WoW reaches the 10 million mark

[Campa]

Originally Posted by Daezuel

Better yet, use some of the old instances/raids as a starting point for some new BG's

Hey guys I'm queued up for AQ20 where you get to dodge Tornados and Ossirian tries to donkey punch unsuspecting pvp'ers. Whoever gets Ossirian down first (you have to control the crystals like flags) wins.

Or how about a "king of the mountain" type game using BRM :P

Start in BRD work your way up through the Blackrock Spire up to Nef's patio in BWL

Edit: On second thought, start in MC in Rag's room. Maybe keep all the bosses lying around as well and killing them gives BG only items to increase your power, like DOTA style.

Hell you could probably even make a PvE version of this type of run that would be fun as hell as well.

[Everlast]

Make old instances capable of race modes. Horde group races Alliance group (or H V H/ A V A), whoever finishes first gets a chest with very good loot for the specific level range/instance...or it will count as a quest and give them a standard ilvl reward and a nice chunk of XP. Obviously to avoid setting up groups to fail there needs to be a queue similar to the PvP queues.

[Zehn - Vhex]

JUST BECAUSE SOMETHING IS POPULAR DOESN'T MEAN IT IS GOOD RIGHT GUYS LIKE BRITTNEY SPEARS LOLOL!

Just wanted to get that out of the way before someone who isn't being ironic spouts out more retardation.

Anyways...

Blizzard has fallen into the same EQ rut. They don't have to improve, so why bother?

Honestly, I doubt we'll see a WoW killer until there's a genuine shift in technology. Despite the fact that 90% of the developers in the industry are blatant fucking retards and the remaining 10% are quality geniuses being held back by blatant fucking retards...the biggest hurdle is one of technology. There is only so much you can do with current game engines and the 'fabric' if you will of the internet.

[Daezuel]

Originally Posted by Everlast

Make old instances capable of race modes. Horde group races Alliance group (or H V H/ A V A), whoever finishes first gets a chest with very good loot for the specific level range/instance...or it will count as a quest and give them a standard ilvl reward and a nice chunk of XP. Obviously to avoid setting up groups to fail there needs to be a queue similar to the PvP queues.

Thats a pretty great idea, though I could see it now, people complaining that T6 guilds are beating up all the heroic geared people with no challenge

But come to think of it, we have arena ratings, why not pve ratings involving raid duels like this? (hey but the last boss should be contested! Get there way faster and you dont have to pvp!)

[Draegan]

Originally Posted by Zehn - Vhex

JUST BECAUSE SOMETHING IS POPULAR DOESN'T MEAN IT IS GOOD RIGHT GUYS LIKE BRITTNEY SPEARS LOLOL!

Just wanted to get that out of the way before someone who isn't being ironic spouts out more retardation.

Anyways...

Blizzard has fallen into the same EQ rut. They don't have to improve, so why bother?

Honestly, I doubt we'll see a WoW killer until there's a genuine shift in technology. Despite the fact that 90% of the developers in the industry are blatant fucking retards and the remaining 10% are quality geniuses being held back by blatant fucking retards...the biggest hurdle is one of technology. There is only so much you can do with current game engines and the 'fabric' if you will of the internet.

True. But I can see a 1-2 million sub MMO, if and only if, it's a finished well polished game with good mechanics. The millions of people playing WOW now don't remember the game being in worse shape at release, so they expect perfection right away. These people arn't like any of us, reading forums all day long, they play games and use the internet for google and email and that's about it. So a game has to match the polish and fun of Warcraft right NOW for it to get a good look by the masses.

But there are retards out there. True enough.

[Hatorade]

Originally Posted by Campa

Or how about a "king of the mountain" type game using BRM :P

Start in BRD work your way up through the Blackrock Spire up to Nef's patio in BWL

Edit: On second thought, start in MC in Rag's room. Maybe keep all the bosses lying around as well and killing them gives BG only items to increase your power, like DOTA style.

Hell you could probably even make a PvE version of this type of run that would be fun as hell as well.

DO THIS NOW!

[Sean]

Originally Posted by Zehn - Vhex

Honestly, I doubt we'll see a WoW killer until there's a genuine shift in technology.

This is true - there's really only so much you can do with scripting and that's what games are stuck with right now. Until someone builds some truly new design techniques and engines beyond the current way that we think and develop games we're kinda stuck.

[Tuco]

Also keep in mind that if Blizzard releases too much content too fast, the casual gamers will feel like they can't keep up and will quit in greater number than hardcore players who are bored.

the solution? Have the hardcore players doing extra shit for relatively minor gain: faction farming, long quests that require lots of farming, consumables for raids etc.

[Daezuel]

Originally Posted by Tuco

Also keep in mind that if Blizzard releases too much content too fast, the casual gamers will feel like they can't keep up and will quit in greater number than hardcore players who are bored.

the solution? Have the hardcore players doing extra shit for relatively minor gain: faction farming, long quests that require lots of farming, consumables for raids etc.

Hell no...I consider myself to be a hardcore gamer and one of the reasons I quit last year was because after farming for my flying epic, I was sick to death of grinding. I could barely bring myself to prepare for raids and was REALLY sick to death of having to pay 100+ gold to respec if I wanted to pvp.

I dont mind long quests, but conusumable farming and faction farming can DIAF.

[Jait]

Originally Posted by Sean

This is true - there's really only so much you can do with scripting and that's what games are stuck with right now. Until someone builds some truly new design techniques and engines beyond the current way that we think and develop games we're kinda stuck.

While this is absolutely 100% true, it's also a bit misleading because it's *always* true. The trick is finding folks that can think outside the box and come up with new ways of using old ideas/systems. It's like a caveman saying "Here's a wheel. That's all it is, that's all it ever can be."

What you're saying though Sean does need repeating. We can't all be Kendrick, Thott, and Gallenite. Taking risks usually results in disaster, so folks won't take those risks. Why build a better bicycle seat? 9 times out of 10 you're just going to end up being a pain in the ass rather than improving it.

[bubblegumbo]

I am not sure if this is good news or not, it just goes to show how little competition Blizzard is facing, and they can keep on doing a half-ass job for their garbage PvP content.
Even the PvE content is old now, but people are retaining the subscription just because their friends play the game.

[antha124]

What about stealing the AA system from EQ and putting it in wow to keep the hardcore kiddies somewhat happy? Like a million other people I feel the need to only login to get my 10 games in arena, introducing dailys prompted alittle more play time to get gold for a epic mount but once I realized I never leave shat/org there is no need. Maybe I wouldn't be so bored when I log in and know if i run a instance I could net me some AA's for extra shadow resist.

[Maxxius]

Well the European/North American numbers seem pretty stable. I was under the impression they were around that combined figure for awhile. It is the Asian numbers that have always been "suspect" since they seem to define subscribers to include people playing at internet game rooms who have "accessed" the game.

[Manseed]

Total wow numbers might be climbing, but North American subscription numbers are rapidly declining. They were at about 3.5 million NA around when TBC launched. Now they're at 2.5 million The vast majority of their subscribers now come from Asia, where they pay much less for a subscription. I think it's like 6 cents an hour in China.

They also only get a small percentage of the money from Asia. They have a partner over there that takes about 80% of the subscription revenue. It actually might be a smaller percentage now, since it was re negotiated for TBC.

Now, obviously they're still doing amazingly well. I'm just saying that as it may seem like WOW keeps going up and up, it is declining in North America (no idea about Europe). Revenue wise I'm sure they're doing worse now than they were 6 months ago, in terms of subscriptions.

[Borzak]

I've found my enjoyment of MMORPG's inversely proportional to the popularity in normal culture.

Every day they get more popular and everyday I am less likely to play one again. I used to play to get away from stupid fucks I saw in everyday life, now they're all in the game.