Lol. I know I’d have a lot more money than I do now if I had figured out about all this about 30 years ago. I tried to do one thing and while it does pay well I sure did start making quite a bit more money when I started branching out.
Getting that customer base is broad as possible is the best way. Which means making good content in the game for both people who love the MMO aspect and the solo part of the game. Adding in plenty of PVE and PVP content. My guess is this game would absolutely explode with more subscriptions if blizzard would stop tightening up the reins and literally open this game up to what it could possibly be…
I think the vast majority of people who end up quitting world of Warcraft don’t quit simply because they don’t want to play the game anymore.I’d be willing to bet that like me when they end up quitting it’s because they’re so disgusted or bored that they just can’t take it anymore.
I absolutely love this game so on the day that I do end up quitting it’s going to be the fault of Ian and his wrecking Crew.
Why is it always the people who insult others who complain about being insulted by someone accurately labeling them a troll?
The reality of the situation is that certain people like feeling better than others. And they are worried that if paths for people who like things different than them were available, they would lose that feeling of superiority. That’s why they opposed arena gear back during the tbc beta era, they opposed dungeon progression when it was being added(and to some extent still oppose mythic+ now)… it sucks, but it’s the culture that this community has cultivated.
While I agree with most of your sentiment, please don’t insult the developers. Whether they make the content I like or not, they’re just ordinary people doing a relatively thankless job. They’re not our enemies, they’re our allies - we just need to convince them what we want is good for them.
By all means. Point out where I insulted you first.
I’m sorry who am I supposed to talk bad about when I’m talking about bad decisions being made In this game lol? It would be Ian calling the shots. Ian the same guy who tried to take flight out of the game. So yes if I’m pointing out who’s making the garbage decisions I’m going to point out to the people that are actually doing it. What do you expect me to do blame it on God or the devil? LOL
WoW became the dominant MMO for a few reasons:
- It ran on anything. You didn’t need a high-end rig to play it
- The Warcraft universe had a decent amount of players, and Blizzard had a lot of good will.
- It largely replaced a game (EverQuest) whose sole focus was on end game. EverQuest was oddly named since the one thing you didn’t do a whole lot of was questing. I leveled in EQ by standing on the edge of a zone, pulling mobs to a safe place, killing it, and then rinse and repeat.
- It was addictive as heck, and looked decent. I played a ton of EQ, but far eclipsed that in the first year of WoW.
EverQuest had that focus on dungeons and Raids, and around the Planes of Power expansion it was very clear you had be a raider or there wasn’t a game for you.
WoW, by contrast, in the beginning focused almost entirely on the single-player experience. Leveling, compared to EQ, was a dream. Professions at least kinda mattered. I mean, it’s a far cry from today’s WoW of push a button for a group, and the quests highlighted all over the place, but holy cow was the leveling a breath of fresh air. Then, TBC launched with decent quest hubs and then it was a fantastic game.
But, WoW’s success is similar to a lot of breakthrough albums: a lot of talent releases something right at the time a lot of people are ready to embrace it.
Ian’s the boss. Of anyone, his job is to hear it from us.
The term ‘wrecking crew’ was mostly what I was suggesting avoiding. If you wish to say ‘if I quit, it will be because of the developers actions’ - that’s fair. Pretty accurate in almost every case.
But insulting them isn’t appropriate. You can tell them you dislike their actions without being disrespectful.
Well said. Perfect timing, and bringing a lot of people who wouldn’t have otherwise been interested in.
Exactly. If we’re talking about who is doing something to screw the game up then we have to accept who is actually doing it. Last I checked it wasn’t Lucifer who decided to try to remove flight from world of Warcraft lol.
Again, blaming them is fine. It’s their job to make the game. But insulting them is not. Blame them respectfully. Toxicity between gamers and game devs is not acceptable and needs to stop.
It’s a terrible idea, it’s worse than grinding dungeons.
Solo players want a reason to stay subbed too. That is the point. Tying progression only to group content is bad. Even BFA had solo progression.
I seriously wonder how you get to be an MVP on these forums by consistently insulting players and/or telling them to unsub and go play another game:
I love how anyone who doesn’t enjoy jumping through the meaningless hoops that Blizzard created is now “lazy.” I mean I jumped through those hoops, so obviously it’s not a matter of laziness. I just didn’t enjoy jumping through them. That’s a matter of preference.
Please elaborate on this solo progression from BFA.
I didn’t play a LOT in bfa… but I will say that the equivalent of the callings and the WQ system in BFA was much more interesting than the current version is. So that may be part of it. I’ve also heard people mention something called ‘visions’ which must’ve been during a time I wasn’t playing.
Not to mention that Azerite ensured that there was at least some feeling of gradual progression from all content you did(despite all of its flaws) and the Islands were interesting small group content you could do with just two other people.
We are talking about playing a game here man.
If you are using words like “jumping through hoops” I do not believe you are being fair to the game.
The whole concept of a game is jumping through hoops, and that is why we play it.
Some hoops are fun. Some hoops aren’t.
The game needs more different types of hoops for different types of players.
was emissaries, the exact same thing
no, it was as boring. if anything it was worse because of the turtles.
visions didn’t grant any loot for several montsh (at least 3, maybe more) and you needed ~heroic raid ilvl to complete visions at the highest difficulty
the system everyone complained about before it was even launched. garbage.
not solo, also garbage
Agreed, as long as those “hoops” align with the purpose of the game, they should be making as many as they can make.
It’s interesting how encountering something this much worse can put ‘garbage’ into perspective, isn’t it?
Azerite wasn’t a great system… but man I appreciate it a lot more now that I’m faced with solo play in Shadowlands, which is so many miles worse that it’s hard to compare.
I won’t deny the turtles were repetitive, but for the time I played, my enjoyment of world quests lasted a lot longer in bfa than it has here.
And one of the stated pillars of Blizzard design philosophy is making sure as many people enjoy their game as possible, so solo players being happy should be a hoop that is in line with their purpose and thus should be implemented.
I’m glad we finally agree 
Visions of N’zoth. Legendary cloak. Farming for corruption upgrades. Titanforging. Warfronts (not hard enough to pug and get decent gear!). And island expeditions was a nice casual queue that could make decent gold on the auction house with rare greens. So far not even much reason to keep doing twisitng corridors once you get a mount. Not even a way to casually farm anima. It’s all tied to world quests and mythic plus. The neck upgrades were also nice. But it was bad that some of them were tied to hardcore instanced content.
If you want to pvp you need to farm rated to be decent in the only pvp casual modes. This game is pushing people into high end coordinated content to even enjoy casual battlegrounds.