Everything about SL seems to be designed to intentionally irritate and frustrate. Nothing to write about in the grand scheme of things, but little quality of life peeves that add up to an overall very dissatisfying, annoying experience overall that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Honestly, I wouldnt be surprised to learn in the great staff culling, if Blizzard got rid of the services of their psychologists who basically model this stuff to be as appealling and enticing as possible.
Anyway, on to the list of some stuff I noticed:
Quests that require an over-necessary version of player interaction to the point of being forced. Eg: You need to interact with the world, kill a mob for a collect quest, you need to kill a mob to get an item to use elsewhere… just why?
Maps chalk full of mobs to the point of feeling claustrophobic. It’s like they learned nothing from BFA.
Annoying zone design and not adequate tools to navigate them. Give us a properly layered World Map with markers ffs. Why aren’t the anima pads in bastion marked for instance?
Over-abundance of ranged mobs with casts that cannot be interrupted. The Maw, Halls of Atonement, open world are full of these.
Annoyingly designed hubs. Why can I not mount in the outer ring of Oribos? It is so freaking arbitrary.
Speaking of Oribos, the bland, undistinguishable design does not help. The symbols do not reflect what their halls do, most of the time.
No mounting. Why can I not mount in Sinfall? I must go 3 levels to get outside to mount. Pointless.
Those are the ones that come to my mind; I am sure I will encounter way more.
I just dont understand the thought-process on Blizzard’s part with these. It just turns me off; at this point, I have a smoother-feeling experience playing an RPG from 2004 (Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines).
This is one of the biggest annoyances for me. I actually miss Boralus a LOT. The sounds and ambience were 10/10. Even in Dalaran, despite being a circle, you know exactly where you are. In Oribos, I’m constantly looking at my map, which doesnt help at all anyway because there are no distinguishable icons or areas in the “city”. All I use it for is seeing if I’m on the left or right. And the little tiny plaques on the wall to designate the 4 zones tells you nothing.
It’s like the took everything that didnt work in Dazar’Alor, Boralus, Dal etc and stuffed it in Oribos. Seriously, even having the icons or areas lit differently would help in a visual shorthand, which makes for y’know GOOD DESIGN. SMH.
Yeah it’s really strange. I don’t know what future content they have in mind, but to have the FP upstairs in a room of very literally nothing make no sense at all. Oribos was cool for the first 10 minutes we were in it because of how grand it was, but now, 2 months later, it really just does feel like a meaningless circle that was inspired by nothing but a rushed timeline. I mean seriously, as the main hub of the expansion there arent even any shopkeepers. It’s just a circle with 4 equidistant rooms, and the only thing that doesnt make it a perfect circle is the little notch on the left where the Org/SW portals are. The outer ring serves no purpose either.
I am hoping it means that content is coming down the line. But even with that, Blizzard needs to learn that it’s better to have content within the game instead of gating it as they do. They’re so worried about power-gamers clearing everything so they release stuff at trickle-rate which is dissatisfying for everyone, casual, hardcore and everyone in between.
That aside though, I wholeheartedly agree that Oribos feels lifeless. And not in an appropriate way; it ought to be the opposite of traditionally lively , but right now it additionally feels soulless/charmless which is a bad thing.
In short, the game isn’t super convenient and simple (why do you play this game? Go back to animal kingdom) and Oribos, the center of the land of the dead meant for only a few dedicated spirits attending the Arbitor, isnt very socially appealing to the hundreds of mortals suddenly flooding it.
WoW is a RPG, not a click to win FB game.
Friend, I just checked. There is no such NPC. Only the flight master who takes you to the Sanctuary of the Mad. And the FP is located on the 1st floor.
It’s on the lower floor, but still a lot faster than going up the stairs, taking the mirror, and going up yet more stairs. Being a DH you can also figure out on your own how to … get back down quickly.
Edit 2: Turns out, you get a slowfall debuff jumping back in through the grate called “Prince Renathal’s Welcome”. So everyone can get back easily too.
lots of people feel annoyed you see it on the forums, trade, guild chat so something sure ain’t good. way more annoyances than fun times just my opinion on many things.
funny people must forget that… because wow has all the staples of a proper RPG like;
mission tables - select follower and send them out to do things and come back a few hours later to see if you win
daily locks on how much you play for a day - done all your WQs? done all your campaign for the week? come back later!
conduit energy, want to change up and try something new!? oh, you need more energy to do that. come back tomorrow.
…oh wait… those are staples of facebook/mobile minigames.
yeah, i know, there are actual RPG things in the game… but its strange how its the FB game style that keeps getting forced into so much of it.
but you remove the above and you’ll likely see and improvement in peoples playtime.
Oh oh, I know why they did this one! They want us to really feel like earning our Pathfinder achievements were meaningful (when in fact I just want to relax and fly around farming herbs and enjoy the game again).
A big part of the problem is that good MMO design will slow progression down without making it obvious that it’s happening. In Shadowlands it couldn’t be more obvious that the primary focus of the game is to slow players down and give as little as possible for the effort made.
Thing is, I’ve built maps for many games over the years. I could easily make a better hub than this. I’m not a concept artist, but more of a builder. Give me some sketches on paper, and I’ll bring them to life. Oribos is so cheap looking. Bland, boring, and ugly.
Strikes me as lazy design… and cheap fast labor to execute it.
Honestly im absolutly embarassed for talking my friend into coming back for SL… It sux to the point we only do old content for transmog atm he relvling and me just bored of current stuff.
I agree with some of the points but I actually expected this to be about the Maw or Torghast. I freaking hate those places and always get annoyed by something when I’m in either. I’m always strictly business in either and looking to leave as soon as possible, not because “oooh, they designed such a good wow hell, I’m supposed to hate it” but because I’m not having fun with the game. My life feels like hell enough, I don’t need my escape to feel like it too.
