"Theme Park"

Community General Discussion
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When I first heard this term being used to describe the WoW gameplay loop I never really understood, but I’ve come to realize its because I’ve never really played WoW enough.

I first heard of WoW during TBC times, when I was too young to understand anything lore related really. I played the game for 2 months where I was obsessed with getting to max level so I could wear cool-looking shoulder pads and kill alliance using flashy abilities. At that age, I was too young to understand the game and I couldn’t afford the continuous subscription so my relationship with WoW was on and off, like someone who tried to get into it but never could.

I played each expansion but at max for two months before quitting. Recently, I played a little bit longer during SL and DF. Im older now, so I understand the nature of the game a little bit more…

When I first picked up SL, SoD was already active. I ended up enjoying SL for quite a bit, doing content up until I realized I needed to grind conduits and shards and the game sort of fell apart for me there which is when I naturally stopped enjoying the game and quit. Something I really enjoyed about SL was korthia and the constant WPvP + farmable mounts and events. For some time it felt action-packed. However, nearing the time I stopped by sub I had come to understood that it was a game play loop, intended to keep you logging in doing dailies and weeklies. I then understood what was meant by “theme park”

I don’t know if WoW was always a theme park MMO, when I was younger, WoW was just a massive world in that I was on foot exploring and dying to elite mobs all the time. I never manage to play enough to get to the point where the theme park aspects would even kick in. The vastness of the world kept me playing until I quit for the reasons mentioned in the opening paragraph.

Fast forward to DF, and here I am in full conq gear. I did Vault on LFR and normals, and casual raiding is always an enjoyable part of the game (As a non PvE’r), an aspect of the game that doesn’t feel like a theme park attraction but rather a challenge.

Everything else apart from PvP and Raiding feels like a replaceable theme park ride. Fetch this, do that, kill this, rinse, and repeat x1000 to get some reputation or something. There’s no more exploration beyond the current dragon isle as it’s the only relevant zone in the game unless you want to transmog. It is now that I feel Im stuck in a theme park with really lame rides. Nothing challenging beyond pushing Arena Rating and doing Vault raids.

I dont know exactly why I’m typing this, sort of venting. I feel like a bot whos being engineer by game devs to be addicted to completing the most mundane activities on a daily rotating basis. Everything apart from raids and PvP feels like (because it is) designed to just keep paying a subb as a consumer. Nothing more than a monthly 15$ revenue source, and the game loop communicates that pretty well. Sort of insulting. Im just starting to feel a little stupid that Im doing these absolute bot quests to grind a transmog simply because its something to do in the world of Azeroth.

I just feel sort of abused. Im a grown man, and I dont mind playing some video games that are challenging (raiding and PvP) for some entertainment. But knowing that the game developers are actively trying to suck me into a mundane and bot-like loop to do virtual chores is just a thought that has been sitting in the back of my mind and making me feel unwell about playing this game.

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I like your character’s name

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Op,It comes down to.Do you enjoy it? Wow has always been a theme park the decision is up to you which ones you wish to play.

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I enjoy the PvP and Raiding, but see last 2 sentences I edited into post. Idk man just feeling weird about the game. Maybe I’m being too dramatic, but for me personally its hard to jive with something when I know its primary purpose to exploit me rather than provide some mutually beneficial trade i.e money for challenge and entertainment. Starting to feel like the exploitation has become a more important goal than the quality of the product itself.

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I see your point, but isn’t that something all product now are doing? I seen in the basic foods we have now ,bigger show box but less content than it used to have.it does make a person wonder.

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Vanilla WoW is probably the least theme park the game has been.

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True but exploitation in games feels like its allot more heinous. Like life is precious and you’re really here trying to get me to fetch 10 lost satchels 100 times over so I can get my hands on a single backpack transmog I like - thats not challenging nor fun.

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Well,transmog eh I guess it’s ok to do that within reason of course and not take half a year to do it repetitively I mean we only got two hands and one hurts :worried: :pleading_face:

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You had me until ‘kill Alliance’…

But seriously, WoW definitely feels more ‘on the rails’ than it used to. But it is what it is, and only you can decide if it’s still fun enough for you to spend your time on.

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There was a passion from the devs and community teams early on. It was about creating the best game with the most action. Now it’s about haggling the players down in their demands while receiving just as much pay. A lot of stockholme syndrome types doing much of the work for them around these forums.

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Was it really?

There was less to do…less action…in early WoW.

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Technically, sure, especially when viewed through the lens of modern gaming and how WoW is currently played. But back then when we didn’t know any better and skill levels were low, it seemed like a hell of a lot. I spent 80% of my time in vanilla chronically rerolling alts and never being bored, while in Classic '19 I was bored to tears raidlogging 2 weeks after hitting 60.

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I mean…ok?

But saying the devs dont have any passion today and listing how it had the most action during the earlier time periods I feel is a bit off.

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or mounts
or pets
or toys
or holiday stuff
or level alts
or patterns/recipes which aren’t available in current content

there’s more to the game beyond Gladiator and io scores.

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Dont know what io scores are, and I’m not getting glad anytime soon since Im at 1850 on Soloshuffle. I’m not a collector so the other stuff doesn’t interest me and I don’t consider grinding RnG collectibles to be a content or good use of time spent. Interested in content that is challenging and fun which is nonexistent in any old zones, hardly dragon isles itself.

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they’re the only things which are forever.
gear comes and goes.

don’t underestimate the power of looking fabulous.

do you own the expansion?
i don’t see a 70 on your account.
you’re not going to find much to suit your needs at 60 and below… unless you want to solo BFA raids or something.

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I mentioned Ive done Vault on LFR and normal and that I’m 1850 on Soloshuffle so I obviously have a max level and own DF.

I do also go through old raids for transmogs, which have been the only saving grace for older raid content.

These aspects of the game are fine, you may have missed my main point which was specifically aimed at the game loop in new zones and the themepark mechanism of repeated mundane chore dailies and such that feel awful as a consumer.

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my bad.

i was crit by the wall of text.
i’ve only got one coffee in me.

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When was WoW ever not considered a theme park mmo?

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All good, in any case your suggestions arent lost on me and certainly are enjoyable and appreciable aspects of the game. Like I can understand the content that pet farming and battles provide despite never having done either of those things and have absolutely no intention of ever doing. Again tho, my commentary was tailored specifically to the more modern content and game loop revolving around expansion related zones and content.

Just as an example, during SL and just playing in korthia I looted 3 mounts and multiple mogs. Korthia was just so much fun for a time. DF is absent in this regard , the bosses drop horrendously limited loot with a horrendous drop rate. I feel like the DF World quests are just bad and dont give any rewards, effectively making it a chore for rep grinds and such. And Korthia had massive faction based WPVP where dragon flight the PvP is centered around WQ’s and are FFA’s.

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