While I do agree on that, I am also happy it is that way. And I have a feeling that the majority >50% feel that way. It is shown by were today’s interest in MMORPG sits.
There hasn’t been a new MMO in the works for a long time, and it will not happen in the near future since that market is kind of gone.
As I always say, from my POV, MMORPG has become a niche-near-obsolete market and that is why WoW is switching to this “mmo-instance symulator”.
We have changed our lifes, grown, with years passing time has more and more meaning and value and loosing time to NOT PLAY and just PREPARE TO PLAY, for me at least it doesn’t cut it.
How would it feel to waste 1-2-3-4 hours per day, just so you can actually start playing rated CSGO, OVERWATCH, DOTA, FORTNITE, WAZRONE, ETC. ?
People want to log in their computer and START PLAYING.
Oh, if I would have no kids, or if I would have retired, then by all means, I am sure I would be pleased to live in WoW Classic once more. But for the moment, all I need is a good GAMEPLAY, some good MECHANICS, and a way to actually PLAY.
The only reason I’m still in WoW, it is I love the game, the gameplay, the mechanics, there is not even a single game in the world that can let you do all the mechanics that you do in WoW.
As I always give this example: jump out of your flying mount, dot someone/bleed someone, hot yourself, use glider and then vanish or just stealth while riding on that glider. That is unbelivable that you can do that in a game. Other MMOs don’t let you fk JUMP, don’t let you trow a stun while jumping etc. This is the reason I love WoW so much.
Well, in that case, I just need to pray to God there are more of my kind then your kind.
Meaning I pray there are more that love to play and decide what to play for themselfs, then those that like to be “controlled”, put on the threadmill for something.
Looking back to TBC and WotLK, for me, both let you play whatever you wanted. And that is why, for me, Shadowlands feels so much like TBC/MoP, then any other xpac.
Another bad thing is that people tend to compare WHOLE past expansions with the start of a new expansion, and that is just …
BFA lost me after the first 2 months just because it forced me to grind azerite power to be able to unlock an azerite trait, just so it can give me a new epic item that had ALL TRAITS locked once again. That for me showed pure broken design. Add the fact that War Campaign was so gated but without any reward for each week of doing that, and on top of that add the fact that WoW story in general is mediocre, that is a recipe for disaster.
At least in SL, even though the story is again, as always, mediocre at best, we got 1 renown for every chapter completed, and that felt more rewarding. But I still hate GATED story telling.