Blaugust Day 5 – My Thoughts on WoW’s Expansion Announcment, Addons, and Ms. Marvel

During Blaugust Day 5, I can't wait to hear what Blizzard has to say tomorrow, but I throw together some thoughts about their subscriber levels dropping to a bit over 5 million, I comment on Stargrace's post about AddOns, and I touch on my latest comic read – Ms. Marvel.

World of Warcraft Announcements

Incredible as it sounds only a few months ago warcraft had over 10 million subscribers. That's pretty impressive for any game these days but that was a 10-year-old game. Now that the expansion is winding down after only two content updates, it's looking pretty small in comparison. They announced a little over 5 million subscribers the other day. Over at 40% decrease in the number one subscription game in the MMO market. This was such a steep decline in subscriptions that Blizzard has decided they are announcing a new expansion tomorrow. I wonder when this new expansion will come out and if it will be able to stop the bleeding.

I haven't got to max level yet in WoW but a lot of people are complaining of the lack of content that was in this expansion. There was an a lot of hype about the garrison feature and everybody seem to like it at first, but that excitement quickly faded. Are we seeing the decline of Warcraft overall? I seriously wonder if a new expansion will be able to bring back the luster of yesteryear. Is there some story or lore that the blizzard developers can come up with that will make 10 million subscribers sign up again or are we looking at a perpetually single-digit million subscriber base? I'm thinking that we might be seeing the end of Warcraft as I cannot seriously believe that they're going to be able to come out with an expansion that will bring 5 million players back to the game. I suppose if the next continent they open up has a Great Wall of China, perhaps they will gain back 5 million subscribers but I seriously doubt that anything short of silk worms as playable characters would be able to do something like that. I'm sure the expansion will bring back a bunch of people and I certainly hope that it increases the longevity of the number one MMO in the genre, but I'm not holding my breath. I think we've seen the peak of WoW and the MMO gaming scene in general and are going to see a slow decline. Hopefully the smaller names will continue to do well like Final Fantasy. And maybe some of the free to play games will pick up steam such as Wildstar or Elder Scrolls Online and we'll start seeing some good content out of them. Who knows – I'm just enjoying the games and will continue playing pretty much no matter what the expansion holds. Hell, I still need to get up to max level in this expansion.

AddOns

Stargrace over at MmoQuests has a neat post about addons in games and the preference to enjoy games that allow 3rd party UI enhancements. I don't think I could have played EverQuest without a few addons, and just as she mentioned, I use the ElvUI all-in-one addon in WoW. How many people could raid in most MMOs without a Deadly Boss Mod type addon? I think addons let the customer/player add their own flavor to games and in many cases allow them to set things up so that their enjoyment is enhanced and the gameplay is more efficient. And how many ideas have game developers taken from addons to make their UIs better?

Ms. Marvel

In issue 5, which closes the first story arc, Kamala is really starting to understand her powers and limitations. She's still juggling her desire to help others and her family restrictions, but seems to be balancing things a bit better than in previous issues. I'm gonna keep reading this series to see where it goes – I'm finding her birth as a new superhero fun.

It's still not too late to join Blaugust – just go to the initiative page at Tales of the Aggronaut or take a look at the Blaugust Nook on Anook.

Morning Ramble #33 | Blaufust Day 5

#Blaugust #MsMarvel #WOW #AddOns