Everything becomes overly optimized, streamlined, and business. No messing around, no having fun, no spacing out, no taking in any casuals, no slowing yourself down, you just press w and are rewarded more for playing a single way. It actively encourages you to blitz through it as fast as you can. When it was just challenge mode dungeons to get a mount or something with no real loot incentive this mindset was fine. This being a now required part of the game is insane.
Just remove the timer altogether and make them like delves. Make the whole timer speedrun stress-inducing GOGOGOGOGO mindset only to those who want that. After playing classic I realized just how bad retail is now. There’s no sense of community at all anymore. It feels like I’m playing literally any other game except I have to manually “queue” myself. This isn’t WoW. Perfect play is encouraged so severely that everyone else might as well be bots you micro with pings.
That’s what happens in high end content… literally doesn’t matter what it is. Its the same in raids and pvp. If you want casual fun, then do easier content. You should know this lol… this is how the game has been since forever its not a new attitude.
Could agree more, though I know it’s an unpopular opinion, and the M+ Sallys will be all over you. My issue is that it has continued to cultivate a player base that’s wants this to be an esports game, whether they say so or not.
It isn’t though. Back in cata, a kid with ADD who only really gets to play on weekends and a 65 year old grandfather who only plays on weekends could clear the raid on heroic every week in a single night on the same team. In WoD people would talk to each other during mythic dungeons.
The level of difficulty, and what is de facto required, is far greater than it ever was before. It’s become toxic and stressful and burnout inducing where a single mistake and the run is potentially ruined with everyone flaming each other.
Who the hell wants this? Pull back and look at this from afar. It’s insane. WoW is and always was at it’s core a social game. It was from the era of pub shooters where people would talk to each other in voice and if someone was getting sweaty they’d be told where to go and how to get there. When games were more chill. Nothing fits this bill anymore except for wow classic.
Friends not good enough to go M+ on high keys with you? Or Mythic raid?
Well, they can’t play with you anymore.
It sucks, but them’s the brakes.
I never got to experience BWL and Naxx during Vanilla, because they were out of my scope of skill (and gear) back then. I was also 10-11 years old lol.
My guild had these on farm. Would always see them in there.
I only ever got to clear UBRS/LBRS and MC before TBC came along.
For what it’s worth, I only really remember because of a single memory I have of people on our raid team then talking about spamming it for a particular trinket.
Who? what kinds of people, when did they start playing? How many?
A few people would quit, you’re right. The game would become more casual.
You just wouldn’t get any dungeons anymore because nobody runs Normal/Heroic/M0 dungeons after the first two weeks of a patch, if that. They wouldn’t be able to justify the cost of developing them.