World of Warcraft: Current Year

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Bondurant

Bondurant

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Fyff said:
I bet they make a decent chunk on e-sports.
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I don't know, I think it's all about MDI (Mythic + dungeons) and AWC (arenas) nowadays and both these scenes mostly have the same ~300 people involved in tournaments for years now. It's a tightly closed gated community. Most of them are streamers, they bring visibility but based on Esports teams & tournaments stats: Dota 2, LoL, CS:GO, HS, Fortnite, PUBG viewers average 30k for MDI and 40 for AWC.

It's good but the production is minimal with the same 3-6 casters and Blizzard as always isn't doing a great job featuring them. Also there's no merch market for the average player, arenas are very difficult to get into and MDI is mostly about which team is gonna wipe first.

Seeing how much Overwatch franchise fees cost, I bet they make more money selling OWL spots for $20-50m each with minimal production. OW World Cup where teams aren't paid -though flying World Cup people to Anaheim once a year does cost them money indeed- but it's a low effort and Overwatch overall viewer rating is sinking for months now.

What would make them money is how new people get attracted watching MDI/AWC get attracted to WoW. Surely there's people out there watching arenas or M+ thinking "I'mma play that'" but I don't have the knowledge to number that. Also WoW and esport never really got to the place the most played MMO of the latest 20 years should be. Earlier this year, the Activision Blizzard layoffs reporterly hit most of the production teams, lots of them supporting esport. It's not a good sign when in charge of esport leave the company.
 
Fyff

Fyff

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Bondurant said:
I don't know, I think it's all about MDI (Mythic + dungeons) and AWC (arenas) nowadays and both these scenes mostly have the same ~300 people involved in tournaments for years now. It's a tightly closed gated community. Most of them are streamers, they bring visibility but based on Esports teams & tournaments stats: Dota 2, LoL, CS:GO, HS, Fortnite, PUBG viewers average 30k for MDI and 40 for AWC.

It's good but the production is minimal with the same 3-6 casters and Blizzard as always isn't doing a great job featuring them. Also there's no merch market for the average player, arenas are very difficult to get into and MDI is mostly about which team is gonna wipe first.

Seeing how much Overwatch franchise fees cost, I bet they make more money selling OWL spots for $20-50m each with minimal production. OW World Cup where teams aren't paid -though flying World Cup people to Anaheim once a year does cost them money indeed- but it's a low effort and Overwatch overall viewer rating is sinking for months now.

What would make them money is how new people get attracted watching MDI/AWC get attracted to WoW. Surely there's people out there watching arenas or M+ thinking "I'mma play that'" but I don't have the knowledge to number that. Also WoW and esport never really got to the place the most played MMO of the latest 20 years should be. Earlier this year, the Activision Blizzard layoffs reporterly hit most of the production teams, lots of them supporting esport. It's not a good sign when in charge of esport leave the company.
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I wonder how many players they generate off of that exposure? Guys who don't even watch but get hyped about doing keys that are the same level as the MDI? These streamers are getting tons of views only because they are big time players. How much hype and interest is generated off of these players doing their practice runs and pushes? Would these guys have viewership if they didn't have the noteriety of being on top of the MDI?

PVP is probably different. Those that are going to watch PVP probably would either way. PVP players tend to be a special breed.

Even though no one was watching the HotS championships, the second Blizzard announced they were axing it the game lost over half it's players (reportedly).
 
C

Cynical

Canuckistani Terrorist
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Are Heirloom items even worth it for 110-120? Gonna level mage next, XP seems fast enough on DH. I had most of them, including rings, leveled to 110 during Legion. If stats aren't really better than quested/dropped stuff, I won't even bother.

I figure since it doesn't take all that much effort to level 110-120, I might as well level all my 110 alts, and get more shit out of mission board, like Legion & WoD?
 
Fyff

Fyff

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Cynical said:
Are Heirloom items even worth it for 110-120? Gonna level mage next, XP seems fast enough on DH. I had most of them, including rings, leveled to 110 during Legion. If stats aren't really better than quested/dropped stuff, I won't even bother.

I figure since it doesn't take all that much effort to level 110-120, I might as well level all my 110 alts, and get more shit out of mission board, like Legion & WoD?
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My experience was that it's a wash for normal leveling but cuts power leveling down by a significant amount of time.
 
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Fucker

Fucker

Log Wizard
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Cynical said:
Are Heirloom items even worth it for 110-120? Gonna level mage next, XP seems fast enough on DH. I had most of them, including rings, leveled to 110 during Legion. If stats aren't really better than quested/dropped stuff, I won't even bother.

I figure since it doesn't take all that much effort to level 110-120, I might as well level all my 110 alts, and get more shit out of mission board, like Legion & WoD?
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I just continued an alt today. went from 112-117.5 with heirloom/rest xp/potion without even breathing hard. I also did one of those invasion things. I have flying, too. The xp goes a lot faster than I thought it would, and worth the small gold outlay for the armor because I have a DK that can use armor too. Stats on heirloom I think are in between blue and green in quality I think. I never look. Things die quickly anyway.
 
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Bondurant

Bondurant

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Fyff said:
I wonder how many players they generate off of that exposure? Guys who don't even watch but get hyped about doing keys that are the same level as the MDI? These streamers are getting tons of views only because they are big time players. How much hype and interest is generated off of these players doing their practice runs and pushes? Would these guys have viewership if they didn't have the noteriety of being on top of the MDI?
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From my immediate surroundings, watching streamers certainly motivate people playing the game, new or returning. From what I see, returning players are hyped about upcoming changes / seasons, new players are hyped about the game but most of them (again, from my community) get the game, play a couple months then get hyped into another game. Only a fraction of them keep WoW as their "main" game, going all out about m+, raiding or even PvP. Most of them are getting burned out fast, they get the most of the game then can't be arsed about minmaxing / farming / grinding/.

I'd say viewer exposure definitely brings people on the game, but I lack scope to figure if it's esport (AWC / MDI) or if it's just about the streamer persona. Like you're following "Kevin420", one of your favourite streamer, doing its show everyday on some random game and then he switches to WoW and you just go along with him, even play with him. Asmongold's guilds feature a lot of people who never played WoW and they're all there, running MC and doing stuff. Same with Venruki / Ziqo being top players and AWC casters, they mostly doubled their viewer numbers by playing Classic. Retainship is hard nowadays because unlike 2005 there's a lot of online games out there, but Classic production most likely isn't expensive and bring subs, even for a month. $15 is a lot when you basically have no development costs.
 
xzi

xzi

Mouthbreather
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I watch Asmongold when I'm out of podcasts to listen to and don't want to hear music right now. Dude has a massive amount of followers that have never played wow before watching him, and a ton of them joined when classic launched like you said.

The thing with the AWC, and ESPECIALLY the MDI is that it's completely unwatchable unless you're aware of what those classes do. I mean sure you can follow the health bar go down and that's fine but it's such a volatile environment with so many spell effects that sometimes I don't even know what the fuck is going on even when I'm playing. You're not going to get some outsider that doesn't already play the game join up because of the MDI. Unless they're already competitive players in another game that is now dead (much like HOTS launched several fortnite and classic tournament pros, etc). Overwatch suffers the same problem in my opinion, there is so much happening that you barely can keep track of it especially if the teams/rosters change even slightly during a match.

The game just isn't counterstrike, someone has a gun they point they shoot you got 90% of it down. I've literally watched a CS match on tv with my grandpa before and even he knew what was happening.

tl;dr what the fuck is goin on
 
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A

a_skeleton_05

<Banned>
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Yeah, even StarCraft has the advantage of being easily explained and watching armies grow or shrink is easy to follow. Wow PvP just has too many variables and moving pieces to follow along with even for people that know the game. And nobody wants to watch pillar hiding bullshit, it's boring.
 
Kaige

Kaige

<WoW Guild Officer>
<WoW Guild Officer>
5,563
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Cynical said:
Are Heirloom items even worth it for 110-120? Gonna level mage next, XP seems fast enough on DH. I had most of them, including rings, leveled to 110 during Legion. If stats aren't really better than quested/dropped stuff, I won't even bother.

I figure since it doesn't take all that much effort to level 110-120, I might as well level all my 110 alts, and get more shit out of mission board, like Legion & WoD?
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Yes.

Its not just for the experience, but for the items themselves. Itemization in BFA for leveling is screwy if you're going fast. Its especially rough after 115 because you can't use any of the legendaries. The other reason for "items" is the i-level. They will be upgraded to a set number when you hit 120, and you will need that to gain greater i-levels to access the other content. If you're still using some quest item from like 117 with a shit i-level, its going to hurt you with other items you get from things like World Quests, whose reward i-levels are based off your existing.

Most of your major slots won't be a problem, but you'll have some oddball equipment like rings and trinkets that can keep your ilvl low even if you have everything else higher. Heirlooms auto-upgrade, so when you hit 120 you'll have a "floor" i-level to start from.
 
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xzi

xzi

Mouthbreather
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idk dudes.

I'm genuinely looking forward to blizzcon & the expac announcement tomorrow. please don't make me look like a cuck blizzard
 
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Fucker

Fucker

Log Wizard
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Kaige said:
Yes.

Its not just for the experience, but for the items themselves. Itemization in BFA for leveling is screwy if you're going fast. Its especially rough after 115 because you can't use any of the legendaries. The other reason for "items" is the i-level. They will be upgraded to a set number when you hit 120, and you will need that to gain greater i-levels to access the other content. If you're still using some quest item from like 117 with a shit i-level, its going to hurt you with other items you get from things like World Quests, whose reward i-levels are based off your existing.

Most of your major slots won't be a problem, but you'll have some oddball equipment like rings and trinkets that can keep your ilvl low even if you have everything else higher. Heirlooms auto-upgrade, so when you hit 120 you'll have a "floor" i-level to start from.
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Don't forget Benthic is BOA. My character has a set waiting to equip the moment I hit 120. I think the heirloom stuff maxes out at 284 at L120.

The Azerite blue stuff is 280/285, but I have it bagged because I hate leveling. Things die quickly anyway w/heirlooms, so that gear isn't a big deal.
 
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Kaige

Kaige

<WoW Guild Officer>
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Yeah, Benthic is great if you can get your hands on it from another max level character.
 
BoozeCube

BoozeCube

The Wokest
<Prior Amod>
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I am curious to see what they announce, I am sure any xpac will be worth the initial leveling, checking out the new dungeons period. If only they can teach retards like Ion that the game doesn’t need a never ending carrot for no lifers to chase and that it is ok to finish the game.
 
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Kuro

Kuro

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
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You'd have thought that would have been a lesson learned early on from EQ's AA system.
 
Merrith

Merrith

Golden Baronet of the Realm
18,418
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Khane said:
Ulduar. Just make everything like Ulduar.
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That's the one thing I liked about Wrath better than Vanilla or TBC. Ulduar's design where the "hard mode" was built in instead of just clicking a setting prior to zoning in.
 
Fucker

Fucker

Log Wizard
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28,769
Level with Warmode on. A great addon for that is Spy. It lets you know if an enemy is near, and shows you name/level/class and plays a sound. I used it to escape a shanking earlier.
 
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