So I heard Blizzard is losing customers

[Worldie]

...not that it matters, personally, but I wonder. In the last 4 or so quarters, they specifically said that they are losing most of the subscription in the East of the world while they are quite stable in the West (specifically Europe and NA).

I wanted to ask people's opinion about this fact: what do you think is making Asian people quit WoW?

Is it the casualization?
The game is getting more and more casual friendly, discouraging extended gameplay which Asians quite like and are used to (just think of the difference between asian MMOs and western ones).
As a result, I suppose people used to invest large amounts of time in games get bored quickly and stop playing: it's no longer necessary to farm hours for flasks and food when the guild can provide with minimal effort cauldron and feasts, and pretty much everything you can gain in the game is capped in some way.

Or is it the bots?
I also thought however, that asia has been well known for the large investment in botting and farming in general. However, with Blizzard banning bots every now and then, and the farming in game becoming pretty much useless since there's nothing worth farming besides herbs / mines, I thought maybe great part of those losses are by farming companies that quitted farming/botting and invested their time in hacking and such.

Just some random thoughts, anyone has any idea to share?

[Koatanga]

While there are a lot of Asian gold-sellers, I don't know that the stereotype extends far enough to account for a sizeable portion of the paying player base in Asia.

[degre]

In part the game is just old, doesn't matter to me when I'm having fun if the game was released this morning or 10 years ago, and I mean, I played the first Starcraft for almost 10 years straight, but there are plenty of people out there that won't play something if it's too old, and WoW definitely qualifies.

Also Cata killed the buzz for many, that's one of the reason they are presenting easier heroics a la WotLK; WotLK was a faceroll and people loved it, Cata's heroics were hard and people moved away. While I enjoy tough and challenging content, the vast majority play for randomly clicking something for the purpose of seeing flashy pixels on their screens and have colourful rewards, wiping isn't part of their fun.

Top that with Diablo being released and tons of people moving away while the expansion is dead to have some fun there, probably a good chunk of farmers moved too due to the potential of the RMAH, also end of the expansion makes many people take a break.

I'd say looking at the numbers now is tough, next quarter should give a better idea.

[Archeth]

But but... don't you see, clearly the numbers were highest when WoW was least accessible!

Joke aside, I wonder if the "subscription" structure in Asia has something to do with it. The usual "summer + Diablo 3 + MoP beta + Cataclysm is clearly over" are good reasons for everyone, but some people in the west paid months in advance. If you're only paying playtime or daily or whatever, it's much easier to abruptly quit/take a break.

[halabar]

Well... let's look at my 2 guilds.

Alliance: Total losses that I am aware of in last 6 months, 0. RL is thinking about stepping down due to burnout and real-life issues, and a few other guys have schedule issues due to real-life.

Horde: Total losses in last 6 months, at least 4. Shoju, a just legendary rogue due to burnout, GM to Diablo, another three are MIA since Diablo, and a ton more recent no-shows.

But looking at Panda, it's going to be a casual grindfest. 8 reps to grind for all kinds of things, valor bonus for your alts if you cap on your main, and all sorts of toys for the kids, and kids at heart.

Will it build it back up? no. Will it stem the tide for a while? probably.

Regarding the Asians... what other games are out in their market that would take people away from WoW?

[Worldie]

I only have had experiences with Lineage II and Aion and they left me shocked about how totally different their game thinking is.

[Archeth]

It's the metagame too. RMT, botting, account sharing, that all is just par for the course for them.

The most interesting comparison to me was when western EVE players went to play Chinese EVE, however.

[Worldie]

Enlighten us with your experience?

[Shoju]

I'm really curious to see the sub numbers after MoP is realeased. I personally don't believe that the bounce back will be as high, but I could be interpreting that through my own lens/perspective.

[Blackharon]

I'm really curious to see the sub numbers after MoP is realeased. I personally don't believe that the bounce back will be as high, but I could be interpreting that through my own lens/perspective.

This - I'm not even tempted to return to the game by the expansion. Neither is 3/4 of my former guild. I can't imagine they'd have too many re-subs. I honestly hope new subs will make up for it so there's a chance for a newer (and ultimately better) expansion afterwards!

[masterpoobaa]

Figures are out on mmo-champ.
Last quarter wow lost 1.1mill subs... But I imagine many/most? Are due to D3.

[Teranoid]

Imagine that.. a game going on 8 years old is losing players.

Couldn't be because it's old. Nah.

[masterpoobaa]

Subs will come back up with panda like every expansion. WoW keeps on keeping on.
Myself I've gone full circle - noob, scrub, casual raider, quasi hardcore raider, quit, resub and back to noob/scrub

[Archeth]

I guess they brought this on themselves by inflating their numbers with Asian/Chinese subscriptions ever since the game launched there with a not-at-all-comparable subscription model, but alas. Now everytime they lose a lot of players (even if they claim it was mostly Asian customers), people automatically take that as proof that their current model isn't working for anyone at all.

Whether or not numbers will go back to 12 million users highly depends on what exactly makes Asian players stop paying. I can imagine MoP will reinforce Western to roughly WotLK/Cata numbers again with resubs, new players making up for quitters (and honestly I'll never understand the people who'll quit over pet battles and pandas, that's just... dumb, sorry), but I'm not so sure about Asian ones.

Although with GW2 around the corner, I'm probably on the way out myself, due to several mechanics/game system changes I'll never agree with.

[Jarvick]

Subs will come back up with panda like every expansion. WoW keeps on keeping on.
Myself I've gone full circle - noob, scrub, casual raider, quasi hardcore raider, quit, resub and back to noob/scrub

I am with you on this, I am coming back full circle, a noob all over again. But as somone said a game that is 8 years old, is just that getting old, Pet combat, etc is gimmick and will get old fast, it all comes to the same thing over and over. New Expansion, move level cap, make old raiding gear (that raiders worked hard for, for months on end no good) to do new raid which is kill new boss by not standing in stuff on the floor, etc. Its always the same thing, I am just hoping being away for a 1 1/2 will give me a new kinda feel once I start back playing.