It seems like an inevitable “evolution” of humans and our desire for dopamine.
In 2004, the average person wasnt exposed to the levels of dopamine they are today. But over the years, the average person has built up more and more of a tolerance to things that release dopamine. Smartphones are probably the biggest factor in this, its dopamine on demand, pretty much anywhere and anytime.
Its just how we are evolving as a species. Games today are built to have so many micro rewards and microtransactions just to pack in as much dopamine as possible. Im playing HC with some buddies, and our main reason was to go slow and enjoy the game. When I got Smite’s Mighty Hammer, I was more excited than getting my final piece of arena pvp gear during my peak wow era. Yet every day we play, they treat it as a race, and then so do I because I dont wanna get left behind and have no friends to level with. Thankfully I have a second character I am leveling HC with a friend who is new to wow, and we are going almost TOO slow.
Anyways, the desire for the dopamine of that next level or next new piece of gear overpowers the desire for the greater hits of dopamine by going slow and getting those rewards. Its the same exact issue when it comes to substances. If you do it all the time, you dont really feel it the way you want to feel it, and you start doing it more and more.
It’s addiction, plain and simple. Gonna ruffle some feathers with that one!
The problem is raiding is about ticking your weekly timegate raid lockout.
That’s not a meaningful experience.
It’s precisely why I avoided mythic raiding, as I have no interest in instance id lockout trash.
Because the leveling/questing/dungeoning experience in classic isn’t about doing your weeklies and then sitting in loot timeout. It respects your effort. Trying to move people off how they want to play and then punishing them for playing the wrong way or how they want to, is why we have min max cheesing meta of retail. That comes along with the destruction of community, since people now see each other as vehicles to tick the timegate, and if they play suboptimally, to be avoided, rather than play through a struggle together.
This is a Blizzard self-inflicted problem, where it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, where they make content not stand up on its own by trying to force some apparently immutable timegate systems.
Did you really just try comparing 4 different versions of classic wow raiding, one where fresh just started molten core and its in its hype phase, to what is now an old irrelevant retail raid where everyone is waiting for the new raid that starts soon?
Also the fact theres multiple end games in retail, mythic+ is more popular than raiding, lol.
I somewhat agree. What raiding is now does not even resemble what it uses to be. I go to join a raid and when I see “lead” i skip it. I know they will kick me the moment someone more geared than me ques up.
Molten Core has been around for 20 years, I wouldn’t consider it “Fresh” because it was re-released.
However, my numbers were drastically off (which I have since corrected in my original post). Even without M+ and Delves included, Retail’s numbers are much stronger than I anticipated.
I said it once I’ll say it again, the game doesn’t do this to you, the players do. Stop playing with people who share that mindset. Find a guild who clears at the pace you like, settle down, and enjoy the game.