70% of trial players quit WoW before level 10

by Robin Torres Feb 11th 2010 at 1:00PM

When Blizzard put all characters below level 10 on easy-mode and added the tutorials in patch 3.3, I thought that was because they were expecting a huge influx of new players for the holidays. But I was wrong. CEO Mike Morhaime stated in the quarterly conference call for investors yesterday that only 30% of all Trial Accounts make it past level 10. This would account for the priority of making the beginning of the game new player friendly, over other development we veteran players would like to have seen. He goes on to say that the changes to the leveling game in Cataclysm will be good for retaining new players while giving better replay value for the rest of us.

Now, I know what you're thinking. How many of those trial accounts are scammers, so of course they don't make it to level 10? Good point. I don't know the numbers, though I'm sure Blizzard could just look at how many of those accounts made character names by facerolling. However, the account thieves aren't strapped for cash and have been known to not only purchase full accounts to do their evil bidding; but will also reactivate lapsed accounts, slap an Authenticator on and farm/scam away. So the 70% may very well include a large percentage of potential subscribers by process of elimination, since the scammers can afford multiple accounts.

As I've said before, the pre-level 10 changes we already have help us introduce our loved ones to the game. And I think we're all looking forward to the new starting zones and leveling experiences we'll find in Cataclysm. Particularly now that we've had a taste of the new quest mechanics in the Love is in the Air quests, such as PIlfering Perfume and Hot on the Trail.

[via Digital Spy]

Tags: conference-call, leveling, new-players, noob, patch-3.3, trial, trial-accounts

Filed under: Blizzard, Cataclysm

Reader Comments (Page 7 of 7)

kyle Feb 11th 2010 10:19PM

I am seriously NOT a fan of the Alliance heavy blogging here at wow.com . . .

Pathological Feb 11th 2010 10:10PM

The 30% subscription rate seems about right. My friends and I have played since release. Since the release of Wrath of the Lich King, three people have cancelled their accounts and only two of us play regularly. We've tried to introduce the game to other people and of the three friends we've invited, only one made it to the mid-60s. The other two never got past the end of their 10 day trial.

There's a couple of things though that are apparent to me. Blizzard did an excellent job of the starting areas for the Draenie and Blood Elves. Both have compelling lore, interesting quests, a quick leveling progression, and decent quest rewards. By the time you've completed their respective starting areas, you've reached at least level 20 and you have some decent gear. Contrast that with the experience of leveling the other eight races in their own starting areas. The constant running back and forth, the lousy rewards, and the lack of bag drops.

The other thing that bothers me is the changes to all classes, that have never been regression tested back to low levels. If you've leveled a mana using class in vanilla, you learned which talents to choose to lessen your downtime and which gear to select. Since then they've changed some talent trees so dramatically and mana generation algorithms continually, so as to make downtime tedious. Try leveling a priest now with no wand specialization in the Discipline tree. Your rotation is fight, drink, fight, drink, fight, drink. Its monotonous.

I've heard in Cataclysm, they're going to change the starting gear and spells for the early leveling game. I hope by then every mage, warlock and priest starts with a staff and wand with the shoot button already on the action bar. Its also confusing why a paladin starts with a 2H weapons but a warrior starts with a sword and board combo.

kyle Feb 11th 2010 10:20PM

I hate alliance.

Rubitard Feb 11th 2010 11:27PM

I can remember leaving the safe haven in Elwynn a little earlier than I should have, and seeing a friggin' deer that was a higher level than me. It was too much to take, and I quit playing for a few weeks before starting all over on a new trial.

Cragdog Feb 12th 2010 2:03AM

^this. LOL. One aspect I have not seen discussed is how badly the game seemed to be kicking my butt. I rolled a dwarf warrior first and I do remember being TERRIFIED, as a level 9 or so, when someone got me to join a group to cross that dam in Loch Modan to fight stuff way higher than me. And I am over 50 in RL. (lvl 50+? lol) Dying in the game absolutely freaked me out. lol. Sweet memories. (of only a year ago. lol)

Oakraven Feb 11th 2010 11:45PM

Lemons thats 3 of 5 after the first year.

WoW is 3 out of 10 after the 10 day trial, It would be interesting to see what the retention rate is for people after 1 year.(and yes I play WoW)

The Irony is that a Game that prides itself on turning away casual gamers because of its "Learning cliff" (they actualy brag about it, and recently took away most of the starting skills they used to give you) is able to keep more trial subs than the suposedly "Casual freindly" WoW.

Oakraven Feb 11th 2010 11:55PM

Macster they based the 45% on the people who signed up for free trials not by who started with the game disk(they listed the retention rate on thoes at 36% after the period was up)

in fact they comented that they got fewer new long term subscriptions from the "buddy program" offers than free trials and disk sales after exluding the obvious "alt account" signups.

Wich has me wondering how many people who bought the game CD continued to play WoW when that games freetime was up.

jrb Feb 12th 2010 5:10AM

is this 70% of accounts.. or 70% of toons? I'm sure a lot of people try different classes, and maybe differences in factions before deciding.

if the starting zone revamp coming in cataclysm works, would we not just see the bar raised from lvl10 to lvl15 or 20? We all know the mid-teens are the new mid-30s.. :-)

(currently levelling up 3 accounts with recruit a friend + multiboxing... and levelling still slows down in the teens before the XP jump kicks in at lvl20)

J Feb 12th 2010 10:52AM

I've recently started playing a new character with a friend that's brand new to WoW, and the experience has been... interesting, to say the least.

She's fairly new to the MMO genre, and the earlier levels for a new player are nothing short of daunting. They're confusing, and the quests are almost exclusively to blame for that. A new player will naturally pick up every quest available to them - but oh, wait, why are these quests sending me to about three different zones, the other continent, other cities, etc etc? There's no order to it, and a ridiculous amount of running back and forth. As I've levelled up several characters, I've been guiding my friend on the most efficient way to get things done for the sake of our sanities, and she's understandably been concerned at the stuff we're missing out. It seems that as soon as you hit your first major city, any sort of structure in where you should go is thrown out the window. It's definitely frustrating, and I found my experience in BC and Wrath to be significantly smoother (and I don't feel like I'm missing out on a ton of things on the way!).

gerkshz Feb 12th 2010 4:41PM

WAR was my first MMO and I guess I was spoiled. I gave WoW a try twice in a span of 6 months and not once did I get far from the starting area. The first time, I quit after about killing some birds in the starting area. The second time, I reached that fountain thing and quit there.

Reason? No scenarios. WAR gave the option of scenarios available from Level 1. I didn't want to level to 10 just to PvP.

I no longer play both games (instead playing Mass Effect 2).

Eisengel Feb 12th 2010 10:22PM

Recently a pair of my friends started up with WoW, and I have to say, I entirely forgot how steep the learning curve is. Both of them are pretty smart people and certainly have played games before, but if I wasn't over their shoulder 'co-piloting' I doubt they would have lasted more than 20 minutes. The interface is quite busy, the multi-axis control (camera+movement) and all the little nuances of identifying other players vs NPCs vs monsters, aggro radii, pulling, threat mechanics, looting multiple items, the slash commands for chatting... and the double-dozen hotkeys that we're all used to using constantly. It really is pretty daunting, especially if it is your first MMO. My one friend plays games almost exclusively on consoles and had a devil of a time controlling the game with an entire keyboard, and using the mouse rather than his thumbs to pan the camera. It really does require some significant coordination and work to get started, and I could certainly see how people could get frustrated quickly.

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