Rift Developer: WoW's Current State is ''Samey''
Trion Worlds' Will Cook says that World of Warcraft's problem is that it really hasn't changed over the years, offering more of the same.
Trion Worlds' Will Cook said that the studio wanted to take credit for the decline in World of Warcraft subscriptions over the last few months, as its own popular fantasy-based MMORPG Rift is getting ready to reach its 1-million-unit-sold milestone. But eventually he admitted that users are probably just tired of the same gamplay, and that Cataclysm didn't do enough to revitalize the social raiding and level grinding.
"Well a lot of people said no game would kill WoW, WoW would sort of kill itself," he said. "And while I know we’d love to take credit for it, and I don't know, I mean it's almost shameful that this giant launch window that we have, nobody is releasing anything. A lot of luck has come our way but I don't think we're sitting idle. We have worked really, really hard to keep the momentum, to keep people playing, and we have a lot of plans for where we will take the game."
Back in May, Activision Blizzard reported during an earnings call that subscriptions to World of Warcraft had fallen to pre-Cataclysm subscriber levels: from 12 million to 11.4 million by the end of March. CEO Mike Morhaime blamed the drop on the fact that players swooped in and consumed Cataclysm faster than any previous expansion, and thus dropped back out of sight. Later on Blizzard said that future expansions may be on a year-to-year basis instead.
But Trion Worlds' David Reid actually believed that Rift was the cause of World of Warcraft's dip in subscribers. "It was a pleasure to see that in the latest Activision Blizzard earnings call, they inquired about Rift when Blizzard announced that their subscriber numbers went from 12 million to 11.4 million. You can do some math... we know very well where those 600,000 people are," he boasted.
While it's possible those gamers have switched over to Rift, Cook blames part of World of Warcraft's decline on the fact that it simply hasn't evolved enough to keep players hooked. "It seems like WoW is these days...not lackluster...but it feels like everybody was worried Cataclysm was going to change too much," he said. "And the feeling I got was that it didn’t change enough. It is the samey kind of thing."
"It's phenomenal, the phasing is great, it's essentially the same game it was six years ago in a lot of ways," he added. "But it's not different enough and most people I know are sort of fading from it. It's still the raiding game and social game that kept me in it for so long, kept me re-upping, but people seem to be fading from that."
Rift launched on March 2, 2011, a fantasy-based MMORPG featuring a dynamic world named Telara. "Rifts" randomly appear across the landscape, portals that bring invading monsters out to conquer the surrounding territory. These invaders consist of six classes – earth, fire, air, water, life and death – which despise each other. The game uses the Gamebryo engine and supports DirectX 11, SLI and Nvidia Vision 3D.
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It can be very "samey" that for sure. But it is hard to go elsewhere when you have so much time involved in your characters lol. I did exactly wahat Blizzard is guessing happened. I leveled to toons throught cata and got board and left lol.
The game came out 7 years ago. I would hope it feels "samey" by now.
O.o Cata is samey? LOL Has he played Rift? They're the same freakin game lmao
>>rift - cause of World of Warcraft's dip
Wow players does not shift to another subscription game. like cburke82 said, "it is hard to go elsewhere when you have so much time involved in your characters".
But it's easier to shift to another free-no-monthly-subscription game.
Allods, starcraft, fps games, and other new games.
Well WoW is kinda boring right now but, i doubt any FPS clone or MMO clone (cause yeh.. lots of poor clones of FPS and MMOs outhere) can last 7 years.
Lets wait for the "NEW" blizzard MMO (when i say "new" i hope it wont be another clone)
I left WoW since a 2 years because it's was always the same thing I waiting for Star Wars Old Republic
WoW became boring because even though things changed (landscape, story, class spells, etc.) the core gameplay has not. At level 85, the only thing I was doing was flying from roof top to roof top in Stormwind waiting for the queue to pop. It basically felt like I was in a lobby waiting. The only thing that kept me hooked was raiding with my guild, and more specifically it was the people in my guild. Without them the game becomes increadibly boring.
I really wish future MMOs would deviate from the dungeon/battleground end-game and try more open world interaction. The genre needs more fresh meat.
WoW is getting old and boring. Took me 6 years to get bored from it.
Took me 2 months to get bored of Rift.
Too much time involved in characters is probably a good enough reason not to get into these kind of games anymore.
its amazing how much the rift devs boast about there 600k subs *cough*, might be worth there time to spend less time bragging and more planning on what there going to do to stop hemoraging subs when the next wave of mmo's start getting released, hard to believe there numbers will stay the same when tera, gw2 and swtor are released....and at the end of the day im not really sure what they dont consider "samey" about there game anyways, its just another raid / rep grindfest, and from the ppl ive talked to the servers get thinner and thinner each week
this is the real reason why WOW is a dying game: "The game uses the Gamebryo engine and supports DirectX 11, SLI and Nvidia Vision 3D."
I quite wow after about 5 years, tried the 1 week Rift trial and said F that. Blizz has sucked all of the blood from the MMO audience.
This guy is dense to think Rift is a brag-worthy release. While I moved on from WoW several years ago I've seen more depth and enjoyable gameplay from cash shop Korean MMO's and iPhone games than I saw in Rift for the month+ I played. Warhammer Online, Conan, LOTRO, even Final Fantasy 11 had much more refined and creative features than Rift.
O RLY? See, I personally got sick and tired of the inconsistencies, along with the douche bag group they call developers. I've never seen more incompetent people in my life - with the exception of Washington D.C.
They break and create OP classes/specs on a monthly basis; They also took all of the flavor out of the game by giving hybrids the ability to be do-it-all - and that argument has been going on since the beginning of time - which I'm also not interested in starting, so please don't quote me on it and start your debate, because I have absolutely no interest indulging in that null and stalemate argument.
The only thing I liked about rift is that it felt exactly like playing wow just looked different. But I'm bored of wow so I quit playing rift too.
WoW is getting old and boring. Took me 6 years to get bored from it.Took me 2 months to get bored of Rift.Too much time involved in characters is probably a good enough reason not to get into these kind of games anymore.
Yeah, you can pretty much kiss your social life goodbye when you've become hooked on games like WoW.
Some will say you can still have a life - they'll probably even go as far to say that 1 hour a day was all they really ever invested in the game. They also didn't have the best gear, titles or much of anything in terms of importance; so they really weren't playing the same game. To have the best gear, titles and be in a top 100 guild, you're going to be investing AT LEAST 20 hours a week into WoW. Even then, you're going to need more time to do farming and PvP (if you choose).
Mainly, raids where/are boring/exhausting, too much time killing/trying to kill boss's. after vanilla my "wow played time was to arenas only and some bgs. And got plenty of time in my hands to do other stuff, basically in cataclysm just played about 4/5 months, the first was to lvl and wait for the pvp season and the last 1/2 months where boring already.
Only got tired of pvp in cataclysm, nothing new (rated bgs suked alot) but i got tired of PVE looooonnnnnng time ago (end of vanila)
So, unless another blizzard/wtv company would offer a new gaming experience i dont wanna play a MMO again.. not interested in clones.
For diferent talents and dif class fixs the wow patchs where enough or else i would got bored really sooner.
I love the balls on this Rift guy. Makes a clone of WoW using a newer engine, but terrible animations, 3rd rate art, and lackluster at best pvp; then complains about WoW being "samey" for the last 7 years.
It's like selling knock off Prada bags and complaining about how their style sucks.
I find it very hard to believe his boasts. Over the last two months rift has become a ghosttown. I can queue for hours toget into a battlefront only to find it is always the handfull of the same people, even invasions seem to find less and less people there. They can brag all they like about wow bleeding but I cancelled my rift sub last week as if wow is bleeding then rift is hemorrhaging like a stuck pig.
This period on this type of MMO is on its way out. There needs to be a new creative MMO to take its place. Blizzard claims their next one is entirely different from WoW, so that may just be the next one. Rift is definitely not the game to kill WoW though, it is WoW: Reskinned.
Blizzard, where's Warcraft 4????????????
a part of the decline also attributes to blizzard's banning wave
its amazing how much the rift devs boast about there 600k subs *cough*, might be worth there time to spend less time bragging and more planning on what there going to do to stop hemoraging subs when the next wave of mmo's start getting released, hard to believe there numbers will stay the same when tera, gw2 and swtor are released....and at the end of the day im not really sure what they dont consider "samey" about there game anyways, its just another raid / rep grindfest, and from the ppl ive talked to the servers get thinner and thinner each week
i believe that everquest at its peak had 450k subs. it costs money to develop an mmo, but nothing to keep it going.
Why all the talk of "Clones"?
WoW is a clone itself...EQ was before WoW and WoW used many of EQ's elements but tweaked them to suit their demographic, UO was before EQ, which basically was leap years ahead of its time and ground breaking in the MMO world.
So basically if you want to talk about Clones...you must correctly label everything after UO a clone, including WoW.
OT
Rift is one of the worst games I have played, there is nothing unique about it, the rifts even form in the exact same spots around the world.
Vanguard: Saga of Hearoes is where it's at for MMO gameplay! even though SOE can't manage it for crap.
More of the same isn't necessarily a bad thing, ive been drinking Coca-cola for over two decades and it hasn't changed, maybe if Rift was as good as WoW he wouldn't feel the need to insult other peoples products lol.
It can be very "samey" that for sure. But it is hard to go elsewhere when you have so much time involved in your characters lol. I did exactly wahat Blizzard is guessing happened. I leveled to toons throught cata and got board and left lol.
[citation]
bored*
[nom]suture[/nom]Well WoW is kinda boring right now but, i doubt any FPS clone or MMO clone (cause yeh.. lots of poor clones of FPS and MMOs outhere) can last 7 years.Lets wait for the "NEW" blizzard MMO (when i say "new" i hope it wont be another clone)[/citation]
Counter-Strike has been out for 12 years now. Where the f*ck have you been? If you don't believe it's still thriving, check out the ESEA community: www.esea.net.
and that's why Blizzard is working on "titan" a whole new MMO build from scratch with everything they'v learned from WoW, their succes and their mistakes.
There s only one thing that will kill WoW, it's Blizzard's next MMO.
UO was a clone of meredian59. This genre is getting old. Its all the same crap now. Id say beyond UO and EQ MMORPGS havent changed at all. Wow brought nothing new to the table, nor does anything since.
11.4 million subscribers.. the cheapest tier assuming you buy 6 months at a time goes to 12.99 a month so $148,086,000 per month minimum coarse mose people do month to month so probably closer to the max at 14.99 a month $170,886,000 .. yea they's hurting big time from ya rift they'll miss that .6 million subscribers or $8,994,000 or 5% of thier subscriborship
except the vast majority of those subs are in Asia and dont pay anywhere near 12.99US a month to play. they might pay something more like 4-5$ us to play
I miss old ultima online, player leveling was simple and mostly transparent, It forced the weak into teamwork, whereas even two level 50's couldn't stand a chance against a level 60 in WoW. Even though it was 2d, the things we did on Siege Perilous as a guild role playing orcs in Shadowclan.. those were the days.
And this is the main reason why i Don't play Rift, all they have done is bash WoW sense it started getting advertised and Rift is a huge clone to wow just with better graphics. The game is very bland to me, empty environments, typical quests etc. I dont mind competition but to sit there and bash a game that has been out for nearly 7 years broke tons of records, 11+ million players still playing, i have no respect for Trion for that. Games dont last forever, wow was bound to slow down at some point, hence the development of another MMO which I am sure is planned to hopefully succeed wow at some point, But anyways Trion is no where near as good as Blizzard is, aside from Valve Blizzard is one of the best company's out there that still strive on making quality games and That is why they are one of my favorite companies. Yeah some say they are greedy but they are a business and it takes a thriving company to continue to bring out new content and games to the masses. Until there quality slips I will continue to support wow.