The Elephant in the room, Blizzard pretends not to see... Dead servers for 2 months each season

Community General Discussion
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Two months before the end of each season, the game loses so many players that it can be declared “dead”. The servers go dead, the game goes dead. It has been this way for a few years now. But why?

If we look back at Lich King and Cataclysm days, just as we see on Classic servers, people play(ed) many alternate characters, not just their main 1 or 2 characters.

People do not have the time in Modern WoW (aka retail) to grind for Max Item Level on more than 1 or 2 characters per season. So roughly around the time of 2 months left on the season, people have progressed their Main character as much as they can, and realise they simply do not have time to grind out an alt. And so they quit until the new season starts.

You may say I am generalising here, but generally this is true, so it isn’t to be dismissed.

So why is it so difficult for them to grind a character to max, and feel that they have reached their end-game?

The upgrade system on armours, along with the grades on crafted items & crafting items, makes gearing up extremely costly and laborious.

So it is fair to assume that If we had the same gear system as in Classic WoW - people would be reaching their end-game on their main character(s) faster, then they would be making alternate characters and experiencing the game even more.

There are 13 different classes, each with multiple specs, so that means there are at least 13 different ways to experience the game, but few people have enough time for more than 1 or 2.

When speaking to others about this, some say Blizzard want it this way because it keeps people pumping money into WoWTokens for their gear, and that Blizzard only care about the money. However, I don’t believe this is true. Because if people had the time to play more than 1 character, and the funds to buy WoWTokens, they would still buy those WoWTokens and spend the gold on more than 1 character.

Others I have spoken to about it agree with me in my opinion that Blizzard should completely scrap the item upgrade system, grades on crafted items & crafting items, upgrade tokens, the lot.

If we only had to farm for 1 or 2 epic items in each inventory slot per season, we could enjoy the game much more.

So why does Blizzard keep producing more content using the same item upgrade systems?

Blizzard do not pay much attention these days to negative feedback. Also, any negative feedback on the forums is often brushed off by the regular forum posters quickly.

However Blizzard do pay a lot of attention to positive feedback from influencers and sponsored e-sports teams. Who frankly, seem completely incapable of giving any negative feedback about anything… Other than if something would remove their unfair advantage.

E-sports teams gear up insanely fast compared to everyone else. Because they are paid to work together and sponsored to win. They reach maximum item level, and then push in Mythic + dungeons to complete the dungeons on the highest level possible in the max item level. Or for Mythic Raiding, who can get the world first achievement.

They have few competitors, because regular people cannot afford such commitment of time and money. So yes, in this aspect the game is “Pay to win”.

All is fair in good sports. Clearly, all is not fair in WoW E-Sports.

So all that the item upgrade system does, essentially, is prevent regular players from ever becoming real competition against sponsored e-sports teams. If everyone could reach maximum item level just as quickly on 1 or 2 characters, then people could make teams which would easily rival the sponsored teams.

That would be fair, that would be good sport, and that would prevent the servers and the game from going dead, 2 months before the end of each season.

Classic servers do not go dead! So there is your proof that preventing people from playing alts, by making ‘grinding for gear & upgrades’ so time consuming, is the cause of dead servers.

Blizzard, scrap the item upgrade system, scrap the grades on crafted items & crafting items. Let people enjoy the game, in more ways than 1, once more.

This expansion was supposed to be “alt friendly”. But the game will never be alt friendly while ever there is this item upgrade system. If you want to make max revenue 6 months out of 6, instead of just 4 months out of 6? Scrap the item upgrade system and put the development time saved from it, into making new content for Season 4.

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You can easily get like 6 alts to ilvl 630 if you are playing 2-3 hours a day to be honest.

The problem is that the content isn’t fun to replay on alts. (Ever tried getting into a m10 with an ilvl 620 alt when there are tons of ilvl 639 players joining on their mains?)

They would have to make better/more content to fix this, we have plenty of time to do alts if we want to, it’s just not fun.

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To be honest being 634 doesn’t make it any easier.

I have completed all 11s, and I still face 10 declines before I get accepted to run another, unless I ask in guild.

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Huh, just realized another point why it’s such a bad move from the devs to increase itemlevel that much each season; it not only increases the damage output in an absurd way throughout an expansion, it’s already the case during a single season.

While during WotLK or other early expansions, alts were always welcome in group content as they were usually outperforming other players due to experience, nowadays that’s much less the case because i-lvl has such a huge impact.

They really need to prune difficutly levels in content, either by removing rewards or simply by decreasing stat differences; it would make playing alts and playing in PUGs a lot easier and probably help to keep the season alive through its full duration.

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How do servers go dead when they are all linked with other servers? I am on a low-pop realm and it still has plenty of people.

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This is an interesting point 200 ilevels would of lasted 2 expansions in the past, now we have 400ish to 652 in one season.

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I dont know about servers and the post is bit long to go through but in pvp seasons die in the middle because the rated system in general is participation and blizzards artificial mmr inflations based. So people play the first 1-2 weeks where everyone else plays aswell and once they reach certain ratings they just park their mains, and either play alts or or just have break for rest of season, once artificial inflation has lifted their mmr for next 3-4 months they come play for the last 2 weeks of the season several months later on their mains. This created this appearance of dead phases in season in pvp and its just bad designing in general and bad rated system.

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Well, to be fair, leveling gear ends at 540ish, 400-500 is just the green questing drops for people that didn´t already gear their toons that high in Dragonflight so they don´t get roflstomped by a mosswool as soon as they leave dornogal, and up until 584 isn´t really “season” gear, either,

But still, 584-639 is a wider spread than we´ve had in the past… And IMHO anything above 626 doesn´t really need to exist, it´s just more inflation and “trying to outrun teh hamster wheel” for the pure sake of keeping people occupied with gearing for longer than it actually provides any measurable benefit to most.

Not to mention that it incentivises running content people often aren´t even suited for (M+10s/M raid), skill wise, just for the pure sake of having it, which then in turn helps drive boosting, and with it gold sales, be they legit or illicit.

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Because unlike square enix ffxiv director neither the director of blizzard nor the wow director has the power to speak the truth .they will never say go play other games while you have done everything this season or patch has to offer .

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imagine to have to ask in the guild in an MMORPG game.

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This is why i dipped from retail.

I just can’t find the enjoyment in waiting 15-40 min for an invite, If i even get one before i give up.

Also often that run i get invite on is the run where the tank runs in, pulls too much, dies and then insta leave and back to searching grp i go.

The m+ join grp system is just dumb.

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The system is fine and works as intended, it is the players that are the real problem.

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That is absolutely true but can we fix people?
No ofcourse we can’t so if the people are the problem we need to change the system in a way that people are no longer the problem.

And I know that is stupid and I don’t even know what they could or should change but just going on as it is can’t be a good idea either

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Actually we could for the most part, but most ppl don’t put the effort in to try and help others and others can’t be bothered to take help or will see it as “toxic” criticism iso of contstructive.

Solution: play with friends in game, join a community or guild.

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Tried that; sooner or later, there is always some guild drama and the communities that were recommended for M+ are so big; too many ppl to get to know them or even know where to start or get into circles that have already formed. How am I supposed to smell who of them are skilled and who isn’t? Can just as well keep playing the lottery in LFG.

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I did a quick scroll through
The difference between classic and retail is seasons and imo the seasonal style is a reason for the behaviour. Before new raids didnt come with global ilvl boosts to rewards for repeatables content, which meant that if you wanted to do the new raid you had better get some gear for the previous one.

Now this has some upsides and downsides, people dont quit as much between patches other then maybe before the first content patch because most people are up to speed but all consecutive patches will see larger dropoffs in the numbers of people reaching Endgame but at the same time more people will be engaged for longer as the non seasonal style adds to what there is to do, rather then replace it

The seasonal system has upsides as well as more people see the content as a result.

Imo either way has good arguements and its really a matter of preference (personally I dislike the seasons, takes the fun out of gearing once the next season comes close, which could be one of the reasons people dip out in the second half)

Also as for the join a guild/community, sound advice but do some vetting and dont give up cause the first guild you joined was one full of drama llama’s

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People should stop expecting success in everything. Sometimes a run doesn’t get timed. Mistakes were made. In communities in general you do not need to check other players. And after 1 death nobody leaves.

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How about just trying to play with them before you just assume that it will be bad? And specifically with M+, there´s this little site you may have heard of called RaiderIO where you can see what runs someone has done, not just the highest scoring ones…

But seriously, it´s a freaking game… it´s ok and actually part of the whole point to “lose” every so often. It builds character among other things.

Do you think the people up at the actual top got there by never failing, ever? No, HELL no, they made a million more mistakes and failed runs than most of us probably have. They just got up every time, dusted themselves off, and learned something from it besides “other people are always the problem” :beers:

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Been the same guild for 9 years. Sometimes I participate in organized events and sometimes I don’t. I always remove myself from any drama in the guild as 9/10 times the person who caused or created the situation is dealt with and removed.

You need to also check yourself and what your expectations are and then check whether the guild is the problem or you are.

For me and the guild I am in. It’s a perfect fit. I am not forced to do anything I don’t want nor am I ridiculed if I choose not to participate. Rather I am always encouraged. I am always helped if I need it and there is always one or other event happening. Ranges from Monday M+ runs, Tues old raids/dungeon achievement runs to Friday Fun Runs and Saturday late night PvP.

You only get out of a guild what ever effort you put into it.

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Gearing to max means no more carrot-on-a-stick and players loose will to play. There must always be some kind of carrot.

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