I think wows issues such as tank shortage, healer shortage, speed racer dungeons, IO scores, forum false flagging, 3rd party website WTS spam, etc cant actually be fixed by blizz. No reworks, no systems, no revampes. The community has just grown to toxic for it all. Solo content might be the only thing to keep players around who aren’t already 20 year never leavers.
I dont think it can be fixed. Only idea is recalling when servers were more important and you made a reputation on your choosen one over time.
If there was a genuine tank shortage by raw numbers, then Blizzard would incentivize people with buffs and nudge them towards tanks. What you’re really experiencing is a shortage of “Social Tanks” willing to serve the community.
Here’s a headline as food for thought:
" The Death of Partying in the U.S.A.—and Why It Matters
Young Americans today spend 70 percent less time attending or hosting parties than they did at the beginning of the 21st century. Why?"
The same thing is afflicting gaming tho not as rapidly. Socialization as a whole is on the decline.
Millennials, are already starting to get “long in tooth”. The oldest ones have hit 40 and there’s only one year of “youth” left for the youngest at 29.
It’s GenZ that are the young people now. Gen Alpha is right on their heals pushing into 12 year old territory about to become teenagers.
Oh I know. I’m three months away from 40 myself. But no joke, I saw a “millennials be bad” news headline just this year. They were very clearly talking about gen z, but it was like they’d copy pasted one of those nonsense headlines from 15 years ago.
Outside of WoW, I refuse to socialize with people who aren’t my wife/family these days. Its exhausting to maintain friendships. It would cause genuine terror when I used to get “are you free this weekend?” texts.
Complaints about generations go back more than 15 years:
"“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.” - Socrates
Even then, social reputation doesn’t matter as much as it did.
Except for some reason the forum false flaggers recall who you were in a previous life… which is even more incentive to do Delves/Follower Dungeons or Legion Remix by yourself/queues.
I’m a 46 year old retired GenX-er. I worked hard to be able to own my own home, cars, etc with zero debt. I have been playing since Crusades and I play to have fun. I avoid content that’s not fun to me…PvP and keyed content.
I remember the long grind to be able to ride a mount, which really wasn’t much faster than walking. Then the grind and the 5000 in gold to fly fast.
Now, at level 10, everyone gets dynamic flight. It’s too fast.
Blizz has catered to the instant generations. And the problem I have seen is…the more they cater, the more toxic things become.
Slow down and enjoy the game.
P.S. I love the solo content, because I only do things with family and friends.
Love this, but it doesn’t go that far back. At least, not as a direct quote. Try 1907, by a student, Kenneth John Freeman, for his Cambridge dissertation, presenting his own summary of the complaints directed against young people in ancient times.
So the substance is right, these were complaints made by Greeks, but it sounds more authoritative when you attribute it to Socrates. (Doesn’t evenything? Or Einstein - that’s another good one.)
What makes you think it doesn’t go that far back? Do you really think there was a point before which adults were not noticing how young people could rebel and take more chances than they did?
Personally I believe this goes back to the paleolithic period. Since then each generation that drove their parents crazy thought their kids were the first ones to do it while the grandparents sat back and laugh.
