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There is a problem with World of Warcraft. Rampaging dragons and demon troops aren’t attacking the land of Azeroth, but from enough unfortunate players 17 years later.
YouTube, Reddit, and Twitter have stories about people leaving the game. Some people quote the long delays in new content for games that charge a monthly fee. Others suffer from lack of communication.
Players are flocking to more competing games than ever before, riding the wave of renowned streamers and content creators.
So Extensive allegations of sexual harassment Then came the discrimination at Activision Blizzard.
Scott Johnson, the host of the popular MMO podcast The Instance, said:
“Dramatic” depression
Activision Blizzard hasn’t released official World of Warcraft (WoW) players for years. But it shows investors how many “monthly active users” every game has each quarter.
These numbers show that the game lost 2 million players in three months.
As the company announces its latest quarterly results, it will soon be releasing new numbers regarding the number of active players across its gaming portfolio.
WoW is still making a lot of money-it’s making money-so these numbers could mean that some of the other games, not WoW, are suffering.
“It’s impossible to see the true escape statistics,” Scott admitted. “But based on what I’ve heard both inside and outside the company, this may be the most dramatic depression they’ve ever experienced.”
He doesn’t think there’s one complaint, but after years, players are accustomed to every twist of core gameplay.
“You’re still iterating on the same basic system, and I think you’ve reached the point where the player was” there and did it. ” It may be more extensive than in the last few years, “he said.
And there is competition to provide a “similar but new experience.”
“Insane” growth
FINAL FANTASY XIV is arguably WoW’s most similar rival. When launched in 2010, it was notorious for developers to “destroy the world” and rebuild the game from squares.
But suddenly, you’ll see a surge in the number of players during the quiet hours of the game. The next big expansion is not planned for several months.
FFXIV YouTube creator and streamer Zepla“The last few weeks have been insane,” he said.
“Usually, expansions get a lot of new players, which outweighs that,” she said.
The game is so popular that we have temporarily stopped selling new copies.Director Naoki Yoshida Announced a heartfelt apology for server issues Caused by a “amazing and unexpected” influx of new players.
That’s not the only MMO suffering from sudden success.
Amazon’s first attempt in this area, New World, has not yet been launched. However, during that beta test period, I was overwhelmed by server issues. Nearly 200,000 players participated in the game at one time..
Zepla, once a WoW player, set out for FFXIV a few years ago with an extension of the Warlords of Draenor. She thinks many players have been frustrated for years.
“Common complaints include complaints about imbalanced classes,” unmanageable “developers, and game systems that make heavy use of unnecessarily complex RNG. Simply put, many players feel they aren’t listening. They don’t feel their time is respected. .. And they are tired. “
Popular streamers are fueling some of this interest. Famous WoW player Asmongold is said to have driven many players to both FFXIV and New World in recent weeks.
“So the WoW community has already heard good things about FFXIV, and now, in the light of recent events, they may be seriously looking for a new MMO,” Zepra said.
And in that, a sexual harassment scandal that had a great impact on the community occurred.
Virtual picket line
Scott Johnson has been creating WoW content online since 2004. He says he chaired the panel with one of the allegedly named figures at Blizzard’s annual fan festival in 2018. Playing an active role in the community, he says he personally knows some of the women who were victims.
“For me, I have never felt this level of anger and disappointment in my professional career, as I did as a result of these claims,” he said.
The morale of the community is “the worst ever. The end. Blizzard has stumbled over the years, but there is no such thing.”
On Twitter, he posted one of his illustrations, Shattered Hearthstone. This is the tool WoW players use to get home. It has been retweeted thousands of times.
He is not the only one taking a break, at least from Azeroth.
Prolific WoW YouTuber Mad Season has announced that it has quit the game this week -Video created before the California proceedings were published.
Influential British streamer Preach is also one of those who described the sexual harassment allegations as “straw that broke the camel’s back” and announced that it would not cover WoW.
Some players are discussing boycotts and drawing virtual “picket lines” to avoid participating in Blizzard games.
Zepla believes the boycott is justified, but “I don’t think it’s the only way.”
“We chose to stay in the community because we feel we can use our platform to amplify the voices of those who oppose fraud,” she explained. increase.
“Requesting accountability from the inside is another way to make a positive difference here.”
These are also practical decisions. Changing the game as a creator is a dangerous move and there is no guarantee that the viewer will follow it.
Like a family
So is it the end of the world (in Warcraft)?
“The best year of the game must be well behind that,” says Scott-but he suspects it will disappear.
“Some players take large breaks or leave forever, while others have the entire social circle participating in the game. Leaving it is like leaving the family.”
But he doesn’t think it’s the end of Azeroth.
“It will bleed, hurt, and probably hurt forever, but I think it’s likely to live either way.”
When WoW eventually disappears and the server powers off (perhaps years from now), WoW’s impact on the industry will continue.
Meanwhile, the video of FFXIV director Naoki Yoshida was widely shared.
“Without World of Warcraft [FFXIV] In a video translated by a fan, he said, “it won’t exist.”
“Winning or losing WoW is off-base in the first place because they were the game we were aiming for.”
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