World of Warcraft – Great PR, deductions in the B-grade
This is the situation of WoW: For over 10 years, World of Warcraft has been by far the biggest player in the MMORPG genre. Since about 2015, it has become “the first among equals”, still the largest game, but there are alternatives.
WoW is the game that shaped our idea of MMORPGs, but it is also in constant danger of becoming complacent, taking no more risks, and losing the magic of its early days.
The big challenge for Blizzard is to remain relevant after such a long time, to develop new ideas, and to keep the game up-to-date.
How did 2018 go for WoW: Blizzard succeeded in creating a masterpiece with the marketing campaign for “Battle for Azeroth”. However, the focus of the campaign seemed, from the outside, to be born out of necessity.
Since the expansion did not bring any great new features, the story was placed at the center. Blizzard, however, struck gold with that. The story line about Horde versus Alliance and the atrocities of Sylvanas significantly lifted the mood.
Rarely was WoW as relevant as before the launch of Battle for Azeroth.
Unfortunately, there were problems with the actual expansion, because the core competency of an MMORPG, the progression system, seemed wrongly calibrated.
Additionally, there were uncharacteristically many errors and bugs live for Blizzard which affected player morale.
This is where WoW stands at the end of 2018: There is already some air out of the expansion. While many of the current problems have been identified, solutions will still take a few months, until they arrive.
While hardcore fans continue playing, others have withdrawn.
Behind the scenes at Blizzard, things are noticeably rumbling. The structure of the studio is being changed, and the train is shifting towards mobile. It will be interesting to see what priority WoW has in the “new Blizzard”.
Nevertheless, WoW has accumulated so much content and so many features over the years that it will remain a constant in the MMORPG world for many years to come.
This will be important for WoW in 2019: There are currently many small issues in the internal game systems that are affecting motivation. Many are annoyed that Blizzard is taking so long to respond to difficulties.
A faster response time and clearer communication would be important here – but it has been like this for years.
Otherwise, 2019 will see the return of Queen Azshara – strong story highlights that some have been waiting for over 10 years.
In 2019, WoW will probably receive “mobile offshoots”, smaller games from Blizzard with the WoW license. It will be interesting to see how they will be integrated and whether they will ultimately also bring new games to WoW.
Blizzard aims to bring back old players with WoW Classic. Blizzard seems to be saying: If they can’t excite new players for the MMORPG, maybe they can win back a few lost sheep.
Therefore, players who want to play WoW Classic in the summer of 2019 will need an active subscription.
The most read news about WoW on MeinMMO in 2018: After 11 years, the strangest item in WoW finally becomes important
Our last State of Play was in February, where we said:
