Re-subbed 2 days ago and already regret it. WoW is so torn and it's awful

Community General Discussion
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I last played in 2019, just as Classic launched, and I have fond memories from that time. Recently, I felt the urge to return, but my enthusiasm quickly faded when I realized how chaotic the game and its community have become.

Regrettably, I re-subscribed. Over the past two days, I’ve experienced a whirlwind of confusion and frustration. Each time I log into a version of the game, I can’t shake the feeling that “this isn’t right,” and I find myself logging out almost immediately, only to repeat the cycle.

I want to express my thoughts in the hope that someone out there—who has the power to make a change—might take notice. I can’t leave without at least saying, “I tried.”

Upon my return, I was confronted with several disheartening realities:

  • Somehow, Cataclysm happened. I won’t dwell on this further; it’s too disappointing to acknowledge. I had hoped for WoTLK at worst or TBC at best, but Cataclysm was a letdown.
  • There are now three, four, maybe five different versions of the game? It’s overwhelming.
  • The community is fractured, not just by these multiple versions but also by uncertainty about the future of Seasons of Discovery. What’s the long-term plan? What is this all supposed to be?

When I log into Retail, it feels aimless. The leveling experience seems diminished, and it hardly feels worth the effort. In Classic Cataclysm—shudder—I can’t muster any excitement for an expansion that follows what many consider the “golden era” of TBC and WoTLK. I fear that MoP will disappoint, and I hesitate to commit to that inevitability. What’s next, Classic TWW?

Trying Era feels futile. Is this really all it will ever be? I didn’t even dare to venture into Seasons of Discovery, as I have no idea what to expect, and I doubt Blizzard does either.

Hardcore mode seems like it would only deepen the divisions within the community and create a prime environment for griefers.

So here I sit, longing to dive back into WoW, but feeling increasingly disheartened by the lack of appealing options. The community and player base have become so fragmented that it feels like the franchise is facing its end unless something changes soon.

I don’t know what the solution is, but there’s a real need for unification or consolidation somewhere. You have far too much going on, there’s too much division, and i’m not renewing my sub because i feel lost.

I’ll maybe come back in a few months and see if anything’s changed; Sadly, i doubt it will.

Edit: I saw talk about “Fresh” or some new servers. Maybe that’s something, i mean anything, but not this what we have right now…

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I can’t speak on Classic other than that private servers put SoD to shame, it’s pretty bad.

So many different versions of Classic, it’s pretty fractured.

Retail though, it’s been like this for years now. Probably starting in Legion/BfA.

TWW is closer to DF than anything else, a lot of those same systems, story beats, etc.

And yeah, I’d very much like for there to be some kind of reset, but people have invested far too much into the current game, even if it’s kinda crap lmao.

It’s still profitable, apparently.

Similar to how Rockstar Games never got around to making GTA 6 (until recently), because GTA 5 Online was raking in way too much money, and they didn’t want that to stop.

Sometimes it’s for the best to just move on.

I still enjoy WoW, enough to where it’s worth $15 every now-and-then.

I will say, I got super bored of TWW pretty fast, doing more old content than current.

There’s always other games, though.

When Monster Hunter Wilds comes out early next year, I’ll be absent from WoW for months, maybe even until the next expansion lmao.

I also think the current WoW community, is probably the worst it’s been in a while. Everyone’s so elitist these days. It’s always been like that to some extent, but I feel like the ‘average joes’ are just gone lol.

Maybe the community is collapsing on itself, idk.

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I recently resubbed too, and the current state of the game requires people to become elitist to survive. They keep on optimizing things around tryhards and as it goes on, only tryhards are left and things become optimized around the tryhards of the tryhards.

I completely agree with you, it just feels not right. I can’t see the game attracting new players in this state, and only ever drain old players.

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Thanks for your opinion.

Cata is a huge success.

TWW is way better than dragonflight

Go play the same version of classic wow they keep re-releasing. Very fun very interactive.

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Sounds like you’re in the same boat as many long time players. Retail is an MMO for 12 year olds. Classic outlived it’s welcome. We’re really all just waiting on the next great MMO if it ever happens because WoW shows no signs of being great again. I’m about done with the genre if nothing big happens in the next year or so.

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The problem with unification is nowadays there’s too many crowds with divergent interests that the easiest options was simply offering more choices which is why now we have multiple versions of the game. Retail has went too far in many directions that it would be really hard to go back on some designs which make classic what it is.

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yep such a huge roaring success they shortened the time window for the raids for it before it even launched.

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I wouldn’t call Cataclysm Classic a success. It added all the players that wouldn’t play without lfg and it also brings the same nostalgia that other expansions have for their fan base. But for long term WoW fans, it’s an even worse experience than Cata originally was. There’s way more bad actors per capita and the world somehow feels more dead. There’s so much retail WoW attitude injected into it. Finally the servers are dwindling at an even faster rate.

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So the problem is Blizzard ruining the game trying to farm to many different types of players.

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Well pretty much, I don’t think the idea was bad and it is still working to some point. But many things were sacrificed in the process, maybe too much.

When you become too big you also want to become bigger so you get more people working on the game but then you need to make the game worth that investment so this leads to that. Wotlk and previous expansions were surprisingly made with a really small team compared to nowadays.

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What sucks about TWW and ultimately what made me let me sub expire was how they made really damn good dungeons this expac. Priory, Rookery, Cinderbrew and Cleft are really awesome dungeons but…

We didn’t get them in the M+ rotation. Instead we got the THIRD rehash of Grim Batol. I did GB in OG Cata. Then I did it again for Cata Classic. Now they gave it to us yet again… I just can’t anymore.

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at least its not…grimrail depot again.
#bring back grimrail depot.

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You cannot unify classic and retail. The two playerbases are fundamentally different with wildly different wants and needs of the game. Like oil and water.

Trying to consolidate them will only piss off everyone.

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Yeah I don’t find Grimrail that fun, but thematically and style wise it’s freaking awesome. Not fun though and the last 2 bosses are actually kinda annoying.

Darkflame Cleft on the other hand is both fun and awesome thematically. It reminds me of Donkey Kong.

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I mean, ok? I have no idea of any of the numbers for Cata, but one of the greatest benefits of the Classic run is the ability to truncate expansions to pace them better. Most people I see talk about it enjoyed what there was of WoD, with the primary complaint being how little content there was for an entire expansion. That is no longer an issue with Classic.

Even holistically good expansions had/have long periods at the end that are acceptably less than the meat of what came before, but Classic gets to leapfrog over even those periods. That’s not a bad thing in any way.

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The only thing that matters is doing rated solo queue bg in retail pvp.

Everything else is a side game for outfit collectors.

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I’m referring to the 4 versions of classic.

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They will be in the rotation next season. Blizzard did this in DF too so we aren’t doing the same 8 dungeons all expansion long.

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Oh this might have caused some confusion if this was only about classic when most people on general discussion focus on retail.

But let’s take myself for example, I have no interest in Era or SoD it’s too basic and TBC was a bit limit in term of class design even if content was decent. But I enjoyed wotlk classic a lot and for me any attempt a new content would make more sense with wotlk as its base.

But this isn’t what we got we got, we got Cata that was a bit over what people that liked wotlk would prefer and we got SoD which catered to Era/tbc players, maybe it was a strategic decision but expect them to keep going with new expansions for classic as long as people will play them at this point.

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I don’t mean this in a bad way so please don’t take it like that, but what exactly is the problem here? If you haven’t played in years, yeah, there will be a lot for you to catch up on. However, just pick something and do it. Break the entirety of the game into smaller parts and divide and conquer. I’m actually jealous you are overwhelmed, that means there is content. Start at retail and just level through and try stuff. Gold making, raiding, PvP, mythic +, delves, there is really tons of things to do. If you don’t like any of those then perhaps this game really isn’t for you. Just pick something and start making progress, the rest writes itself.

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