The decision makers of this game haven’t played wow for about 10 years and that shows. Try playing your game for several hours a day for one week and if you can handle it, i’ll pass.
-Those without bubbles/tank specs/whatever will want to kill themselves after the constant 1hit-dismount mechanic that serves nothing.
-Get punished with a 15yo resurrection timer mechanic because a raid is ganking you and none is willing to help.
-Cast to mount for the billionth time because you can’t decide for 15 years if instant mounting will break the outdoor pvp game which is in a sad state since forever, yet it’s supposed to be the epicenter of the current expansion’s lore. Ignore the hallow’s end data of 0 complaints year after year.
-Keep the gear treadmill because it keeps the subscriptions flowing and see all your previous expansions rendered obsolete and useless minus some vanity mogs and achi points as you fail to reinvent the wheel of old content scaling/rewarding. Then realize that the "vast" WoW world that matters is actually 2 islands, 2 more soon and a few dozen instanced routines of more of the same.
-Reroll to see most of your previously hard earned unlocks thrown down the drain because that way your experience will feel more “unique”.
-Try playing a 1sec gcd class and endure the fizzle sounds for more than 1 hour. And why is there even a gcd? What respectful mmo to itself is based on gcd mechanics nowadays?
-Get stuck in combat because a mob is stuck eyeballing you from kingdom come. That was a great mechanic indeed, again 15 years ago…
-Realize you MUST use a custom UI, realize 20 keybinds aren’t enough then learn lua macroing to compensate.
-Lag to oblivion in ANY 40vs40 battle on your 9th gen gaming system when other MMOs without a sub and more advanced graphics can very well handle 200+
These are just a few of the issues that other mmo’s have succesfully dealt with for over 10 years and blizzard is thankfully copying the now obvious solutions over their game but with constantly decelerated pace.
The statement of “keeping everyone happy” while in truth is “keeping the subs maximized”, although completely understandable, is failing both as an excuse and a game model, and the proof of the latter is the systematic concealment of actual meaningful statistics since 2015.
You can’t keep everyone happy. In the example of instant mounting, druids who rolled druids only because of the instant mounting they get, won’t be happy that everyone can have their perk. But this is the toxic playerbase you DON’T want to be happy, if what they enjoy in this game is an elitism based on the misery of others, you can’t and shouldn’t keep them happy. If you need a more live example, think of the water striders in conjunction with the 8.2 mount items and the caused reactions. It’s no wonder WoW has turned from a great cooperative experience to a pure elitistic/antagonistic one, with one of the most toxic and indifferent communities there are.
Will classic WoW fix it? You can’t deal with obsolete mechanics, and mentalities with even worse mechanics and flaws. Problems don’t need countermeasures, they need bold decisive solutions. Sure it will keep the large bucks flowing for a time but nostalgia won’t save the day beyond level 60 where all the imbalances and elitism will kick in.
Before you hop in to wrongly focus on the individual flaws i point out, the points i make are just a tip of the tip of the iceberg. I won’t slam the door on my way out, the door is stuck wide open…