Reflections on Social Dynamics in WoW: 2005 vs 2025

[Ishayo-tarren-mill]

@Albynormy-argent-dawn

Let’s be real WoW is over 20 years old.

It’s impressive, but it doesn’t matter in the abstract. There are some details to get into here though, which you do.

@Albynormy-argent-dawn

Most other franchises would of been a 2.0 version by now. I know each expansion the games improved in many aspects some graphical tweaks / UI etc.

But overall the game has become stale.

They’re changing it all the time. The only way it can become stale is if the changes are rotten.

@Albynormy-argent-dawn

A fresh new look at WoW with a whole new story, improved engine and even gameplay is required.

I… would actually like that, yeah.

The problem is I don’t trust the current team to deliver on that vision.

@Albynormy-argent-dawn

Issue is WoW has made people invest so much more money into the game they’ve put themself in a corner to keep this gravy train going for as long as possible without reviewing the quality of the product.

Due to the increased ingame store cash shop purchases players have been and years of subscription players have devouted to the game.

To tell them, that all there money and hard work would be irrelevant is why they don’t make a 2.0 (whole new game) and keep rinsing and fleecing us with these sub par expansions.

The last expansion they seemed to put effort in was Legion. That to me was the end of the WoW 1.0 cycle. Ever since then it’s been a con job.

You’re not wrong, but I think that everybody needs to accept that everything that has a beginning has an end.

Our characters will, one day, be lost in the great server shutdown. It is inevitable. Keeping a gravy train going that can’t sustain itself and ruins Blizzard - which isn’t what’s actually happening but for the sake of argument - is only going to make it worse, because it’ll force them to shut it all down instead of leaving it running but with emphasis on a new game, similar to Guild Wars.

I think the right approach is to give it a Blizzard cinematic level coat of paint, because that is now possible technologically, and update the world to reflect where Azeroth is and where it has gone.

But they can’t deliver on that. I genuinely don’t believe it.

[Albynormy-argent-dawn]

Yes in the long run everything ends, sadly ever since Blizzard sold to activision and now to microsoft more recently abliet. The companies focus is no longer how do we make the best MMORPG like the original team did, it’s how can we keep the lights on and make as much money at a minimal cost basis each year. Capitalism has ruined the gaming industry which was more niche back in the early 2000s and now is mainstream.

[Ishayo-tarren-mill]

I agreed up until the last part.

There are plenty of companies out there with at least as much integrity as Blizzard had back then.

Just off the top of my head recently is FromSoft, Game Science, StarDock, Moon Studios, Larian, and many more.

And it should be noted that Microsoft are certainly capable of delivering when they have the right directors as well.

iD is smashing it. So is the Age of Empires franchise. There’s real passion there, and it shows.

No. The Blizzard problem is much more… local in nature.
It’s their hiring practices and the strategy set in motion by Bobby.

It may yet be cleaned out, but it’s hard work.

[Albynormy-argent-dawn]

They should move the HQ to Texas

[Ishayo-tarren-mill]

It’s not the location, it’s the workforce.

And it’s not something that happened just as a consequence of California, but it certainly didn’t help.

They actively educated their workforce for this.

[Denel-kazzak]

I hated having to go into chat to try find a group, or raid. HATED. The current system is way better, and if you want the social aspect, you join a like minded guild.

[Beerwolf-sunstrider (Beerwolf)]

Those days are long gone unless you organise or join like-minded people, just like everything else in tech Convenience wins out in the end.

[Ruffntuff-silvermoon]

Yes and no. There are plenty social interactions in the game. Plenty helpful and friendly folks. Guilds from my perspective are still the same and social environments it has just moved to discord iso of chats. Age in a guild is irrelevant.

Communities are the new norm and most who dip in and out from the game tend to gravitate towards these. The only problem with communities is they rely wholly on the chat function if they do not have a discord channel. Here is where the “antisocial” aspect lays. Nobody even bothers to pay attention to the chat let alone activate it.

The real problem with modern wow is that if you meet one elitist the whole of azeroth crumbles and the entire community is just made up of rotten bad people.