TheColonel

This is a quote directly from the Mists of Pandaria Press Tour:
"This expansion is not a joke"

Er, anyone else more than a little worried that they felt the need to say this?

link is http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2687-Mists-of-Pandaria-Press-Tour

For me personally, WoW died when risk/reward became "here, have a prize for trying (even though you suck)"

I've got to hand it to them, that's a lot more than I thought they'd get. If WoW was unaffected by SWTOR (as they claimed in their last quarterly results) then that means there's potentially a whole load more new MMO gamers out there, which can't be a bad thing.
Personally I didn't enjoy it enough to take up the monthly sub, but I wish them well.

I'm proud I bought this game when it first came out, my money couldn't have gone to a more deserving developer

Back in the days of Vanilla WoW whilst levelling up for the first time I ran a pug in Zul'Farrak. Most of it was fairly normal... and then came the event at the top of the pyramid. None of us had any idea what was about to happen.
I think my reaction at the time was something along the lines of "HOLY F@@KING SHIT WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE ARGGGGGGGHHHHH"
followed by
"WHEN'S IT GOING TO END? ARGGGGGGGGHHH" etc etc

That was pretty epic, and when we beat it the rush had me addicted for about 6 years, but I'm not sure I ever felt that same high again.

@Vanir
Sure it's desperate, but it's also fiendishly crafty. I can see thousands of people taking up Blizzard on this offer. Blizzard can't lose, either - everything they are offering costs them nothing, and former subscribers make them no money, so signing up even one person for a new sub makes them a profit on the whole venture.
Not myself, though. For me WoW has run it's course and I'd prefer to remember the good times.

I had absolutely no issues with the game engine during my 1 month of play. In fact I would say that the engine is one of the best I've come across for an MMO. However, I personally found the art direction to be horrendous, and for that reason I am no longer playing.

SWTOR was the most recent, and before that it was the free versions of Warhammer and Fallen Earth, both of which I personally thought were rubbish (no offense meant to anyone, that's just what I thought).
I'll give the free version of Aion a go this weekend, so that makes it the most likely candidate for the next removal.

@baby sea tuna @Styli
The thing is though, EA (assuming it's their strategy) are blatantly taking the piss out of their customers. Their attitude is 'how can we squeeze as many bucks out of our fanbase with the least amount of extra work on our part?'. And if you think things have gotten out of hand now, what's it going to be like in 10 years? In-game micro payments to start every level? Sounds over the top, but if you described the current situation to someone 10 years ago they would think we are mad to buy the game in the first place.
The only way to fight them on this is to hit them where it hurts - in the pocket. EA won't shut down Bioware if sales are soft, as they know full well that Bioware gives them an existence. I want them to realise that they've crossed the line and need to act accordingly in the future. My attitude is that as long as they act like assholes then they can't complain about what comes back at them.
I try to always buy games, but companies like EA make me wonder why I bother.

Can I just say that 'A machine for pigs' is a brilliant title. It's unusual, visual, and strange enough that it could mean many things.