You might have heard of that game called World of Warcraft (henceforth “WoW”), which has been one of the the preferred escape-from-reality venues of the gaming public for a decade. In re. the part of the participants that have for the past 6+ years or so been lamenting “WoW is dying/dead”*…

…subscriber wise – it gave Blizzard (the developers) sweat on their collective brows when it dropped the sub no. from ~12 M til under 7 M – the worst drop ever, thus bringing it back to early BC figures. Yes, WoD (the latest installment in the game) brought it back up to top 10 M as there was 3.3 M subs sold the first 24 hours after WoD launch in November ’14, but this still doesn’t change the fact that the WoW crowd is getting worn out – more than they were in Wrath, Cata or MoP. WoD has content- and polish-wise been very well done, yet still the players crash out all the faster now. The Old Guard, those names you knew back from Vanilla (and from the time where people got pissed off that the Staff of the Twin Worlds trumphed everything they had busted their asses for pre-BC) is largely gone – most re-dicovered life outside of the fantasy land as well as the responsibilities that comes with crossing the boundary of one decennial to another – the remainder is the hard core which will probably stay forever (but who are often so caught up in the game that they just don’t respond to whispers…). Aside from the Vanilla Veterans and the rest of the pre-Wrath Old Guard, the game has increasingly been tuned to appeal to casuals with a gentler learning curve and easier accessibility of both quests and gear (rewards).

This is nice and commendable as it opens up the in-game experience more to people with less time on their hands (and a lower frustration threshold), BUT – on the other hand it also means that now, the game has a much larger contingent of players that have few compulsions not to drop out at a moments notice. Easy come, easy go in this case. So, while the subscriber base got a (deserved) solid boost with the release of WoD, the change in demographics over the years means that it’s likely to eventually crash out relatively rapidly, when the casuals have had their fill, or simply need to attend to the demands of the non-virtual aspect of living.

Speaking of that, we still live in a world where there are mounting problems with unstable and collapsing societal economies, growing worries of security and safety, environmental issues are slowly turning into outright problems, and so on.

The perverse consequence of this is that as the world becomes too ugly to face, and the economy weakens to a point where otherwise-regular social life with going to the movies, clubbing, restaurants, and enjoying the daily large moccachinos and whatnot becomes too expensive, the entertainment-distraction that can be bought with a monthly €14 fee becomes more appealing. Thus, as the world get swamped in problems, these virtual worlds might just prosper.

So don’t call WoW dead just yet.

*) Including yours truly, though I imagine I’ve learnt my lesson.