How Blizzard SOLVED The MMO Problem

The Forgotten Prince walks Tamriel, and chaos follows in her wake. Investigate the emergence of Ithelia and explore the Colovian region of West Weald in The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road. wehy.pe/y/1/PreachGaming
Today we take a look at how the face of the MMO genre is changing across WoW and all the other titles out there, and how Blizzard seems to have stumbled on the solution... and no one else can do it.
In Part 1 we'll be focused on WoW for the most part and we'll be discussing the other MMOs in more detail in part 2 very soon.
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[@Preachgaming]

The Forgotten Prince walks Tamriel, and chaos follows in her wake. Investigate the emergence of Ithelia and explore the Colovian region of West Weald in The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road. wehy.pe/y/2/PreachGaming

[@henrythegreatamerican8136]

Destiny 2? Uhh.... didn't even know that game was still a thing.

[@marcodeluca8784]

WoW has shitty graphic with target system, has not combat, is garbage.

[@keats27]

@@marcodeluca8784 WoW has good graphics (though cartoonish), with ROCK SOLID performance. IT's a billion $ a year game--with good lore.

nice click bait cancer

13:12 EVERQUEST is 100000% better than this garbage and fun fact THIS CANCEROUS COMPANY COPIED ALMOST EVERY SINGLE THING FROM EVERQUEST including the monthly tokens including the new time lock progression servers (SoM and SoD) INCLUDING CLASSIC so you can continue to try and gaslight people but none of us are buying your load of buIIshi† you are selling

[@khinzaw77]

The WoW bubble reminds me a lot of how Disney builds their parks. They fill it with everything they believe a customer could want with the intention that the customer never feels they need something from outside the park and thus spends all their money within.

[@Ngontih]

just like any good casino

[@jurica_spindl7692]

The war within? 😮

[@Anudorini-Talah]

Just play on Turtle WoW. Best WoW

[@legendofzoro5825]

On a completely different side note, haven't watched you since the PG days and god damn have you lost some weight and look better dude.

[@mikev5486]

Cause he stopped only playing wow 7/365 8-12 hours a day

[@LalaDepala_00]

​@@mikev5486Right, I am sure that's it. And not a better diet and working out 😅 I play WoW and go to the gym

[@LebusOchardo]

Preach Looking Sharp!

[@Aybo1000]

He does. But that hair transplant did not workout.

[@notorious70]

i like seein the OG gamer generation lookin healthy and creating a universe i can also be older and be a gamer

[@AlmightStick]

Maaan you mentioning Wildstar just opened up old wounds. They killed themselves off before it even had a chance to live. Coupled with financial issues from the publisher, all but sealed its fate.

[@deckerfranks7098]

Hurt my soul almost as much as knowing it'll never get a proper alternative server and NC soft is too dumb to try to re-release it.

[@Navi_xoo]

Wildstar had a LOT of great content it's pathetic they could not keep the servers up or at least somehow help people run private servers.

[@Paultootall1971]

Think i saw someone doing a youtube about a private server the other day, not something I played historically but it came up in my feed, try looking it up

[@calebfairchild3247]

Still own the box played a grand total of 20 minutes lol. Few years ago I reinstalled and had no idea it shut down , was really looking forward to getting into it.

[@lens_hunter]

It wasnt even an overall problem with the game. It was the devs. The F2P launch was AWFUL. It was their chance to get people back and they fucked it up massively.

[@aman2424]

ESO Sponsored this WoW commercial? Part 2 must be a banger

[@Alteredfrenzy]

Same company, a sub is a sub except for when it is a microtransaction.

[@AkiRa22084]

@@Alteredfrenzy lol, I totally forgot M$ bought both... murican anti-trust laws are a scam...

[@badass6300]

Well they are both owned by microsoft, so 13$ is 13$

[@semnome6761]

é tudo a mesma empresa

[@Anudorini-Talah]

Just play on Turtle WoW. Best WoW

[@lost1head]

As someone who likes to watch multiple hours long video essays I was so surprised to hear that a 14 minute video is already very long lol

[@unhappycat3935]

Thats just youtube in a nutshell for you

[@mrraynewman]

This man is very good at informing!!

[@rossker123]

yes but if you break it into two videos you can get two sponsors in

[@shoresd1]

unfortunately, that's where we are as the general public consuming content. short to the point, Contant is what most people are consuming nowadays.

[@TheZeagon]

@@shoresd1 i disagree half the people i follow on youtube still drop 2 hour essays on video games all the time lmao

[@FloMinicHD]

No, don't remind me, that we don't have wildstar anymore 😢 Still my favourite mmo by far

[@neileo1540]

i almost thought everyone had forgotten it! i was so sad when it died, it felt so good to play

[@Rhanith]

@@phandaal Sorry what? it wasnt Carbine that ruined the thing, it actualy was NC Soft who broke the studio down and forced them to shut down.

[@Rhanith]

@@phandaal Source?

[@DivinumX]

The Nostalrius domino-effect is growing ever more consequential.

[@lazer9870]

cata suffered as the classic team is not capable of working on classic and sod at the same time. Cata fixes have vanished as all focus is on saving sod from failure.

[@fabiusque4266]

I think the whole ecosystem Blizzard created might help with keeping the experienced people engaged, it doesnt help with the new player struggle or community behavior issue, as well as the boosting community situation.

[@Jayceiscool]

also they did so much permanent damage to the lore that a lot of people will never come back

[@evilmex1962]

boosting situation? they can play sod, dont see problem

[@UltimateGamerCC]

they intend to fix the NPE as soon as they can, but with the NPE turning to Dragonflight in a couple months, that will at least have the NPE in a better state than it is right now.

[@HotaruGlaive]

@@Jayceiscool Telling me I'm being "kept in their ecosystem" sounds like some matrix shit which makes me even less interested in returning.

[@aerialdive]

@@Jayceiscool the fact that there is no way for me to play the pre-catalyst content in retail is one of the main reasons i refuse to play the game

[@alexclaton]

all the fomo/seasonal stuff makes me not want to play. why on earth would i want to play something i might enjoy only to have it taken away?

[@belstar1128]

yea i had enough of that type of game design

[@Ty-oe4dr]

its far better now compared to bfa/shadowlands and even legion but it still sucks to be on a seasonal rotation. wow worked best when blizz just continued releasing patches to tell a narrative through dungeons, raids and questlines and then released the next expansion only when they finished that narrative

[@leinonibishop9480]

once you earn something you keep it, nothing is taken away. you may not be able to get it after the season is over but if you play during the season you keep whatever you earned.

[@JohanHultin]

@@Ty-oe4dr what is better? Remix? Season of Master/Discovery? compared to.. what, exactly?

[@SticksAandstonesBozo]

It’s a fantastic business model. Make stuff people hate and complain about. Stuff that you openly agree is what is killing the genre. But just keep making it.

[@vyper695]

Everquest has been doing this for years in the form of their time locked progression servers. It works and it works very well.

[@Vanquinho]

I was NOT expecting to see Pure Pwnage clips this day

[@cattysplat]

Also highlights just how ancient WoW is and uh, many of us are. 19 years ago.

[@powercheif]

The nostalgia hit so hard from that clip

[@TheZeagon]

i still dont know how i came across pure pwnage when i was like 10-11 but my god it still lives rent free in my head

[@TheMrkalkbrenner]

Jeremy and Doug were the GOATS back in the days

[@gregmoore803]

Life is full of choices, the choices offered at the end sounded a lot better than "I forgot to do Torghast". Having too many fun things to choose from is a waaaaay different problem than having too many chores to do.

[@shh532]

It's a great principle in theory... but it hinges on being interested in the WoW bubble to begin with, which a lot of people have sworn off. Great if you're a long term player who can pick their favourite era, but there's nothing really for new players/actual growth. And nothing for truly new content/a future for a lot of these ventures. I think the unspoken extra side of this is something a lot of people have feared with the Worldsoul Saga, essentially Retail is just getting big patches that can fit this new cadence. This is the slow, actual managed decline of WoW, where the themepark is no longer the zones but physically the MMO itself.

[@-.-Monster]

all they're doing with worldsoul saga is taking out the content luls that happen at the end of expacs.. so instead of 4 months of the same repeated content at the end of the expansion, we just go to the next expansion.

[@Xero_Kaiser]

I don't think new players/growth is something that Blizzard can realistically expect at this point. It's been 20 years. Anyone who gives the slightest fuck about WoW has already played it.

[@FAMIB]

@@Xero_Kaiser You'd think so but I constantly run into new players within the guide system and even some people I know IRL have taken up the game without having played it before. It still pulls in new players and I think the reason mostly comes down to streamers, and events like MDI, AWC and RWF.

[@cattysplat]

@@FAMIB Us old heads really are a bunch of doomers. Young people are playing our favourite games all the time, they're popular games with fun gameplay for a reason. You just don't notice them when your chasing ingame chores or only raidlogging with the rosters. The sprout system in FFXIV actually lets you notice them which is huge for helping both veterans and newbies get together.

[@metnoch]

GW2 is my drug!

[@carrot4759]

as someone who has tried to play all 3 versions of wow (retail, sod, cata) its very hard to avoid burnout and to me it comes down to personally deciding which versions to drop in favour of the others. i stopped playing sod and cata aside from logging in to level every now and then to avoid massive burnout. not to say all the blame is on players if theyre burned out b/c blizzard def does release a lot of things in a very short window which feels super stressful if you want to play all 3

[@joshua_lee732]

My solution is to just play one version at a time.

[@Ryotsu2112]

I can’t play any version of WoW anymore. Played since 2004 launch and dipped into every single expansion except for Dragonflight, and I have zero motivation to even go back now. I tested my theory when I got 3 free days to try Plunderstorm from a twitch streamer recently, and that simply killed the desire to ever put down a cent to play anymore. Nothing old or new caught my fancy in that 3 day period, the nostalgia dried up so long ago that it’s just a dream of a bygone era.

[@josejuanandrade4439]

@@Ryotsu2112 Funny, i been playing since 2004 and im not bored at all. But i pretty much just stick to retail, since i dont see a need to replay all the content i did already play for years. Plunderstorm was a blast tho, once i got the hang of it and went in with a mentality of not caring if i win or not, kinda like i used to back in 2006 when i was grinding for rank 14. MoP remix was fun to play for a little bit. I got all the xmog i wanted in like 2 or 3 days and called it a day there. I always get invite to the alpha, and TWW was no exception, but i only tested the changes in talents as i dont wanna spoil thoe whole expansion for myself, maybe that's why i am not bored of the game? Who know, maybe diferent mindset? DF was good, actualy realy good imo. I had a lot of fun, and i can't wait for TWW to launch. Currently i am getting a batch alts to 70, i have like 10 alts or so i dont realy play, and are my like grind characters,, characters i use to grind things like pets or xmog, that i leave parked in front of a special rare or raid, and don't realy touch or lvl till the end of an expansion.

[@Bouncebeatz1]

​@Ryotsu2112 actually agree with you being out of the game playing daily since legion went back for bfa thinking something about pvp would change but played enough to know I was over it

[@double_joseph327]

@@Ryotsu2112I’ve been playing wow as long as you and you hit the nail on the head. I’m convinced these long time wow players aren’t even having fun anymore. They just don’t know what to do at this point. This panda remix thing is boring trash. The game is just terrible now. Classic is cool but I’ve played it so many times I’m out. I’m bored of hardcore even. Blizzard just needs to come out with a new mmo entirely but honestly that wouldn’t help. New mmos are bad to. They ruined the entire genre. It’s all about participation trophies there is no challenge anymore. Imagine Elden ring, from soft, made an mmo. That would be amazing.

[@bokolisprime3437]

Game feels like a job. I have a job. I dont need another job! Thank you! As far as I can remember a game should be fun for the players playing it right?

[@chadlineage]

same boat luv mmorpg gaming but no matter what eventually we get behind and the jobless and richkids dominates attending every events 24/7 which some streamers pretend that its normal for everybody to dishout like 12 hours a day to be ftp relevant.

[@alesadamek1023]

God you people are so tiring. I sometimes think you're getting paid for such stupid comments.

[@maxpowers4436]

Then dont play? The game has felt less like a job basically nothing is "mandatory" apart from the standard gear aquiring like any game. Whats happening is you are getting old.

[@bokolisprime3437]

@@maxpowers4436 ty dude , so if someone expressing a different opinion he must stop playing a game ? Thats the sollution for you ? Yes I grew up but I am playing this game since 2004 so my comment had not any trace of negativity, but on the contrary it was because i would like to get my old spark again in a different way maybe ,more.modernized and that would be all ! So stop commenting to people you dont know and mind your own business. The fact that I had to really explain all this , is the reason mmorpgs are dying .... Gg Fanboy!! Abd ty for your advice

[@rainerwahnsinn2150]

I like that at 8:30 there is exactly zero overlap between all three. Perfectly drawn :-)

[@Erik_Arnqvist]

RuneScape has had seasonal and "classic+" for a long time with great success. Nice that Blizzard is picking up on the trend but they didn't solve shit. Oh hey maybe someone can point at older examples than RuneScape even, nothing is new under the sun.

[@nyem961]

Where is the animated clip from that starts at 11:27?

[@jonallen726]

Oh man, that Total Pwnage clip. The nostalgia, World of Warcraft is a feeling, much like being forced to admit I'm now that old

[@timburgener9004]

Does anyone know what the scene around 11 minutes in is from?

[@Silasftww]

Where is that cinematic from at 11:45 ? :O

[@zapspiders92]

I've already hit that overload point. I basically am a weekend gamer and I haven't bothered to even try sod because I know I just won't have the time to play essentially 2 mmos

[@zimattack9994]

I miss the pirates of the Caribbean online it had real fun black flang style combat

[@talisredstar1543]

I think the oversaturation has hit. Between wrath into Cata, Sod phases, and Retail. I found I just don't have the time to play it all, oh and MoP remix. I've had to drop SoD, so that I could finish up toons on Retail. I still want to play Cata, and so I have to spend time there, I played Remix for a bit, but the grind I saw before me has kind of cause me to put that down. So I've been focusing on Retail and Cata. It is a nice problem to have, having TOO much WoW to play, compared to the past, But it is still a problem.SoD phase 4 is coming out, and I played none of phase 3. I still want to get some things in Remix, but having to spam Mplus to upgrade gear on Retail toons takes alot of time. I'm also in the Beta for TWW and I put some time in there, but yet again Retail is my main game, and between it and Cata i've had to just sidline alot of things.

[@GoddessPallasAthena]

Same. I feel overwhelmed and feel like I can't do things I want to do. I hated Plunderstorm (and just didn't do it - very grindy, not fun, but missed out on some mogs). I enjoyed Remixed, but heard about the toxicity of level 70 group content for anyone who preferred to get goodies (the REASON I even play Remix) over upgrades. I don't mean RAIDS, but rather Heroic dungeons. So again, it's THAT community again. But I'm also trying to get stuff done in Retail. I wish they hadn't dropped Remix about the same time that Season 4 began. I have busy friends who can't get much done at all since there's just too much to do. Burnout is real.

[@Planetdune]

But Remix IS Retail... All the items transfer over at the end to retail.

[@MontajBlaze]

Remix is so easy, especially group content. Skipping phases like crazy left and right. And bliz already doubled the bronze output from Caches. Its actually the *least* burnout I've felt with WoW in ages.

[@Valcreee]

Let’s give RuneScape some credit for sparking this industry wide shift towards rehashing classic content

[@mesuchang]

Solved is a very strong word for what was presented in this video.

[@dawningmoment]

They didn't solve the MMO problem. They lived long enough to recycle it.

[@BlueWoWTaylan]

That WoW bubble has burst for me a while ago now. Don't see myself returning there any time soon.

[@paintingbutterflies3056]

Preach : this video is already very very long (14min) Me : watches 1 hour + long videos on a daily basis I definitely wouldn’t mind a longer video lol

[@zubrhero5270]

Innit. My weekly Cultaholic wrestling podcast, if they're over 4 hours, the comments section rejoice rather than complain.

[@reffa2858]

Remember, the Algorithm considers more that 10 minutes as long. I personally like a good deep dive no matter the topic. Even if the video takes me a couple days to finish.

[@paintingbutterflies3056]

@@reffa2858 really, that short to be considered a long video, interesting🤔.And same I love a good deep dive.

[@luzkenin]

1:58 best part

[@ramphastos1]

11:31 anyone knows where this clip came from?

[@kimaclaret]

Oi, Pure Pwnage. We're so old.

[@user85937]

That show was so good!

[@ItsMorphinTime1518]

Blizzard could easily make more money by keeping one "era server" for each finished Classic expansion (one TBC era server, one Wotlk era server, etc), so that everyone can play any expansion at any time. And of course, players could always have the possibility to transfer their classic era characters to the next era expansion for free OR pay to duplicate the character (so that one version of the character stays on the current era server and the other version of the character is transfered to the next era expansion).

[@Loinuss]

Looking good dude, skinny king! 👑

[@naejimba]

My dude has the hair, he's losing weight and looks like he's been working out. I'm happy for him.

[@niklasstahl98]

Not skinny, just strong and healthy

[@MrCasperiam]

that was a very nice video Mike. I look forward to part 2!

[@itztehendd]

*Entire foothold of the MMO Genre change* In my head: "The drums of war, thunder once again"

[@lawlshawk]

EQ solved this problem with TLP... Shocker Holly now runs the WoW Classic Team

[@AdmiralCapybara]

I'm still sad about the death of WildStar.

[@jeroendhaan]

Whats the trailer of around 11:40? Its an art style I havent seen before.

[@XiLock_Alotx]

Like the subtle touch of the Dawntrail lanyard on your co host sitting on the couch 😂😂😂

[@ConsKitchen]

Looking slim Mike! Great to catch up.

[@Negatigger]

I'm simply at a point of my life where I can't dedicate time to an MMO like Wow. Exhausted, limited on free time and the idea I would have to do virtual "chores" when I can't muster the willpower to do IRL ones just drains me before I even log. To hell with their ecosystem. You'd have be jobless and endless time/energy to keep playing WoW, even just retail.

[@kyumei_]

always good to see main channel preach content like this

[@DirtCheapFU]

New setup almost looked so good, I thought it was green screened...

[@gala5000]

I wont lie this last couple months was a lot of content that launched right at once and it was pretty overwhelming kinda wished they were spread out a bit more.

[@GhostOfTazio]

that make love not warcraft episode really takes me back

[@TheChunkeyNinja]

For those commenting, Mike definitely thought this video was longer when he recorded it 😂. In any case adding on the second half would have been too long in one video.

[@EpiX0R]

Very interesting video, I've been subscribed for years since my first friend made through WoW introduced it to me. Sadly he passed away some years ago, but I am happy I can turn on the notifications for the next vid.Thank you Preach, keep it up 💕

[@jmt.7322]

Ironically enough, this solution for player retention is a nightmare to player acquisition. A curse in disguise.

[@cattysplat]

Or they could just, you know, make a good game, make good content patches and let players naturally come and go instead of a subscription deathgrip with FOMO seasons. Maybe let players give a way to make their own content, player housing, encouraging socialising, helping new players.

[@jmt.7322]

@@cattysplat you're preaching to the choir!

[@rickmel09]

@@cattysplat you think vanilla didn't have FOMO? take a month's break and good luck getting your raid spot back in a decent guild

[@Gorlokki]

Great video! Looking forward for part 2

[@jakobjensen3424]

The bubble makes it so I'd constantly be getting gear. I unsubbed because I can't stand getting gear, I just wanna have chill mythic raid nights, I don't care for gearing up, I just wanna raid log. And it's not like I can't get BiS, I just don't want to do it again, whenever I already did it 6 times. It simply takes too much time.

[@RizampGaming]

I'm just sad Vanguard: Saga of Hereos doesn't even make the failed list anymore

[@___auburn___]

Great video preach! Keep em coming!

[@sLdHavoc]

Somewhat off topic but the few clips of Ion in this video made me realize how much I have liked his interviews in the last 3 or 4 years. Taking accountability for things and actually seeming to want to/ be trying to connect with and understand the players

[@MadnessRealm]

I'm not sure I agree that WoW solved the MMO problem. Nothing has really changed, players are just spread across different versions of WoW, which isn't necessarily a good thing in the long run because it still leaves players to disconnect from their friends as they go about playing different versions from each other. Also, those versions of WoW still use the same formulas that WoW used for the last 20 years, just with some differences for special modes like SoD, etc. so the risk of burnout is still very much present. The main thing WoW has I think is nostalgia at this point. People who grew up on WoW have trouble enjoying other MMOs because they do certain things differently from WoW, so they always end up going back to WoW. It's not because other MMOs are bad or worse than WoW. The simple fact that those other MMOs are not like WoW is enough to discourage WoW players from playing them. But as someone who didn't grow up with WoW as their main MMO, trying to play WoW is often jarring because it feels like they've abandoned anyone that's not part of the existing core playerbase. With all that said, I think the MMO problem is unsolvable. The best you can do is to just delay the inevitable by delivering good content that makes players want to experience it.

[@mans51]

Yeah, additionally, the games story progression is a complete mess, in retail with chromie time, not to mention dragonflight is very obtuse with how many questlines come up at once due to catch up mechanics. Really, though, the key areas where current WoW stumbles most are developing a healthy community and reasonable difficulty scaling. There's way too many versions of any one raid. There's a reason why WoW did so well in the early stages, like preach said, because it was easy and communication was emphasised due to lack of built-in group finders. Now I'm not saying we should remove group finder or anything, but they need to put more effort into developing tools to help guilds and server communities flourish.

[@kyrias9391]

Well said.

[@belstar1128]

yea i was like that for a long time too like some mmos got things like player housing and 50 classes but no swimming mechanics or mounts or even wow style quests .i used to think it was weird when a game didn't have features like that but now i am fine with it because it has other cool things that are not in wow and i thought wow was weird too when i first played it compared to runescape i didn't even get the concept of classes and healers and tanks back then and despite being more advanced than runescape in most ways . it had no player housing and you couldn't chop down trees for some reason .

[@cattysplat]

MMOs spent 15 years trying to copy WoW only to find that becoming a WoW clone still got you ignored and abandoned by WoW addicts anyway. If they had stuck to making unique gameplay they would have kept their fans and given bored burned out WoW players a desire to play something completely different.

[@double_joseph327]

@@cattysplatI mean ffxiv is doing well but honestly it’s not an mmo to me. I put over 400 hours in that game. It’s a single player game with occasional dungeon or meeting people in towns.

[@phantasm5347]

I literally can't think of a one person I know that plays WoW who would play more than one version of the game at a time. Everyone I know is either playing retail and ditching classic or playing classic and ditching retail.

[@snuffeldjuret]

I don't even engage in stuff like classic tbc, I'm an old world classic andy, but I also don't play much. SoD phase 1 was fun, hc was fun etc.

[@nohobo95]

I'm playing cata classic and retail. Now you know one 😂

[@jellybull]

@@nohobo95 Same.

[@leinonibishop9480]

i'm playing sod, hardcore, and panda remix currently. I really enjoy the fact that there are so many options and different ways to play.

[@Dularr]

I played both.

[@Cheslucky]

What about the overlaps between mop remix, and cataclysm classic?

[@tylersibley1]

Its been my observation from playing in a pretty large guild that when people go play in a different "Bubble", ie. Retail->Classic, that they tend to stick to the content in that bubble and ignore any obligations that they had in the other. People trying to keep up in multiple bubbles seems to be the extreme exception.

[@tylersibley1]

But that could be a feature of the guild that I am apart of, as we've created communities in each of the bubbles and allow members to flow seamlessly from one to the other as they prefer.

[@Arunith]

The FOMO seasonal stuff feels terrible. I gave up on MOP remix when I realised I can just do the 3 dailies and slowly get my mounts and never log into it again. I'd much rather grind a housing system with my main character

[@JRileyD]

The winds wont change until a new MMO hits the market that draws people to the game that dont play games like WoW did.

[@Noodlefaith]

when the whiteboard came out I thought he was gonna draw another dong, almost got disappointed when he didnt.

[@noreply-mp]

Damn Preach you lost a lot of weight. GG bro

[@99range92def]

3:12 osrs isn't "doing great" its doing better than it ever has and is a 20 year old game and in the top 3 most played mmos.

[@Konuvis]

Great video Mike! I never really thought of it that way.

[@PrettyGuardian]

I always loved the quarterly cadence of updates that ESO had managed. I was surprised when New World started trying to do "seasons" because I knew what an undertaking that was... Unfortunately they couldnt keep up with it.

[@patcleary5454]

I too played Neocron. Good to know those 35 remaining players are hanging in there

[@Shalodar]

You know things are about to get real if a whiteboard gets brought into the mix. 😂 Great video!

[@bedrosianbaol8930]

The only thing Blizzard hasn't resolved yet is the monthly payment. Once that is resolved too, the players will increase dramatically. But hey...as Ghostclawler said: "If you can pay for Amazon Prime or Netflix you can also pay for a monthly subscription to an MMORPG!"

[@stevisplays]

Preach! Have not seen a video of yours in quite some time, brother you’re looking great! Very glad to see!

[@Kasaaz]

It's a very impressive cadence of releases. It will be interesting to see if it's sustainable. Either from the point of creating this content or players feeling deluged by it. For now, it's absolutely the right move.

[@MrDean-zz2se]

Hey preach, let's get a beer.

[@BargodeProductions]

War Within got me so much more hyped than Dawntrail did. DT (for now) is pretty much the same since SB (and kinda HW too) and wow's hero talent kinda seems so fresh

[@dvides89]

I can say from personal experience, I felt like that from Shadowlands and never have returned since. I tried other MMOs and didn’t connect to any. To be absolutely honest I think I might return for Midnight or Last Titan, the final step for me is an engaging story…

[@Audi0Surferz]

Have you been able to get an in with Ghostcrawlers new studio? Would be cool to have some of your coverage throughout their development.

[@thecaneater]

8:44 I was expecting him to say "so you can now sod off".

[@snozzmcberry2366]

I'm in crippling agony after that "I'm not a coward" clip. Thank you, Mike.

[@keshara283]

I went from WoW, starting in TBC all the way through to around half way in to Legion. Played a tonne of FFXIV, then heading off to ESO for a while, with a bit of GW2 thrown into the mix. Only returning to WoW at the end of BFA, and played the first couple of months of SL, each time going back to ESO. I've just recently returned to WoW, and there's 1 thing I very quickly realised on why WoW still can't be outright beaten by the competitors... A fully fleshed out endgame. In DF the PvE gearing lifecycle feels good for me. World quests while queuing for gold, rep, flightstones and peices of gear to replace quest gear. Normal dungeons until I could do Heroics, Heroics until I could do LFR, then into Mythic 0's, then into keystones, normal/heroic/mythic raids. Then there was the abundance of campaign quests I still had to play through and complete. Even the "elite" world quests that I was able to solo on my Feral once my gear was decent enough. Other MMOs just simply don't compete in this area, especially the horizontal progression MMOs like ESO or GW2

[@baronmoork]

3:04 Preach is actually Trazyn the Infinite and he menaged to steal the body of the Emperor.

[@DrJadedragon]

DDO (dungeons and dragons online) solved it in a great way. You reincarnate and can replay content you leveled past, and you get slightly more powerful every new reincarnation… and there are 140+ reincarnations to go through.

[@mrkapowski8507]

Great video. I always like these "analysis" style videos you do. The Blizzard strategy worked on me - Remix pulled me back in after 3ish years away, then I tried Dragonflight and enjoyed it a lot. Before, I had 1 max-level character I did everything I was interested in on, and a bunch of half-abandoned low-levels because the grind was intolerable. Now I have several maxed out in just a few weeks. If I get bored of running through DF again, I jump into Remix for a speed-run. That variety has been keeping it fresh and means I don't feel obligated to do any one thing. It will be interesting to see what seasonal content comes after Remix, and if they keep any of the mechanics.

[@Suntaile]

I really like that Classic exists, because they're letting all the younger generations get to experience a bit of the glory that they were back in the day. Some of my best wow memories were back in wrath and I hope so many more are getting to experience those parts as well. One thing I do hope they'll release in the future when it comes to Classic, is the whole story, in the order and the way it was initially intended. I heard rumors back in the day that T9 raid wasn't even supposed to be launched, and Yog Saron, Ulduar was supposed to be the final raid in Wotlk. How much truth lies behind those rumors, I don't know. But if it was, that would be a glorious way to experience the game in the future. Instead of the devs being held back by time constraints and goals. Because at this point, they could make a team while all the other things is going on within the WoW eco system, they got all the time they would need to polish everything to make each experience just as they were intended.

[@danthreadgold9975]

Preach i love you, and WoW however I'm afraid that Jagex, with their game Runescape had most of these ideas before Blizzard did. Re-releasing 'Old school Runescape' enabled them to keep customers in their eco-system.

[@aksamitnaPiesc]

11:40 co to za film ? 14:00 ????

[@BigSkoomatv]

When are we getting Part 2 Preach!! 😭

[@R0m0n3]

3:05 FOR THE EMPEROR

[@cattysplat]

A fellow Neocron player here from back in the day, played on Saturn and Pluto (1 character servers are still a cool idea). Even back then, a small MMO like Neocron could still have success with a dedicated fanbase of only a few thousand players, you don't need millions to have a good time and the love of a game can go on for decades, as long as there's a way to play it. The dream of the perfect MMO FPS is still out there and never been realised.

[@DarkScreamGames]

man I get ending it early for fear of the youtube metrics but like. Anyone interested in this woulda watched to the end. Chances are I'll miss part 2 and forget about it. Bummer.

[@Towelietowel]

Unfortunately for Blizzard, there's really nothing they can do to bring me back at this point. I came back briefly for the launch of vanilla classic and again for the launch of SoD, but left after a few weeks when the nostalgia wore off. First, my love for the Warcraft Universe is dead. They killed it with BfA and SL. I just don't care anymore. Second, the worst part of WoW isn't the game, it's the community. After experiencing so many other gaming communities, I realized that WoW's is not "normal" and it's not something I want to revisit.

[@brkus2665]

Which MMO has this amazing community?

[@AshraNashal52]

@@brkus2665 Some fringe MMO with so few players it can barely be called an MMO.

[@MyndZero]

Yep I second this a lot, the way they handled the lore was the final straw that broke the camel's break to me. I even jumped in on the DF trial they did, played the first few levels and was just outright bored with it, I didn't care the world I was playing in anymore. The future going forward on Retail just isn't something I'm looking forward too anymore. I don't even think the devs have really changed either, they are doing some things people like but overall are just making less controversial design choices on the game that makes it look like they are doing better - MoP Remix drama has a good example of them not having changed at all. It would legitimately take a WoW 2 to bring me back properly I think, perhaps a classic+ since I vibe with that era of the game far more nowadays since it feels like a world you adventure in and less of a game that's trying to put you on it's hamster wheel.

[@belstar1128]

yea they keep making bad moves and never learn

[@snuffeldjuret]

@@MyndZero the only two mmos I ever played I played because I cared about the world. Warcraft and Lord of the Rings. To me, that is the most important thing.

[@Zesijamez]

Paragon video never coming out. ☹

[@belstar1128]

this would have been a problem if they just kept the older stuff relevant like in runescape most of the stuff made over 20 years ago is still fun and relevant compared to the newer stuff because they didn't increase the level cap and only added some better gear over the years .but in most modern mmos you got a lot of power creep and they increase the level cap but even if they didn't do that they would release so much gear it would be unbalanced but blizzard really didn't care about the long term consequences of their updates and most companies are not very creative and copied the flaws of wow too . but some new mmos do it right like guild wars 2 but i think its only because they saw the flaws wow was having . i also think there have been too many class changes and game play changes usually when an mmo changes game play style quickly it ends up badly .but in wow it all happened slowly over the years so players got used to it. but the game play is too different now from vanilla so you can't just design content in the old way .another big downside of classic wow is that the players have memorised everything about the older versions of wow so new content is the only way to make it interesting but it must have similar game play to older versions of wow. even new players are affected by the hard core style of the older players this doesn't really matter in single player games . but i think if they made a lot of new stuff it could be a challenge for average players and new players wont feel like they can't keep up .

[@rusty7448]

Alright, before I start watching. Haven't seen you in a while (mostly because I listen while cycling), but: Mike, you beast! Looking goooood!

[@xsvrrx]

14 minutes is long? i cant even cook rice that fast

[@Giliver]

To this day i still miss Wildstar and fully believe it could survive with a rerelease, some tweaks and a bit of extra content. The core functionality of thst game was just so good man.

[@maggic1989]

Great video Mike. Keep it up

[@YourTechGerman]

Honestly I love this change in strategy, especially with its non-binding nature. I've had great times in previous expansions and I loved revisiting some of them in MoP, can't wait for future other iterations

[@killer109536]

an mmo that i always go back to once a year is dungeons and dragons online. Played it since its release in.. 2006? It's not an amazing game, but it's nostalgic and extremely unique.

[@rep8778]

Fascinating video. Really enjoyed.