Oh, I have noticed, this is the first expansion since Pandaria that killed one of my raiding guilds.
To me that makes this the worst expansion ever.
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Games like WoW made them, they make more money from mobile games and random microtransaction nonsense now but WoW is like the soul of the business, i think they’d love to just cut it loose because it can’t deliver as much ROI as other games but they need WoW and the Bnet launcher to advertise their other crap to us and keep up appearances perhaps?
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One thing I do like about the Final Fantasy launcher. That’s all you see. You don’t need an ad blitz campaign on other games.
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I think it depends on how much you enjoy story content tbh. I started getting invested in the characters towards the end of ARR and fangirled a little, and started sleeping at like 3/4am to clear the story. But once I finished things, and started wanting to max out all my jobs, I burnt myself out and had to play something else.
Right now I feel like I’m the happiest when I switch between multiple games just so that I can always keep things fresh for myself instead of starting to feel negative and bored.
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Yeah, the Bnet launcher started out ok but these days it looks more like something that my ad blocking extensions would usually protect me from lol
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Anecdotally, I see the usual ripple of friends going and coming changing.
Most have not flounced into Guild chat, or here to hussy up the dancehall. They just go. So many are not coming back though.
I can7t pin it to any one thing. A general derth of content, combined with a lackluster setting for this expansion? Remember that these people hung on through BfA with a generally hopeful outflook… 
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I don’t know about overall, but on the micro for the past few expansions I’ve watched various guilds die from all sorts of things but one omnipresent issue was a dissatisfaction with gameplay systems. In legion it was legiondaries particularly the drop rate, and to a lesser extent the nuisance of getting the right weapon shards with the right traits. In bfa it was basically every system, first azerite and the ap grind, then benthic gear and essences, and then finally corruptions. Only months if not a year later would the core issues with these systems be fixed. I’ve met plenty of players and personally feel myself that blizzard is taking the playerbase for granted in this, most of these systems had no brainer fixes, all they had to do was loosen up on the grindy bits, but for some reason when a fix came it would come in too late and sometimes even too little. Some of these players I know have long since left the game as it got to be too much of a hassle to do the content they want as they want to do it. I daresay I myself feel myself reaching that point as the patches go by, which is a shame I really do enjoy this games group pve, and I find wow raids to be a hard to replicate social experience.
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The so called bad expansion?
Now people want to go back. Yeah, grass is always greener till you eat of it and realized it’s been fertilized by a ruptured septic tank.
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Our community guild has always been very active, having upwards of eight raid teams going at all times of the week. It was so busy during Castle Nathria that we ended up having additional Heroic runs on Mondays just to satisfy the number of players who wanted to raid.
But it seems like every few days there’s another “My sub’s up, and I’m gone until 9.2 at least…” announcement in Discord. Most of the raid teams have to scrounge to even get the raid minimum, or have just stopped altogether.
I’ve played WoW since January 23, 2005. I was there for the 14 months of SoO and played solidly through the maligned WoD, but I’ve never seen players so apathetic toward the game as they are right now.
It’s not the typical post-AOTC/CE doldrums that dance in every patch. There’s a distinct disgust for the game among many long-time, dedicated players, a sentiment that feels different than previous annoyances with the game.
WoW’s feeling right now a bit like visiting a store that’s going out of business; you go in and shop around but it’s a lifeless, depressing husk of its former self, with empty shelves and random junk on the floor.
I hope many of these players I know come back. It’s fun playing with them. But despite the old “you’ll be back” meme, I truly think many of them won’t be this time.
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Well, this time it was self inflicted by the company itself.
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My point exactly. If the hubby knew what a shambles SL would be, I think he’d have baled out with so many others, long before he did.
I’m perverse in that I liked BfA, but I am more than certain the guild stayed tough hoping the Shaldowlands would be ‘Return to Legion’ ™ - or some such other pipedream…
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This is pretty much how all mmo’s work.
In gw2 or ESO when doing dungeons people hardly ever reply when you say hello.
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I was kinda joking to myself will I ever see Nerdslayer cover WoW in his death of a game series, and it might actually be a reality one day.
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yeah, so I have a number of characters. Yet the way this game either has been for a long time or due to more recent expansions.
This expansion, I barely worked on any of my toons except for one.
At this point in time, I have started to work on two more so and have risen my mage somewhat but I really feel I only have the time anymore to really actively work on one character and long term I just think that is boring.
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Well, my wife bailed early on this expansion. I’ve been dipping in and out for the last year. I just want to wash my hands with it. I realize there is nothing left in the tank of their imagination department. Maybe it’s because we’ve all been playing the same game for nearly 6 years.
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“Maybe it’s because we’ve all been playing the same game for nearly 6 years.”
Now that’s a good point. When was the last original take the game had? Really? Was it Legion? Mists? WoD?
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Legion was the last new gimmick. Everything else was an offshoot of that gimmick.
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I think it goes much deeper than this.
I am old enough to remember warcraft 1 and 2. When this fictional world was just an rts game.
Did you know for example that I think ogres use to be on horde side or at least in many of the clans?
I think that’s right.
I don’t have issues with changes per se to a fictional world but some very recently were dumped (with no explanation at all). I suppose I am a lore bug (as some player here told me I probably was).
When you tell a story in a world that has had certain longstanding foundational building blocks to it; (such as WOW) and you make a sudden change. You should at least be decent enough to explain why?
I saw a number of things that were quickly added right near the end of BFA and beginning of shadowlands that just rung to me as “untrue”, due to them just being added with no explanation as to why they were suddenly there?
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Me when I started hearing Night Elves with high-pitched hippie voice overs.
I think people got tired of Sylvanas and her story as well as possible foreseen redemption, the Jailer seeming to be basically like Thanos and the story feeling like a hack of that and Legion, Blizzard feeling they know better and don’t want to listen to any feedback early on, the content feeling too catered to the hardcore elite crowd more than everyone else, and perhaps more. Will they be gone for good? Who knows but probably not honestly. It’ll take a lot of listening from Blizzard, a lot of good changes, a good new expansion listening closely to all feedback, and more focus on making all their games better and feel less like $$$$ generators in general.
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