I don’t wow for solo game play. Who does? I cyberpunk for solo game play heh
I’ve been soloing WoW since launch. While I don’t think SL is the most solo friendly expansion, Mustachio is correct, it is more solo friendly than Vanilla(Classic) was.
A lot of the issues we are seeing is less about hostility to solo play and more about poor implementation of the level squish, coupled with a stubborn insistence on temporary power systems rather than real character development. 
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Figured I’d give you a decent response. Sorry if it’s not the most well written out. 7:00 AM here and work starts soon. Can’t say I hit all your points either, or stayed as empathetic as I had hoped.
I’m not so sure about feeling accomplished in Vanilla. Maybe back in the day but with Retail putting the carrot on the stick that much closer, the old Vanilla rewards have become more frustrations than achievements. At least for me.
I get the appeal though. I think that’s also part of why Blizzard brought back Classic. For players such as yourself who want that experience back. Not that I want to relive it twice either, so I can understand wanting it back in Retail.
Sadly, I’d say its gone for good. Blizzard is a company in the end and they’re only interested in benchmarks that increase revenue. Shadowlands was a questionable flop as far as that goes. From what, I can’t say for sure, but I can tell you reliving the Vanilla experience wouldn’t be my first or fifth guess.
Maybe they can create some sort of leveling hard mode with new balance? Harder mobs, less experience, the same “Pull two and you die” type ordeal. But even then, there’s a larger issue at hand.
The game is overall more difficult than it used to be. Gone are the days of keyboard turner/mouse clicker accessibility. If a Vanilla like leveling mode was introduced those players would have a hard time working through it. They’d almost need to coop, but with each other in their shared deficiencies.
Can Blizzard bring back the social leveling experience? I have no idea. Vanilla was really grindy and it did require us to work together to some degree, encouraged us really, at least made Guilds important.
Not in the same way as Retail. Vanilla was all of us being awful together to overcome content. Retail is everyone needing twitch reflex skills to achieve a good number of things, even solo.
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I think a lot of people remember Vanilla as solo friendly because in comparison to other MMO’s it was very solo friendly.
What is forgotten is that you still had to choose your class and talents carefully if solo play was your goal.
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I dunno… back in the earlier expansions, there was very little end game gear that didn’t come from group/instanced content. Now we have armour we can upgrade, and tokens that are account-bound to send to alts. I still haven’t capped my Korthia gear past 220 and I’ve had no trouble doing any solo world content.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I’m not unhappy with end game solo gear so far.
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You clearly haven’t read the books or watched the Harry Potter movies xD
Well, here’s a solution: Turn off tier bonuses when not in a current raid! Problem solved! Casuals/Solo don’t have to worry about it and it doesn’t affect raids one bit!
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It all depends on your definition of a casual player. Ask 10 different people what they consider to be a casual player and you will most likely get half a dozen different answers. You actually described 2 types of casual players. They are both casual, but in their own way.
I consider myself a casual player, but I am online, on average, 9 hours a day. (Not that I should have to explain, but I am on disability due to complications from Multiple Sclerosis, and when I am not playing I am doing physical therapy or at some doctor appointment or another). I run my dailies on all my toons, post my auctions, do pet battles, farm for mounts or just do some general farming to make stuff to auction. I also have days where I’ll do nothing but solo queue for islands. Every once in a while I may run a LFR, otherwise I have not done “organized” or “current” dungeons or raids in over 5 years. The only PvP I do is a BG here and there.
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Nope. Casual is a metric of time only.
I’m sorry about your MS. Like I said above, casual is a metric of time. Soneone playing the game for 9 hours everyday isn’t a casual because time played doesn’t specify the type of content that you do. There’s also nothing wrong with the way you play the game.
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First and foremost, thank you for your response.
I do agree with a lot of what you said. The appeal of Classic is definitely more of a nostalgia thing today than it is good design, and so many things about those games don’t feel as rewarding or accomplishing the second time around. Classic is not a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination. That said, I do think it does understand rewards better, as well as the function of the world more than retail does.
Maybe accomplishment is the wrong term to use here. What I’m really trying to say is that, in Classic, I always felt like the game was rewarding me in some capacity, whether it was a new spell, a new talent point, a new piece of gear, or simply stumbling upon a cool quest while out and about in the world. Most of these weren’t in a raid or a dungeon. They were simply parts of the game that had little to do with grouping up and more to do with being a scrappy adventurer. In retail, I go extensive periods of time without feeling rewarded, and that is problematic design.
In Classic, I never feel like my time is being wasted. In retail, I feel like my time is always wasted.
I don’t think a lot of solo players, and players in general, would complain about overworld loot if the content felt more rewarding, but the problem is that so much of this game’s design is now about funneling everyone into the endgame that all other variations of content and rewards get neglected. More importantly, so much of this game isn’t even about the gear more than it is about the item level that gear doesn’t feel as important anymore, which lends itself even further to overworld loot feeling less rewarding. A significant chunk of the game feels like gear is automatic, where it doesn’t matter what piece of gear you have so long as it’s a higher item level than the previous piece you had equipped.
I’m not asking for the Classic leveling system to return. I certainly don’t want that. If I did, I’d just play Classic. To be honest with you, I’m not entirely sure what the answer is, but I can see the problems the game has and where they’re coming from.
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As a solo player I agree with you. well said.
Denotatively, yes. However, we cannot simply boil every detail of a discussion down to denotations. Connotations exist, and in the context of WoW, solo and casual players are generally regarded as the same playerbase, or at least see some significant overlap.
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I plan on leaving this game in approx a year. The game has degraded to the point where it’s an esport and not an MMORPG. Thanks, blizzard, turning your attention to the minority of minority players. You must really hate your game and the regular players.
No they aren’t. You have solo players that try to hide under the casual player banner.
They are vastly different in almost every aspect.
Casual players still do group content at all levels. I know a couple that hardly plays WoW and they have multiple toons above 2100 in arena.
Solo players push a narrative that you can’t be casual and successful in this game and that is far from the truth.
I can guarantee you that there are solo players in this game who play it casually, and casual players who only do solo content.
I never said casual players who don’t push group content don’t exist.
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As the player you describe in your post while turning ALL Blizzard employees in to terrible villains who sacrifice children in their spare time…
I do not agree with you on any aspect other than the suggestion for additional solo content like Mage Tower or a better version of Torghast.
There is a TON of solo content to do whether an individual likes that content or not. Your arguement appears to start with gear power, or ilvl, and so I assume you are wanting stronger gear for Deadmines runs or something I really don’t quite know.
I want the tier gear too. So when I want it…I will do what the game expects of me and move on. I typically dont get the tier gear until later as transmog anyway with a few expansion exceptions.
There is literally SO much going on behind the scenes at a company and these posts…
I get what you are trying to say but …
sigh…
If a player is “casual” and doing solo content they are a solo player period. It doesn’t matter if they do it for 2 hours or 12 hours a day.
If you play solo content only you’re a solo player. Not a hard concept.
Many people who claim to be “casual”players refuse to do group content.
That makes them a solo player period.
A person who plays games but aren’t competitive. Usually they are just there to be social and have fun but if they end up losing in the game they wouldn’t mind. They don’t put in a lot of effort to try to win. They may or may not play long hours of games. A casual gamer doesn’t place their gaming as a first priority.
Example of a casual gamer: “Sorry guys, I need to get to school or work or I need to go rest”. Or “Good game, good job, nice try, it’s okay we or I used to be new too”.
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You’re solo and casual. One doesn’t blanket the other. That’s not how that works.
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The fact you used urban dictionary as a source.
If you’re casually doing something it’s based on a metric of time.
That’s why some casual players still play mplus and arena at a high level.
Just because you’re playing at a high level doesn’t make you stressed.