True. But then what other rewards are there? Are we getting new unique storylines? Cosmetics? Mounts? Titles? Have we earned new battle pets or garrison music or bodyguards? Has WoW come up with new ideas to keep players entertained like player housing, bodyguard skins, tattoo ideas, additional dances, additional voices, etc to keep us occupied?
No? Cool. I guess we will just try to get the one thing offered to allow us to do end game progression. Which is gear. And even that grind sucks.
If you are grinding area for rank you are earning honor and conquest which you can use to buy and upgrade gear.
And if you are anything but the very high end of arena that gear will be sufficient for you for the time it takes to get to the next gear.
ALSO FFS since when did PVP Arena player cry about gear like carebears? PVP is and should always be about player skill, NOT who has the best fudging gear. If you are PVPing and are crying about a gear gap thinking that the gear gap should allow you to make up for your own lack of individual skill in playing your character, you are just sad and pathetic and dont deserve to queue up for ranked arena. Get out of here with that baloney.
Players who arenât interested in the loot treadmill.
WoW is not a game designed to cater in any way to those types of players. Sure, they might be able to find something here or there to enjoy, but the game is 100% designed to get people running on that treadmill. Any alternate enjoyment you might find is completely accidental.
The satisfaction for completing the content challenge!?
WTF do you need to be rewarded with a piece of cheese like you are a rat in a maze?
There went your credibility.
Why would you not get denied from someone elseâs key when they are people in q that have the io they built getting there?
There will always be people who donât want to put in the effort. Sounding familiar to you?
How do they prevent you from naturally passing? You canât do what a ton of people have done, on their own or with a friend/friends/guildies/etc? Stands to reason if they did you could.
If it makes you feel better to cry that you are being held down, cool. Alternatively, you could think of solutions. I guess that would take a slightly less negative outlook tho.
Absolute baloney. Get out of here with this casino slot machine mentality. Go back to Las Vegas or Atlantic City with that garbage.
Afraid to lose your paycheck if carry service demand drops off?
Lulz. You obviously are assuming, because if youâd checked, I donât have the gear or experience to carry. Tbf, you started with zero credibility.
The entire game revolves around the loot treadmill. Everything feeds into it. âAlternateâ content, outside of a scant few examples like pet battles and the Darkmoon Faire, are simply things left in its wake.
What is the primary goal of the development team if not putting people on that treadmill? What specific design decisions have you thinking that their focus is anywhere else?
what makes you think that if io didnt exist youâll be able to join keys without prior experience ?
It only revoves around the loot treadmill because YOU made it revolve around the loot treadmill.
Funny how I can play the game just fine without ever obsessing over what gear drops and that I can essentially stick around 190 without any serious issues while running content.
Oh, I donât know⊠maybe to create fun and engaging game play content like raid and dungeon boss fights?
Actually, I donât play at all anymore.
The vast majority of my friends quit when they realized that life simply canât sustain ideal participation in the game as had been dictated by its mechanics.
That is true for myself as well, although I could still play with the community. Now I donât even have my community.
Sure, you can ignore the loot treadmill, but then⊠why are you here? The developers are catering to a very specific play style.
Do you go to a steakhouse and order salad? Tell vegetarians that they should be happy with the venue because those side orders exist, when they could be enjoying a meal somewhere where they arenât an afterthought?
Why would they be at a steakhouse tho?
Seems theyâd pick a restaurant that suited their tastes 
Advancing your characterâs power is fun and feels good.
Even when Iâm not as focused on gear, the alternate stuff to go for is still a horrendous grind. Upgrading the sanctum and going for all of the cosmetics is horrible with the anima rewards being awful.
Iâm not exactly left with any alternatives.
Iâm obsessed with not having my time wasted playing a video game I pay a monthly sub for where the main focus is progression.
The steakhouse I go to has an amazing salad bar. While they are known for their amazing steaks, the salad bar is quite the attraction.
WhateverâŠ
You play video games for strange, and in my opinion absurd, reasons. Itâs like you arenât really playing WoW but rather âkeeping up with the Jonesesâ and that you probably couldnât care less about the actual game play so long as you could sit doown and compare your abstract number calculations to that of your neighbor.
That game sounds horribly boring and itâs no wonder you donât play WoW any more if that is the rationale behind why you play.
Good luck though.
Form level 1 to level 60, all a player does is get gear to replace gear, thatâs the point of the game for most players. But some people thinks only a few should have gear so they can be spectacular over others and SL is failing hard.
Getting gear is NOT why you play the game. Itâs just a single part of a the process. FFS man itâs like you are saying that âFootball has shoulder pads, how could you ever play the game without the best, top of the line, set to of football pads???!!! Itâs the main feature!!!â.
All I can do is roll my eyes at you.
Itâs like the point of going fishing to you is the car ride to the pond.
Get heirlooms and xpoff at 49. Never worry about gear again. 
I Know Right?
But that would defeat the entire purpose for why these people play. They are literally saying that the game IS getting gear. Heirloom gear would remove the âgameâ part of the equation for those players.
It sounds absurd because it is.