Network now...FEATURE
Why Do People Want to Leave WoW?
Eleven million people are registered to play World of Warcraft globally. Its gameplay is solid. Its community is enormous. Its customer service is unmatched. And it was the key driver in the biggest merger the games industry has ever seen. It's the inarguable king of MMORPGs, particularly in the West, and rules the ubiquitous PC platform.
So why are people constantly looking for the first opportunity to ditch this game?
No, this is not a "WoW is doomed" editorial and we’re not asking whether or not WoW can be toppled. But poring over user comments on blogs and message boards, there is a common theme that can be summed up in the common forum topic, "[Insert new MMO] vs. WoW."
Or, as it has been most recently, “Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning vs. WoW.”
Months, or sometimes years before a new MMO like WAR even hits the shelves, WoW players log in to message boards to discuss amongst themselves, "Will you be leaving WoW for XXX MMO?" Such discussions go beyond MMO wars rooted in brand loyalty. These subjects come around because MMO gamers, particularly WoW devotees, feel this instinctive pull to move onto something new, an instinct that’s compounded by boredom with the same scenery. When they participate in these forum discussions, they want to know if there’s a reason to move on, and to find out of others will skip along with them.
But WoW has successfully fought the instinct to move on since 2004—with unmarked graves full of would-be competitors left in its path of destruction as evidence—by offering updates and expansions that draw gamers back into the Blizzard fold. Or sometimes, all it takes is a few weeks away from Azeroth to recharge the Warcraft batteries.
Aside from “instinct,” people also want to leave the game because they do get bored of WoW. People are bored of WoW. But they keep playing, despite there being perfectly fine alternatives out there. It’s like the married person who gets the seven-year-itch, contemplating extra-marital shenanigans—but in the end, she just doesn’t have the heart to jump into bed with someone else.
Reading through message board posts reminds us of the desperate housewives.
Giddeon, a level 70 player from the official WoW forums admitted that, like many, he's bored of WoW and often keeps an eye out for the next big MMO--but can't quite quit Blizzard: "...No one ever seems to really quit [WoW] completely or for good. It's so hard for some reason to let go of your character you made and all the friends you met along the way.
"There are a few people from the land of the internetz [sic] that I will keep in contact with beyond this game, but even so I find it fascinating how you can spend so much time immersed in an online game and actually make pretty strong friendships in that virtual world."
Others try (in futility) to convince themselves it's time to move on. Says user "Steakform" regarding WAR: "Four years of WoW and I'm kinda bored with it. Can't wait for a little change of pace."
"Kinda" bored? Wanting "a little" change of pace ... after four years of WoW loyalty? This guy's not leaving WoW. He kids no one.
Despite a desire to leave, on a large scale, no one developer has been capable of capitalizing on gamers’ purported “boredom” with the game or their instinct to leave WoW. Steakform might as well have "Warcraft" branded into his forehead. Yes, there is Lord of the Rings Online, Guild Wars, Eve Online and the like, but nothing has caused WoW players to leave in droves and stay away for an extended amount of time.
Blizzard president Mike Morhaime recently gave a small bit of insight into the impact that a strong MMO competitor could have on WoW.
He said in July, "Age of Conan released with some initial success a couple of months ago, and we did see some of our players leave to try the game. However, we've seen about 40 percent of those players return to World of Warcraft."
Again, the desire to move on was there (it’s unclear to what extent), but Age of Conan didn't have sufficient meat to keep its players. Months later, ex-Age players are again playing WoW, the co-founder of Age developer Funcom resigned, and game’s servers were merged. The MMO is still alive, but its greatest achievement may be that it provided hard evidence that people are willing to leave WoW in numbers significant enough for Blizzard to at least take a passing notice.
Mythic Entertainment’s WAR has the pedigree to be a huge success, but EA CEO John Riccitiello came right out and said he doesn't expect it to rival WoW in terms of subscribers (what kind of maniac would predict that?). Even Mythic said the game would take on the role of Led Zeppelin to WoW's Beatles--both are great, but one definitely has more popularity.
Despite these concessions from WAR's makers and despite the fact that WoW bats away competitors like annoying mosquitoes, in the backs of our minds we're all wondering just how far Mythic can take its new game. Just judging from anecdotal evidence on message boards, there's certainly a meaningful chunk of WoW players that are getting their feet wet in WAR. A lot of them seem to like the change, and are willing to stick with it as Mythic provides updates and fixes. But only Blizzard can say exactly how many WoW gamers have left to check out Mythic's title since it launched (and they certainly won't make those numbers public).
There’s something else. Inside its formidable battle chest, Blizzard has Wrath of the Lich King. Even if people have left WoW to check out WAR, the latter might only be serving as a stopgap before the next major WoW expansion launches. To many gamers, WAR has only until November 13 to prove that it's got what it takes before the frigid overlord arrives (unless they quit their day jobs to take on two MMOs).
Is developing a new MMO a fool’s errand? No, that’s not the point at all. Any dev knows that you don’t need 11 million paying players to be successful (actually, there are some like Jagex that have shown that you don’t even need to require all players to pay to be successful). But what Blizzard has done with its success is turn the MMO market into a spectator sport for industry watchers, pundits and gamers. Can the young up-and-comer catch the champ off guard, or will the contender’s first jab only wake a sleeping giant? It’s fun to see what will happen, much like the console wars.
And we’re pretty sure that Blizzard sleeps with its eyes open, if at all.
Very interesting article. Honestly, I have never played WoW. I never was interested. I also feared that if I ever were to play that I might be sucked in. Then again, I've never been into a game like that since high school. In my honest opinion it is a little fool hardy to try to take on WoW, but that doesn't mean it should stop. Just like skate coming along and in one swoop it toppled the tony hawk franchise. I don't expect that same story, but it keeps people on their toes. Tony Hawk got extremely dry and repetitive and skate did almost everything better and with a new coat of paint to boot. I would expect something similar with WoW except people devote so much time to the game that it's harder to leave. I have to applaud blizzard for creating such a game. They also have kept up the community and continually improve the game.. still the line had to be drawn somewhere. Fairy tales can't last forever.
I liked this article a lot. Thank you very much for the insights.
Personally, I left WOW for some of the free-to-plays long ago (specifically 2Moons, 9Dragons, and Flyff). Probably over a year ago.
Warcraft had simplicity on it's side and mass market appeal, friends who i would not have thought interested in games have played it - mostly because it is a sensation in a similar way to things like the Wii. You have to experience it and 11million people can't be wrong! People dedicate vast time to this game, when Burning crusade came out some of my guildmembers were taking a week off work purely to level faster to 70.
Raiding, leveling, exploring was all great fun but it seems to be running out of steam, WoW for a long time had no rival and while i am sure it will continue to dominate the market this article perfectly explains that people are a bit bored and if they have a choice of a similar but new MMO may leave in larger numbers than expected. Many people (myself included) stuck around WoW longer than they thought they would or still do purely for the people of my guild some of whom became RL friends so leaving them was really hard!
Also after Wrath comes out what then,? Most of the famous Warcraft characters are represented (and defeated) before BC characters like Onxyia, nefarian etc were great bosses but not central to the lore as opposed to Illidan who was almost on par with Arthas really. Wonder what Blizz will do, they will have hugely successful games out (D3, SC2) so sure won't be terrible for them but maybe see World of Starcraft of something?
I have a friend who has played WoW since it's release for about 6 or 7 hours every day, he grinds the same dungeons over and over while he waits with eager anticipation for the next expansion. The effect on his health and social life has been predictably devastating, yet still he won't, or can't, stop playing. He used to get excited when the next big PC release was coming, but now rarely bothers even checking out the next big thing, there's always the next bit of kit his character 'needs' in WoW so no time to play anything else.
During the time of it's release i've seen the PC games turn from a thriving industry to a pathetic dribble of console ports and, maybe once or twice a year, a decent PC only title. Considering the cost of upgrading your PC is it any wonder that PC gaming is in such ill health.
I don't mean to disparage MMO's in general, i still play DDO myself (old school D&D player and proud), but WoW, more than any other, has been designed to be an unhealthy addiction.
I posted an analysis about WoW's addictiveness on my blog a bit ago. Have a look if you like:
http://invisiblestudio.blogspot.com/2008/08/worth-game.html
Most people are addicted to the game. I was for a while would play all day, and farm and raid. I would spend 8 plus hours a day sometimes, and it was cool at first. You were trying to get gear and make money. Raids required countless hours clearing trash, and then spending hours wiping to learn a new boss fight. After a while i realized that I had a second job, and that was wow. I was getting more stress from playing the game, and become distant in real life from people. My sleeping hours were erratic. I began to pull back from the game, by decreasing my playing time and cutting out fridays-sunday. Then i began to skip raids every other day. I began to realize that i would raid for hours to get new loot that would improve my stats 1-2 % at most. When my sunwell guild disbanded i took a couple weeks off, I did the occasionally pvp, but I usually log on and as soon as i finish i log off. I enjoy halo 3 more then wow now, at least you can have fun, and not worry pretend your living a real life in the game. I also saw that the other peoples ages varied, and you might count someone as a friend, but since its just a game, they move on. I think wow lost sight of its goals, and became to complicated, and lost its game life feeling.
I played WoW for about a year. Growing up playing various RPG's, I was always a fan of the genre - so when a friend recommended it, I thought it a natural step for me, and potentially something I could really get into.
I invested a moderate amount of time into playing, and I found both questing and PVP very enjoyable. I think my main character was in the mid-fifties when the day came that I had my moment of clarity, suspended my account, deleted my charaters and uninstalled the game.
My leaving was grounded in the profound sense of pointlessness that had been building in me for some time. I couldn't deny that I enjoyed playing - but I realised that the excitement that built in me as i crested each new level was very quickly dulled in the moments after I spent my skill points and put on the new armor (or wielded the new weapon) that I was holding, ready to use at level-up. Every time it happened, I would look to my next level pretty much instantly - think about what I needed to do to get there, and what I skill points I would spend when I did. I also normally would look into the next-level equipment I could use, on online wikis and by browsing the auction houses.
That's when I realised the true nature of the beast. With no real end in sight (I reckoned Blizzard would be releasing add-ons for years), and potentially infintely customisable characters - my thirst for achievement would remain unquenched. I knew there was always more gear I could get my hands on as I ranked up - but I never cared what other players thought of me, my armor, my pet (my main was a hunter), or my mount. I didn't care at all - so it had to go.
I just knew that one day I would have to quit it, and when I did - how would I feel about the hundreds of hours spent killing raptors or grinding through quests? I had to get out.
One of the best decisions I ever made.
Well you can reason like that about everything. I mean, what's the point in practicing the piano if you're never going to be a professional musician? Same thing.
As long as it is fun (be it collecting armor or killing enemies), I don't see why people should stop playing it because it has no end. If anything, that's a strength, never having to give up something you enjoy.
However, to many people WOW becomes a primary thing in life over for example education or sometimes even health, and that's definitely a problem. But as long as you can balance these things I don't see the problem. I doubt anyone would feel that kind of guilt if they had played 10 different singe-player games over the same time period. Or if they would've spent that time practicing chess, guitar playing or whatever hobbies one can have.
WoW is the definition of timesink, to keep people subscribed, and it's unethical in a sense. You "have to" grind for everything, from leveling to cleaning mobs before bosses, but it's too much. (No one has pointed a gun at me for years of course.) It's designed to pull and keep you in -- a thing you wouldn't say about chess or guitar playing.
That's true.
But the way I see it you are either old enough to realize when a game is just an addiction, or you have parents to do it for you. It's like gaming violence, the whole discussion simply assumes that everyone exposed to it are victims, when in fact it's a choice you make.
The reason I believe WOW has managed to gather such enormous masses of, especially, teenagers is that a lot of them are in fact bored and don't feel like they have anything better to do than just keep on grinding. But this is hardly a new trend, WOW has only become a substitute for other "pointless" cures to boredom prior to it (like comic books for example). Blizzard has found a very lucrative subscription-market, where tons of people are prepared to pay month after month for doing the same thing.
Is it unethical? Yes, but so are most commercial products that aren't purely beneficial. But that's the society we live in.
I agree it was a bit flawed of me to compare WOW with traditional hobbies like chess or an instrument for several reasons. Fact still remains though, that people aren't forced to continue playing WOW and it's more a matter of "I've got nothing better to do" than a physical or mental addiction. Most people, including myself, eventually reach a point where they feel WOW is taking up too much time by themselves and so they quit. I didn't feel regret when I quit the game (unlike some of the famous videos of people destroying their gear in despair), and at times I consider refilling just to play for a while. That is the most common scenario rather than the dramatic "I finally broke free". If anyone asks what I think about it I say it was a good game and not a trap meant to keep you in there forever, because that's my experience. Sadly, some people can't handle a game with no end.
Long rant, sorry about that :-)
To compare WoW to playing the piano or guitar is simply absurd, training to become a musician grants you a life skill, what in RL will playing WoW ever grant you? Chess is an intelligent exercise in strategy and out thinking your opponent and is played in recognised international competition, again, hardly comparable to WoW. And to call comics a 'pointless cures to boredom' is to dismiss some of the greatest art and storytelling of the last century.
I already admitted the comparison with chess and playing instrument was flawed.
But I do believe playing WOW is comparable to reading comic books. I wasn't the one who claimed WOW was pointless, it was a reference to everyone who thinks it's a waste of time because it doesn't lead anywhere. What I meant was simply that WOW should be put in comparison to every other possible hobby, including reading comic books, and not just bashed for being time-consuming.
You can always argue that studying, reading or doing sports is a better way to spend your time, but that can be said about comic books too -- hence my parallel. I don't despise comic books, nor do I despise WOW.
To many people WOW is just a drug. You don't give up if you're not "done" after 150 days of playtime, so to speak. It is absurd how much some people play this game, at least compared to how many single player games that equals to.
So whatever you think about those people with 100 000 gamerscore on Xbox Live, they're still no match to the numerous MMO-gamers who sit around literally years playing the same game.
This is the curse and virtue of MMO's. In all honesty, WOW was the first. No previous MMO was that polished or huge. And what is amazing is that it keeps on reinventing itself. New patches and changes keep bringing the same thing over and over. In the end, WOW players (who are so to speak the first-born) don't see any reason to move on. There's always been whining on the boards about how it is getting old and other games will take its player-base. But WOW is like a phoenix versus a flock of pigeons.
Personally, I think it has earned its success. It is a great game once you get into it and though time-consuming, really enjoyable if you remain semi-hardcore. I've tried several other MMO's including Age of Conan (not WAR though), but they're one step behind in every aspect. I'm not really interested in any other MMO now that the best has grown old to me, but the only thing I could see changing this would be a sequel to Anarchy Online.
"In all honesty, WOW was the first. No previous MMO was that polished or huge."
Yes WoW brought the MMO market to a new scale, but the effect of not leaving the games was the same for the games before it.
I played EQ1 from the beginning for about 4 years with the 'normal' huge time investment in the beginning. With the time I invested into my main character it is still hard for me to cancel my account. It was the game with which all began for me. All the excitement of the first MMO experiences are tied to that game. I left the game since I did not have the time that you needed to get into the endgame. Now I am wandering through the different MMO and non-MMO games always comparing it to this emotionally tied experiences.
For most people this game was WoW. It was the first game they played and so they made some experiences there, that they will most likely not make again. My prediction is that the number of players will decrease not because of a game that is released, but because of the effect that players will leave the game after about 2 to 3 years to find something new. But I would also predict that the numbers on the servers will decrease much more than the number of canceled accounts. I know a lot of people from my first EQ years that still have their accounts, but do not play more than once or twice every few month.
If people are no longer entertained by a product, one starts to wonder why they still play it. With entertainment out of the loop, other reasons to stick to a game appear.
One of them are social connections. Much like people meeting to chatter, the place is of little importance, the social network they access there is. Facebook and Myspace are two other examples of places that offer that experience. People on common ground start communicating, be it in pubs, in football stadiums, on webpages and games. For WoW it's a "non-gaming" feature attracting people. The bigger something is, the more people it attracts.
Not to be dismissed are also the players who are in it for the 'fame'. They have moved beyond the game itself. They entered a ratrace of competitive grinding in an effort to be able to showboat. By now, their time investments have become so huge that they will never sway from WoW, because it would mean loosing everything. In WoW the hardcore-grind-player can call himself a rare Bloodelf powergamers with Tier-Whatever armor, but in any other game he would be a nobody amongst other newbies. Do you burn down your house and your car after you can finally boast with them in front of your neighbors? No you don't, you live their happily ever after with the envy of the neighbors adding to your happiness. This is why pay to play games will simply devolve into huge timesinks with no required player ability. It was never about the game and how good it plays as a game, it was always about exploiting the psychological properties of this generation. Quitting the game would confront the player with the reality that he might have wasted his time without even feeling the slightest bit entertained. The player therefore goes into denial and never makes that step. He goes on playing although he has no answer as to why.
All people should really ask themselves is how much fun they expect from a game. Not too long ago (remember the 90ies?), a 20-40 hour game was considered to be excessively long and only RPGs delivered that experience. Today every game below 10h is almost immediately dismissed as bordering on the casual, a 40h is considered to be 'rather short' and only timesinks competing with real life are 'true games'. The hardcore of former times consisted of people celebrating execution of skill and honed them during endless hours of playing Street Fighter or Mario Kart. Today's people are only allowed to be part of the hardcore if they can sink 40h of gaming per week into a game for a year in order to unlock an alternative texture and a sword +1.
I think your only seeing one side of games. RPGs have always seemed pretty lame to me, and earning virtual online fluff that has more virtual numbers than other people's virtual online fluff, taking the form of fairly cool looking swords etc, just doesn't appeal to me. Nor does the slow grind to being able to boast your character's numbers over all the other nerds. There is no point in these games surely, other than manipulating your pride.
The millions of gamers playing Team Fortress 2 and Halo and racing games, well we all keep playing because it's a kind of sport. And the gameplay is good fun. And we're pretty hardcore, or we play a lot and enjoy games anyway. Your exclusive grind based gaming definition of the term "hardcore" is biased to say the least.
"Only timesinks competing with real life are considered 'true games' - for you maybe.
I think there could have big online games that do bring a lot to the community. Games do provide substance after all, otherwise we can dismiss books and films as "not real" too. And a game like Little Big Planet...
Well it can only be a force for good.
There must be more to MMOs than this. Realtime action and real sophisticated simulation, where the gameplay is based on player skill, is possible. My step-mum is deep into Everquest. She showed me it and whenever i found an aspect of it to be god-awful she treated it as something i should ignore, or is just a lie and doesn't matter attall anyway. It's really sad. She doesn't play Ratchet and Clank or any other games she loves. And doesn't comment on the crapness of the animation, terrible camera and total lack of realism or momentum that are screaming at me when i watch her play. It passes her by. It seems MMOs are missing the part of them that is game, and they just all seem crap to me. Take mounts for example, looking cool. Ok, show me. Go to the menu, select mount, here you see you are on the mount. That's just lame. Look at say Shadow of Collosus, you call your horse to you and then climb up it. And it feels so alive. This feature is a great example of why MMOs now are just soul destroying heaps of nothing. There's a crappy story i suppose, where everyone is an adventurer, this race has a lion's head but talks and has +3 agility, and there was once a war here, like lord of the rings but crap.
And the story doesn't deal with the fact that the whole thing is just a shoddily done 3D social networking basis to distribute content. Quests in dungeons that every other player has already completed. What is it, another dimension? WTF! It's hardly a seamless world. I just can't make the narrative ends meet in my head. And It doesn't even try. It just tries to get you addicted by being well balanced. It's users ignore the crappy everything. There are thousands of people plugging away at it. It's so sad.
"They entered a ratrace of competitive grinding in an effort to be able to showboat. By now, their time investments have become so huge that they will never sway from WoW, because it would mean loosing everything. In WoW the hardcore-grind-player can call himself a rare Bloodelf powergamers with Tier-Whatever armor, but in any other game he would be a nobody amongst other newbies."
I think you just hit the nail. I played WoW for two years, my main was a nearly full epic lvl 70 rogue. I had several guilds and guildmates (some of them are RL friends), done everything (both PvE and PvP), then one day just deleted my characters and never looked back (it was more than a year ago).
The reason? The PS3 and the (then upcoming) Assassin's Creed with many other titles.
WoW was great but I think I won't touch an MMO ever again, been there done that.
For me, those games are all about the exploration. I had seen everything I wanted to in WoW long before the first expansion, so I quit. When that expansion came out, I started again and saw the new content I was interested in and quit.
I fiddle with EQ2 now since there is a lot I haven't seen, but I am getting near the end of that, too. When there is another that comes along that interests me, I will try again, but I refuse to be married to one just because of situations like you guys are talking about here.
Brian
www.brianwoods.com
Great article, an interesting read.