I’ll be honest. This had better be a hoax. I’m 99.9 % sure that it is. But for the sake of the hypothetical and for the argument, I’ll assume for the sake of this thread that it is not. If it’s not, that’s the last straw.
I’ve played this game from week one of classic. If they pack up their toys and go home, there is absolutely NO way in utter hell I would ever play any new World of Warcraft title. I will tell you why as well.
A.) Ever since this game started, it’s had one big issue. That it was fun, yes but it could of been so very much more. The biggest issue in WoW was and is wasted potential. At least since WoD on players have been waiting for Blizzard to realize this and to make changes to rekindle that potential. In short players have waited for Blizzard to have a ‘come to Jesus’ moment.
B.) Issue B ties into Issue A heavily. Instead, Blizzard Developers have stubbornly and ignorantly, ignored and disregarded thousands of pages of feedback for a study of nearly two decades.
They seem to have only contempt for people who earnestly post ideas or solutions. Even if the ideas are posted in the most respectful way possible. Why? Not sure, but it definitely seems like it is because they are always reaching for the lowest hanging fruit, and minimal effort.
C.) Some of us remember Kalgan, Caydeim, and other Developers statements. Some of us have not forgotten what was said and still see the same happening. So if that’s been the case since forever, why in the hell should we trust that things will change since the same company oversees them even still? Change the name and expect a change? Nope. I will not. That’s when I move to FFXIV permanently.
D.) As a player, I’ve built a lot of things over 18 years time. You think I’m going to just blithely throw all that away to join a new WoW II because Blizzard or “Insight” decides to pull the plug? No way in hell. I’d be resentful as it gets, and full of ill-will toward this company or any of it’s successors.
There would be nothing you could say, or produce that would make me change my mind. Why is this? Because you were not good stewards of the game, the lore, or the players the first time. You weren’t very good with Diablo II the first time either.
I remember countless “Realm Down” messages, and it made me almost not buy WoW in 2004. Glad I did as I made friends and it was good, though always hobbled by Blizzard’s stubborn ‘rockstar’ behavior.
E.) I’ve already got serious issues with this company’s employment practices and it’s ongoing efforts to appease fringe minorities on the internet. Why would I spend my money on a company that has ample temerity, yet lacks the will to censure employees that insult it’s player base? I will not.
F.) WoW II only works if our characters move with it. Without that it’s the end of an era and I leave it as that, while avoiding and cutting away from a company that has strung it’s players along and fed them lie upon lie upon lie. Think I’ve got some sort of nostalgia that will draw me to check out WoW II? You think wrong.
You want to make WoW respectable again? You want to make this game rival FFXIV?
That game is World of Warcraft. Not a successor. Understand that fact.
Here’s how you fix it.
1.) Merge Factions. Now.
2.) No more excuses. Produce regular content.
3.) No more E-Sports. PVP is not your future. Call of Duty has that covered.
4.) Playable Ogres. Now. More importantly though? A coherent story.
5.) Ability Customization. IE: Shamans can throw “Death Bolts” instead of Lava Burst.
6.) Player Housing.
7.) Professions fixed.
8.) No more excuses. Full communication weekly or monthly.
9.) Improved Customization of character avatars.
10.) Stop wasting resources on Classic Servers. Merge Classic to Retail via the Caverns of Time.
11.) Understand that you have squandered all ‘good will’ and ‘good faith’.
12.) Understand that this can only be repaired with honesty and will take time.
All of this can be summed up simply. We pay you for content. That content and the time of content’s release is the ultimate issue. Not the game. Put out or get out of the MMO industry. No more excuses.
Edit: Because I don’t want the leak posted in picture format, I’m moving it to this link.
Once again I will reiterate that people should take it with a grain of salt. However there are a lot of problems / features players have asked for, for a study of years that Blizzard has ignored or disregarded.
I think those ideas would of been better than what they blundered into.
Edit#2:
Despite all of the contempt from various posters, I’ll go into detail in this post about the 12 points I made. I do this because unlike most of the negative posters on this thread, I do genuinely want to see the game succeed and the anger that I and many other players have; comes primarily because we know that it can succeed; but we also are very aware that there is a desire from many to see it fail.
These could be Developers who are just too afflicted with affluenza to get it. This could be players who are just too jaded to understand what WoW was originally trying to break away from. It could even be from loudmouths who yell nonstop in Orgrimmar, like as if it was anything more than a loudmouth being a loudmouth.
1.) Merging Factions is actually a very simple flagging process in the engine. You simply change all flags to the same faction. The Pandaren showcase this well in their zone. The game assigns a flag that marks you friendly or unfriendly and then everything else is built off this flag. Alter it and the race can be mailed gold, join guilds, communicate etc. That is what should be changed.
Horde and Alliance would and should still exist, but the system of how the game treats enemies would need a revamp. I think having factions which are neutral and which players pledge to like factions or Covenants would solve this.
In Capital Cities, everyone is expected to behave as per a sanctuary.
Make specific Capitals that can be raided in War Mode and go from there.
In Battle-grounds your Faction or Covenant choice would matter, being only overwritten by the Guild you are pledged to. This would make Guilds in turn a much more important thing, which is long overdue for more relevance.
Additionally I would keep the Factions that exist a thing. To enter a City like say Stormwind, as an Orc or Troll; you’d have to do quests and rep with the group to eventually earn the right to enter. That’s a solid way of keeping Factions, but also blurring them enough so in time they fall away.
Reputation would of course necessarily need to be turned Account Wide. This is something Players wanted for a while and which is overdue for implementation.
2.) When I say no more excuses, I mean no more halfway non-committal answers. Like what happened in BFA where they strung players along on Zandalari and Kul’Tirans until players were near ready to revolt. No one appreciates being treated like that. Give a solid answer or don’t give one at all.
3.) E-Sports and PVP are and have been the cancer of this game from day one. All bad balance ideas and a mass of the toxicity of the game can be traced back to PVP which is at it’s core about dominating other players and doing things ranging from /spitting to doing worse to the player corpse or so on.
WoW was never intended to be an E-Sport. It should remain an RPG first and foremost. That means while Battle-grounds and War-Mode have their place, neither should ever be more important than the actual game. Sylvanas rage is tied to this.
As a character goes, she has caused more strife in the factions and was used to justify the wars, and hate more than any other. Thus a redemption for such a character is in many ways suspension of belief at best, and ham-fisted at worst. I will reserve final judgment till I see how they end the story but one must remember all the events from Wrathgate to BFA. Giving a pass because half her soul was missing, is just poor story-telling.
4.) Ogres. I mention this because it’s a no-brainer that should of been in the Classic Game. Simple no brainers are sometimes the best solution. If you have a issue with X. You find a solution for X. You do not go. “Oh well” and ignore the issue for 18 years.
5.) When I say ability customization, I mean what City of Heroes had. A system like Transmog where a Class opens a panel and can tailor their spells to different hues and effects so that their avatar truly represents them.
This means if you wanted to be a Dark Shaman, you could tailor your Lava Burst to say Magatha’s “Shadow Burst” or if you were a Paladin, you could shift your abilities to Blood Red or Silver representing Blood Elves or -gasp- Night Elven abilities. In essence? More Green-Fire oriented quests.
6.) Big in Final Fantasy. Was intended in the original WoW. Should be added. You can have items drop from bosses or be crafted. This would improve the playability and add a true gold sink to the game as it would be strictly cosmetic. Cosmetics are the future of WoW.
7.) This ties directly into 6. Professions need to matter again. I have a Blacksmith who has maxed out from Classic to Shadowlands. I rarely if EVER craft anything. The system that was made for Legendaries could of worked, but it was far too prohibitive in how the upgraded versions were made.
There should be perks for each Profession. A smith for example should be able to repair or even improve their weapons. An Alchemist? Perhaps should be able to blend Flasks to use two at once. Some random ideas but there’s plenty of room.
The point is no one is using them right now, and that’s a issue. You know and I know people log in, do Korthia Crystal quests and Dailies and then log out. That should not be the premier Gold generation method. Callings that relied on your vocation and were more lucrative than a normal set might be a solution.
8.) More communication. I don’t care if it’s weekly or monthly, but a simple 10 minute fireside chat where you discuss plans for the future would go far to calming most people’s concerns about the game being ‘adrift at sea’.
Whatever you say? Follow through. If you can’t? Own up to it, explain why you can’t. Explain what changed and then where you go next. Players will be reasonable and if they aren’t they couldn’t of been convinced anyways.
9.) Customization and Character Avatars are how players interact with WoW. So that should be a core priority. It is one that has been over neglected for too long. Address this. Merge races that should be, like Mag’har and Orc, High Mountain and Tauren, Human and Kul’Tiran, Dwarf and Dark Iron and then give both groups access to all of the customization options the other has.
Keep a few limits where Lore applies, like no fire-beards for non Dark-Irons but loosen up significantly and then expand what you have. Ample numbers of fan-renditions exist. Buy the artists work, hire them and implement them. Most would do this work as a labor of love.
10.) Classic Servers should of never been added. You kissed up to a pack of IP Pirates and divided the player base. That was the Everquest error too. If you want to bring Classic back, bring it to retail.
How you do, is malleable. I recommend a Caverns of Time Portal that connects Old Azeroth to new Cataclysm era Azeroth. This also frees you for other revamps of the world if you decide to do so in the future. You could then easily add a new portal to Cataclysm Era WoW, if say you made a “Light Assaulted Azeroth” world.
Let’s be honest. You already have crossed the rubicon by allowing people on the BC Classic Servers to raid Naxx so what does it matter now? The dilemma and problem to solve shouldn’t be “We can’t allow this because it invalidates X player’s past achievement”.
Rather the solution should be. “How can we add this, while making the difficulty comparable to what X player did in 2006?” This logic then could be applied to MoP’s Challenge Modes and to the Legion Mage Tower as well.
11.) Not taking the bull by the horns sooner and offering non-commital podcasts, instead of acting with bold and decisive steps to solve the problems has squandered almost all of the good will Blizzard built since the 90s. You need to accept that you will not be treated as rock-stars. Not for a very, very long time. Honestly that ego is what contributed to the downfall.
You as a collective blew it. Making a mistake is fine. But now you have to learn from it.
That means rage-quitting and putting WoW in Maintenance mode will only engender more anger and ill-will. No one will trust you with WoW II if you can’t fix WoW I. You can claim I don’t know what I’m saying, but I’ve got a hunch I do. Judging that we’re in this situation, time seems to prove me right and the guys who were let go, wrong.
12.) You can rebuild WoW back better than it was and also easily compete with Final Fantasy. Yes there is a lot of Bloat to WoW, but what do you expect? The game is 18 years old. Rather than treating that as the enemy, why not use the massive amounts of backdrop you have?
Smaller scale missions that send players back to Argus, Kul’Tiras or other forgotten vistas using the phasing technology could make WoW arguably the largest game world in existence. Especially if you added quests in those zones.
The old zones should not become irrelevant because of the expansion. A good example is Ardenweald and Drustvar. You have to go back to Drustvar to speak to a Thornspeaker. More stuff like this would be a good thing. Make us believe the game-world is a coherent and breathing world. Not 'this time on World of Warcraft Z!"
Closing:
You can rebuild the trust you lost. Both in the professional sector, and with your players. But it will take time and humility. If you make a good faith effort to do so, it will be reciprocated. If you offer half-way efforts, that too will be reciprocated. It’s really that simple.
Good luck Blizzard. Hope you make the right call.
Because if you rage-quit the game, your going to be NCSoft 2.0 in players eyes.
