I can definitely relate to you two. I’ve been playing WoW since it’s inception in the EU when I was a ten-year-old, but I think now I’m…done.
I feel that the talent-drain of Blizzard’s underpaying and overworking environment has finally drained out WoW as well. Within the last three expansions, Blizzard seems to have been creatively bankrupt in their design. There’s less and less unique content expansion-to-expansion and more and more of a systemic “check this off the list for this expansion cycle” design. And the new content there is seems to be designed with efficiency rather than creativity or fun in mind.
I don’t know. You look at ESO and FFXIV and you see all those fun mechanics. Fully voiced quests, housing, the Gold Saucer, guild projects like Airships and future stuff like Island Sanctuaries. Some of it might be fluff, but at least it’s there. You see how much attention they pay to their stories.
And then you look at WoW and you get what? Torghast and Covenants? Thanks, I guess. This “not so rogue-like” rogue-like and the zone I can’t mount in are surely innovative and creative features I will sink all my time in.
Grass is always greener on the other side 'n all, but there hasn’t been a single WoW feature that has blown me away since Legion.
I cannot do anything but resonate with what you’ve said.
I’ve always been a step above the usual casual go’er – I do heroic raiding for fun with my guild when I can make the time and outside of that I try for achievements, roleplaying, collecting battle pets and doing old dungeons. But lately World of Warcraft for me has left me with the feeling of being… Jilted? Like it’s a simulacrum of what it once was; a mishappen mess.
It comes and goes, obviously, but it hasn’t ever been this strong before and certainly not so soon in an expansion point. Others have echoed points that I also will talk about, but it’s something that is incredibly hard to detail, but something innate to my personage. I left Shadowlands a month in, absolutely burnt out – and I came back two months later almost to get blindsided by it again. Whenever I log in I just usually stare at the screen while talking to my friends on Bnet which I can also mirror on discord. Sometimes I run around. But lately it’s just feeling like an empty void that I toss stuff into that I hope would fill.
Everything seems to be blatantly a grind. Instead of feeling accomplished I feel drained. Items usually are a hard drop for me - if it’s an upgrade - makes me feel nothing instead of feeling like i’m progressing. If they drop at all. And it all just funnels you further down the level of not being able to sit on your laurels and do things you want to, whether it’s to BG or do silly stuff. It’s like someone nagging you that you’re wasting time if you don’t pull up and start doing things that are “Productive.” And if you do too much then you’re just capped for the week and forced to sit until the next rollover so that you can continue doing things you actually like.
Gear disparity has never been higher. I can roll into BGs and get stomped. And if you’re casual and just enjoy how you play the scaling has been so aggressive it doesn’t feel as if you’re progressing.
Meanwhile throughout all of this my active friends list just gets smaller and smaller; more and more infrequent; less common as people get on. And i’m just sitting here watching it like sand go through my fingers.
Honestly? I don’t know anymore. It feels that World of Warcraft has lost the story for myself. And worse than that it’s lost the entirety of the game. There’s interesting supplements to lore, yeah, but it’s certainly felt in the past two expansions that it’s less and less about the world (of Azeroth) and the beings within them and just hyper-focused on characters that aren’t inherently charming or interesting any more. Like the life has been sucked out of them and they’re rendered two-dimensional by space-flying vampires.
EDIT: I think the worst of things is seeing people like you, @Kass and @Sarestha, eventually leave the game even if it’s only for a few months or so. I dictate the game’s livelihood and take a bit of comfort knowing longstanding players are still poking around.
I feel the pain with this in so many ways. I know it’s an older post and I’m sorry for bringing it back up but looking over the thread it spoke to me in so many ways. Coming back to WoW recently it’s reminded me of one of the biggest issues I’ve had in the past with roleplaying and as badly as I’d like to find a writing partner now it’s my worry once more.
I struggle to find people to play with as I enjoy doing specific types of content and finding an RP partner that also enjoys it while also capable of playing at the level i do is… difficult.
I confess that the off-server people who wander in here have started realizing their error and are locking their threads instead of staying and chatting with us and that makes me sad.
you’re looking at this all wrong. the jailer isnt a sargeras of death, he’s a plot mechanic to give sylvanas power and allow her to be morally grey and be redeemed through comparison.
i use sargeras a term of looking at them you know what theyre about, right
you look at sargeras and hes a big flaming demon, so obviously hes about demons
you look at the old gods and yeah obviously theyre all about the lovecraftian nature of the void, right?
but the jailer is… just some guy. literally. hes just a dude. i get surprised every time he talks about death because its like, oh, right. hes supposed to be the death guy.
