I’ll give you this one. I can see how you made this connection. However, I don’t think playing itself is the addiction and that wasn’t my statement. People whine a LOT in the forums but they keep playing because it’s not as bad as all the whining purports. This is where people come to claim the sky is falling but the reality is less hyperbolic and the game is better than the forums would lead you to believe.
Since you made this “addiction” connection, I think the rewards are the addiction. If all someone did was level from 30-58, I don’t think they’d ever feel the addictive properties of WoW. RDF is favoring the addiction by stimulating instant gratification as part of the leveling process. But there’s a cost and it harms the game. Just like hard drugs eventually erode the body. If you only did them once, it typically wouldn’t matter, but that’s not what happens…
I’m okay with this because Wrath caters to the people who played in 2008 and those players have been represented significantly. This may be the last time WoW exists in this form, before the automations destroyed this game we all played for 5 years prior in its “original” form.
…really?
The arguments have been so dramatic, petty, crazy, personal, or absurd. To list “who”, the internet doesn’t have enough space. But since I’ve seen you post on a number of threads, I know that has to be rhetorical.
The only thing they’re going to really notice is if the sub numbers start going down.
That is the only metric that matters. Not polls. Not opinions. Not thread counts. Not the whining. Not the 100 people who rage quit. Not the debates. Not the merits of tools. Only a significant decline in subs and Wrath activity.
The tool harmed the game (along with other changes). The question is really, given its a re-release, does it have the appeal to creep up in activity once the “automate everything carebears” Blizzard has catered to for 12 years all leave.
…I’m an optimist. I think Wrath is good enough it might.
Wrath is good enough I have faith. It really is superior to any other MMO available during this era. It is hardly perfect but this version is the reigning champion of this genre. If Blizzard doesn’t screw it up again, it could have some pulling power.
I hope we see a decline in players for QoL improvements (queues) and those players ease over to Retail.