A Very Empty Weekend

    So what does everyone have going on this weekend?  I know I feel it's a light, no news, no events type moment.  I was debating taking my demon chickens (children) fishing, but it's raining here in Utah.  So no dice there.

    First bit of business, if you haven't seen it I did a Survival hunter walk though, which might get pulled down because I didn't discuss traps or kill shot.  Yeah, I felt like a noob.  Also, the recordering software fuzzed the background when I moved a few times which didn't happen while I was recording.  We will see what happens, I will have a Beast Mastery video following soon.

A little rainbow for ya'll

     News wise Blizzard is just being slow.  Hearthstone beta should be out soon, and I look forward to playing with that if I'm chosen.  5.4 has raid bosses being tested, and lots of content is being pushed into it.  But as I don't like giving spoilers there isn't much I can say there.  I have debated doing a few Lore posts on slow weeks like this.  Basically do a background on a character... guess on what Blizzard is planning for them, and talk about where they have been.  Basically, I am open to ideas on what I might blog about during slow moments.  The Lore thing I've considered doing as it's own separate blog already... so I don't know.

    Not that I'm unhappy about the quietness.  I have been guessing that we have a month or better still before 5.4 drops, but normally when the news suddenly goes dry it's a sign things are moving quickly... so I'm not as sure at the moment it's going to be September/October like I was guessing.  I think they definitely want it out before Blizzcon, but I think it would be insanely late on there part if it takes that long to drop 5.4.   I wouldn't be surprised if they speed it up with the recent news of another subscription drop leaving them at 7.7 million subscribers.

      Here is the question though, we have gone this expansion from over 10 million subscribers down to 7.7 million.  We know there is always an uptick in subscription numbers when an expansion is released, or major content drops.  Blizzard stated that the majority of the subscription loss was in the Asian Market, but I think they have to be looking at the numbers at this point, trying to figure out how to slow the flow of subscription losses.

     Obviously they are hoping with the in game store to give some items to help in the Asian market, like the +XP leveling potion, while pocketing a little money at the same time.  When you look at the North American Market though, I'm not sure the in game store will appeal to enough people to make up for subscriptions dropping if they keep on happening.  Let's be honest though, the game is 10 years old, it would be an amazing move if they could pull off a stunt that would bring the subscribers back into the 12 million subscription market.  No one should expect that of Blizzard, I'm not saying it's impossible, but you might have a better chance of being struck by lighting on a sunny day then Blizzard pulling that big of a turn around.

     I think the Blizzcon they will have an announcement where they do another deal if you say you will stay subscribed for a year.  This might be getting the next expansion for free if you keep up your subscription, (Like they did with Diablo III) or I would love to see them do a flat out reduced price on subscriptions if you made that promise (i.e, 10.99 a month as long as you don't unsubscribe, but it would go back up if you resubscribed after that.)  Either of those would be a way to reward loyal players.  They could offer you something like credit in the Blizzard store for every X amount of months you say subscribed without breaking your subscription.  Say, every 6 months you get a 10 dollar credit.  This again would be a nice way to reward the loyal subscribers without losing money on their part.  It doesn't cost them much if a loyal subscriber can buy a virtual item here and there.

      The thing is, they are going to have to do something.  For someone like me who has held their subscription since vanilla it would be nice to be rewarded, rather then seeing all their incentives going towards bringing people back to the game.  I understand why they put the effort there, but it's much easier to patch a bucket and keep water in, then trying to scoop that water back in after it's leaked out.  At least that's my two cents.

      Anyway, back to the grind (Valor) stone.  And I will even link my Survival Hunter walk through.  Because I can.

Have a nice weekend,

Lag/Dizzty/Lazyeye