2.9 Million Subscription Loss, What is Missing?

I am no big fan of this expansion thus far.  I've even taken multiple breaks thus far even if I left my subscription keep rolling but even I would have never thought they would lose so many subscribers so quickly.  Maybe a 2M loss, which is what I can say I was honestly hoping for as it might give them a wake up call, but a near 3 million loss is insane.

From a blizzard standpoint there is no reason to worry about the game.  They are still making as much money with 7.1 million subscriptions as they were with 10 million, or so they said, which I believe to be true.  So the game is in absolutely no danger of dying.  Sorry to spoil the fun for the doom sayers.  But that does not mean that they can not use this outrageously clear sign that they are doing something wrong, horribly wrong, with this expansion.

We all have our own opinions on what is missing.  Some might say that it is balance in PvP that is missing.  Some might say it is 10 man mythic raiding that is missing.  Some might say that professions not being what they used to is missing.  Some might say that it is the lack of dailies that are missing.  It could be a myriad of different things and that all depends on what we, as individuals, feel we would like to see in the game.

So I am going to say what I feel is missing, my own personal opinions on what could help the game get a boost and get moving in the right direction again.  If it is true, and like I said I believe it is, that the game is making as much money with 7.1 million subscribers as is was with 10 million wouldn't it make sense that if they could increase that number of subscribers they would increase their profits?  Being it is a business after all and profit is why they are in business seeing an increase in subscribers is good for them, and for us as players because that means we have more people to play with.  So here are my opinions of what I personally believe is missing.

1) Flying:

As I said originally there was absolutely no reason to remove this feature of the game and I still believe it is a reason why some people quit.  Looking at the posts on MMO-C there are a few people there that commented they quit because of no flying.  While I honestly do not believe that is the "only" reason they quit, I am sure it was a major contributing factor for them to mention it there as their reason on a forum where people usually get flamed for having opinions as such.  So yes, flying needs to be added back into the game.  There is no reason not to except for blizzard being stubborn for the stake of stubbornness and not wanting to admit they were wrong.

2) Dailies:

Love them or hate them, they are content.  I can not believe that blizzard couldn't add any daily hubs what so ever.  Was it really that hard to code in three of four quest givers with repeatable daily quests for each faction?  People could choose to get their reputation that way, use it as a way to make gold, or have it just for something to do, something to give them direction.

They could have even added a baggie at the end of each daily quest hub that could have given people assorted things as a motivator.  Some of your profession materials, maybe a pet or two rarely, some sorcerous elements, maybe even a savage blood. 

It would make the dailies worth doing if someone wanted to and had the time and it would give a direction for those people that are lost in their garrisons with nothing to do except for the grind fest apexis daily that most people really do not enjoy, because lets face it, most people are not insane like I am and they do not like grinds as I do.

3) Scenarios:

These were added last expansion and some people hated them but some people loved them.  Choice is a word we hear a lot and this became a choice.  Some people like myself used these to valor cap nice and quick near the end but some people genuinely liked doing them.  Either way, me doing it because I felt it was the most efficiency way to do what I wanted to do or them because they enjoyed doing them we were both left with the choice to do them, a choice that is lacking on many levels this expansion.  Just the same as the people that did not like them had the choice not to do them as there were more than enough other ways to get valor should that be what they seek if they did not like this format of game play.

Lets not even mention they were a very good way to tell the story in game instead of having to send us out to books, comics, or posts on the forums just to figure out what was going on in game.  And lets not mention the fact that in a world where damage dealers sometimes see 45 minute to and hour queue times it was a really nice way to have some fun quick small group content with no wait what so ever and this is something sorely missing this expansion.  No wait entertainment.  Between waiting in queue, waiting for raid, waiting to fill out a random raid, waiting for missions to finish, waiting and waiting and waiting the game could use a little jump right in and kill entertainment.

4) Reforging:

There is nothing less exciting than having a piece from mythic that is not an upgrade because you have a heroic warforged piece with a gem slot and two perfect stats on it and the mythic piece has your two worst stats on it.

They might have removed the "math" stats that people say they hated with reforging when they removed hit and expertise and made haste break points no longer a thing but that did not mean we did not need reforging any longer.  Blizzard made a mistake removing it.

Lets say that mythic piece is better than my heroic warforged one with a gem slot, it really doesn't seem so when the 691 has perfect stats and the 700 doesn't.  If anything it requires more "math" now than it had before.  I never recall looking to see if something was an upgrade as often as I do now because of situations like this.  Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't.  It is a lot of math working and I thought they say they removed reforging to remove the need for math.

Having the ability to customize your stats was not a "bad" thing.  It was a good thing and it is a missed thing, at least for me.  Even more so now that the "math" has been removed from it.  Just make your worst stat into your best stat.  Easy peasy.  Really, who would not like that?

5) Valor / Justice:

This is the biggest, single most missed thing in the game right now.  So much is connected to it that I imagine that you do not even realize it.  Valor was a carrot, one we kept chasing each and every week.  It was a motivator, something this game is lacking at the moment.

For any game of this type the key to success is to keep up running the wheel and points did that.  Be it valor to get the weekly cap or justice when you wanted to convert it to honor or buy heirlooms.  Collecting points was a good motivator.  It gave content repeatability.  At the moment you can hit 100 and really have absolutely no reason to do dungeons except to start the ring quest line but with valor, and associated valor gear, for a fresh dinged character it would once again be worth doing them, ring or not.

A side effect of no valor is the queue time, do not tell me you have not noticed that everything seems to take longer to get into, at least for a damage dealer.  Heck, even on my healer yesterday it took me 15 minutes to get into a dungeon.  I do not think I have ever seen queue times this long save for maybe the tank queue the first few weeks the DS LFR came out.  Otherwise I am usually waiting forever, so long that I drop queue because I got bored and wanted to move over to another character.

This is a factor many people never noticed when they mentioned they were removing valor.  One I said would become a factor.  Not having valor and its associated gear invalidates content near instantly.  Even doing highmaul LFR on an alt feels like a waste when I have to go back there to collect stones.  I hate doing it.  Doesn't matter if it is easy, I still hate it with a passion.  This is why I am not doing it on alts.  It is a waste of my time.  Whereas with valor, at least if I was doing old and dated content that drops subpar gear based on current content I would have valor accumulate which in turn could be used, every 2 or 3 weeks, to buy myself a piece of current and relevant gear.

That consolation prize of valor and its ability to buy gear with it, current useful gear, meant that doing dungeons was worth it.  Doing old raids was worth it.  Doing content that you might otherwise just pass by was worth it.  It was a perfect carrot, it made the content repeatable.  Because even if you did not need anything from said content it was giving you some sort of currency that was useful, extremely useful depending on the level of raiding you do, and that made the content was repeatable.

If valor and justice were reintroduced to the game you would see queue times drop, substantially.  People like me would start playing alts again.  People that do not like to raid but do like to do dungeons from time to time would have more fun with faster queues and probably better groups.  Doing old raids just to cap would become a thing again.  Doing anything would become a thing again.  Valor creates replay value.  Something WoD doesn't have at all in its group content.

6) World Content:

Lets start with world bosses, you know those huge things that if you are questing there will scare the ever living crap out of you when you see them because they will squash you like a bug.  There was a time when they were a major event.  They dropped relevant gear.  They dropped PvP gear.  There were groups going for them all the time.  Now, not so much.  With crap gear drops and no PvP drops what so ever they are usually a barren wasteland.  About the only people you see doing them now are either 1) bored, 2) trying for the mount, 3) getting the pepe achievement, or 4) need the gear in that small window when people might actually need it.

World bosses are not enjoyable content any longer because they lost their carrot.  Gear was their carrot.  Their gear is completely irrelevant as soon as you can do the LFR for the most part which means they are irrelevant.  Increase the item level of the gear they drop to make it worth it for even heroic raiders to do them and have PvP conquest gear drop as well to entice others or work as a decent fall back for a gearing alt or a fresh 100 and you can turn these moldy dusty unused things into content again.

But world boss spawn points are not the only place the world is lacking in content.  Dailies could fit part of this but that was already mentioned, what else could?  Perhaps rares?  I know of many people who in mists had a lot of fun hunting rares.  The rares could drop pets, toys, gear (even if useless by that point) and a chance at a baggie.  I know people who hunted rares all night long, every single night.  Even if they only got one bag per 20 kills, they had fun doing it.

One of the biggest mistakes blizzard made this expansion is making all the rares a one time thing.  Once you kill them you are guaranteed to get whatever they drop.  Really?  This goes back to the replay value I mentioned earlier.  Did blizzard forget the bread and butter of these types of games is getting people to want to do the same thing over and over again?  Instead they changed it to once you did it, it is done forever and you can never do it again because there is absolutely no reason to.

They need to change back to the mists rare mob design.  One with 40 minute to and hour respawns, one that could drop goodie bags, one that could have a chance to drop other goodies, one that made you want to be out in the world killing them.  One with some replay value.

The same goes for the "pop up quests".  Why are they not weeklys?  It would have been a decent way for people to work their reputation doing them in each zone once a week.  Why is there no replay value with them, why are they one and done?  Same with events.  They could be weekly, like looting some treasure chests on the timeless island was a weekly, but no, that would make people want to do them each week, why would an MMO want people on doing stuff each week when they can have nearly 30% of them unsubscribe in one quarter instead?

So many things that could get people out in the world, so much world content out there to be done, and they added absolutely none of it.  Why is all of it missing?

End note:

I could go on with some more, but I have to leave something for everyone else to say and I've been long winded enough already.  Don't get me wrong, I am not one of those 2.9 million.  I might have taken breaks and I might be upset with the direction the game is going, but I still enjoy it from time to time when I do play.  There were some things about WoD that were done well and some ideas that could be done better in the future but have a lot of potential.  I'll write about those another day however.  Today we are here to talk about what is missing from WoD and I can sum that up with two things.

Choice and Replay Value.

That, in my opinion, is what WoD is missing, what is yours?