The Twitch streamer Michael “shorud” Grzesiek was asked in one of his recent streams about the MMORPG World of Warcraft and whether he would play it live again. His answer was quite harsh.
This is what shroud says: In his stream on the night from Friday, September 17 to Saturday, September 18, shroud broadcast a tournament in the shooter Valorant. During the stream, a question came from his chat asking if he would play Conan Exiles later.
shroud replied that he would have to see – he still had a WoW raid. His viewers then wanted to know if he would show that again sometime. The streamer’s response was quite curt:
“WoW does not deserve my stream. So it won’t get it […] I will continue to play WoW, but it does not deserve my stream. It’s that simple.” For that, he definitely wants to play New World and probably stream it as well.
Who is shroud anyway? The Canadian streamer was a top streamer on Twitch for a while. With the nickname “the human aimbot,” he shot his way to the top with shooters like Apex Legends. Currently, he is in 17th place among streamers with the most viewing hours worldwide in the last month (via sullygnome.com; as of September 18).
Shroud is primarily known for shooters and recently had the most viewers with Valorant. However, he has been showing survival games like Conan Exiles or the new Icarus, of which he is very enthusiastic frequently lately.
He also showed WoW for a while, such as during the release of WoW Classic. Back then, it was even worth it to him to drop from the top spot on Twitch. Today, he seems to not value the game as much anymore.
“I will continue to play WoW, but it does not deserve my stream.”
What is the problem with WoW? The MMORPG giant has been wobbling on its throne for some time. Fatigue is setting in among the players and a major sexism scandal has been scratching at the image of the developer studio Blizzard for months.
However, there is always criticism of the game itself. It lacks new ideas and some players are moving away, such as to Final Fantasy XIV in search of something new. Additionally, MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus has observed this trend and even believes that WoW is not dying fast enough.
One of the biggest current problems is communication with the community and fans. The studio makes various changes but does not explain why. For instance, half-naked women were replaced with fruit and our demon Cortyn wonders: What’s the point?
There are also several other issues that the team is already partly working on:
How is WoW currently doing on Twitch? WoW was the largest MMORPG on Twitch for 5 years, but was first surpassed by Final Fantasy XIV in September 2021, albeit only briefly.
With over 17 million viewing hours in the last 30 days, WoW on Twitch is certainly not dead yet. Only interest seems to be gradually waning. Additionally, a new MMORPG is also gnawing at the throne.
What do you think, what should WoW change to rekindle interest in the game and make streamers like shroud consider the MMORPG “worthy”?
