Comments on: The Four Year Itch http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/the-four-year-itch/ MMOs and game design Wed, 22 May 2013 22:20:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Deja Vue. Haven’t I seen this content somewhere before? « Welcome to Spinksville! http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/the-four-year-itch/#comment-10239 Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:07:23 +0000 http://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=1443#comment-10239 [...] wrote once that after about 3-4 years, an online game would have to change or else it would die as the first wave of players moved on and the newer ones could never catch up. I now think that [...]

]]> By: A holiday, a holiday, the first one of the year! Best of 2009. « Welcome to Spinksville! http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/the-four-year-itch/#comment-5203 Thu, 07 Jan 2010 09:06:54 +0000 http://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=1443#comment-5203 [...] The Four Year Itch (yes, I called it before Cataclysm.) [...]

]]> By: How to fail! And 20 ways to fail at tanking! « Welcome to Spinksville! http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/the-four-year-itch/#comment-3415 Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:39:38 +0000 http://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=1443#comment-3415 [...] the details) it would be the longest post I have ever written. ie. even longer than the one about why all MMOs will either need to implement a massive change or slowly die after about 4 years — feeling quite good about that prediction vis-a-vis Cataclysm right now so that’s not [...]

]]> By: Blizzard Reboots WoW with the Cataclysm Expansion | Wolfshead Online http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/the-four-year-itch/#comment-2756 Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:26:53 +0000 http://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=1443#comment-2756 [...] freshened up their MMO. The history of this young genre has shown us that once a MMO reaches the four or five year mark it starts to decline and is ripe for mutiny by its players. Almost five years [...]

]]> By: WoW in 3.2 – more game, less MMO « Welcome to Spinksville! http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/the-four-year-itch/#comment-1802 Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:29:32 +0000 http://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=1443#comment-1802 [...] what I’m seeing is a concerted plan to deal with what I called the 4 year itch, by changing the game’s paradigm. Fewer and fewer of the choices you make in game will actually [...]

]]> By: Rob http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/the-four-year-itch/#comment-1518 Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:11:42 +0000 http://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=1443#comment-1518 I agree strongly with the notion that wow is on a decline. Certainly now, people are logging in less, and many of the people who started are gone. However, our guild seems to be going strong. The key is turnover. If you aren’t bringing new people in to the game or guild, then that community dies because output overwealms input. From my guild’s perspective, I know it’s harder and harder for me to find a reason to login and do things. My best friend left the game and I (willingly) became guild leader. Now I have more ‘work’ and less ‘fun’ to do in the guild, and often I just do other things. When I’m insanely busy like I am now its hard to justify spending huge time blocks which WoW absolutely demands.

I know I am glad I stopped raiding and spent more time with my wife in the evenings. If/when I get laid off I may go back to raiding but for now there is no way I want to spend all that time doing what it takes to do progression raiding. I think fundamentally its just not interesting to me any more.

Naxx is more of the same, its like kara but without the lore, rep, etc. Plus it’s extremely long and really the only game in town for most of us. Ulduar is going good but we’re not good enough to see it yet. Actually we don’t really focus on raiding as a guild; but as a player raiding/instances are the main reason I play.

For explorers, once you get to the end, then there is no reason to go further. I think the achievements help, but unfortunately with WoW they have made so much of their content worthless by design. I’d love to run AQ and gain rep for..whoever it is, but what is the point, the gear is level 60.

I think blizz really shot themselves in the foot when they made a design decision to make all their old content obsolete and ensured that nobody would run it any more.

]]> By: The Death of WoW « WoWenomics http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/the-four-year-itch/#comment-1427 Thu, 11 Jun 2009 06:12:56 +0000 http://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=1443#comment-1427 [...] was initially an insightful article on Spinksville that got us talking about this subject. In that post, Spinks mentions the age of WoW and ponders if [...]

]]> By: Is Alexa Charting the Decline of WoW? | Wolfshead Online http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/the-four-year-itch/#comment-1384 Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:25:22 +0000 http://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=1443#comment-1384 [...] posted a nice article that examines the lifespans of MUDs and MMOs. She made the following astute prognostication: When I was playing MUDs/ MUSHes I had a theory that after about 3-4 years, a game would have to [...]

]]> By: Game Gumbo « Tish Tosh Tesh http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/the-four-year-itch/#comment-1147 Mon, 25 May 2009 13:45:49 +0000 http://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=1443#comment-1147 [...] wonders about WoW quitters, and cites a Spinks rumination on the same.  Those are good reading, and an interesting bit of theorizing that could bear further [...]

]]> By: /AFK – May 24 « Bio Break http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2009/05/20/the-four-year-itch/#comment-1136 Sun, 24 May 2009 16:10:34 +0000 http://spinksville.wordpress.com/?p=1443#comment-1136 [...] drops The Four Year Itch at our feet.  It’s far better than what your cat might bring home, [...]

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