For sure, but there were still several things Blizzard could have done to mitigate the issues we had in BfA and Shadowlands. We didn’t have to wait until Shadowlands to see those changes.
I’m talking things like azerite powers being boring. People stated as much in beta and Blizzard didn’t do anything about it. People also took issue with timegating and the grind required to unlock allied races, and they still didn’t do anything about it until much later.
So yeah, Blizzard couldn’t have fundamentally changed much about those expansions, but they could have done a lot more to make them feel better than they actually were, and they didn’t.
The issue here is that you assume people get frustrated with these posts on Blizzard’s behalf. In reality, it could be because they care about preserving the community and fostering an environment in which better criticism is leveraged and isn’t overshadowed by posts that offer no criticism instead. Not everything is done in the name of Blizzard, but because people care about this community and hate having to sift through slop just to find something worth discussing. Their frustrations aren’t invalidated.
And maybe some people take it too far and are overtly negative in return, but I mean… that’s what happens when you don’t offer forth anything substantial. Not sure why anyone thinks they deserve being given the benefit of the doubt when they have no interest in relaying their issues and concerns with more structure.
Once again, a major tuning and design choice issue. Take away the insane amount of currency it cost to buy the mogs and the inability to switch at will, and most of the complaints wouldn’t have been there. Once you were able to swap around, it really wasn’t that bad.
Funnily enough, I did so all the way back in BfA. I quit the game a month after BfA launched because I was already annoyed with the excessive timegating and the fact that I had to grind rep just to earn the privilege of leveling an allied race. I outlined these issues in a post and then quit the game.
And I still think that, to be quite fair with you. I think it’s annoying that we have to do anything to obtain access to allied races when Blizzard could easily just deploy a 10-15 introductory questline that explains how these allied races ended up aligning with the horde or alliance. The whole “You have to earn their trust first!” is a dumb argument and was never an issue when previous races were introduced.
The fundamental problem with covenants (and what people almost unanimously agreed on) was how they impacted player power, and the fact that the covenant with which you best thematically identify may not be the best covenant in terms of player power.
If you’re a PvP demon hunter, you’re a night fae (this changed sometimes, but as an example…), even if people despised the theme and iconography of a night fae. The Hunt was a class-iconic ability, and it felt wrong for it to be a single covenant’s ability.
That’s a fundamental problem with the design of covenants, completely irrespective of tuning.
Also, this conversation is entirely beside the point I was making.
I’m not talking about what the players were complaining about.
I was talking about Blizzard’s methodology. This is honestly an entirely irrelevant tangent.
This is so ironic because you’re using the exact same hyperbolic language you’re accusing others of allegedly employing. And I say “allegedly” because I haven’t see anything like what you describe, especially not personal attacks.
The vast majority of complaints are perfectly valid as is the frustration because this isn’t a one off. Scaling issues have always been a part of any timewalking event that has ever been introduced in this game and when you’re someone who has played all of them it tends to get to you after the nth time.
Min-max peeps being upset about their BiS ability being tied to a specific covenant =/= universal community agreement that it was the major issue.
I stand by what i originally said though, rarely is player feedback about any given piece of content or system about wanting it to be 100% scrapped and thrown in the trash, the vast majority of the time it’s about the restrictive nature of how it is delivered, like not being able to switch covenants, or X thing not being account wide or whatever.
I’m flabbergasted as to how many Americans don’t know what their own amendments really are. Freedom of speech has nothing to do with this forum. It’s funny to see this repeated all the time. lol
Yeah well, I’m never, ever, going to side with corporations “just because”.
Even if freedom of speech doesn’t apply here, I’m still gonna speak my mind.
Corporations exist because of people, not the other way around.
I think it’s weird that people are trying to stifle any conversation because “that’s not allowed here”. Lol the conversation will just continue elsewhere.
It’s not like WoW forums is the only place to discuss the game.
I get where you’re coming from, but imo it would be much better to steer discussions in a more constructive and positive direction instead of just fighting the person who wrote an opinion. Overly negative topics tend to spiral pretty quickly into a small saloon brawl or get pushed by people who want to be funny and dismissive.
Instead of just ignoring ‘destructive’ posts and focussing on healthy topics or trying to move them into a more constructive direction, the negativity gets way too much attention. With attempts to convince people with a negative opinion that they’re the problem and that their feelings are wrong. There’s no need for that and it leads to nothing.
I’m baffled that this “it was just min-maxing because of 0,5% more DPS” take is still around. The DPS/HPS difference between covenants was quite substantial for many specs. This wasn’t about min-maxing at all.
We can agree to disagree, but I’ll also just say again that this convo is entirely beside the point.
Edit:
Same I actually got a bit of PTSD that this terrible argument was invoked once again. It was in that moment I realized “there is zero point engaging with this individual” lol
