PC Reports of the demise of World of WarCraft appear to have been greatly exaggerated

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

These are slides from Blizzard's GDC 2024 presentation and illustrate how the game has recovered from its serious missteps:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TheLeon]

Once every couple of months I think “would it be funny to get into WoW now?”

 

Then I remember it’s an MMO, which means I’ll get tired of playing it after about 3 days. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

2 minutes ago, TheLeon said:

Once every couple of months I think “would it be funny to get into WoW now?”

 

You should start playing to coincide with its 20th anniversary this year!

[Keyser_Soze]

13 minutes ago, TheLeon said:

Once every couple of months I think “would it be funny to get into WoW now?”

 

Then I remember it’s an MMO, which means I’ll get tired of playing it after about 3 days. 

 

10 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

You should start playing to coincide with its 20th anniversary this year!

 

Come for the Battle Royale mode

[AbsolutSurgen]

There is a fundamental disconnect between what many core gamers think is popular, and what is actually being played.

 

 

[DarkStar189]

2 hours ago, TheLeon said:

Once every couple of months I think “would it be funny to get into WoW now?”

 

Then I remember it’s an MMO, which means I’ll get tired of playing it after about 3 days. 

I can’t believe I never got into WoW. My friends and I were done with school and they were absolutely consumed by the game. I mostly stuck to shooters back then. Almost got talked into it many times but I think seeing how addicted they were scared me away.

[silentbob]

1 hour ago, DarkStar189 said:

I can’t believe I never got into WoW. My friends and I were done with school and they were absolutely consumed by the game. I mostly stuck to shooters back then. Almost got talked into it many times but I think seeing how addicted they were scared me away.

Kind of with you on being scared to play the game, but it also doesn’t look like my type of game either. Friend from school, also my comp-tech teacher’s daughter. Didn’t really  keep in touch after HS, but my buddies did. She got engaged and after a year or two called it off. Her fiancé got addicted to WoW, stopped going to his university classes and hardly went out to socialize. I remember my brother playing for hours at a time while we shared a room together, and chatting it up with his buddies at the same time. They were on almost as much as him from all the yelling/swearing coming from our room

[Xbob42]

14 hours ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

There is a fundamental disconnect between what many core gamers think is popular, and what is actually being played.

 

 

No, everyone's pretty aware that the most popular shit is weird free to play trash for kids.

[XxEvil AshxX]

6 hours ago, Xbob42 said:

No, everyone's pretty aware that the most popular shit is weird free to play trash for kids.

 

I lost all faith in kids when Teletubbies became a thing. That's when I knew their taste in pretty much anything is trash.

[MarSolo]

I keep thinking I’ll try getting into an MMO. My friend kept trying to get me into EverQuest for years but I just didn’t like it, and I worry that WoW would be the same. Same with FFXIV.

[Reputator]

I haven't played the game since Cataclysm. I never really got hooked, but my best friend did, and would often try to get me to come back. Wrath of the Lich King was when I enjoyed it the most, and was probably my longest stint. Before I met my wife, she was super addicted to the game, and refuses to play it now. She says she lost a few years of her life to the game, heh.

[TwinIon]

I spent way too much time in WoW and I look back fondly at the best parts of it. The beginning of that game was such a special time, but long before I quit it had fallen into a pattern that wasn't great for me or the game.

 

I do wonder what those graphs look like if they went all the way back to the beginning.

[TheLeon]

3 hours ago, MarSolo said:

I keep thinking I’ll try getting into an MMO. My friend kept trying to get me into EverQuest for years but I just didn’t like it, and I worry that WoW would be the same. Same with FFXIV.

That’s me. Closest I’ve ever got to getting sucked into an MMO was Guild Wars 2, but that only lasted maybe a month. I’ve tried a lot over the years, but nothing sticks. 
 

Now that I think about it, I had an active WoW account for a few months, back around when Diablo 3 came out, I think there was some deal like if you paid for a 6 month sub you got D3 for free. And then I barely played either lol. 
 

[TwinIon]

On 3/25/2024 at 8:41 AM, AbsolutSurgen said:

There is a fundamental disconnect between what many core gamers think is popular, and what is actually being played.

 

 

The old titles thing doesn't surprise me. Look at the top of Steam's charts or Twitch and you'll see games like League of Legends, Counter Strike, DOTA, GTA, etc. all leading the charts. Yeah, press and conversation is often focused on new games, but it's no shock that the games people spend the most time on are older.

 

I'd love more context for that top graph though. I couldn't find much searching on Google. If those charts are right, then the top one only represents the 25% of "new game play time," but I can't think of 25 new pay-to-play live service games would make up that number. Given the time period, it would count games released after January 2021. Overwatch 2, Halo Infinite, Dreamlight Valley, and Diablo 4 are the only mildly successful games I can think of that would count. Are they counting Hogwards Legacy and Call of Duty as live service? What about sports titles? Are they counting games that got paid updates like Destiny in that time? Are they counting mobile games?

 

That graph would mean that new AAA non-live-service games make up only 4% of annual playtime. That would be a surprise, however, if you count every game that has any kind of update or paid content as live service, then the delineation is basically meaningless.

[AbsolutSurgen]

2 minutes ago, TwinIon said:

The old titles thing doesn't surprise me. Look at the top of Steam's charts or Twitch and you'll see games like League of Legends, Counter Strike, DOTA, GTA, etc. all leading the charts. Yeah, press and conversation is often focused on new games, but it's no shock that the games people spend the most time on are older.

 

I'd love more context for that top graph though. I couldn't find much searching on Google. If those charts are right, then the top one only represents the 25% of "new game play time," but I can't think of 25 new pay-to-play live service games would make up that number. Given the time period, it would count games released after January 2021. Overwatch 2, Halo Infinite, Dreamlight Valley, and Diablo 4 are the only mildly successful games I can think of that would count. Are they counting Hogwards Legacy and Call of Duty as live service? What about sports titles? Are they counting games that got paid updates like Destiny in that time? Are they counting mobile games?

 

That graph would mean that new AAA non-live-service games make up only 4% of annual playtime. That would be a surprise, however, if you count every game that has any kind of update or paid content as live service, then the delineation is basically meaningless.

I stole them from Arthur Gies’ Twitter feed. He had many other charts, if that would help you understand their other points. 

[cusideabelincoln]

On 3/25/2024 at 11:19 AM, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

You should start playing to coincide with its 20th anniversary this year!

 

 

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

GOLLY GEE, PC GAMER - I WONDER WHERE I COULD'VE SEEN THIS HEADLINE BEFORE?!?!

 

Reports of World of Warcraft's death may have been greatly exaggerated, as Blizzard's GM proudly wheels out a graph showing it's doing really well—but no hard numbers | PC Gamer

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