I think I'm Blizzard's target audience for returning WoW players and I just unsubbed

Community General Discussion
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EDIT: Made the title more clear.
EDIT 2: Alright guys, thanks for the discussion. What I’ve learned from the comments is basically nobody thinks I put in my full effort (despite being prebis, consumes, wb’s for SoD), I’m in a dead guild/need to join a new guild, a lot of people really dislike PVP (my favorite content) I should do my own research and form my own opinions instead of asking others what their opinions are, I shouldn’t learn from PVP esports streamers to improve at PVP, and WoW is a game designed for commitment.

Prior to resubbing, this is my rough memory of WoW. I played Vanilla-TBC (a year maybe?) and only a little bit of WoD/Legion (not sure which one, but when I logged on I had a level 38 DH).

Most of my memories from this game are from Vanilla-TBC, and not Classic. In fact, WoW was so off my radar these past couple of years I didn’t even know about Classic until October 2023. The only reason WoW hit my radar was because a video of Asmongold went viral, then I went to check out who he was and alas he played WoW. He always talks about WoW having x or y problem, and my memories were telling me no way its true, because I only had positive memories of WoW.

I saw a replay of the latest Blizzcon event and it said if I buy now, I could get DF as well as TWW next year. This sounded excellent. Later in the conference, they said they are doing SoD. This was the turning point, I loved Vanilla WoW, never got to play Classic, and it would be with a twist! I resubbed!

So I’m leveling my level 40 hunter in DF, and I realize… where are the dragons? Where are the players? I open the map and omg Azeroth is huge. I realized I’m leveling in BFA alone. Vanilla WoW I was never alone. Okay no big deal, there is probably a new capital city like Shattrah or Dalaran I need to get to. I hit 70 after a couple days of playing, and then I realized I don’t even know what my character does anymore. I’m a PVP enthusiast, but there are now 2 different talent trees per spec, as well as PVP talents. I tried to do some BG’s, low and behold there are a ton of new BGs and I have no idea what the win conditions are. Someone go glaives, someone go hangar… to do what? Anyways I’m playing and I’m also realizing I have no idea what other classes do anymore. Someone asked me why I don’t use heal and bubble as a hunter and I was so confused.

Later I finish the story mode with LFR (great addition!), but afterwards I felt fatigued to keep learning. There was just TOO much stuff I missed out on. Too much lore, too many new classes, specs, debuffs, addons. I got flamed in +2 Mythic because I didn’t know the plan is to AOE all the mobs down asap instead of sheeping, sapping, freeze trapping mobs. There was no way a new casual player like me would ever catch up.

A month goes by, SoD releases. I’m getting back all the early 2000 vibes with everyone constantly wanting to group up, do dungeons, quests, kill the enemy faction. It was awesome. Then everyone started getting to level 25 and requiring logs for BFD. I’m like… where do I go to get logs? Nobody was doing this for the previous dungeons. Some guy whispers and helps out. I check the website, have no logs and have never done BFD. I ask what I could do as a casual player, with no guild, to get into BFD. Someone said GDKP. I look up what that is, and you need to bid gold on items. I have no gold, so no point in joining that. People said fake it til you make it, so I did. I lied to so many people that I’ve done something before, and that was the a WEIRD feeling in WoW. I’ve never had to lie to do a dungeon before, but to play the game I need to deceive other players. Weirdest feeling ever.

Phase 2 comes out, the population is less than phase 1. People are gatekeeping again with not only logs, but dungeon comps this time, too. I finally hit 40 and am ready to try Gnomer. I hate lying, and I kept saying I’m new to the dungeon. No bites. I lie, get into the raid, and we don’t complete it. Now I have bad logs (I’m a blue parser), but I cant lie anymore. Its fine, as I prefer PVP anyways. While playing the game, I learn about sixtyupgrades to look at different gear. Almost 80% all of the best PVP BiS is locked behind the raid I can barely get into. On top of this, the meta suggests I play melee hunter, not ranged. The gatekeeping continued so I decided to just log off.

People say the solution is just to join a guild. I’m a casual player, who wants the casual experience. I want to play WoW when I want to play WoW. I already got kicked from a guild because I didn’t show up to a raid, which the information was shown in Discord, not in the game itself.

Overall, DF was so bloated without any way of learning other than reading guides all day. SoD is being gatekept by the top players. I think I don’t fit in with WoW anymore, so I unsubbed.

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Okay, I’ve got an entire novel of your history and how you grew out of the game, but I’m not sure what the point was. I feel like you were trying to make one based off the title… but I’m not really grasping it.

Yes, there’s a lot. Yes, the community is weird or toxic at times. Yes, you should find a guild that fits your needs. If none of that appeals to you, then I understand. But I’m not sure I get where the “target audience” portion fits into the diary entry.

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It doesn’t. Like at all. It’s just a lot of weird complaining that really feels like AI wrote it…

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I’m not sure they themselves know what their target audience is right now. They seem torn between trying to bring back players who soured on the game and trying to just appease and milk the players who will never, ever leave.

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If it is any consolation, nothing in Season of Discovery requires top players or even above-average players. The groups that require purple or higher parses in SoD are usually undeperformers trying to run a pug with the “I am leader, carry me” pass.

That said, if you want to be casual in a guild, would be better in one with more people so teams are flexible rather than one with mandatory attendance.

As for learning in retail? I learned most of what I do through doing with only some pointers on the side from other sources because if you learn entirely from guides you won’t know why they suggest certain things and of course, guides also aren’t to be taken as gospel because they aren’t always correct.

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I laughed at your description of bloating in retail because it’s so true. If I was new right now, wtf would I do? Why I try to help anyone I see in game who needs assistance lol.

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Hmm. I don’t get the ChatGPT grammatical composition from it, but I don’t know how the others write yet, so maybe.

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That’s why I didn’t say ChatGPT. But who knows, MAYBE they did in fact write a long novel of all the reasons they hate the game. I don’t see the point in it personally, but meh. I can’t really complain too much about the game right now lol

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Why’d you say they hate the game? The post sounds like a genuine experience from a returning player who obviously wanted to give it a shot and could not keep up with the times. They never once stated they “hate” the game. Just that they had what I’d assume to be a poor experience.

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Maybe, if you played for “a year maybe” and “a little bit of Legion”, you aren’t really the target audience?

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I mean, I get the perspective of someone who’s returning from ages ago… but I don’t get the whole, “I’m the target audience and unsubbed” part. How are they the target audience if they don’t want to learn the game? And what does it have to do with anything?

:dracthyr_shrug:

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Crazy part is I don’t hate the game, and I didn’t use ChatGPT. I work in corporate so naturally we have to type this way or we get flamed by upper management lol.

The hardest part is the toxicity of the community. I didn’t even get to that point in DF because I didn’t even know what I needed to learn, cause there is just too much of everything to learn. It’s crazy how people will be so toxic to one another in a community game, where we should be helping each other grow.

In SoD, everything is so simple, yet why do we need to optimize running SM? I’m down to do anything in game with others as long as everyone is chill. When people were looking for spell cleave comps, I was like damn, I don’t have that skill. Is my hunter, who had AoE at that point, joining a spell cleave composition truly ruining the game for those 4 people?

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People blaming gatekeeping normally just don’t like putting efforts playing the game as far as I am concerned. They find it rude that the group is the priority not the individual. Not understanding the social dynamics and why other people time matter, it’s all about them. Blaming others for their own failing.

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I’ve been playing for 19 years. I play a lot. I buy tokens. I have everything from the shop. I write addons. Truly, I am WoW’s primary demographic.

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I mean, it sounds like you don’t enjoy the idea of learning something new and putting in too much effort, which I find ironic because for me that’s the appeal of an MMO. I enjoy hopping into unfamiliar territory, needing to put a lot of effort into understanding how to better myself, and eventually gathering enough knowledge and experience to guide others in the future. I’m currently catching up with FFXIV, and the feeling of being overwhelmed and new is exciting for me as I’ve not played in quite some time.

I agree the WoW community can be harsh a lot of the time, but I’ve never really felt the necessity to deceive, it’s just made me put a lot of effort into further research or practice to better my understanding of what I did wrong. That’s not for everyone though, and I do feel there are varying experiences within the game that don’t require so much research, so maybe it’s best to pursue easier content instead?

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Yes you are the primary audience, but they need to sustain the game. I want them to sustain the game. How do you sustain the game when people are leaving? You see, this doesn’t affect players like you, because you are in a guild, with your friends, enjoying your time. A player like me leaving the game has 0 effect on you, so you don’t care at all. But once many people like me, who want to stay, end up leaving the game, that is when it starts to affect you.

Based on what I’m seeing, SL killed the playerbase, DF revived it for a moment, SoD revived it for a moment. I checked the interests over time, which is no way 100% indicative of the health, but its only going down further.

What’s up with the community not wanting to grow this game anymore?

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It’s a 20 years old game. The fact that is still as big is still a big win.

Show me what other games has sustained itself as good as wow I’ll be waiting.

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No one said this. But dumbing down the game to a level where it’s braindead 4 buttons, 3 zones and 3 talent points is not engaging.

You claim most of your memories are from Vanilla and TBC, then act like the talent system is some new and innovative thing you can’t figure out.

You claim you want to PvP, but you don’t want to learn how it works.

You claim you want to be around people, but won’t find a chill guild that will help you out.

You claim it’s all too much— which, coming from that long ago, sure it is— but you don’t seem to understand that it’s 20 years of expansions and story and gameplay. You act as if that’s bad.

What exactly do you want if you don’t want any of what makes this game what it is?

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See there is no point in showing you a game that has survived this long, because you refuse to acknowledge less people play the game as long as you are happy. We could have a game have 100 players and the devs make updates, then the game has 10 players and the devs make updates. The game is alive, sustained in your definition, but it can’t last that way. Think from a business perspective if you can.

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Thats fine. I just got a friend into WoW. He plays D2 usually. He just subbed.

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