Don't care about WoW.

As someone who played from late Vanilla to late Cataclysm, I can understand this. After that long playing (must've been at least 4 years without a break), you just kind of get burned out.

I don't want to get into a huge thing about it here, but a lot of it had to do with the shift in direction that the game kept taking too. I lost so many friends over the years because the content just wasn't there in PvE or PvP. Even though new features were added with each expansion, the stuff that got me hooked in the first place just kept getting neglected. Arena being the worst offender. By the time I had quit, it had been such a long time since they'd made any attempt at balancing the game.

I don't regret paying the subscription, though. imo, it's the best MMORPG on the market. I was happy to pay to be part of that. And I do hope it does well in the future, because it's achieved so much in the 9 years it has been around. I just hope Blizzard know what they're doing in targeting a different audience than the ones which established the game's popularity.

Uhh. It is dying. If an mmorpg loses more players than it is gaining, then IT is dying no mather how many more players it still has left. World of Warcraft has been constantly losing players for the past few years (a part from the small boost MoP gave it). If you don't consider that a dying mmorpg, then idk what to tell you. It's not dead, far from dead, but it is dying.

It is impossible to call an ACTIVE userbase of 8.3 million dying. considering thats still the highest for any game in the genre then no. it is declining but has more life than any other in the genre

When server merges happen, then it will be time to discuss what will happen to WoW because until then, most players will stay with the game for 3 reasons;
a) time committed & habit
b) social contacts
c) absolutely no idea what other games the market offers.

Guild Wars 2 is a really bad game and is struggling ALOT more than WoW is. They dont have enough players for the RvR queues. Its a really overated and actually really boring and pointless game if you play for more than 2 weeks.

Anyways look here at an indicator: http://www.xfire.com/games

GW2 has 2 times less customers and is free. Good for the consumer? yes. Are they making good money? Doubtful.

Have to say though, that the market is now getting lots of free to play MMO's and the sub model will not surive for much longer. This is the year where the giant tumbles. Theres no new expansion in sight to inflate the umbers and if things carry on at this pace the game will be down to 4mil by the end of the year.

Their numbers were always inflated because of their eastern sales. Now that that market seems to be changing focus the game is finally in its last legs. Actually, it has been for a very long time. Its an old and tired game and a "WoW2" has been in need for a very long time. Press that reset button and solve all the intricate issues with the game. It needs a revamp of the combat, graphics and questing system.

You realize that you're contradicting yourself right?

If something is dying it would mean its near death. WoW isn't. Far from it. Other MMOs have survived YEARS with MUCH LOWER userbases and NO monthly fees. What makes you think WoW will EVER die? Even if it goes down to "only" 1 million subs, it still wouldn't be dead and it would still be making millions of dollars.

WoW will die when Blizzard wants it to die. So maybe when they launch their next MMO they'll forget about WoW.

FYI: I don't play, haven't played and will never play WoW.

1.3 millions players just woke up from a coma and experience the great open doors.

Insults are just flying in this thread :S

I played WOW for ~2-3 months back in the heyday. When they were advertising 12M+ subscribers. It's a fun game, but I just felt it wasn't worth the $15 a month. Plus, there are plenty of F2P MMOs out there to quench your desire for that style of game. I'm guessing WOW still has 4-6 years before they either start deciding whether to close up shop or just switch to F2P.