Warcraft loses 1.3 million subscribers over the last 3 months.

[Lyonheart]

well 8 million subs..thats still good by any definition. Many MMOs are doing "good" with 100K subs and even less in some cases.

[Ñightsham]

That is some serious cash for blizzard, but they'll keep doing whatever it takes to try and stop the botting I suppose.
....on a side note......I purchased 4 Blizzcon tickets, resold them for a profit taking care of my 5 subs for 9months

Thanx Blizz

[EaTCarbS]

Your joking right? Of course they are still upset. If you do not care for PvP, or BGs to be more specific, then the /follow thing is not a big deal. Just think of it this way, how would you feel if they took /follow away from whatever game your playing?

I was playing WoW at the time, and had been for years. I haven't even done a heroic instance since WotLK, let alone any pve... so yes, the removal of follow was a 'kick in the pants.'

Now you might say somthing defensive like " I would just stop giving them my money, i wouldn't cry about it" But for anyone who LOVEs multiboxing, taking /follow away is very painful. So be a bit more sensitive to people who invested their hard earned money, time and emotions into a style of play ( boxing BGs in WoW ) they loved. People will be upset about that nerf for years to come..even as the pain subsides and they have long since moved on. It was the biggest kick in the nuts, stab in the heart nerf Bliz has ever done that "effects" multiboxers. ( after publicly supporting the play style for years )

That is exactly what I say. I'm not going to get worked up over a change at helped the game overall just because it is an inconvenience to our niche play-style. Blizzard has NEVER EVER done anything to support us. They allowed us to do what we do because it would be illogical not to do so. Every change they made to the game that helped us was not put in for us. The game was designed in a way that was very easy to multibox, and more of these features have been removed than added. I wouldn't be surprised if many ninja nerfs to the game are not directly related to their use by multiboxers (click ,,,,,, macros come to mind.)

If you're so emotionally invested into a video game that you froth at the mouth when something like the removal of the follow command happens, then you need to step away from the keyboard and evaluate what really matters to you.

In the end, I am quite satisfied that Blizzard has done what it has. While they may not have my money anymore, they are taking steps to improve the gaming experience for 99% of its player base.

[thefunk]

I was playing WoW at the time, and had been for years. I haven't even done a heroic instance since WotLK, let alone any pve... so yes, the removal of follow was a 'kick in the pants.'

That is exactly what I say. I'm not going to get worked up over a change at helped the game overall just because it is an inconvenience to our niche play-style. Blizzard has NEVER EVER done anything to support us. They allowed us to do what we do because it would be illogical not to do so. Every change they made to the game that helped us was not put in for us. The game was designed in a way that was very easy to multibox, and more of these features have been removed than added. I wouldn't be surprised if many ninja nerfs to the game are not directly related to their use by multiboxers (click ,,,,,, macros come to mind.)

If you're so emotionally invested into a video game that you froth at the mouth when something like the removal of the follow command happens, then you need to step away from the keyboard and evaluate what really matters to you.

In the end, I am quite satisfied that Blizzard has done what it has. While they may not have my money anymore, they are taking steps to improve the gaming experience for 99% of its player base.

Completely agree. Blizz multiple times have been quoted as saying'tolerated' but never supported. In any case there are manu more games you can mb as proved by this community so why so upset? Ultimately you're just chasing for the mext big thing, the ultimate potential, the big shiny pixel that will make the game better. Its kinda a reflection on current society. Theres a brilliant book out called "the age of absurdity", definitely worth a read.

[Sam DeathWalker]

More than 18x ahead of the next biggest North American/European based game, in terms of subscription base.

Not much more to be said.

[Multibocks]

Won't get another dime from me! :P

[Palee]

You think I'm still "upset" about the /follow removal in BGs? You have no idea... I'm not upset, I'm outraged and angry! And I will be for a very long time. I've put so much time and money into multiboxing BGs that it's the only part of the game I really enjoy. After the follow removal I tried going solo for a bit in a BG and it's pathetic. Trying to get a bunch of random people to get organized is impossible and nerve wrecking. While boxing I was actually able to make a difference, I could inspire and lead people into battle or doing something else than the same old shit. People in random BGs are like robots, follow the same pattern game after game. Boxing made me feel empowered, like I actually mattered. After, when I tried going solo in BGs, do you know how I felt? I felt like I was powerless, unable to do anything but to stare at the idiocy that defines random BGs.

Imagine if Blizzard removed queing as a group from BGs. How would all the people who like to play together feel? That's what they did to us. They removed our ability to queue together with our clones. If I had the energy and time to put into actually developing meaningful relationships with people in WoW and then queue with them together and work as a team, then losing multiboxing in BGs wouldn't be a big deal at all. Because that's what matters to me, to feel that I can actually make a difference, that I can work as a team. Working as a team is the only way to achieve anything significant. A leader can't achieve anything without a team that follows and works as one.

But as outraged and angry I am, I understand Blizzard's decision and I would have done the same thing if I was in their shoes. The reason they did this to us is because they realized that a multiboxer will always be perceived by the masses differently than an organized group of people who choose to work together. What Blizzard realized is that when a human being who drives a single character is faced with another SINGLE human being who drives 5 or 10 characters, that person will not think as if "oh it's my character against 10 different characters so obviously I can't win". No, they don't think like that. We humans are very competitive by nature, when we see our neighbor having a bigger house we want a bigger house, regardless if our neighbor has just a wife, or a wife and 5 kids. So in WoW, people see the human behind those 5-10 characters, and they compare themselves with the human behind them. They identify themselves with their character, just like we identify ourselves with our multi-characters. So in their mind is one human versus one human, not one char vs 10 chars. And they hate us for it, just like you would hate your neighbor for having a 5 million dollar house thinking he's "hacking" or "cheating" the system somehow in order to get all that money. And it's a normal emotion to have, that's how humans evolved to where they are today, by being extremely competitive, by always wanting more and by eliminating their competition.

So this decision that Blizzard made was based on human psychology, they know how people feel about us, this is not about bots or whatever. They know people can deal with bots as long as they are not completely taking over the game, but people CANNOT deal with another human being completely overpowering them. They feel it's cheating, hacking, botting, and whatever other term you can come up with. And I completely understand, when I drive 10 chars and I go against another boxer with 40 chars, I would definitely feel like I would want to smash his face inside his monitor for "cheating" and "being a loser who wastes so much money on a video game" and whatever other reason to make me feel better about myself, to make me feel like I'm powerful, and not completely and utterly powerless. One vs one, they will blame the gear difference but they won't feel so bad because they know they can also get that gear and eventually compete on equal footing, but against us, they feel powerless, there's absolutely nothing they can do about it, even if they are in full current season gear. And that leads to subs being cancelled.

Even though I understand Blizzard's decision, I'm still angry and I hate them for it. We all have 2 sides, the rational and the emotional. Well, my emotional side completely hates Blizzard and will do so for a very long time. They made me feel powerless in BGs. Now my only choice to feel powerful is to actually make friends and then try to have the same schedule with them and get on vent and deal with people quitting after one loss and so on. I don't have time for this shit. I actually have a real life where I have to do all these things at my job. To make an analogy, after a stressful day, boxing BGs was like watching an action movie, now after a stressful day, going solo in BGs would be like watching soap opera with feelings and friends.

All I wanted to do was to log on, blow shit up, log off. The rush I used to have when wiping an entire army of people in AV or IoC can never be replaced by anything.

F.U. Blizzard for taking that away from me.

[zenga]

Boxing made me feel empowered, like I actually mattered. After, when I tried going solo in BGs, do you know how I felt? I felt like I was powerless, unable to do anything but to stare at the idiocy that defines random BGs.
...
Now my only choice to feel powerful is to actually make friends and then try to have the same schedule with them and get on vent and deal with people quitting after one loss and so on. I don't have time for this shit. I actually have a real life where I have to do all these things at my job.

The alternative that you have is to become good with a particular class/spec and make a difference that way. I play 11 classes and more than 20 specs, solo. And 4 of them I master enough to make a difference, provided I have equal gear. My win/loss ratio is significantly higher on those toons as well. On the other specs I have a feeling that I still contribute, but can't make a difference, and thus do not feel that sense of power.

I'm not talking about gladiator viable, I'm talking about carrying a random bg team and make the difference (i.e. relative to the skillcap in random bgs).

What blizzard did was taking away your I-win button to a certain extend. Some players are still able to be successful in random bg's, after the removal of /follow, while still respecting the ToS. The reality is though (from why experience with other multiboxers), that they don't exceed the average skill/knowledge of the average random bg player. And multiboxing in my opinion has always been about the principle that once you master 1 toon, you take on the challenge to gain control of multiple toons. Not the other way around where numbers/ 1 I win button compensates for the lack of skill/knowledge. This is based on my experience with the multiboxers I have met, which not necessarily means this is true for the whole spectrum.

[valkry]

/snicker

Are people still mad about /follow being removed?

Yes

[valkry]

Not much more to be said.

Sorry for double post, but there are a few games with a bigger subscriber base than WoW, just not MMOs...

I think last I heard LoL was at 35mil active players, just recently peaking at 12mil simultaneous players, and although it is free, you ask any "more than casual" player how much they have spent on skins haha