This question is easily answered by pressing control + T or, control+shift+N for the night enjoyers; but for now.
Whenever I think of the current state of WoW, aside from the class balancing, PvP or PvE goals and meta, it makes me think that we’ve lost the path of what a MMORPG is.
I don’t want to be the melancholy guy, however, allow me to say that I really miss the involved and self-aware community that we had in the firsts phases of the game. Along with the pass of the years, it’s obvious that the WoW enjoyer player base has grown, we all have responsabilities, less time, and most of us, in average, are more worried in our current IRL more than a MMORPG life.
The MMORPG path deviation from WoW, however, even if we’d like to state that it’s a self-created community problem, it’s more like a design problem, and to prove so, let me throw some questions to you, that might make you consider wether this is our problem as a community, or a game design problem:
1.- How many players do you play/interact with regulary? I’m not talking about fix-scheduled groups such as raids, m+, arenas or RBGs; I’m talking to actual players who doesen’t share your gameplay preferences, but you enjoy to play with them.
To my experience, it’s almost zero, because all I do is wait in valdrakken for queues, or LFG groups to invite me, to press buttons, say 2 or 3 or 5 words in a group to sort the communication, and call it. Which differs from the old feeling of real human interaction and connection with players.
2.- How many people have you played with, lately, in order to help them to achieve their goals even if they were not your objective or, an already assumed goal?
I’m talking about helping somebody farming certain object/reputation/transmog/whatever that you are not interested in, but the fact of helping a 3rd would create a possitive relationship and both-ways happyness, and a quid pro quo with that player, knowing that he’ll be there for you whenever you too need him for something, or just for casual gaming.
3.- Do you feel alone in the game? How many “yoo how are you doing” messages are you receiving every day when you connect? How many “yoo how are you doing” messages are you sending when you see someone connect?
4.- How many players do you play with per day (raids, LFG, m+, arenas, solo shuffle, rbgs, outdoor farming groups…), and how many of those players end in your friendlist, or even better, with how many players do you end having a friendly conversation after that content.
5.- With how many players, even if they were kind to you and you to them, have you played again another day because some one of you both has asked the other to play with him?
By responding this questions, I believe that you will picture a world where you and the other players, passively, are aiming for a “selfish” gameplay, where players use players to reach their own goals, annonymously, with the least interaction possible, as if the game was a factory of items/achievements rather than a social-engaging game that a MMORPG should be.