Was Blizzard Wrong to Revamp the Old World?

[:1]Here�s the premise of my thread; Instead of revamping the old world in preparation for Cataclysm, Blizzard should have focused on more leveling content after 80 by raising the cap to 90 and giving classes more abilities.

Since the release of Cataclysm, WoW has had a net loss of almost a million subscriptions and that�s with almost no competition from other MMOs. I think the amount of permanent sub losses that went to Rift is minimal.

The revamping of the old world was supposed to bring new life into the game but from a strict numbers point of view it failed. If they hadn�t spent so much time redoing 1-60 content they could have given us 10 more levels instead of giving us what has to many people felt like half of an expansion.

I�m not trying to argue in any way that WoW is failing or dying. I�m just postulating the idea that the old world revamp was not a good decision. Do you think this is an inevitable decline in a game that�s 7 years old? I�m interested to get other people�s views on this.



p.s. I tried to keep my thread short so that it was readable but I�d like to go into more detail if anyone wants to respond.|||I think its the best thing they could have done. Since WotLK quests became fun and exciting to do and not just collect X organ, assassinate so-and-so, etc. like in Vanilla and Outland. I enjoy playing alternate characters, so that might be a bit of a biased view, but I think the new quests are much better, and the environment with phasing is pretty awesome.

If anything beyond that, I think its their new-old attitude towards end-game where they vastly changed it from WotLK and it drove away alot of its newer players. The whole 5 level deal isn't really a big thing, its just a number, I'd say Blizzard would want to keep WoW at a maximum level cap of 100 or so.

So, superficially its just 10 levels rolled into 5. We still got a few abilities for classes just like we got in WotLK, but personally I think there is a limit to how many they can keep putting out unless they constantly rework spells each expansion (as they have been doing).|||I can see why they did it.

However, with the way the 'world' of warcraft slowly turned into portal of warcraft, I doubt even 10 levels would've made a difference. There's not that much to do at end level and there's no one in the zones anyway other than Molten Front.|||You assume that the million of subs all left in Cataclysm. Yet it is 5-6 million subs of cataclysm and around the same in China, where they still play WotLK.

Not to forget: Who says they wouldn't have lost MORE if they had gone any other way?

The moment ZA and ZG were removed, ppl yelled to have it back. The moment it is back, other ppl come out of the bushes to QQ it is a lazy re-use.

Ppl demanded Naxx back, because only a handful experienced it in Classic. The moment it is back, other ppl come out of the bushes to QQ it is a lazy re-use.

Now people say how awesome Kara was and they want it back as a 5 man Instance. Guess what? The moment it will be back, other ppl come out of the bushes to QQ it is a lazy re-use.

FACT: There is one company in the world that surveys the players 24/7 on their own servers..and it is not a company run by you or any "know-it-all" on the forums. It is Blizzard.

To quote a blue:

"By looking at actual stats, actual progression, time spent playing, where, and to what extent, ... so yes, we absolutely are able to tell without a doubt that the plan we're enacting is actually what players playing the game want and need, and are not just listening to people on the forums."

The game is 7 years old. Did you expect it to grow forever?|||Now, I don't really have anything that enlightening to add, but this thread really provokes me to step in and post "told you so" in a manner of speaking.

I am a warcraft fan who quit playing the game a bit prior to Cataclysm lauch, and unlike a bunch of people I know who quit around that time due to the game becoming too simplistic for their tastes, or for some other game mechanic reason, I left almost entirely because of what they did to the old world, in terms of actual locations as well as storylines.

Now don't get me wrong, I wasn't completely opposed to all change or anything like that. It's just that I'm in utter disagreement with blizzard's decisions of exactly what to change and how. Mostly, anyway.

I'm not going to elaborate on the details here, as they are a bit beside the point, which is to respond "yes, at least in this particular manner" to the question of the thread.