What Blizzard Teaches

Community General Discussion
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I see a lot of posts lately expressing frustration about the state of different aspects of the game.

Why do people rush through normal/heroic dungeons? Because Blizzard teaches us that the only way to build community is to force people to interact in groups. They make the most efficient or effective ways of doing things require more than one person to do. People rush through dungeons because Blizzard has taught them to, with things like M+ timers, the possibility of surviving pulling more than one pack at a time, and a bell curve on player power progression that looks more like a to-the-power-of curve.

Why do people leave keys? Because Blizzard teaches us that the only way to accomplish a mythic plus dungeon is through perfection. Affixes only really impact so much of gameplay that once you get to a certain key level, they’re not really more than the equivalent of an extra interrupt, or the need to pull one more cd. People have been taught by Blizzard for more than half of WoW’s 20 years that to be better, you have to play better. You have to download addons, use keybinds, top damage meters, and perfectly execute your class toolkit. You have to have a certain M+ or PvP rating, or have certain achievements to get raid invites. It’s no wonder when “good” players get into a key or a raid and see what resembles even the inkling of “bad” performance they feel duped. Blizzard has taught them to expect perfection, and their group didn’t meet that goal.

Why are end of seasons always dead? Because Blizzard has taught us that their expectation is only the first few past the finish line actually matter. Didn’t get HOF in the raid? Better luck next time. Still working on KSM/KSH? Good luck finding people who are playing their mains, know the mechanics, and aren’t actually looking to get carried by everyone else in the group. Every metric Blizzard uses to “help” you gauge your success in the game is based off of immediacy. You have to be FIRST, or BEST, or FASTEST. There are no achievements for playing every week of a season, or ever-increasing rewards for continuing to play when other people choose not to. Blizzard has taught us that loyalty isn’t a trait to be rewarded. It’s the suckers’ choice. You paid for a 12-month sub? That’s awesome. You know what you should do next? Pay more than the game costs for a mount with a mailbox.

I could honestly keep going…but, what’s the point. Half of you stopped reading two paragraphs ago, and the other half are already half-way through your response defending Blizzard by telling me how bad I am and how all of what I experience is completely my fault and that I should just stop playing a game I don’t like. As if registering a complaint suggests disdain or hatred of thing.

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People leave keys for various reasons.

Yes, some may be what you listed but is not always the case.

People rush because they can.

End of seasons dead. My take would be most have everything from Season 1 done so they aren’t too worried til patch launches Season2.

Also Plunderstorm is going so there’s that as well.

And really bringing the shop mount into it, if you ddidn’t want it, that’s great, iif you didn’t want to spend the money, great, that’s your choice. Most bought it because they wanted to not because of your thin veiling disguise of “you have to” . You don’t have to .

Better yet, stop worrying so much about how the company guages things that you think they are pushing.

At the end of the day what players do on their own is their own active choice.

If you really want to stop playing then that’s also something that is your choice.

The company didn’t teach anyone that mentality. What taught that mentality was the Esport competitions and content creators who push the whole rush,rush,rush.

But as stated at the end of the day, everything comes down to player choice. If it’s something you don’t want, don’t buy it. If it’s not something you want to run, don’t run it.

The only forcing comes from ourselves and wether or not we fall into fomo, which again, all about choice.

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Teach???No
Exploit ??Yes

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It’s like he knows me!

When I’m pugging a dps for my +10 farms if I have a solid backbone of guildies I will often get someone who needs the +10 for the portal. Gotta get that community service in.

I’ve met some really nice players that way as well!

@Recalshaman if you need help with some keys add my battle tag Taedas#1174

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You’re right. I did forget to mention somewhere in my post that the reasons I gave were not THE ONLY reasons. People play and don’t play for a plethora of reasons.

I’d put HARD money on most people rushing because normal dungeons is one of, if not the the fastest way to level. Heroic I can’t explain as much…it’s possible people just don’t want to deal with the joke that is the Isle, and are used to getting gear out of dungeons, and know that they can drag 4 other people through a CF that’s 5-10 minutes a round for a 20-40% chance at loot.

Oh and…I DID buy the mount, despite paying for a full year of service. Or rather, I had at least 6 other people buy it for me through tokens/gold. I brought up the mount because I think it’s enough of an insult to suggest to players to pay for 6 or 12 month of service, when they have no plan to keep the standard of that service up for the full period. In my personal opinion, it adds insult to injury for me to agree that the game is worth paying ahead for, only to be shown all the wonderful things my loyalty DID NOT get rewarded for. Let’s be clear. The mount is just another mount. The ONLY thing that makes it special is a mailbox. $90 for an on-demand, mobile mailbox?! When I already said, “yes I’ll pay you in advance for the time I think I’m going to play, because you’re a business with employees you have to pay”, I don’t think it’s too much to also expect that warrants more than a pat on the back and reskin’ed mounts with no utility every now and again.

I really, really, REALLY need people on the forum to stop thinking that the “winning” argument in any debate is just to say, “well if you don’t like it then there’s the door”. I really don’t think you understand how debate works.

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I don’t disagree Blizzard encouraged certain behaviors but they’re not completely at fault. Elite gamers do elite gamers thing. The rest trickles downstream.

Apex is no different. Same with League, Counter-Strike, most fighting games, and so on. Hard games attract a specific type of player. Those players shape the game from the ground up.

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Actually I do know how those things work.

What I am seeing here is you coming at people making assumptions every single player is exactly the same.

Sorry you are taking things that way but that’s something again on you. I haven’t seen anyone here displaying the “don’t like it there’s there door” or anyone trying to win at this post other than well, you.

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Yea thats what usually happens in mmo multi players

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Because you can pull indefinitely without wiping, so rushing is the fastest way to get rewarded.

Because there’s no punishment for bricking another person’s key.

Because most people have done what they wanted to do.

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This is like the forum equivalent of “nah-uh…you’re stupid!”.

If you knew how “those” thing worked, you wouldn’t be suggesting that my insinuation at reasons why blizzard teaches us to behave certain ways is the de facto only way, and that it was my intent to say it as such. Don’t you think, in this day of forum king/ e-PhD / gotcha-style argument antics, that if that really were my intent I would’ve prefaced my post with something like, “Anyone who disagrees with what I’m about to say is flat out wrong!”? Honestly…

I’m not coming at anyone. I’m making an observation about other people’s observations on why the game feels bad. If anything, I’m coming at blizzard because I feel that, despite agreeing with other people about players being somewhat responsible for the current state of gameplay, at the end of the day blizzard has all the power. The only power players have is deciding not to play. Blizzard dictates the terms by which we’re able to play, the times when the game is available to play, and ultimately who gets to play if/when people break their rules–just look at the recent bans that happened during R2WF.

My argument–if I’m making one at all–is for people to understand the state of the game falls squarely on blizzards shoulders. They like it the way it is, and they’re not going to change it unless they stop liking it.

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I gotta be real with you. Ain’t nobody reading them wall of text.

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I know. Kids these days don’t have to read to be knowledgeable. They’re all born with an instant state of understanding exactly how the universe works and the objective truth of reality. There’s no need to debate things. It’s already known.

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Most of the playerbase seems to be working age adults by this point, so I suppose people wanting to rush thru content makes sense… when you’ve been playing for so long you quickly realize that the most efficient way to get the goodies at the end of the dungeon (quest progress, rating, gear drops, XP for lowbie alts, etc) is to go fast/rush thru with lots of chain-pulls

It’s only a totally new player/totally green player that would actually want to “take their time” and pull one mob at a time while reading quest text for lore reasons and such

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Players refusing to take responsibility for their myriad personal failings is always a delight to read.

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You’re probably right that a majority of the player-base is middle-aged at this point. I will add that I’ve experienced quite a bit of “returning” or brand new players lately. I spent a fair amount of time last night helping a fellow guildie out with basics that blizzard doesn’t bother to teach.

He was a tank, and we talked about keybindings (he’s a clicker), general cd management, spec optimization, and openers when pulling–i.e. how to get and keep threat.

Blizzard can’t be bothered to teach things like this. The closest they’ve come was the silly isolated island they introduced for players from level 1-10. The “teaching” that place does is the equivalent of speaking louder and slower to an old person because you assume they’re deaf or…dumb…I’m not quite sure.

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Good. I like the way the game is too. That’s why I keep playing it

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You win the award for first ad hominem. Congratulations, please join your fellow players too lazy to afford a valid stance in this argument, but too self-righteous to avoid contributing at all.

I suppose my job now is to prove to you all the ways I’m not a personal failure, how my father actually loves me, and why you should respect my authority in this particular matter.

You’re right…I’m a failure and I’m blaming everyone else for all my faults.

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Blizzard didn’t teach any of this.

It’s basic human nature not to want to waste time, for example

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You and plenty of other people. I’m one of them. Yes, there are areas I’ve chosen not to play, because I don’t find them enjoyable.

I’m also able to make observations about why I think they’re not enjoyable and what I believe are the causes for those issues, without having to delete my characters or burn an arthas statue in effigy.

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This isnt true at all. Dungeon rushing is the result of simple math and has almost nothing to do with Blizz.

In order to improve your reward per minute ratio, you have to do things as fast as possible. This applies to both xp and gear at all levels of gameplay.

The only way Blizz could stop it would be to increase rewards the longer you are in a dungeon. (Which would be horrible) Otherwise, people will always take the most efficient path