Only 30 Percent of WoW Players Get Past Level 10

[ThreeKneeNick]

I think one problem WoW has now is the high cost of entry. Buying the game and both expansions will run you ~$80, and that'll probably jump to $120 when Cataclysm comes out (unless, of course, they release a cheaper bundle, which would be a wise move on their part).

Quoted for truth.

Other MMOs that release boxed expansions have adopted the bundle strategy, where the expansion and all previously released content is sold for the standard price of one game, Bizzard should really do it too. But i guess Blizzard thinks its fame would let it milk the game for as long as they can and sell everything separately for larger profits. And i guess Blizzard is right on that.

Personally I'm not expecting Cataclysm to include previous content.

Well, to be fair, you will get some of the Cataclysm content even if you don't purchase it (the "old world" is getting redesigned, and that will apply to everyone, whether you buy it or not).

Technically it is true, a new player does not need any expansion at all until later, but i think every new player realizes that if he happens to like the game he will eventually have to make two more (perhaps 3 when Cata comes) purchases, which combined with a monthly subscription is too much for some.

Also with the modifications to XP gain and rewards you can get from level 1 to 60 in less than a month, perhaps that will change and slow down when Cata comes, but as it stands now, new players might as well buy everything straight away because they will burn straight through the 'core' content fairly quickly.

 

[Seydaman]

But...level 10 takes like three hours to get to. If that. That's probably slow actually.

Jeebus ;/

Cataclysm will give them a jump in numbers. Completely revitalising the Azeroth will likely bring back old customers *coughlikemecough* as well.

^
Just like they did with Wotlk, bitches will be back.

 

[Amnestic]

Also with the modifications to XP gain and rewards you can get from level 1 to 60 in less than a month, perhaps that will change and slow down when Cata comes, but as it stands now, new players might as well buy everything straight away because they will burn straight through the 'core' content fairly quickly.

For returning players who know the game, certainly. Even with the EXP bonuses, without Refer-a-Friend (in which case the person is likely getting boosted) it'll take a while to hit 60 simply because there's a huge open world to explore with cliffs and mountains and monsters and rivers and this dragon is chewing off my arm and undead and everything you could want.

New players would have to be driven to level to hit 60 in under a month, whereas I know that I was more interested in running around on my tiger exploring shizz.

 

[Seydaman]

I recently got my first character to 80 and I never played any instances. No one else wanted to. Most of them had lvl 80s already and were leveling an alt. The people who did play the instances had a lvl 80 running them through it. Which I didn't want to do because it seemed so cheap.

I think that this is what sends a lot of people running away from WoW. The quests you get in towns have next to nothing to do with the story. That changes in Lich King but that starts a lvl 68. So for 68 levels you are doing quests that are meaningless. Which isn't a good way to suck new players in. Especially when other players with their account bound armor are calling you a noob (yes I know I'm still one) and members of the other faction are ganking you while you are trying to do a meaningless quest.

Once I signed onto a "new player" realm hoping to find only low level people who might actually want to do the low level instances. Sadly there were a lot of lvl 80s. I just signed on to one now and typed /who 80. There are at least 49 level 80 characters on that "new player" realm (Maiev) right now.

Of course this is just my experience and in no way representative of all WoW players. But I really can understand why so many people don't stick with it.

Most of this changed with they released the instance tool, which is cross realm and lets you get instance groups together so much faster.

 

[Charli]

The WoW hate bandwagon in here is rolling fast isn't it?

Media baiting, nothing to see here folks.

Either you like playing, or you don't, Blizz will always create new stuff to entice you, this 'even out' was just inevitable, even if it is kinda twisty. The Cataclysm will likely jump things to life again for a little while.
Some story based starter points like the epic Death Knight - starter area, would likely get a few more people intrigued.
With the new phase system, I don't think thats an entirely unreasonable expectation.

Get people excited about their class/race/role.

 

[RnAoDm]

Would those numbers include goldseller advertising characters? I'm sure without them the % would change a bit

 

[ThreeKneeNick]

Also with the modifications to XP gain and rewards you can get from level 1 to 60 in less than a month, perhaps that will change and slow down when Cata comes, but as it stands now, new players might as well buy everything straight away because they will burn straight through the 'core' content fairly quickly.

For returning players who know the game, certainly. Even with the EXP bonuses, without Refer-a-Friend (in which case the person is likely getting boosted) it'll take a while to hit 60 simply because there's a huge open world to explore with cliffs and mountains and monsters and rivers and this dragon is chewing off my arm and undead and everything you could want.

New players would have to be driven to level to hit 60 in under a month, whereas I know that I was more interested in running around on my tiger exploring shizz.

Maybe you are right, i wasn't looking at it from that perspective. But it's pretty hard to imagine it taking more than two months, the game just rewards you with so much XP to make it easier to get to TBC/WotLK. Maybe if they picked a RP server and role played all day...

 

[UltimatheChosen]

Well, to be fair, you will get some of the Cataclysm content even if you don't purchase it (the "old world" is getting redesigned, and that will apply to everyone, whether you buy it or not).

Technically it is true, a new player does not need any expansion at all until later, but i think every new player realizes that if he happens to like the game he will eventually have to make two more (perhaps 3 when Cata comes) purchases, which combined with a monthly subscription is too much for some.

Also with the modifications to XP gain and rewards you can get from level 1 to 60 in less than a month, perhaps that will change and slow down when Cata comes, but as it stands now, new players might as well buy everything straight away because they will burn straight through the 'core' content fairly quickly.

While you can certainly buy them separately, it's still a significant psychological barrier. You know all the people who hate DLC in any way, shape, or form? They view WoW as having two DLC packs that run for ~$35 each. From their viewpoint, it's paying full price for 1/3 of a game. Granted, they're mostly wrong, but they probably won't realize that unless they actually buy the game, which is unlikely for the reasons stated above.

 

[awesomebillfromdawsonville]

....meanwhile EVERY WoWfag I've ever met (thats a LOT) has a lv. 80 alt. This actually caught me off guard

 

[loremazd]

It should probably be obvious that 11.5 million is the number of opened accounts for WoW. Accounts that are inactive, cancelled, banned or multiple accounts owned by the same person all figure into that number. As do accounts owned by real money traders.

I personally think that WoW may have lost player base recently. Judging by the media blitz for Lich King when there wasn't one for Burning Crusade. And going by the fact that many players I know, myself included, walked from the game in recent months. I can't confirm this, of course. But it makes sense to me.

However, they still own a majority of the MMO market, mainly due to a lack of real competition.

11.5 milling players, each paying $15 a month, plus the price of the game and expansion packs themselves (about $120). WoW will be fine.

As Sir John already mentioned, that isn't the real formula. The 11.5 million number is total accounts ever, so that's not how much they're actually making. It's sort of like that figure a while back where they boasted about how many boxes of product they'd moved, while neglecting to mention that they were including game card sales in those figures. That said, yeah they're fine. WoW isn't going anywhere for the forseeable future. Optimistically it's got 10 years of life left, and that's a hell of a long time, especially for an MMO, or ANY PC game really.

I sincerely hope you morons are not arguing over my trolling attempt. That would just be pathetic.

Relevant. [http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk180/zeldera/Trolls.png]

I admit, that was fuckin' hillarious.

You know, the fact that you're still responding to people criticizing WoW and defending it leads me to believe that you really are offended on some deep level. Everyone else responded once, probably just as that picture indicates, and then went about their business. But, you really, very sincerely CARE!

It'd be funny if it weren't so sad. : /

What can I say? I care about curing stupid. It's an uphill battle, but one I believe is worth fighting.

Amnestic, I can tell from your posts, you're better than this. You can't cure stupid by arguing with idiots. Just, don't let them bait you into it.

I can tell you that you and sir john are 100 percent wrong about the subscriptions. 11.5 is the number of active subs currently. Blizzard has made the precisely clear on several occations. Inactive, cancelled, and trial account are not counted at all. WoW alone was the source of 40% of activision's revenue this past quarter, as well. It's quite lucrative.

Granted, most of the money being made is going towards development of Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, their new IP, general upkeep and salaries, and Activision itself.

 

[DTWolfwood]

glad to be part of that 70% no clue what the hype is over that game. Seriously plays like every other mmorpg :I

 

[loremazd]

glad to be part of that 70% no clue what the hype is over that game. Seriously plays like every other mmorpg :I

Well, alot of it was timing. WoW's contenders at release were Everquest 2, UO, Star wars Galaxies, and FFXI. It was certainly the most casual friendly of the lot.

MMO's these days adopted a less grindy (comparatively)quest driven leveling with little to no penalty for death. WoW simply has the content advantage over the newcomers who are more like it than not.

I'd say the big contender in the future for WoW will be SW:TOR. Bioware's one heck of a developer to contend with.

 

[teisjm]

I guess it's important to remember, that the trial is free. That means that people who aren't really that into those kind of games might still give it a chance.

Try comparing it do demo's. How many demo's do you play without buying the actual game?

 

[Redratson]

I'm sorry, but that's just hilarious. If they can't get folks passed level ten, they're doing something wrong. Dreadfully wrong.

I know I was laughing my ass off at this one, and i somewhat raised an eyebrow when WoW has "stopped" growing.

 

[C_sector]

Cant get past lvl 10?!? and here i am thinking WoW was addictive. XD

 

[DTWolfwood]

Well, alot of it was timing. WoW's contenders at release were Everquest 2, UO, Star wars Galaxies, and FFXI. It was certainly the most casual friendly of the lot.

MMO's these days adopted a less grindy (comparatively)quest driven leveling with little to no penalty for death. WoW simply has the content advantage over the newcomers who are more like it than not.

I'd say the big contender in the future for WoW will be SW:TOR. Bioware's one heck of a developer to contend with.

doubt SW:TOR will be a contender. Unless they come out with endgame content stacked as high as WoW. The only way for any MMORPG to compete is to have endgame content far exceeding everything else in the game.

Leave grinding out. Let ppl lvl up fast, but make sure there is a shit ton of stuff to do once u are maxed out. I fucking hate the lvl grinds in ALL MMO's but i go through most of it up until 3/4 of the way there when your lvl hits the proverbial fucking brick wall and takes you days if not weeks to gain a lvl. thats when i call it quits. never saw the endgame to any MMORPG

Everything release now fails because the content is evenly spread from beginning to end. Im seeing that with Star Trek Online right now which really would suck if thats true because for the first time ever an MMORPG has made it easy to lvl. (Max out in 4 days of dedicated play)

p.s. EVE the only mmo different in a sea of sameness. STO = PotBS but they are unique in their game play. SW:TOR looks to be a WoW clone atm. and that is guarantee fail

 

[Amnestic]

Try comparing it do demo's. How many demo's do you play without buying the actual game?

Considering all those demo discs I used to get attached to my PS2 magazines I used to buy, dozens, probably hundreds.

 

[TheFacelessOne]

HA! EAT IT BLIZZARD!

But I'm in that 70% of people not making it past level 10. I usually crawl up to level 9, but by that time I have to stop because the thinking portions of my brain are being eaten away by the menial labor of the game.

 

[toapat]

We're keeping BRD Blizzard has confirmed but losing UBRS LBRS

give us proof. the cataclysm site clearly says that Brd and molten core are being repaced by blackrock descent.