The rise and fall of world of warcraft

Community General Discussion
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Disclaimer: this is not a rage,bate or I hate wow topic. More a start (i hope) of a discussion on wow and its current direction, theres three points I want to cover and there 100% opinion feel free to agree or disagree its perfectly fine.

  1. Story

So let’s go back to the RTS games at the start of Warcraft; there was a loose story, and while it’s safe to say it wasn’t J.R.R. Tolkien levels, it was a perfect backdrop to the first two RTS games, but Warcraft 3 really set the bar for what we have today. Warcraft’s story was a faction war, horde vs. alliance; add in a sprinkle of magic and some fantasy elements, and there you have it.

Now it’s fair to say if I asked anyone to tell me what WoW’s overall story was, you would very easily be able to go up to Wrath of the Lich King and the death of Arthas. but then it falls off into the void. Now it’s also fair to say a game spanning 20+ years might have a few plot holes. But is the story really World of Warcraft anymore? I would argue that any direction the game started off in as a story is gone, and what we’re left with is a fractured mosaic of many people’s ideas and a sprinkling of left-wing ideals that have turned away from faction vs. faction to a more jumbled mess of interwoven ideas and concepts that make the void look bright and sunny. It’s become a convoluted and confused mess of what it wants to be.

  1. Gameplay.

I love WoW’s combat; it’s fun and engaging, with nice bright colours that my autism loves. Given time, I can get invested in my character’s journey, from a lowly Pandaren to a capable healer. What I hate most are the confusing and baffling balance changes that just don’t make any sense to anyone. Balance in an MMO is a hot-button subject that no MMO has gotten right, but constant changes and what feel at times like spiteful changes to classes just leave a bad taste in the community. While I don’t think there is a one-size-fits-all way of balancing, I don’t think changing every week is A. helping the players or B. helping the balance team fix issues.

  1. Who is WOW for?

Let’s be truthful for a moment: back when WoW was released, it was for nerds. Most MMOs back then were hell; most computer games were. That’s in no way an insult to the player base, far from it, but as WoW has become more mainstream and more focused on the e-sports smash-all-the-buttons-while-drinking-an-energy-drink style, it’s pushed away the people that made WoW a fantastic place to be.

As WoW has gotten bigger, it’s lost more and more of its soul, joy, and humour. It’s pushed people away to reach a bigger player base, but in doing so, people like me who have been playing with orcs and humans back in 95 don’t recognise the game any longer, and rather than enjoying playing with mates, killing a few bosses, and having an adventure over TeamSpeak or Discord,. We are now forced to leave them mates behind in the search for RIO and gear, and only after burning out due to poor balance and strange class changes do we touch grass and look for another game to relax playing.

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hes not wrong u know in other games gear matters, here gear matters for 3 months unless u do pvp in which case the geasr is alrdy set for u

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This.

the season approach to WoW killed it.
the Esports made it boring to play.

i literally play other games now, and are on other forums having a blast .

im still here because i actually get a kick out of watching people wake up and realise how poor this game has become.
it kinda validates my points ive said for years.

i jump in each season , do pvp, log out . each season for me lasts 2-4 weeks max

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I stopped reading there, because that’s where your credability was gone. You are just another Donald Trump/Victor Orban/Putin supporter that has no clue about anything.

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yeahh i was about to say yes but then i saw left wing stuff… NONE of wow’s problems are about left wing or “woke” agenda. it’s just poor management

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Sorry, traffic was bad.
Am I late for the show? Is this seat over here taken? :seat: :popcorn:

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Thanks for the TLDR, but would have preferred the politics in the first sentence rather than waiting until the third para.

Rather than carelessly brandishing ‘left wing’ or ‘right wing’ like the Alliance and Horde war is hotting up again (I wish!), it might be less triggering if you just left it to the explanation of the stories you don’t like. ‘Left wing’ does not have a monopoly on social liberalism - can sit hand-in-hand with fiscal conservatism - and the loose language may alienate half of the readers.

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95% of warcraft 3 story isn’t an horde vs alliance, actually the closest we get to it is one mission in horde campaign, last mission in horde campaign is horde and alliance band together to smash demons, it’s a small reference to the fact that those “warcraft purists” that advocate for “Warcraft feel” so much don’t have a clue on what the hell was happening in warcraft 3.

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WoW evolved with the times end of discussion.

As a Tolkien fan I’m glad it’s not as convoluted as his writing.

WoW (Retail) would not survive in a world where people consume 30 second videos for hours but complain when you put a thirty minute video in front of them.

Insta Ques, rapid and constant gratification is what people want and need (apparently).

In all honesty I’d love some damn RPG put back into the game but it ain’t happening. You want RPG you play FF14 it’s simply the best ‘RPG Experience’ but a boring MMO.

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I too wish the story had remained primarily about the Alliance vs. the Horde, like in rts games. Those old stories are great, especially if you also read books like Rise of the Horde, The Last Guardian, Beyond the Dark Portal, Lord of the Clans, etc. Probably non-stop war would make the game somewhat pointless over time, so common enemies and occasional cooperation are good things. But for years the story has been going in a completely different direction and I think it’s practically impossible to change that now. If nothing else, they could at least leave the tension and hatred of certain groups of factions. At least pay a little respect to the game’s beginnings and roots, the story and themes that have largely contributed to making this game one of the most popular ever.

But as for ‘’modernization’’ of wow, simplifying the game, lfg, option to play solo etc, those are good things and they should continue to develop the game in that direction. This design is much healthier and doesn’t waste players’ time.

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If I wanted to listen to mind numbing ideological preaching, I’d turn on the news. I log in to enjoy the game only to find it poisoned with the same toxic nonsense that’s already ruining everything else. I don’t care where it comes from

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Dang, you mean wow died like 15 years ago? Crazy how alive it seems after being dead for so long.

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If the most popular mmo is dead, in what kind of state second most popular mmo is…

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Alive?
its barely alive

its surviving through cash shop transactions.

most players are middle age men or older , a dying playerbase.

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Blizzard did stated that most of their revenue comes from sub, nevermind that cash shop transactions are useless without sub

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So it didn’t die with seasons then?

If WoW created the one thing that sends it to the grave 15 years ago, it sure as heck is taking a long time to go into the grave.

What do you want instead of the seasons? To proceed through normal dungeons > heroic dungeons > first patch normal raid > first patch heroic raid > first patch mythic raid > second patch normal raid > second patch heroic raid > second patch mythic raid and so on? Would be awful to replace a raider at the second or third patch considering all the processes to gear up a new raider in that case, same for alts. Seasons make the game alt friendly.

Idk about you, but if I ever feel like trying another spec or class I’d hate to go through 2 or more months of grinding for gear before I can do the current content. I like being able to jump into it rather fast and actually play the game.

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If some is quitting, I could use their gold. Anyways, remember its only a game.

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God forbid having empathy and treating characters with respect.:man_facepalming: thanks to trump empathy became “politics”

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The rise of Warcraft can easily be fixed if Blizzard actually allows us to be fully customizable with player housing

I don’t want a bunch of people on these forums telling me that my Night Elf Mage can’t have memorabilia or have things in her player housing which shows that she still considers Queen Azshara to be the greatest leader of the Kaldorei, because Azshara is a baddie. So what? If people can have their freedom to be as expressive as they want, then I should as well

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If wow played like it did in 2004-2010 it would be long dead allready or in a life support hell. Sure it was fun but personally i just cant stand the old gameplay of olden days wow its just way too slow and running everywhere as slow as the character moves just becomes old real fast.

I tried to go back with classics but i just could not stand the old gameplay anymore at all or the fact that it took hours and hours of basically downtime to get from A to B and then back to A because after you completed the quest the questgiver always sends you back to A and after that 2 or 3 times repeat that too.
For me i just came to realization that the old gameplay is not for me anymore as i value my time more and modern wow just lets me play the game i want not waste hours/days doing crap i have no interest anymore or i have already done them 20 years ago.

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