That is pretty much what blizzard is saying to the people that arent already far too invested in this game to ever leave.
That leaving during this trash patch which is something many people will justifiably do, then they will be punished by never getting the chance ever again to do X content or get X appearance.
WoW has a long history of removing content from the game in order to punish people for not playing during X expansion, it doesnt matter if the expansion or patch is trash and completely not fun, if you dont want to miss out you are supposed to sub religiously.
They have removed a ton of questlines from the game, from Wrathion’s MoP cloak to WoD’s ring questline as well as the items, from challenge mode sets to Legion’s artifact appearances, hell they have even removed an entire area of the game by removing wrathion’s MoP cloak and just from BfA:
-Magni story questlines (though nobody will miss that outside of ultra lore nerds)
-Sylvanas loyalist questline (Even if the choice had no impact at the end, the fact that they removed a questline that was just there to give players some sense of character instead of Hurr durr you are big good dumb dumb hero)
-the beginning of the Wrathion storyline
-Brutosaur mount
-M+15 rewards And let’s hope they dont remove the cloak in order to purposly make the last 2 raid bosses impossible for new players, they ve removed areas from the game before by removing cloaks, why not raid bosses
None of these are hard to achieve or do, especially m+15 considering how broken corrupted gear is so IT WAS NEVER ABOUT ACHIEVEMENTS, it was always about removing content to keep players subbed through fear.
The question is, do you believe a company that uses such disgustingly manipulative methods to keep players playing, are they really worth supporting? Especially since it is clear they have learned nothing and wont change.
They also removed the beginning of the Wrathion storyline and as of right now, you cannot run all of the dragonflight storylines for the HoA once you reach a certain neck level or start the cloak questline.
Yep, we are talking about removal of content within the SAME expansion too, at least before they had the decency to wait for the next expansion to come before removing the content.
EXACTLY, for some of us who have a completionist playstyle when it comes to our characters the fact that I wont be able to ever get X reward if i want it and will always be behind older character is a very strong demotivator.
Blizzard of course hasnt realized the negative effects of removing content yet as they are happy to keep doing it and considering how many people defend and love the removal of content since it makes them feel special, I doubt they will.
Blizzard using FOMO to keep people playing (and paying) is nothing new.
Started allll the way back in Wrath (BC? One of the two) with Elite PvP sets and mounts, which is still a thing to this day.
Then in MoP with the Cloak(s) questline and title that comes with it (Legend of Pandaria).
Then again in WoD with the ring and the Garrison decoration.
In Legion it was the Mage Tower appearances.
And now in BfA with (probably) 5 mask Visions (and the achievements and rewards tied to doing that), the Servant of N’Zoth PvP title, and a achievement/quest raid mount like we’ve seen in every end-of-Expansion raid since MoP.
People whine every time but it’s not gonna change because Blizzard knows it works and people do it anyway. I certainly do since I (generally) like what’s offered.
There are a myriad of reasons that this post is nonsensical but I’m going to stick to the most obvious:
You feel you will be “punished” for not doing content that you feel is so bad you should unsub from the game, and that the this punishment will consist of Blizzard removing the content that you already feel is not worth doing.
Yeah that has been pretty standard, blizzard is locking behind content that is not fun, it is grindy or timegated so people feel FORCED to do terrible content and if they refuse to do it and unsub then they never get to get X reward that might actually look cool because you refused to do something that isnt fun or enjoyful.
Blizzard keeps doing it which is why I am playing SWtor and thinking of just stop touching WoW in general even in shadowlands, they arent gonna change.
Maybe you didnt read the obvious part of the post, but the reason people do terrible content and want it to be available later is because REWARDS THAT LOOK GOOD ARE LOCKED BEHIND IT
In their defense I think most of the removed stuff this xpac is due to returning players. Imagine having to do that long quest chain before getting your cloak. However, I think they should leave it in and make it skippable.
You outlevel it by an expansion therefore you roflstomp as quickly as possible and are done with it
The sub is actually worth it during a good expansion so you do that unfun content and then move on to more fun current expansion content. Of course that is assuming shadowlands is fun, because if it is BfA doing terrible old content only to go to terrible current content makes it not worth subbing at all.
In other words, when there’s a good expansion that makes the sub worth it, it is too late to ever get the stuff you might like because they are REMOVED.
