart of Warcraft. Subs rise.
- Players want Warcraft, not a hyper-linear Disney theme park where every 6 months all your work is rendered meaningless and effectively deleted so you can do the next boring treadmill.
- They want the people who made Warcraft back in charge of Warcraft.
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RJMacready73
Simps for Amouranth
Definitely miss those good old days of release when me and the ex picked Druids, unbeknownst to us they where gimped as fuck, but dayam did we not have fun for the first few years staying up all night eating pizza, drinking beer and questing with randoms at the weekends... Up there with some of the best gaming experiences ever
Faust
Perpetually Tired
Its important to note that this isn't 7 million playing one game, its split across 3-5 different versions of the game. You have Wrath Classic, Season of Discovery, Hardcore Mode, Vanilla Classic, and Retail. Of these, we so a large jump with Season of Discovery as it actually adds new, well designed content to Classic while keeping the feeling and themes of the original release.
I want to hope that Chris Metzen will bring the game back after the shitfest that was Shadowlands and Dragonflight, but I am not sold just yet.
I want to hope that Chris Metzen will bring the game back after the shitfest that was Shadowlands and Dragonflight, but I am not sold just yet.
RJMacready73
Simps for Amouranth
Everyone wants that, but I sincerely don't think it's possible, O.G. WOW was lightning in a bottle that came out in a time in most people's lives where we all had a lot of free time and everything was new, how in the hell do you recapture that? What exactly is it you're looking? I have logged in throughout the years to check it out and see if it can pull me back in and after the nostalgia quickly wares off your back to the same old grindy fetch quest game
Faust
Perpetually Tired
Season of Discovery is capturing it quite well. The new quests, story content, and "remixed" abilities feel good while still having a good classic vibe to them all.
As for retail, it doesn't need to become Vanilla. It does need to go back to having unique and fun class identities with content that makes you feel like your class. It needs to go back to having races feeling unique with their own history and lore as the focus. It needs to go back to having strong differences in culture and identity between Horde and Alliance. It needs to not focus on designing its content around the 0.1% of "World First Raiders" and instead design content for the majority of its base. Even if that means that Mythic is made easier and Heroic is made harder. It needs to go back to creating a community that actively supports grouping and building an actually community.
Get rid of Addons. You should never be designing your content around the use of them.
Stop trying to make Mythic Raiding an "event" and just let players naturally go for world first. Even if that means world first is achieved within a few hours of launch. 99.9% of the player base won't be those who reach that.
In fact, lower the Mythic Raid number requirements. 25 was great when we had 11+ million subscribers. 20 was great when we had 7+ million. We are down to arguably 3-4 million. 15-10 would be preferable at this point.
Stop trying to remove class, racial, and faction identity. Instead add class quests back. Add reasons to go back to old zones and interact with your faction and races. The Heritage quests have been amazing. Do more of that, but expand it for factions and classes!
Make it so you have a reason to do older raids again. The previous raid in patch 11.0 should not be "dead" as soon as 11.1 comes out.
lughnasadh123
Member
Still one of my top 5 games ever even though I stopped playing a few expansions ago which is good because I wouldn't be playing anything else. Glad they got their shit together to make things better for the fans again after some rocky years. It's funny how FFXIV really came close to becoming the mystical wow killer that just fell short. There goes any hope of getting free to play to expand out to at least the whole base game. GP maybe?
Lagspike_exe
Member
Interesting that there aren't any rumors about a full-blown sequel. The engine and the entire platform are very old at this point.
Mortisfacio
Member
Yah, I've been a fan of it. In retail my guild is all gone and I don't care enough to raid, so I do arenas with some friends on discord every so often, but that's it.
SOD has been great, though. That nostalgia feeling of WoW, but altered. Not too much to break what was enjoyable about classic, but to bring enough "new" back to that classic feeling. I've been having a blast raiding with friends and former guildmates I haven't spoken to in years prior to this.
Bernkastel
Ask me about my fanboy energy!
Blizzard should capitaliza on it's success with WoW 2
Pop
Member
Faust
Perpetually Tired
Why would there be? They can scale the graphics up as much as they want with its cartoony aesthetic. Compare Vanilla to Dragon Flight and it looks like a "sequel" in graphical leaps. Animations can be changed as well, as can ability timing.
They have done a lot of work in the background to the point that the code/engine isn't anything like it was at launch.
Diddy X
Member
Appart from reaching max level (which they changed so now you do it pretty fast) I have no idea what else to do at this game.
Still if the game looked as good as say Fortnite it would be an incentive for me to play again.
Still if the game looked as good as say Fortnite it would be an incentive for me to play again.
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EruditeHobo
Member
Pretty crazy this is still going at this level. Good for them, honestly. The amount of work they've put into this game over 20 years is pretty astounding, when you really take a tape measure to it.
I had a number of years in Azeroth and really enjoyed my time... no way they could get me back, however. Never again.
I had a number of years in Azeroth and really enjoyed my time... no way they could get me back, however. Never again.
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Dorfdad
Gold Member
When’s that console port coming?
WitchHunter
Banned
Wow is the best digital cocaine ever made.
Interesting how little WOTLK Classic increased subs, given the community sentiment of it being the "best expansion". It's very overrated in retrospect, with two trash tier raids and Ulduar being the most overrated raid in WoW history.
No one plays the game for free. If you buy your sub with gold someone else paid for it.
No one plays the game for free. If you buy your sub with gold someone else paid for it.
Zathalus
Member
It already has native controller support. You can do pretty much anything bar cutting edge PvE or PvP content, but only a tiny fraction of the player base bothers with that.
I can see it working on console, controller support and M+KB for the harder activities. It will require mod support on consoles, but that can be done as well.
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Polygonal_Sprite
Gold Member
Does anyone know the launch numbers for Classic Vanilla and maybe also Classic TBC and Classic Wrath. It felt like Classic Vanilla brought back at least 3 or 4 million players which is insanity.
AV
We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
It brought a lot of people back for a week or two who realised it wasn't for them and bailed.
Don't get me wrong, many, many players carried on, but that initial drop-off after people saw how long it took to get to 60, or raided MC once, was big.
Still, it was enough to get them to do TBC, Wrath, Cata etc. while keeping the vanilla servers up and doing a few side seasons. There's currently 3 Classic versions of WoW and 1 up-to-date.
DenchDeckard
Moderated wildly
Incredible legs. I got a rogue to level 36 once and gave up, only because I play too many games to dedicate my time to one.
Good on wow.
Good on wow.
Polygonal_Sprite
Gold Member
Krappadizzle
Member
I always shelve it for the year and then either around a new expansions launch or Halloween I get the itch to play it again with my wife.
