This thread resonates with me.
I started WoW (back in 2004) to join an RPG. I rolled an an RP server because I wanted a more immersive and mature environment.
I’ve been playing consistently ever since then.
Here we are, nearly 18 years later. This is what I’ve seen:
Blizzard has become more and more focussed on the competitive elements of this game, seemingly for the sake of bolstering their esports business. Originally, it was just PvP. That was the competitive side of WoW, and that was fine.
Then the Race to World First became a thing, but it didn’t really negatively impact the rest of us adventurers, initially.
Over time, however, raid encounters became more and more complex. Today, the result is Sepulcher of the First Ones. The pinnacle of raiding designed for the RWF top raiders. Everyone else can just suffer through incredibly frustrating and overtuned encounters (on all difficulties) while Blizzard takes the entire season to re-tune.
Then there is Mythic Plus. At first, it was just a fun way to challenge dungeoneers as well as a good re-use of existing dungeon content throughout an expansion. Then came the Mythic Dungeon Invitational. More esports, encouraging maximum competition. Now every new mythic season is a fresh treadmill of ratings elitism and Fear of Missing Out on the Mount of the Season.
Let’s talk about FOMO a little more:
FOMO has always been in WoW in some way or another, from the earliest days. We had Naxx and the T3 sets. In BC we had seasonal PvP gear and mounts (and ever since). But it was limited.
Now, we have limited-time raid rewards (Ahead of the Curve and Cutting Edge), limited-time dungeon rewards (Keystone Master and Keystone Hero), and limited-time PvP rewards.
More and more is becoming “Get it now before it’s too late! Play harder! Play more! Once it’s gone it’ll be gone forever!”
This is exploitative and it fosters an unhealthy game environment. There’s simply too much of it.
Every little missed mount and broken streak just whittles down my will to play that particular activity. For example, in SL, I’ve been doing KSM every season (so far). After S4 is done, I might very well be done with M+, period. I’m not enjoying it any more. I’m willing to break that streak (and end the FOMO by missing out) just to be free of the new M+ treadmill every few months. I don’t want to miss-out, but it’s getting too frustrating and stressful to be worth it.
I’m still strongly in that boat for Ahead of the Curve. I’ve not missed one AoTC, ever. I don’t want to, and FOMO still has me there. There may come a time when if I miss it, I’ll be done with organized raiding. Why? Because this is what FOMO psychology has done to this game for me.
“Do it now or miss it forever!”
Fine, then I guess I’ll just give it up.
And this is the problem. This is short-sighted game design. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve known over the years who have quit due to burnout over stuff like this.
I feel like they’ve been designing the game for esports and have forgotten the true roots of the game, as… well… a massively multiplayer online role playing game. It was an adventure to be shared with friends. It was a place to make friends in your adventures.
It was not primarily a competition, with the sole exception being PvP, which is inherently competitive.
Now, everything feels like a competition and if you don’t race, you lose. If you don’t race fast enough or hard enough, you lose.
So, what can be done?
-
Scale-back the FOMO outside of PvP. Any M+ seasonal rewards should be available through other means later. If people want to catch-up later, they can. (PvP gear actually ended-up working like this, and I applaud that.)
-
Tune all raid difficulties more appropriately for the overall WoW audience. Normal = easy mode for super-casual friends and family, accessible to as many as possible. Heroic = tuned for guild groups who with a reasonable bit of practice can overcome most encounters in good order. Mythic = considerably more difficult, though perhaps not so much that only a few groups in the world can do it.
-
Support more solo or small group activities. Remember scenarios? What about tuning old dungeons to be scalable and done in group of 1-5 people (perhaps filling with NPCs)? Heck, what about doing that with old raids to replace LFR?
-
Enable players to grow in experience and skill at their own pace. Build them up, don’t tear them down. That means create content that starts relatively easy, but slowly builds to become more challenging. The Deaths of Chromie and Horrific Visions are an example of this.
These are just some of the ideas off the top of my head.
The point is that there’ve strayed too far from the roots (and original players) of this game. It’s no longer about encouraging new players with new systems and new adventures. It’s become about keeping old players feeling locked-in, but eventually that backfires, and we’ve been seeing that.
Give us reasons to want to play with awesome and fun content, not reasons why we don’t want to leave for fear of missing out on limited-time content and rewards.
k thanks.