I’m almost 50 and I’m that very same boat my man. The way they have structured SL gearing for the casual BG player has nearly destroyed the way I have played for decades. Everything you said resonates deeply with me cause I’m going through it in an identical fashion. I’ve unsubbed for most of SL, and just recently resubbed cause I got an itch to run BG’s again. However, same crap as before so I’ve unsubbed again. It breaks my heart to see what they have done with a game that use to bring much needed enjoyment as I unwind from a hard days work.
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I feel you. I’m 40 and don’t have time to sit playing WoW all day and I’m not fortunate enough to make money from playing the game. I’m also extremely introverted so I hate having to talk to other people in discord when I join a rated bg. I understand it’s importance in arena, but those of us that have been playing these bg’s for a while know what we are doing. I am just as effective using in game texting as I am on discord. Probably more so actually… Last season I got the spider mount which was the only thing I was aiming to achieve (not an arena player). Every discord group I joined lost the first match and quickly dispersed afterwards just as any yolo group would. If I can get a string of wins with yolo groups why would I put myself through discord hell for the same if not worse results?
I came over from SWTOR and the gearing there was simple. Everyone had pretty much the same ilvl and there was resilience so skill was more important than gear. When I came over to WoW I was so disappointed in the pvp gearing I nearly gave up on the game. I learned a lot from this game though so my hats off to that. If it weren’t for such wide gear discrepancies I would have been complacent in my abilities and failed to learn and grow (which is one thing I absolutely love about a good video game). With all that being said, I still would love for well rounded pvp gearing system that keeps gear discrepancies to a minimum. Even more so that a lot of pve players have gone to other games for the time being.
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This was our experience up to WoD. That expansion just poured acid all over the social interactions built up over the previous years. For a certain kind of social player, that expansion killed their desire to play WoW completely.
There are loads of social alternatives now, so those players are never coming back. We still interact through battle net and other social media platforms, but WoW is dead to most of them now because of the direction Blizzard has taken the game.
WoD taught me not to invest anything in the game, because Blizzard has proven that they can and will erase any community you spend time building up. Just not worth the investment in time anymore. For me. Your mileage may vary, and if you’ve got a group of friends that you’ve kept in touch with through all the changes of the most recent expansions – More power to you. 
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It’s not your gear it’s huokan community’s gear.
Thank you for writing this post. I relate to the challenges you and many others in this thread discuss so much.
Like many, I’ve spent time in a few guilds over the last 15 years, and guilds come and go for a variety of reasons. I’ve even tried the new guild finder to limited success - the biggest failure in the system being unable to filter by time zones. My last guild had pretty amazing people and culture, and I really tried to raid and do activities with them, but 5 hour time difference, full time job and having a family just made it impossible.
I still enjoy the game, mostly, but find myself hitting 60 and despising the random gear systems or the LFG flood of “WTS xxx” runs when I’m just looking for groups in content I want to play, not pay to be run.
I’m in a limbo cycle of loyalty to years spent playing a great world, frustration at gear systems, and eventual boredom. I stopped enjoying the storyline when the Night Elf tree was burned - the story has simply stopped feeling epic or relatable (that connection great story tellers aim for to their readers/listeners).
The community is neither more or less toxic than it ever was, it’s just toxic in a different way as time goes on. There are incredibly talented people at Blizzard and, like any large company, there are some people we really wonder how they got in the door, much less into a seat of power.
After 15 years, I’d like to play another 15 years of warcraft. I’d love to be brought into the story, once again, and feel connected to events happening. It’s not there for this expansion, but maybe the story will connect me in the next expansion.
Maybe the gear system will be more involved again (I was always a fan of gear sets to mix and match and felt it added a needed diversity and customization). Maybe gear will feel obtainable and less random and hopeless. Maybe gear disparity will be better for random content (like the idea insae in this thread about capping ilvl in random PVP)
Maybe guild finder will have a timezone filter and make finding a guild I can fit into my life schedule easier.
A lot of Maybe… but I’m still here. Maybe things will change and I’ll still be here in 15 years from now.
Maybe.
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I’ve been playing since 2004 and I don’t group at all. My WoW is fishing, archaeology, gold making (I have a black widow mount, a spectral tiger, and a brutosaur!), exploration, professions, role-playing, and leveling alts.
Groups suck and I hate people.
“wHy pLaY aN MMo THeN!?”
Because I solo played WarCraft II and WarCraft III. I played campaign over and over and over again, and never enjoyed playing with or against other players. It’s only natural I would want to play the biggest game ever developed within my favorite fictional universe.
I don’t appreciate when people imply that those who are willing to group are somehow more deserving of gear than those who refuse to group. On the contrary, an unwillingness to deal with random morons is a marker of discernment and intelligence, and in my opinion, that should be rewarded.
SL is a miserable experience for me, which is a crying shame, because as far as the theme goes, this is my second favorite expansion. But when I ding 50, I cannot survive doing world quests in SL until I buy a bunch of AH gear, and travel is so arduous that I avoid logging in at all.
I’ll never cancel my subscription because I can always access the things about WoW that I rely upon; but it would be really nice to see the max level content scaled down a bit and the rewards beefed up so that we don’t have to struggle so much.
We’re supposed to be this legendary hero who has saved the world countless times. Why can’t we handle a simple daily quest as a fresh 50? It’s not fun.
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WELL SAID OP!
You have summed up the feelings - IMO - of those veteran players that made this game successful in the pre-cata 12 million era and the game has left us behind in favor of the ultra hardcore “raid of die” and “eSport” crowd.
This decision has CLEARLY shown the results. The casual and veteran non hardcore audience FAR EXCEEDS the 1% that the devs cater this game to.
You reap what you sow…
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WoW: The whale fishing online casino.