DISQUS

Spazure · 1 year ago

I love these articles! Keep up the great work. You're right about WAR though -- I haven't actually stopped paying for WoW, I just rarely login anymore.. but there's always that chance that Blizzard will do something awesome to drag me back.

Trapper Markelz · 1 year ago

For me there is a bit of loyalty that kicks in... I keep paying for the sub and logging in from time to time just to support what is going on. For instance I am playing WAR but I have a Tabula Rasa subscription because I really like the game... (level 23) and even if I don't have time to play it actively, I still want to support what they are doing. I did that with Planetside for about a year even though I wasn't playing. I wonder how many people are in that camp?

Draxeal · 1 year ago

I feel the same as Trapper with the loyalty issue. I started playing WAR and got hooked instantly, but after a few weeks of playing I started feeling like I was cheating on my girlfriend (WoW). I started back to playing WoW, and squeeze WAR in on the weekends or whenever I'm not busy with WoW. It is true... WoW is your long life partner that will never turn on you, and WAR is her dirty little sister that you keep going back to when you're bored.

Dodo · 1 year ago

Interesting read...

Know quite a few people who went from LOTRO to WAR, but they are trickling back. Expect this to number to increase when MoM hits.

Single MMOer here; don't think the missus could take another one :D

Nikki · 1 year ago

I play about four different MMO's - WAR, EQ2, Conan and WOW - it may go months in between but I do check in with all of them. Previously I played even more but had to let several go including Vanguard and LOTR.

jinxme · 1 year ago

WOW isn't the first MMO I played, but it's definitely the one I'll keep playing. I started out on EQ but when my quildmates started wandering away to DAOC my interest started wandering, too. I was introduced to Warcraft and that was it. EQ was dropped. WOW is just too user friendly. The graphics lighten the mood. If you're not on with friends, it'll keep you entertained soloing. Tired of soloing, you go whomp on someone in the battlegrounds or play PVP. Really bored, you organize on a raid on Stormwind or Crossroads. And if you're really, really bored, you come up with a vid for youtube. Hours and hours have been invested in the quests, in friends, in those levels you think you're never going to get out of, in finding that really rare pet.... Azeroth sucks you in and you honestly become part of the community.

I'll admit there are times when another MMO will catch my eye. Yes, I bought EQ2.... Yes, I bought DAOC.... Yes, I bought Guildwars.... With all three I played dress up with the characters, explored a bit, grumbled that it wasn't WOW and when I'd grumbled enough, went back to WOW.

Now I've bought Warhammer and am not sure if I'm doing the same or if it's really got something. The thing about Warhammer so far is it's got a lot of new options. Some of the classes are really fun to play. Of course, I'm still a newby, with no one over lvl 10 yet, but so far, it's been really easy to jump into. The graphics don't lighten the mood, but their detailed. At the moment it seems more like work than fun and the people I talk to when in game still compare it a lot to WOW.

Honestly, I think Warhammer will give Warcraft a run for its money, but Warcraft has too many things that will call its players back. The expansion is about to drop and the holiday festivals will be starting up..... All of us who are loyal to the game and feel like it's our 'home away from home' aren't going to be wandering too far away during the next couple of months.

Tesh · 1 year ago

I'm disappointed. I read the blog title and thought we'd be talking about those companies who charge subscription fees but also charge a box price for expansions.

Ah, well. This is some good data anyways. I wonder what these charts would look like analyzing free MMOs, where time is the major (only?) investment, as opposed to just paying a sub and playing out of inertia. I tend to think of that as a purer measurement of a game's staying power, since paying customers don't like to see their money go to waste; the loyalty factor is polluted by the money, and companies double dip in the loyalty pool by dipping into the pocketbook as well as the time budget.

jinxme · 1 year ago

I don't think paying for expansions, or even the game itself, is that much of an issue. You play the game you play for entertainment. Take a friend to a movie, throw in popcorn and, heaven forbid, a couple of sodas and you've already paid more than most expansions go for. I've played several of the free games online and they just don't offer the same environment or entertainment value as the games you pay for.

Zushi · 1 year ago

I dropped WOW completely for WAR.....I'm diggin' it at the moment and see no reason to go through another big WOW expansion fiasco. The PVP offered by WAR is barnone the best and clearly makes me think differently about WOW now that I've dropped it like a bad habit (well, they all are really bad habits).

wilhelm2451 · 1 year ago

Hrmm... you're going to have to convince me that "GamerDNA users who have Xfire turned on" is a base of players that is representative of more than... well... GamerDNA users who have Xfire turned on.

I have no data, but I am going to guess that GamerDNA users who have Xfire turned on is a demographic that is skewed more towards the hard core players.

And if you're going to throw statistics around and expect them to be taken seriously you need to disclose things like sample size.