I cant really recall a massive community push for it nor the devs talking about it at all before it was announced. I dont think there would have been any drama if they didnt implement so that leaves me curious as to why they would. Considering how insanely drastic of an effect this has on the game and its community.
Was GSE really that popular?
The obvious answer would seem to be preparation for a console port.
Second most obvious would be as an accessibility option.
I have no real opinion as to whether it’s a good or bad thing.
Most of us don’t have the skill for a 2 button rotation.
I could see console port since they are trying to implement a lot of addon functionality baseline. Weird they havent attempted a good controller layout tho (maybe? Im not sure). Considering thats probably more important.
To avoid having to make clunky specs work better. So they can design rotations with the RTWF crowd clearly in mind, and not alienate the bulk of the population. So they don’t have to balance attention load in raids and dungeons so carefully.
Idk, specs are still getting reworks and prunings going into next patch. I can see encounter design maybe but i think enough people will not use it that theyre still going to be yelled at if they make a terrible fight.
Here’s my theory,
Wows advertising relies on RWF and streamers, it’s what brings in the players.
So the game fundamentally must maintain a level of complexity to allow for competitive playing.
However, most of those players coming in can’t play remotely on the level of the streamers that brought them into the fold.
So there must be a way to simplify the game for them.
Bam, one button helper.
ION literally said it was an accessibility option and lawyers rarely make outright statements like that so I am willing to take him at his word on this one.
Why would this be needed for consoles?
Yeah, not many games that add accessibility features this extreme though tbf. Its like those korean grinders lol
Sure, I mean really, who wouldn’t trust a lawyer. By the way here is one I actually heard on Court TV.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my client is didn’t do it. But if you believe that he did, then he didn’t mean it.”
Slightly more involved but that was basically what he was saying. And he was so incredibly charming that it actually sounded credible.
Console Cross-Platform on Xbox Game Pass.
Here’s how the discussion went
Blizz : “Wow Is a hard game for controller,s we have lot’s of buttons”
Microsoft : “I don’t care what you think, you make it work, remove the buttons or we remove you”
I’m pretty sure Ion will say whatever business daddies tell Ion to say.
And it’s shown itself to be a great way to dodge criticism here on the forums, I think they are learning from us.
It came so they could shove the mess that some of these specs are under the couch and forget about it.
To provide them and the dedicated with the excuse of “Use the one button rotation” as a way to kill absolutely all discussion on bloat.
As a compromise for the players who don’t want many buttons and the players who do
It’s not a terrible compromise. I think people can really use this in M+12 and shave off like 8-10 buttons on some specs.
Lol it did remind me of the accessibility “discourse” around dragon riding.
To appeal to people who don’t play video games. They have money.
Both of these things happened during Legion, BfA, & Shadowlands… you probably don’t remember it because it wasn’t a push for OBR specifically, but rather just better accessibility features for disabled and aging players. There was a lot of talk about OBR during that time though due to Blizzard breaking GSE, banning GSE, unbanning GSE, and then breaking GSE again… most of the discussions on the topic devolved quickly into people throwing around accusations of cheating though, so that’s probably why you don’t remember them either… you probably actually do remember all of this, just you’ve disassociated it from OBR and other disability accessibility features…
I actually dont remember cuz i started playing in dragonflight haha. But the history is interesting thanks. There hasnt been almost any discussion of gse in my time playing.
Needed? Probably not. Easy way to implement? Probably.