Sorry for the WALL of text, but I really need to get this out, cause maybe someday blizzard would consider feedback as a good thing. And if you love the game and hate gated story, borrowed systems, you would read this.
TLDR: We’re in 2021, most popular games are based on great multiplayer repeatable gamplay without storymode. Please stop using gated systems and start making ALTs really easy to use after finishing the first playtrough on the main, by the book.
TLDR2: MAU related, I’ve been subbed for more months pre Legion, and thats thank to the lack of borrowed power systems and gated story quests.
Firstly:
World of Warcraft®: Shadowlands
Europe
Account Status: Active
Last Played: 1 Jul 2021 (subb expired on 17 July 
)
Next Billing Date: 16 Oct 2021
That means that one of the reasons I’ve subbed is to give my last 2cents and 13euros to Blizzard, and maybe my voice and others alike will count in the future … maybe next xpac.
The earlier quote is the exact reason I’ve subbed and wanted to reply, but of course the forum access is available ~24h later. Dodcoszmau, you should get a raise, since you made me sub without wanting to play at all 
Alting is a great passtime if you can do what you love from the game modes that the game offers, and not have to redo everything on every alt. WoW’s endgame could be: raiding, M+, pvping, World quests; all of those involve GEARING. So after I finish the first playtrough on my main, I should easily play on an ALT with everything unlocked (renown, systems etc.), if I choose to do so.
My "2 cents" for the game I love for 15 years
Really don’t understand how WoW’s Devs can’t see that there are simple and easy to understand reasons for the influx of players that come at 1. launch and 2. patches x.2 x.3.
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For 1. we have the REASON: HOPE, and that is that players HOPE the new xpac will be good.
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For 2. we have the REASON: END_OF_BETA, and that is because at x.2 or x.3 we finally get the xpac’s unique features as they should normally be at x.0 patch a t the start of the xpac. Also, Blizzard drops some of the barriers that make the game ALT_UNFRIENDLY, and ads most of the catchup systems in place.
With those in mind, while I can understand, “somehow”, why they cannot get a polished version for their temporary systems, at the launch of the xpac, I really don’t understand why they can’t implement changes that would make the game ALT_FRIENDLY no matter of big x.1 x.2 x.2 patches. Changes like: reach renown 40 on main, then get an item, like “Broker Mark of Distinction” , that boosts your ALT to renown 40; finish all QUESTS on main, then be albe to have ALL of them finished on ALTS, not just MAIN STORY. I have 24 alts, there is SO much to do for ALTS just by gearing that it would not need anything else.
I’ve played for /played 50days since xp launch 'til July 1st on 3 chars, but I’ve ignored 21 more. I would love to be able to focus on my main for like max 1 month or so after xpac launches or major x.1 x.2 x.3 patch, and then be albe to freely play on any of my alts without feeling the burnout of doing the same miserable things that, for me, don’t have anything in common with PLAYING with joy/for fun.
Blizzard hasn’t figured things out yet:
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- You really think that gating story and borrowed power systems would really grant you a healthy and stable number of players ? Cause I think it does exactly the oposite. While I was ok with the first gated part of the expansion, the moment I’ve seen 9.1 live and saw another 40 renown + story gated I’ve insta quit the game. Yesterday when I’ve resubbed, I’ve enter the game and finished all the content in ~6 hours and got to renown 59 and boy that was a joy and that gaved me the sens of finishing the “task”. And after that I can play the part of the game I love most (Arenas). Back when we didn’t had borrowed systems (WoD IIRC), I would play like 1-2 days per week, but always had the sub running, cause there was nothing stressing me out. But now, knowing all these alpha state borrowed power systems and gated storyquests are in place, it just makes me wait for a couple of months until you polish the systems and make them beta-state, and until the story is full released.
You can check my sub and see that since Legion, my subbed months are fewer then before. Let us play the game in our own pace, and like Ion likes to say “the player should make a choice”, but for that to happen we need more healthy coices to catter all types of players.
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- Why people still play the SAME games like CS:GO, DotA 2, Fortnite, Warzone, LoL, RainbowSixSiege, hell even Blizzard’s own Overwatch and Diablo 3 games, and they play it OVER AND OVER even if those games have just a few changes/updates every 1-2 years, and that is becasue people play those games for the GAMEPLAY. Even in Diablo 3, I come and play a season from time to time, but the first thing I do after I’m creating a new character is to get a 3min boost from 1-70. I could level my new season character by playing it in story mode or adventure mode if I would WANT to do it for the twentieth time, but thank GOD there is a way for people like me to just get the char to 70 and actually just PLAY the game for the gearing part.
Adding choices like story mode vs threads of time was a good think, but it is about time that Blizzard realises that the MMORPG genre is not trending for a long time now, it is already a niche. We all have grown up, have fulltime jobs, wifes/husbands, kids, and we actually don’t LIKE to do the whole “new expac, new quests, new borrowed power systems” for more then once per xpac. Please make Threads of Fate more ALT friendly, more GAMEPLAY friendly, letting everyone choose what is the content that they wanna “waste” their time with pleasure.
