ESO. The best rewards in ESO are purchased or obtained through solo activities like Antiquities.
The housing system there is too based in real money, but it’s wonderful for solo/casuals. I could spend a year just trying to decorate my house and never have to join a group to do it.
More importantly, I can solo faceroll group dungeons on my Necromancer or my Templar with no problem, so even stuff that is gated behind group content - isn’t.
No problem, and if it fails like shadowlands and BFA. I will be laughing and got my money worth. 
Cool, so a game already exists that players can play instead of fundamentally changing World of Warcraft.
Glad that WOW never went down that route
Cool. So we’ll both be getting our moneys worth
I’m just going to point out that for this to be a “war on gameplay”, there would need to be less content.
That is not the case, as there is probably more solo content in DF that can be done on a single character at launch than there was in SL.
Thank you to the OP for an awesome thread. Unfortunately I think the Blizzard development leadership is arrogant and elitist in nature to a point of blindness to their games health. I believe WoWs time has passed and it will continue to fade at an accelerated rate with the help of many of its players and the Development teams obsession with M Plus and Mythic raiding over all other content.
Can’t say I will shed a tear. It’s kind of a bummer that I have to fight against Blizzard’s design theory to enjoy their game but it’s what they continue to engage.
The only reason WoW has been given another chance is because of the utter failure of other companies to put up a legit competitor… Honestly it must feel good to be the game that is the lesser of evils, high five!
World of WarCraft is “fundamentally changed” every single expansion.
This is the most schizophrenic game on the market. We’ve been through every kind of change, phase, experiment, and iteration you can imagine.
Catering to casuals and soloers isn’t new. They did it in Wrath with the initial wave of casual-solo achievements like /loving all the critters of Northrend and stuff like that. Holiday achievements like “What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been” which awarded casuals a free flying mount and free 310% flying speed at the time.
They did it in Cataclysm with the introduction of Archaeology, and doubled down on that every expansion that they kept going with Archaeology.
But Legion really took the cake for solo/casual content. We had the Underlight Angler, allied races to unlock and level, heritage armor sets, class order halls to max out, rare weapon appearances and class hall mounts to quest up, camp, farm, or otherwise go after. We had so much to do without ever having to group up and I’m still doing some of it.
WoW started out as the “casual MMO” that let you solo all the way to level cap. In Vanilla, leveling was the game. The raiding at the end was just the cherry on top. Getting to 60 and getting your epic mount was the whole deal. That’s how I got here in the first place.
I respect your right to your opinion, so please don’t take any offense when I say this, but…
If you think catering to solo players and casuals is “fundamentally changing World of WarCraft,” you are ignorant regarding what World of WarCraft was, is, and continues to be and you simply don’t know what you’re talking about.
Catering to us is a long-standing tradition, and the key to WoW’s past success compared to failures like Wildstar.
I understand that you may be in your feelings over this, but Google is your friend. You can verify everything I’ve said to you with a few quick searches if you care enough to bother.
When did they ever start rewarding solo players more than group players?
Legion. The Underlight Anger was the best reward from the entire expansion, and you could only get it outside of a raid group.
How much of a DPS increase was it?
Infinite vs. Fish
Good troll, almost took you seriously.
You were close to success then, because I’m dead serious.
I’m not a raider. I don’t care about DPS. I want more stuff like the Underlight Angler.
You can keep your stupid high school team sports dungeon crap. Just thinking about it nauseates me. Keep your rewards to yourself, too. I don’t want them.
I want my own rewards that are earned by doing the things I enjoy doing. The way it worked in Legion.
Also, I’ma go ahead and drop this hot take on you right now.
Withered Army Training >>> Torghast
Well said. Blizz definitely trolled me on this. Let me explain, starting with a little background:
I came back to WoW after quitting mid-BFA. They got me with the free SL upgrade. So I created a new character and jumped back in. I cleared Bastion and most of Maldraxxus so far, but I have shelved SL for later while I do old content on this new character. I’m currently doing Cata zones, but I digress…
Anyway, Blizz just trolled me hard and will likely get an upfront 1-year sub out of me. I sorta don’t want to commit, but I know I’ll likely be playing for that timeframe. Blizz enticed me with the “free” mounts, since I subscribe and don’t do tokens (yet). And they did it right before DF comes out. Sure, I can play a little and decide before the January expiration, but many (most?) love mounts. So they got me.
This ties right into your narrative about more of the same for solo players. I’m likely going to be sucked in for a year sub and I don’t fully know what gear I’ll be able to get as a soloer. And if what you say is true, Blizz will be punting the soloer down the road for even longer while they bask in the 1-year subs. If they are smart, they’ll keep doing free mounts every 1-year cycle…
That being said, for now, I’m content being trolled. I have a LOT of old content to re-play one final time. But at some point, I’ll be all caught up. When that day comes, I’ll be relying solely on current content to keep my happy, and I’ll have to weigh the decision to continue a sub if I’m not getting much benefit out of it as a soloer.
how did Blizzard troll you?
Some player’s desires are mutually exclusive, who do you cater to then? Whether people do it for gear or because they enjoy that activity, people are doing that activity.
I don’t think the gear grind should be removed. I’m relatively indifferent to the gear grind and am relatively indifferent to the power gap. However, if Blizzard wants to emphasize gearing as an integral reward for playing the game, that power gap will be exacerbated and become a point of contention for many players.
If gear becomes a list of chores (solo play.) Remove it. As it currently exists, fine, just wish M+ was equal to raid.