I wanted to address the developers and I knew no better way to do so than these forums. So here it goes.
First, I want to state how great I think these 9.1.5 additions are. Solo Island Expedition and new customization options are fantastic. I love what I’m seeing in 9.1.5 so far, because it makes me feel like some of my constructive feedback about the game has been heard.
But there’s an elephant in the room here that’s still the unrewarding and terrible feeling systems in the game. I may have my issues with the look of the expansion, but the feel of it is why I’m not logging in more than once every couple of weeks, and I’m only doing that to play with friends or family when they ask.
If 9.1.5 does nothing to address the worthlessness of solo queueable and most world content (outside of Korthia) then I probably won’t return for it. Raiding is fun and I don’t mind the occasional M+, but that’s not enough to keep me invested in the game. Korthia itself lost its appeal in about a month.
Leveling alts in Shadowlands feels bad to me. I have no reason to do a heroic dungeon or run LFR, or even a timewalking when it’s around, because of how meaningless the experience feels. Timewalking specifically because it takes 4 dungeons to get 1 random piece of loot. That sort of thing does not interest me.
I do not like everything in this game that provides a somewhat reasonable reward to begin with (unlike LFR/LFD) being one good-sized time investment for a single random reward. I don’t run Torghast because I do not like how soul ash feels. It does not feel like a good reward.
So, if we get some of these wonderful additions that I’m seeing pop up in 9.1.5 but there aren’t any fundamental changes to how the reward structure is designed, then it likely won’t change my participation in the game, and I wanted the devs to know it’s not because I didn’t appreciate these updates and take it as a sign that they shouldn’t continue doing these things. They certainly should.
This whole expansion hasn’t been for me. Korthia felt fine, but it was small and it was all there was to do that felt like it had anything to gain, so there was no way it could last. It didn’t work with any other content in the game.
Log in, do korthia for 20m, have nothing else to do that benefits my character outside of waiting for enough of my friends to log on to do a M+, which was rare. It sucks. Not because of Korthia, but because the rest of the game.
Torghast literally provides nothing valuable other than this expansion’s AP for a legendary. I don’t raid progression and I’m not pushing M+ keys. Why on earth would I care about working so hard and spending more gold to just upgrade my legendary a few ilvls? It doesn’t do anything else when its upgraded, it just makes numbers a little bigger. That’s not a compelling reward.
Wrath, MoP, Legion. Practically every expansion outside of the first half of Cataclysm was a game I enjoyed. I can’t find any value in playing Shadowlands casual content.
This is literally the first expansion since the creation of LFD that felt like I had no reason to run LFD. LFR doesn’t even provide runes anymore.
I’d like them to revisit their reward structure and find a way to bring value to more content. One suggestion I could make, that everyone has been making since BFA, is a badge system and a vendor.
But that’s all I know about this game that felt good. It’s why FFXIV feels good right now.
However else they want to do it, IDC, as long as it feels good to do more diverse types of activities in this game that don’t depend on my friends all being online at the same time.
You can spend an entire day in Korthia and continually find things to do. I don’t really know what to tell you dude. Blizzard isn’t going to pull new solo content out of their butt in 9.1.5. Korthia is the Timeless Isle of this patch.
I’m not even trashing Korthia. I liked Korthia. It’s the only good thing about this entire expansion.
But when Timeless Isle was a thing, there was still value to running LFD and LFR. I had a tillers farm to do on the side, too.
Shadowlands is not MoP. It’s not even WoD. Korthia is Tanaan Jungle in a WoD without the joys of having my own Garrison. I’m borrowing some covenant’s garrison and playing on the same mission table. lol
I don’t want new solo content. I want the rest of the existing content of this expansion, like LFD/LFR and WQs to have value to me as well.
Honestly, go play FFXIX then. If forcing LFR down the throat of players is what it takes for you to keep playing, it is better for all parties involved for you to simply drop this game and move on. I was sympathetic to your plight until you insisted on forcing LFR.
The only reason more of us aren’t still fighting to have it completely deleted from the game is because Blizzard has reached a compromise with players in your camp to maintain the existence of LFR but kept it out of the progression path. Understand that if you care about “progression content”, you are supposed to play progression content (M+ and raids). If you care about just logging on and having something to do to advance your character, you also get that with Korthia. We’re not going backwards though. LFR was soft-deleted from the progression path for a reason.
Listen. I’m not trying to appeal to you. I’m glad you still enjoy this slowly decaying husk of a once-great game. Keep on doing your thing.
I’m trying to appeal to the developers who are obviously making some changes to try and allure folks like me back into the game. I’m explaining why, even though I appreciate the changes, that it won’t work. Because the big issue is the state of this game. It’s truly unenjoyable for the second time in my 16-year tenure here.
So, they can do what they will with my feedback. I honestly don’t care if you disagree. You just pop up in threads to start fights.
I don’t understand. You say you care about character progression, but you don’t like the games progression content.
I get that you want content outside of those but what would that look like? How strong would the rewards be? Are you saying you want less RNG on rewards? I agree with that.
The simple truth is that the WoW team cares about their core audience more than tourists. It’s simply the truth. They’re not going to alienate their core M+/Raiding population. All casual content is supplemental to maintaining said core audience.
I don’t really have to argue with you because thankfully I already know you will lose. This isn’t really a debate or anything, I’m actually giving you friendly advice that if you expect to get these things, you’re better off going to FFXIV because you won’t get them here. It’s not a debate; it just isn’t going to happen.
I care about logging in, being able to play the game outside of grouping with my friends, and feeling like my play session contributed toward something that benefits my character.
I don’t care about arbitrary ilvl gains or things like leveling my legendary more than I have to if it’s not interesting. Torghast doesn’t have anything else going on other than soul ash, for example.
I’ve always been an AOTC raider at best, and I’ll only run M+ with friends. I won’t pug a premade group. Sitting and trying to fill groups for an hour is not compelling gameplay, especially if I only have an hour to play, you know?
LFD/LFR were good filler content, once-upon a time. Emissaries in Legion and even BFA when items upgraded were good filler content. AP even. All these systems had their drawbacks but they always made my time in game feel valuable.
Same things with stuff like tillers. Although I don’t expect them to add a whole farm or housing-type feature in a x.x.5 patch.
In order for me to care about content with my friends, I have to also have things invest in outside of that organized content, that I can do on my own that don’t involve me trying to throw a group together.
Korthia is a solid template for rewarding casual play, but it’s not enough by itself.
You talking about titanforging? I didn’t mind it, but a lot of people did apparently. I agree it made my time feel worth spent.
I get that. Are you in a raiding guild? If not, you gotta join one.
Overall, I’m starting to understand what you mean. A lot of people say that SL punishes the high end players but that’s not the full story. They have shat on casuals too. There’s nothing to do but raid log.
Titanforging trivializes the accomplishment of defeating a boss and getting phat loot and that is the absolute core fantasy of this game above and beyond anything else. Titanforging is kind of the antithesis of WoW itself and it is a bit surprising it lasted as long as it did (not that surprising I suppose when you consider the massive success of Legion and that the WoW devs didn’t want to “rock the boat” in any major ways, as they couldn’t be sure what did and didn’t work).
Seriously. There are so many beer league guilds or alt-runs someone can join. If you miss a night, no big deal. The simple truth is that queued content is not what an MMO should be about. WoW is the king and will remain the king as long as it stays true to the fact that the heart and soul of these games are forming bonds with others and doing content with others, and not queues. LFD/LFR were the biggest mistakes this game ever made, even the likes of Greg Street have gone back and admitted they would have done things differently in retrospect.
