Lol leave her she is known flamist and troller.
BFA, Blizzard using CRZ instead of merging low pop realms. If they are going to force CRZ down our throats at least enable guilds to invite ANY character on any realm to their guild. Itâs stupid to see the world full of people and only have 1/4 of them available to join your guild.
I see you have reading retention issues since you seem to have ignored the the other steps which I took! Do you always make comments on threads based solely on reading only the first fours sentences?
People in general have become less social. Also guilds have become a dime a dozen. There may be a decline in mass recruiting and even how social most are. Those who are saying oh because you can solo blah blah blah, really over sell how guilds work from even the beginning. In vanilla I was in a guild and other than raids I barely did guild things or âneededâ my guild for much sometimes they would do some 5 mans but even back then it was pug sit in the city spamming lf2m. To those who say oh the automation of groups blah blah. If you think spamming Lf2m is some social pinnacle again no.
There was never in this game a time where you âneededâ a guild to complete things you did at one point however need a guild to get some of those fancy perks.
Back to the social aspect even when we had to sit in city look for people talk to invite that was still the most interaction most gave only other interaction was sheep X sap Moon again that was probably the most you were getting. The need to coordinate is much different then socializing and getting to know. Socializing usually boiled down to one person giving out directions and the rest responding to acknowledge they heard and understand then it was silenceâŠâŠ
Guilds in there early iteration was mostly for raiding or end game and social guilds were created by people who actually just wanted to be social and meet new people but never in this games life span as there ever been a âneedâ for a guild you were never stuck if you didnât have a guild.
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Too many people complained that an MMORPG wasnât casual friendly.
Content that required a social network, guild, friends etc. got gutted and replaced with LFR/LFG.
thatâs because modern games have basically become an interactive movie. thereâs exceptions of course, especially in smaller devs and indieâs but AAA games seem to be going for interactive movies.
my current favorite quote to describe this âClassic games were pretty much execution challenges designed to be conquered like a video version of Simon Says, while modern games are interactive experiences designed to be explored rather than defeated.â
if you played classic and think back, this fits rather well considering every pull for just basic quests had to be thought out a bit or youâd pull 2-3 and end up corpse running. again.
that said, we did 5 man dungeons with no tanks in vanilla, because it was just a pain to spam hours on end to find one some times. my first time was a 5 mage bfd. it was rather fun. learned quite a bit from that, which is partly what leads me to believe that it just wasnât as hard as it seemed overall considering a large portion of people were newbies. including myself. i have a nagging feeling vanilla just isnât going to be as challenging as I recall it being this time around.
the grind will be real though, thatâs for sure. I just hope the challenge is worth it. I doubt it though, i recall being able to have quite a few carries in raids back then.
Lot of older players donât have the ability to work with the strict raiding schedule that guilds require. These days you can join a pug and clear heroic raids and usually a few mythic battles. I much rather do this than join a guild.
Guilds were never a requirement, just something that was good to have around when you wanted one. Players mingled, and players still mingle. Players who never wanted to mingle with you, are continuing to never want to mingle with you.
The problem? Players you would have mingled with, are no longer playing the game in large enough numbers. That leaves the players who never would have given you the time of day, the only players you see in the game world.
This is a symptom of an old game, being old. Nothing more.
Truth!
Now donât get me wrong blizzard has done a fair share of things to kinda minimize the need for social interaction, but to some who are acting like there was some âneedâ to guild at any point is the wrong hill to die on.
Just like the LFR fight again all for people feeling like certain things are the way they are but many people want to die on this hill as well when its the wrong fight.
There is a check box in the in-game interface you can mark to prevent receiving guild invites, if I recall correctly. Marking that might make it much more pleasurable for you.
You can find it here: menu->interface->controls -> block guild invites
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Could not have said it better!
I think we GD forum folk give Blizz way too much blame/credit for the changes that have occurred within the game without considering that many of the changes reflect Blizz reacting to larger changes in the world.
For example, when WoW went online, the youngest Millennials were barely 10 years old. Now they are in their 20s and a new generation (Z) ss reaching gaming age. In short, Blizz is now trying to appease four generations of active gamers, Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials and Gen Zs. Add to this in that time we had a major economic boom, the second biggest economic bust and slow return to a boom that has left many behind with poor wages and others with unparalleled affluence.
Look at our political environment of increasing partisanship that directly and indirectly shapes the way we interact with each other. Not just the clash of values such as elitism and casuals who each only focus on parts of the game but also creates mindsets that whatever we donât use or appreciate must be removed from the game even if thousands or millions do enjoy it.
To this end, Blizz and other game designers have my deepest sympathy and appreciation for the task at hand. Confounding this that they often do not help themselves at times with unpopular and, worse, poorly explained design decisions.
Part of the problem is that we do not know the metrics that they use to make their decisions. Time played may indicate to them that they have a stable player base but it doesnât measure how happy that player base is. This could explain a stable population but Blizz being shredded on forums. There are people who are still paying a subscription are playing as much but are increasingly dissatisfied. But perhaps this is a churn that evens out over time.
They can look at the numbers who are raiding and dungeon crawling but have to be careful they are looking at those not forced to do this to complete quests and then never do it again.
They can look at unlocking pets, mounts and achievements, as well as auction house activity, arenas, world PvP and so on to get enough data to do the analytics on the âcasualâ aspects of the game. From there it goes through the developersâ and designersâ professional and personal filters and produces things like the atmosphere of Drustvar and Nazmir as well as time and activity gating.
What we donât know is how WoW is perceived at ActaBlizz. Does working on this game attract top talent or do the best and brightest of the up and coming want to work on newer stuff? Has management convinced investors that they can turn it around? Have they convinced investors the game is in a slow wind down and they can milk it for as long as possible? Are there still people at Blizz who are as passionate about WoW as the we in the forums are? We donât know the answer and yet weâre actively debating intelligently at times and foaming at the mouth at others because we care and generally weâre bright but we donât have enough information. Sort of like a workplace where changes are coming but the lack of details feed both insecurities and rumor mills.
Hopefully, at some point, Blizz will take a deep breath, grit their teeth and communicate with us as adults, even though we often donât behave as adults. The tin foil hat folks will always be with us, but Iâd like to think that given the facts and dilemmas facing design decisions, trade-offs, costs, changes in the player demographics and other factors, something meaningful can happen in the resultant feedback loops given how bright and passionate most of the forum posters can be.
Thank you.
Mmm not really true. Back then if you wanted to do serious raiding like Heroic or any form of Rated PvP you needed a guild. And even without one, you ran into a lot of resistance if you didnât at least try to get to know some people. Which was my point. Before in WoW server community was a thing. And because there was server community there was guilds that were made within them. Now it doesnât matter what server youâre on and what guild youâre associated with due to how single player the game has gone.
If you truly think that then you havenât really been paying attention to what has been going on. There are a lot of easy changes that would make a lot of people happy that Blizz flatout wonât do because theyâre busy trying to make their investors happy moreso than their interest in making players happy.
Ion. Ion happened. Would rather watch the game crash and burn than take a step back and admit bad decisions were made.
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Not sure what to tell ya but I still keep getting them to where I had to turn on auto decline. I always forget to do that with each new alt, but last week when I made my KT, I got about 4 invites in a matter of a few mins. I was in the middle of a quest so didnât think anything about it but after the 4th one I turned on the auto decline.
Also wowprogress shows tons of guilds still raiding on all servers too. /shrug
Sounds like someone is trying wayyyy too hard to take a dig at BfA.
@Penumbrea-sentinels, you have made valid points. I am 74 yrs old and only started playing online games back in 2007 so I am not one of the multitudes who have been with gaming since their teen aged years.
I have always watched how people tend to try and relax by playing games; be they card games like solitaire (which now has an electronic version), to monopoly (which can be related to how some gamers play world building games online), to fantasy where they can immerse themselves in a hero role and go save the world.
Regardless of what or how Bliz makes their decisions, it impacts every single person and every aspect of the game that is created. But one must keep in mind that many folks use games to relax and step out of their daily routines in order to unwind.
My son DMs a board game based on D&D games he started playing back in college. I attended one of these sessions and I have to say performance art is alive and well. It was the most interesting experience I had ever had and it took my son to introduce it to meâŠand to online gaming (specifically WoW).
What I think should happen is as you statedâŠmore communication from Blizzard but more importantly perhaps, would be a genuine interest in what folks are looking for. As in most successful businesses, if you keep your customers happy they keep coming back, even if you raise your prices.
I do not see this aspect with Blizzard at present. I remember back when I first started, I saw a lot of communication and genuine concern and consideration from the Bliz devs to interact with the players, sadly that is missing now.
Just an older personâs view point to your posting.
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As a fellow geezer (Iâm 66.) Iâm with you on your comments. Being an old paper and pencil D&D player, the role playing is a huge part of the fantasy and the enjoyment, whether acting with others present or even just inside oneâs head. It really makes everything come alive as more than dice rolls or mouse clicks, at least for me.
Hopefully, Iâll still have a mind young enough to still be playing in six years at 72. Gratz on you being there.
Thank you.
Special /lol to Mythic pugs for BoD. Some are even at 2/9 without any chat/voice/stuff.
Blizzard has gone out of their way to destroy the Wow Community. Every piece of content you can do on your own now. You can hit a button que for a raid or dungeon and complete the whole thing without having to type a single word to another person. There is no insensitive to be in a guild unless you want to do Mythic raiding or high-end Rated BGs. Between this and sharding, the wow community is dead and blizzard killed it with a smile on their face.
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Itâs what I love most about this game since 99% of the people Iâve met in game, and on the boards for that matter, are buttholes anyhow. Vanilla EQ and Warhammer Online had far better communities. <3
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