It is not tools like RDF, it is the belief that anyone who does not think the way the majority does, or wants to play the game in a different way, should be removed from the game. That is the true community killer right there.
I have seen some very intolerant responses in the forums around RDF , ranging from comments such as:
“All X feature supporters should be removed from the game”
“Anyone who wants X feature should leave the game and go back to X game ( Classic or Retail or Whereever)”
Thinking like that is the true social killer of WoW, it is the intolerance to embrace differences.
Let tools like the RDF stay out of the game and I guarentee the community will still decline, becuase it is the players and this constant us against them attitudes that is really destroying the games social aspects.
64 Likes
Thats not game social aspects, thats just social aspects. No matter how much the classic andys want to pretend, this isn’t 2005, it isn’t 2006, 2007, 2008 or any other year than 2022. The truth is that there are no successful MMOs right now that don’t have some sort of group forming tool. Society is in a constant war with those they see lesser and that is going to extend to WoW communities. And most importantly, no matter how much they want to pretend otherwise this is WOTLK Classic, not Vanilla Classic.
10 Likes
Go back to Classic? Wrath is Classic.
1 Like
AH but there are 2 versions is there not. Vanilla Classic and BC (soon to be WotLK Classic).
But yes I see what you are drive at. I will make a correction.
Yeah. I’m not sure why the developers decided to give credibility to the ‘RDF destroyed the community’ crowed. It’s nonsensical. It’s not even remotely accurate.
It just proves how out of touch the people are who are in currently in charge of the game.
19 Likes
Give credibility to? They did far worse than that. They created that crowd. It was Blizzard Devs who started the false lies about RDF ruining socialization.
12 Likes
Could not agree more. They perpetuated this belief that tools like RDF was to blame. But the reality is the community was not built on strong foundations to begin with. There seems to be nothing outside of running dugeons and raids that encourages a community tie.
Both Blizzard and the players need to work to extend this sense of commuinty into world events and functions that have nothing to do with raiding or dungeons. If community is so important, it needs to be nurtured around something other than grouping for Dungoens and raids or it is doomed to failure no matter what.
6 Likes
I agree with your first point. The real issue is people are intolerant. They dont want to run with anyone who is not as good as I am. “Do not apply if you dont know the dungeon, dont play your class/spec optimally (according to me), are undergeared (according to me), dont want to move as quickly as possible (as defined by me) or dont agree with my loot assignment rules.”
“I will be monitoring your dps/performance with an app and if you dont conform to my standards for your play, I will tell you and if you dont comply I will drop group.”
Doesnt matter how the group is formed.
13 Likes
Communities already declined, outside of pockets in guilds.
3 Likes
Exactly, trying to pass the buck and blame some arbitrary tool like RDF is just incorrect.
There is a fundamental issue that is causing the community to decline and it already exists in the game.
4 Likes
People think 10 million people playing a game means the community is superior to 10 thousand people playing the game.
I guess bejeweled is the greatest game ever created lmao
3 Likes
Good call out. We have changed in the 18 years since wow launched. What is expected of an MMO, gaming, communication, life, in general has changed since then. There is no way to replicate classic entirely because society and time has moved on.
2 Likes
Great point, and with that, Blizzard needs to move on with there planning and design. They keep trying to recreate Vanillia and that is just not possible. This need to try and bring back 2006 is creating too much friction in the players.
They should stop trying to rollback the clock and just design classic around the current gaming community and not try to relive the glory days.
Not really, just look in your launcher, there is currently:
“World of Warcarft Classic”
and
“Wrath of the Lich King Classic”
Technically they are two different games.
1 Like
Monetization of player services and tokens killed the communities. Those are the things that made us less reliant on each other, and they did it in the name of microtransactions.
5 Likes
I’ll concede that point to you.
The biggest killer of the community happens to be the community itself. The culture of gaming and the culture of this game has change significantly throughout the years.
Gamers are often praised for their toxicity now versus people being less likely to engage in such behavior many years ago. It’s not so much at the fault of WoW’s communities but the nature of gaming all together.
It’s not a constant throughout all games but definitely throughout most. Some people base their entire online persona of being toxic for clout, being toxic for recognition when trying to become popular in their immediate group or for viewers in regards to streaming.
Part of breaking up the monotony of the grind required in these games is trying to trigger the emotions of others. Giving hot-takes and making inflammatory statements has become part of general sub-topics in worldchats.
8 Likes
I will agree with you there. And fully support the exclusion of such microtransactions in the game. But the removal of a tool that actually facilitates the creation of groups and makes finding and playing with other people easier in the name of nuturing the community is just a laughable excuse at best.