Thank you for this feedback. We selected the timing of this buff to specifically benefit players who were preparing for Season 4.
We’re always thinking about when might be the right time to do an XP buff again in the future, and we do not have any immediate plans to announce at this time, but we’ll take this feedback into account when considering future leveling bonus events.
Thank you for making a statement though, even if it is not good news.
I appreciate the response even if it’s not the news I wanted to hear.
A genuine question:
You did not add any gear progression for outdoor/solo players in season 4.
You removed any incentive we had to run fated LFR silently with no explanation despite knowing we were expecting the reward for 3 months.
And now you removed the exp buff.
So, the question: Do you guys care at all about solo/outdoor players?
There is literally zero incentive to even play for the next 4 months as one of those players. How is that okay? Itd be like if you excluded gear upgrades from pvp, or didn’t apply an ilvl upgrade to m+, etc.
You are treating solo outdoor players like we do not matter in the least. At least if the slime cat was in lfr, like it should be, we’d have incentive to play lfr and there would be more players in lfr to drive down queue times.
But you guys can’t even do that despite overwhelming feedback that it needs to happen.
I’m just lost as to what you think will keep outdoor players subbed, and why they should resub when dragonflight comes out if you’re showing you don’t care about us?
You didn’t even do the bare minimum, aka keeping the exp buff that hurts absolutely no one, so outdoor players at least have something, leveling alts. But no.
The funny thing is this war on outdoor/LFR players you guys started this month will affect other players now too.
Why should old raiders, m+rs,etc that didn’t get to 60 come back to the game knowing you inadvertently punished them for not returning the couple weeks before season 4, making catch up harder. Etc.
I think there needs to be content for every type of player, this includes outdoor content. If you look back to different expansions such as Mists of Pandaria and Legion, at least for me, it felt like there was a ton of solo content that I could do on multiple characters, many options to progress my character without the 100% necessity to have to do organized content.
I think organized content is good, I know it’s a big part of what makes WoW what it is today. However, not all content needs to be organized. LFR during Mists of Pandaria had some challenge to it, but it was queueable content that was easy to get into. As someone with a crippling disability, anxiety will always win the war when it comes to me wanting to do organized content.
So, I stick to doing LFR and outdoor content Not just due to my disability, but because I enjoy those aspects of the game much more. To me, WoW should be fun, engaging and not feel like a full time job. Whenever I have to utilize things like discord, voice chat, have to turn off my game music so I can hear people talking, that isn’t fun for me. I like destroying bosses with other players, but in a manner that I find fun for ME.
Clearly not every one is going to want to do LFR or outdoor activities as their main source of activities on WoW, but there are a lot more of us type of players than anyone is willing to admit or probably even realizes.
Outdoor content should be a thing given ample attention to. No, that doesn’t mean we should be able to get the best gear, best looking mounts for little effort, I’m not saying that at all. I’m just saying more options provide more gameplay value for players that may not be able to keep up with organized content. Yes, I’ve made friends over the 16 years I’ve played, but I don’t want to be carried in a raid due to my disabilities. I can play the game fine with my conditions, but someone at equal ilevel will probably be able to dish out just a bit more DPS than I can. That’s not something I have any control over, trust me, I’ve practiced, worked my butt off, but it’s physically tiring and painful to try and keep up at that level. I used to be able to, but you can’t predict physical ailments.
Mists of Pandaria had Timeless Isle, tons of options to gear alts, upgrades available for that gear, tons of reputation, mounts, toys, pets, bosses, it was some of the most fun I’ve ever had in WoW. I realize outdoor end-game zones aren’t something only in MoP, but none has ever matched that feel as I had back then.
Suramar from Legion is another example of outdoor content that gave solo players a plethora of activities to do. You had Wither training, a HUGE questline that led to the raid, unlocking new fun things throughout the city, exploring, had some of my most fun in the game in this zone. My favorite zone to date by far.
I understand we’ve yet to see what outdoor world content will like for Dragonflight, but how vague of a response we’ve received in the interviews I’ve watched doesn’t leave me excited at the overall prospect. Sounds like a lot of cosmetic options, but not much room for a lot of fun outdoor activities, I will keep my fingers crossed and hope that I am wrong, but I just have a sinking suspicion the outdoor content will be slim pickings.
In regards to season 4, yes I’m disappointed there isn’t more to do for outdoor content players, but it’s an experimental shortened season, so I’m fine with that. I don’t understand why they couldn’t have left the XP buff up until at least either Anniversary or pre-patch. It gives players like me little incentive to log in. Actually so much so that I won’t be actively subscribed until pre-patch is released because there’s nothing for me to do. That may sound like me whining or others may call me entitled and that’s okay, I don’t mind being labeled with whatever someone wishes, but I won’t be scared to voice my opinions, as strongly opinionated as I am, I don’t think I’m wrong with much of what I’m asking, discussing.
More outdoor content, more things to do outside of raiding, PVP and M+ dungeons, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.
I am with Glaive and Maizou. I have been for a long time.
VERY tired of raiding being end game and the ONLY thing to do that seems to matter. Blizz does good things like add the mount and pet forges, great catch up gear and crafting in ZM, then goes backwards with recent decisions.
Very frustrating.
I agree with most of your post except this. I’m personally not fine with it - as I have stated over and over, it is telling LFR and outdoor players we are not important to them, despite, (something I can source if necessary but it’s not hard to google) multiple devs over the years telling us solo/outdoor players make up the largest % of players. We should not “be fine with that” - it’s insulting and downright degrading.
As you said, there’s zero incentive for us to log in now, let alone sub.
Season 4, as it stands, is a war against their largest % of players, and that’s not okay, and we need to stand up. They claimed the Community Council was so they could hear feedback and communicate better, but even that hasn’t happened.
The exp buff was the one last hope outdoor players had for season 4, to at least incentivize us to play alts, but after running us over with a truck, they decided to back up over us again today.
Same, and (slime cat tangent cause it’s in regards to what we have to do in S4 as outdoor/solo players and I will not let that topic die either) as I’ve said, I literally do not care about dissenting opinions in regards to the slime cat, they are not valid. And I don’t care if that gets me called names like stubborn, wrong, etc., but it isn’t. It’s like arguing that 2+2=1393. It is a black and white situation. Right and Wrong. There is no grey area. And blizzard is in the objectively wrong part.
I will listen to different opinions and have had my mind changed many times on many things. But this is not one of them. I have put 20+ people on ignore for their ignorant beliefs today, and have removed friends from my life over it. This is how black and white I view the situation.
And for those saying it wasn’t advertised, it was. With a LIVE achievement for 3 months. If it was JUST datamining, it’d be one thing. They had time to tell us. They didn’t. There is no “well, they just overlooked it” or “they always intended it to be normal” - it doesn’t matter. They advertised it, like it or not, with an achievement. The ONLY okay thing to do is add it to LFR.
And the funny part is most of the people who have engaged with me in GD against adding Slime Cat to LFR say it would be “different” if they suddenly announced a raid’s AotC mount was being moved to Mythic the week before the raid launched. Even though they’d be exactly the same situation. Literally the same. We have expectations due to text from past precedence, and then it gets changed last minute with no explanation. Same. Scenario. The only difference, is they don’t consider LFR players legitimate players .
The LFR community was looking forward to the Slime Cat, not because of the reward, but because it incentivizes everyone, not just LFR players, to do LFR, which will reduce queue times and help reinvigorate LFR.
PvPers would have easier access to the Slime Cat without having to go out of their way to find a guild, for instance. Parents who are with their children in the summer will be able to queue when they have free time to work on the Slime Cat. Etc.
Pretty sure this is still true.
I want to take a tiny exception to the idea that we are just “outdoor” though.
I, and most folks I know, run a lot of dungeons and raids solo. We LIKE them a lot and enjoy seeing the story, farming pets, mounts, transmogs.
I still refer to my first and only thread on these forums asking for a solo version of dungeons, and maybe raids, at level. Not asking for best gear, but I want to do the content, learn the layout, learn the fights, etc. Get some of the basic gear and such, or at least mogs.
I have a ton of reasons in that thread, and some are related to accessibility issues.
Blizzard - stop acting like ONLY raid teams matter in your games. You are shooting yourselves in both feet.