I tought it failes because it doesn’t got new content how curious
Increase GCD and massive aoe reduction capability is a pretty big step back to TBC so maybe they are heading that way.
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Because only the people that plays in old server are important?
I was complaining about this at launch and my post history can easily prove it. It’s only got worse as the expansion has went on.
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Correct.
An additional aside is that China was still on TBC when we were on Wrath. This is another largely ignored fact about differences between the regions.
5 Likes
I’m the greatest world quest champion ever. I’m 1337 like that.
Out of touch, probably.
In a very different way
it had same content for everyone to unify people. But now everyone is getting “special” content while community as separate as it never was before
So I like to know just how the OP has the inside scoop on just who is this core audience?
3 Likes
The forums are out of touch with WoW’s core audience.
20 Likes
The direction has been questionable for years. You can’t blame blizzard or the guy in charge for catering to the majority of people. They apparently want an arcade version of the game and they have it. With little to no community/social aspect outside of a guild - and even that is very questionable.
1 Like
LFR people are closer to their core audience… mythic raiders and people who push M+20’s are the minorities. They game should not be designed exclusively to serve this segment.
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I feel like if they had pulled back on the layers of gear RNG things would have gone better. Too many hamster wheel proc mechanics.
4 Likes
That is a perfect and hilarious dwarf name lol.
WoWs original target audience was the hardcore crowd. The elite 1-5% of guilds that were able to do the end game raids because they were so difficult for the vast majority of players.
Starting around WOTLK they shifted their focus towards the casual players and that’s really where its been ever since. Epic gear is thrown around like candy when it really meant something back in the day. It usually meant like weeks-months slogging away at raids to get your gear.
There was a time when WoW was like a cultural phenomenon. I remember raiding Naxx while the south park WoW episode was on tv. It’s lost that status to games like Fortnight which just appeals to the Gen Z. I think the average WoW player is in their 30s?
Blizzard is just in a tough spot because they have to develop a game that appeals to everyone. They have millions of players and you can’t make everyone happy. At the end of the day they’re a business and their goal is to make $$$ so they have to target the audience that will draw them in.
They didn’t put WoW classic up just because the players wanted it. They put it up so they could rake in a huge amount of extra $$$ without having to create an entirely new development team to run it.
1 Like
It’s bad I’ll say that much.
From the MMO to the RPG I don’t really think the devs speak for even a quarter of the original audience anymore. Whoever had the stomach to keep paying Blizzard money is now playing Classic. The rest of us are looking for other titles to spend our money on.
There is some rabid cross section that likes the current iteration of retail but if I had to guess I’d say they represent about 5-10% of the historical audience. Maybe 15% would be more fair.
2 Likes
There is no core audience. The entire WoW audience is vast, diverse and comes for different reasons.
So the right build for retail is an offering of a multitude of core gameplay features which mutually share a core gameplay reward structure.
This means in practice that:
- Dungeons
- Raids
- Battlegrounds
- World Quests
- Mission Tables
- Pet Battles
- Scenarios
- Arena
Should offer gear, gold and rep.
With each core gameplay feature offering additional feature-specific rewards like cosmetics, mounts, gear, etc.
This design is fool-proof for maintaining a diverse playerbase that comes to the game for its sandboxed nature. A do whatever floats your boat approach. If you just want to arena all expansion you can. If you just want to world quest all expansion you can. Etc, etc.
No more forcing people into a feature they dislike. No more telling players they have degenerate playstyles. No more big brother developer input.
Build it and they’ll come. Mudwhimp and you lose.
13 Likes
You have to be kidding, just because you play 16 hours a day doesn’t mean Blizzard isn’t catering to you. Blizzard pretty much specifically caters all end game content to the hardcores. If they cared about casuals at end game they’d give them something to do other than string them along with sparse WQs after they get geared in a week. There’s no more titanforging or corruptions in SL which in your eyes gives undeserved bonus to the skilless so be happy SL is your kinda xpack. Besides pretty much free legendaries there’s nothing in SL for casuals. More of the same M+ and raid or die.
6 Likes
Because AoE cap, locked borrowed power, 1 week cooldown on switching borrowed power, M+ loot nerfs, forced personal loot, continue ad nauseum, are what hardcores have been wanting for years.
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I play at most an hour every other day and 3 hours on raid night. The majority of my time has been spent walking and working out.
One thing is also for certain is the incredible drop in subs since cata.
2 Likes