peeps play for the regular dopamine spurts, which the current design has stretched far too thin with too much time between the tiny spurts
borrowed power has been the death of player value in wow - just way more grinds for smaller dopamine spurts and tons of timegating and rigid systems that force you into their intended tunnel
barely anything is optional anymore, every major grind is tied directly into power progression removing any playstyle flexibility
this game has been reduced to data driven metrics focused entirely on what drives the cash shop: (1) /timeplayed (2) more logins in a given period of time (3) endgame pursuits intended to drive the desire to shortcut grinds by paying for carries or AH shortcuts
every borrowed power xpac has pushed what players will endure even further
wow is killing itself mainly because it is chasing away the players that liked it as it was before borrowed power and pursuing its ‘dream demographic’ of younger players, used to fortnite style cash shops and designs, where they can get as much revenue as possible for the smallest amount of dev costs
this game hasn’t attracted top talent in many many years, there is no promise of getting rich being a dev for wow right now - it is just a profitable MMO being raked for as much as can be taken from players to demonstrate revenue increases that won’t come from subs
it is the iconic transformation of tons of corps once they hit the wall on regular revenue increases so the bosses start making it up by delivering less value to the consumers - as much as possible without losing too many of those consumers