No this is not a pro BfA thread, pro retail thread or whatever, because some stuff I dislike too about WoW
Now, like the title says, everyone blames Blizzard because they lost their touch and now we got things like titanforged and world quests or whatever
Because the player base changed…
You see, I started WoW since Burning Crusade, I was only 12 or so then, I was a complete idiot when I started, putting talents in one tree, keyboard turning, not key binding, no add-ons, whatever
I remember playing with people, trying to get to do dungeon’s but at the same time I was worried that I wasn’t good enough, because my first week of WoW I was trying to tank RFC and I got called bad because I didn’t know what I was doing
These players who I learned with, are players who were guys who played Warcraft 3, the guys who were hardcore, guys who were heavy into lore, getting excited to fight the Lich King, enjoying raiding Sunwell (this was months before pre WotLK), seeing the Horde with Thrall leading it, seeing Stormwind in game as it was, when
before it was destroyed based on Warcraft Orcs & Humans. Majority of those WoW players then were hardcore players.
The ones whoo took effort in playing the game, gearing up, grinding those dungeons to get best as possible, playing their class well, feeling prideful when they got that Warlglaive of Azzinoth, that bow from Kil’jaden Sunwell, making sure their raid team had flasks, food, gold for repairs, whatever.
WotLK came out, I remember being better at the game, doing my best, even though I was probably 14 by then, but because I was a casual then, I was never invited to raids, too afraid to tank because of it, so all I did was try to run 5 man dungeons over and over and over, but most of the time I couldn’t because I was still anxious, or farm dailies over and over at Icecrown Citadel, thats all I did. Till LFG tool finder came out and made it alot easier for me to do dungeons with people, without the need of searching for people on Trade/LFG chat. Once that tool finder came out, I realized more and more casuals like me were doing dungeons.
Then, Cataclysm came out, and right then and there, I realized the game started to become alot easier, less talents, spell ranks no longer exist, no longer necessary to have spell resistance gear, being able to queue for LFR without needing to find people, Blizzard started to cater towards the casuals, I remember this complaint over and over on the old forums back in 2010.
At that moment, Blizzard knew they had to change the player base favoritism, the guys who were hardcore back in burning crusade? they already quit, they grew out of WoW, they had a family, they no longer wanted to play because Arthas is gone, Arthas was one of the iconic villians during Warcraft 3, he died, the iconic villain they once dreamed to fight in WoW, is gone, there was nothing else they think could top him . They needed to shift WoW to cater the new WoW players of 2010 and beyond. They needed to make the casual player keep playing so that they can keep enjoying WoW without the skills it needed to be good before Pre Cataclysm.
MoP rolled around, spells and talents were once again easier to the casuals, no longer needed to stance dance with warriors, no longer needed materials to make poisons for rogues, no longer needed to follow a cookie cutter build, you just had to pick what talent was best for you. You no longer had to learn spells from a training master, you no longer needed all that gold to get what you want, your guilds were more friendly with casuals than ever, the game was easier to casuals, there was no effort in raiding besides Heroic (technically called Mythic but that was before the changes)
and WoD… you already knew what WoD did, it made it too casual, the casuals did get bored, whatever hardcore veterans stayed around, that was the last straw. subs dropped dangerously and Blizzard had to act. What was best to keep players? an RNG system, something that makes the pplayer to keep playing yet something that a regular casual can do without effort, to get that best gear, took the idea of lootboxes and applied it to a WoW term, titanforged for exampple, and you got Legion and BfA, mostly BfA.
My point is, yes Blizzard did make some changes that veterans or regulars/casual do not like, because no one doesn’t want to farm mythic+ every week in hopes that chest gives you a titanforge item, hoping for a weapon to drop with good stats, trying to grind azerite to make your necklace powerful.
But what can they do? The player base changed, not just WoW, look at Fortnite, look at PUBG, look at Call of Duty, look at DOTA 2, look at Counter Strike Global Offensive, those games for example have loot crates, and yet they are still popular.
I’m 25 now, I remember enjoying WoW then when I was in middle/high school, but I can’t dwell on the past over and over, Garrosh said it well in the WoD cinematic, “Times changed.”
Yea classic WoW exists soon and can relive some of that momentum again, but you can’t play it forever, just like you can’t eat Mcdonalds every day before you risk your health.
Blizzard can’t keep the game how it was like pre Cataclysm was, you got to make it work for the bigger group, or at least both sides as possible.
Were some choices too harsh for some players? Yes it was, I agree about hating Azerite gear, that necklace