All my friends have moved on from the game, which is the case for many.
Err doing keys isn’t Chad? This is just a weird comparison in general. WoW is not like getting it with girls? This is a game? Being with a woman is a relationship? Incels are an ideological product due to cultural fixation on promiscuity and “manhood” being tied to that as well? Whereas a very real but ever-present problem in WoW is “Min/Max Brain”, increased due to multiple tiers of competetiveness that have increased over the past ten years.
Gearscore is the Old Raiderio
But back in Cata/Wrath the cutting edge of WoW was like, getting ratings in PVP, “competing” within your realm in terms of progression because server culture existed as a real thing (even in-realm gossip and petty drama!), etc, none of which really exists now. WoW is becoming like how in suburban highschool the local sports teams take themselves way too seriously.
Things like Raiderio are always going to exist though. If it’s not an addon it’s a website that exports WoW data.
But I do think the current design of multilayered, multitiered complexity that fundamentally depends on Min/Max Brain (and thus systematically and by necessity excludes certain specs and classes because of current iteration of toolkit and dps balance) is lending itself to a certain toxicity.
Making friends in-game is harder now than it used to be. Everything is increasingly automated, less and less things require actual social engagement, server culture is dead, etc.
Like back in the day every server had a stereotype. I don’t think that exists anymore.
r. io gatekeeps the bads and the lazy people who don’t want to put in the time and effort and expect to be most likely carried, er I mean “Included” into your groups.
Bruh nobody even talks in trade or general anymore lmao things have become more antisocial in the past ten years, you can’t deny that if you’ve been around a while
not on my realm at least, it’s like 75% offering to sell carries/mythics/keys/etc and 25% normal WTS Stuff, literally nobody talks, its culturally dead
That’s not necessarily true… you have the availability to meet nearly an infinite amount of people. Automation doesn’t mean less social interaction… actually it’s quite the opposite, but you have to make an initiative to do so. How many people do you ask to friend request? How many people do you stick around and talk to? I’d guess very few.
Not in the sense you’re thinking… but it’s very similar to online dating. You have an abundance of opportunities but most people are not swarming in social interactions. It’s the same principle as I explained above.
I agree with this, but it doesn’t mean you’re SOL for making friends… your server community essentially just got bigger. It’s no different than the rest of the world with social media. Pre-social media, people had smaller communities. Post-social media, people have big communities and niche communities (which are correlative to community options and guilds in WoW).
You don’t just have to play with friends… but RIO requires you to experience dungeons at early levels before you are trusted to get into higher groups. You can easily queue for 5-10 M+ without needing a high io score. Once you’ve done every dungeon at that level, you can start moving towards higher dungeons. People aren’t willing to take the time to learn or grow and it shows in groups that don’t require io to join.