BL is now H 8/8 and announced they are all quiting WOW

[Tharia]

A lot of what you said there is quite true. However, I know for a fact that Diablo 2, WC 3 and Starcraft were all server hosted games due to the issues of people making games and then 'loosing' and just dropping the game screwing everyone else that was in the game. This issue arose early in WC2 and was fixed in games that came out later. I'm not totally sure about vanilla Diablo as it's been soooooo long since I played that online.

I would also like to reitorate what I previously said about WoW being F2P:

Also, as for WoW being paid vs. F2P - it's more likely that Blizz will discontinue that service once the player base drops below a certain point. I would imagine somewhere around half a mil or less players. However, I can see the private servers being around for a long time afterwards. Those are always free to play and usually are grossly hacked versions.

Once the paid subscription income drops to just above or equal to their total running costs for WoW, they will likely stop the service altogether. I imagine somewhere around 3.4 million players. That's not including what people they reassign/layoff as the player base drops as well as reassigning server hubs to other games or new development. So speculating that, they could probably keep running it to the point of a 50,000 player base with only a handful of world servers - if that happens then there is a slight chance they could switch it to a F2P game as by then there will be much better and more addictive games out that have assimilated most, if not all, of the original WoW player base.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending that they WILL go F2P. Just saying that they would have to lose pretty much all of the players before they considered it as a viable move... and that's just assuming they don't just take the game completely offline once the expenses exceed the income.

[Tajra]

WoW has a long way to go before it even thinks of going f2p. The plump, plushy panda expansion seems like a cute last ditch effort to make some more money for Titan. I'd assume the budget and funds for Diablo are already, for the most part, complete since the game is so far into production. Also there's been animation cuts and the like on Diablo, such as the actually neat finisher that split enemies in half /wavebyebye.

As for people quitting, I assure you it isn't about guilds for a lot of people. Lack of funds was originally my reason, then months of wow separation made me see the game in a more realistic light. Sure we all have great wow memories, but in the end looking at the game objectively, it's now an extremely aged game. Also, I actually do think content has been getting easier. Although I'm sure it's mostly nostalgia that makes me say this, but I actually miss instances that can wipe you easily and each wipe has a consequence. Timed strath anyone? There's no shiny flying mount reward its a slightly better piece of gear you worked hard for. Those days are long gone now. Along with the intense sense of satisfaction when you completed even tiny things, because it was a lot of work and took so long to complete. WoW, and an insanely large population of it's players, are instant gratification consumers these days.
The kid at Christmas during an expansion used to be me as well. (Sorry, too lazy to find the quote) However, I feel absolutely no interest in the puffy panda expansion beyond wanting to mess around with a Monk and that's not reason enough for me to buy the expansion and resub.

I am now a Skyrim player, eagerly looking forward to the creation kit release, happy with my no subscription, awesome graphics game that has tons of mods that create immersion and not just something for my ui. Excited about the projects people are working on, there's even one to make skyrim multiplayer, and tbh that's the only thing I really miss about WoW, it's you guys, and my raid team. I imagine there's lots of people out there like me. More so than people quitting just because some uber guild did.

Need a tldr version of this post?
- Wouldn't worry about WoW for a couple years yet even with the perky panda expansion for kiddies.
- Skyrim's awesome fun.
- HAI Miss you guys /wave. Hope everyone's enjoying the new year. =)

[Brenstel]

/hugs Tajra

[Divinity]

I didn't get a chance to read all the comments (since there are 3 pages of them) but I doubt Blood Legion is quitting anytime soon. I was unfortunately not able to find this post. But while looking for it I did find a very recent podcast with 3 of Blood Legions members (done after they hit 8/8 HM) saying that they are still raiding and prepared for either another tier if one comes out and the next expac. Also the continued Blood Legion streams makes me doubt their leaving too.

[Ninjapaws]

CURRENT POPULATION ESTIMATES!
why wow will never go F2P

i know its fake but its still fun and i would say close to what we are looking at in population