This is why there is WoW Classic and TBCC, really, and likely will be WotLKC eventually as well (I think the “classic” games will end there).
Retail isn’t trying to retain the old skool casual, slower paced players. They’re aiming at the younger market. Why? Because their marketing suits are telling them that younger people spend more time playing video games, and therefore more money (looking at league, fortnite etc) and that this demographic, which is focused on competitive gaming, streams, and the like, is where the focus should be … not on aging old skool players in their 40s and 50s with a lot of other time and money commitments.
The problem with that reasoning is that MMOs are just not very attractive to a younger audience. The reasons have been touched on by various posts in this thread. The time commitment involved in doing the actual competitive content (as compared with easy on/off games like league and fortnite, where you can get in and out of a match in 30 minutes) is unattractive. The idea of having to level a character before you can play the “real game” is unattractive. The idea of having the actual PvP aspect of the game also require time-consuming gearing (again, as compared with mobas, royales and team shooters etc) is unattractive. And above all the idea that they should pay a monthly subscription fee to play a single game – any game, but especially a game designed to take time to play – seems utterly asinine to most of them when compared with the other games they like and which are on the market.
WoW’s problem is that its core market is the older, old skool crowd, because MMOs in general now are old skool games. That’s why there is such a trend now for “classic” modes in these games – it reflects the demographics of the playerbase, which is older and has different tastes in gaming. That older playerbase, though, is not as large as the younger one, and has less time to devote to gaming (and worse reflexes and therefore less interest in hypercompetitive gaming a la “twitch skill” gaming).
Blizzard isn’t entirely stupid, however. What they are trying to do is split the baby. That is, they are well aware that the MMO market is moribund and mostly made up of older players with lots of nostalgia. They would like to attract younger players to their particular game (i.e., grow the MMO market by doing this) while at the same time milking (for lack of a better word) the old skool players who still like WoW enough to play it. This is how the game is designed now – keep the content for the old skool drip-fed (and also provide ample actual “classic”, nostalgia content available on the same sub), while the focus of the game is on the red meat competitive content that is hoped will attract the younger gaming audience. They are trying to do both, and the content reflects that – and that’s a key reason why SL is a failed design. You really can’t do both, at least not very well. By doing both, you bog down the competitive content with timegated chores while at the same time weighing down the old skool/RPG content with mandatory competitive content. It’s the worst of all worlds.
Again, this arises for Blizzard because they know that their existing playerbase is old and has no real future in terms of sustained income stream (it’s a declining base in that sense). They want to at least try to attract new players, which means younger players, and so they are hyping the competitive game play, given that this is what is most popular with younger gamers who don’t currently play MMOs much (as compared with older players). It makes some sense from the perspective of a marketing suit brain, but it doesn’t work for game design. It leads to bastardized designs like SL, which in turn are leading to a lot of discontented players.
