I am actually responding to your title. Since everything is basically handed to us now for doing little to no work, rewards feel less rewarding because the sense of accomplishment isn’t really there anymore since we don’t put much work into things. The moment people actually have to work for things and put in some real effort or do something challenging, they complain. So you can thank today’s gamers for this.
Yeah fisher price class design feels bad. At least the tablet pruner isn’t around anymore and Brolinka has emerged from his hyperbolic time chamber and has been decreed as the master unpruner.
Exclusivity does not make me appreciate rewards. It’s the thing themselves that I appreciate for, more often than not, cosmetic reasons. Player power is another matter entirely.
On the cosmetic end of things, I like when there are transmogs/enchant glows that I can collect and put together great looking outfits. I am really surprised that Blizzard hasn’t yet filled the cash shop with tons of transmog sets. If they made some I liked, they’d probably make a great deal of money from me.
The thing that has put a dampener on that for me in recent years though is the difference in taste between me and the artists when it comes to armor models. While it began in WOTLK, it became more of a thing from Cataclysm onward that I did not appreciate the aesthetics the artists were going for. Warlords had very very little I liked aesthetically.
Everything today is bigger or chunkier and scaling is sometimes absurd for weapons and shoulders. There’s also the lazy “socks” that the artists keep making for any set that uses a robe for its chest piece. Just because I can’t see the boots with the robe on doesn’t mean I don’t want those boots to be 3D and match the gloves for the set properly in case I don’t use the robe (which I often do not because I don’t want to be stuck in a dress all the time on my male clothies).
I collect mounts to match my outfits but I tend to like smaller or sleeker mounts like Invincible and Ashes of Al’ar over something big like a Proto-drake.
On the player power end of things, I miss being able to target things I want like how we used to be able to with justice and valor badges/points. I despise the deluge of RNG we have in BfA currently. I can’t even finish the 7th Legion plate set because I keep not getting the chest piece with the blue cloth bit.
World quests are nice but again they are random and often don’t award the things I need. When I am looking for a ring/trinket/weapon, and all I see are pants/gloves/gold/AP, I am left feeling disappointed and powerless. I’m held hostage by the RnG. It’s the same with Emissaries. When its the weapon emissary I almost universally get a stupid offhand when what I really want is a staff. I prefer staves over mh/oh combo but I don’t get any say in the matter.
Rewards becomes less rewarding when its just a glut of items doled out at the mercy of the RnG rather than fewer items that you can target by putting in time and effort. I don’t mind working for my gear, just let me work for the gear I want instead of letting the RnG decide what I get and if that item happens to worth the time I just spent trying to get it, but BfA’s RnG-palooza just wastes my time more often than not.
I do notice a touch of this some times in my collecting, but it’s part of the natural balance between building a new collection and appreciating an existing a collection. By just focusing on the diluted excitement of new acquisitions, I’d be ignoring the other half of the value going on in the experience.
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Yep. When a Leaf finally dropped in Molten Core and I had to do the Rok’delar questline it felt great. I sat for 5 hours doing the quest and it felt great getting the weapons because not only did it improve my overall DPS but it had a unique model.
BFA has loot raining from the sky and with forging pretty much makes gear progression completely random.
I’m curious: are you the type of person who validates a reward based on the amount of work you put in to achieve it or are you the type that validates a reward more for its exclusivity?
If you’re the latter, then I’d agree that you’re better off staying in Classic.
But I doubt Retail will ever move back in that direction. The audience is different and the development team philosophy is more evolved now.