I’ve been off wow for a while - (really didn’t enjoy shadowlands, except Torghast) - but like many I’ve been re-evaluating whether I want to come back.
And I’ve come to the conclusion that I want a third wow - classic is a step in the right direction, but… not really - and I’m wondering if I’m alone? I might be a little strange in that I’m mostly playing solo - have zero interest in pvp and even less in alts.
For me the game was always levelling and accumulating stuff. The story, the quests are not just something you rush through to get to some end game - that’s the actual game. But I also loved different regions at different levels - the “am I ready” to go in - the going in when you aren’t ready to try and survive long enough to get some good gear - and the exploration.
There seems to be a weird belief with new expansions that there has to be a way for a new player to experience it fairly easily - but I think each time that’s done - it actually takes away from their experience. The old stuff is still great and worth playing through, and if you are new, it’s just as exciting. Rather than thinking of the game moving forward - it should be just thinking of the game expanding.
But anyway - I’m not in any way trying to influence the course of normal wow - decisions have already been made etc etc. And I’ve looked a little at classic - which sort of hits the right notes … but not really.
What I dream of, and would instantly subscribe to is a new, third type of wow… “Wow Linear”? Which is just the same - has every bit of content up to the latest expansion, every location, every element… BUT. levels just go up linearly - and the same speed they did originally. So if you are a level 1 person starting out in Coldridge valley - you could see a level 600 person walk by you - and it’s going to take you hundreds of hours to get there. Where there are no artificial restrictions “you aren’t high enough level to go here/do this” - but if you do - you just die a lot - that’s your fault. Where if you get an item - it works forever - there’s no concept of “that doesn’t work in this zone” or “you can’t use this above this level”. Things like engineering stuff that you make on Draenor you can use anywhere. Once you have something - it’s yours and it will continue to work forever - it will probably get low level enough that you’ll just thow it away at some point - but that’s your choice - not something artificially enforced. Also you never “unlock” access to a new region for instance (although access to abilities like flying is the same). And there’s no level scaling, everything area has a level it stays at - and when you get high enough level, you can just run back and solo older raids etc. Also - bring back pet levels - so your pet is not just a cosmetic thing - you have to work at certain ones - or grab new higher level pets from higher level areas,
Basically a world where you feel like the time you put into the game is worth something - and remains worth something - you never get the feeling that you’ve wasted time or something has been taken away from you - and a new player has to experience the whole game - there’s no quick way to jump through or skip over a bit. I honestly believe this would both retain people better and encourage more people to start - as there’s just so much out there to do - starting now with the whole universe of lore and land that has been created…
Anyway - that’s my idea/suggestion/request.
Can we have a wow linear please 