What is this Game Design?

WoW Classic Season of Discovery
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Players do not enjoy playing the game. They are just addicted to loot: Getting better and better gear in the least amount of time with the least amount of effort. They google their BIS and play until they got it. They choose the meta classes for their groups and only do exceptions when they really cannot find anyone else. They quit raids / dungeons as soon as they have the impression that the setup is not perfect or as soon as problems arise. And then, when they got all their loot, SoD dies again. People go into a slumber and wait for the next phase with new loot.

Now whose fault is that? Is it the toxic player base?

Imagine WoW without loot. What would you play it for? There are games with no progress-mechanic and people play them for the fun of it. What fun is in the current version of SoD? While I admit that the player base could just “be” different and behave more friendly or just relax and play the game for fun, I think the main fault is at Blizzard, who designed their game the way it is. The grind itself is no fun in WoW. In other games, you enjoy the gameplay and “level up” as a bonus. WoW players seem to hate the game and always look for a way to get to the top easier and faster. This is typical human behaviour, when people are forced to do something that they don´t enjoy.

Then the class-system: Giving some classes so much love and putting so much effort into their abilities and playstyles while other classes are left in the dust. You need to have a meta healer + tank for your group. Then you choose the meta DPS, of course preferably ranged caster DPS. Classes like rogues are not necessary at all. Your fault, if you enjoy the playstyle of a class that gives no benefit to the group. Why does Blizzard do that? Designing classes with essential abilities for the raid (wild strikes) whle other classes are completely replacable and only fullfill one single function (DPS)? These are crazy game design choices that make for a bad game.

Well, what would be the fix? Redesigning the game that the gameplay itself is fun. Putting more effort into balancing PvP, balancing the rewards in terms of the required effort to get them.

We all know this is not going to happen. Blizzard was once a good company and today they just try to put in the least amount of effort for the most amount of money they can get. SoD is 90 % old WoW with 10 % new stuff. The whole SoD train is carried by nostalgic and/or addicted players.

Today I sit here and I just don´t want to start the game. I think that´s it for me, I quit.

4 Likes
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Cya next week

3 Likes
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Source?

I enjoy it, there are many other things that provide different players with dopamine besides a gear upgrade.

To name a few:
Performing good in a raid / Parsing .
Mats farming/Gold making.
Duels / (some) BG wins.
(For a smaller playerbase) Roleplaying.
Alt leveling.

Gear upgrade is a strong factor, but not the main factor for 100% of players like you said.

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Well why do people show off their fast cars, watches, expencive holidays etc in the real world? People like to brag what they have achieved.

How you going to enjoy the parsing without the gear? how you gonna duel? Cant for a second think you would enjoy it if you were auto losing it every time because your gear is subpar.

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This not even close to blizzard fault. The current mentality of the world is not how it used to be… people want big numbers, loot and rewards. The journey is not important anymore. Having fun with friends etc etc. Its like this in almost every MMO and its driving me nuts to. But I guess this is what happens when gaming is mainstream.

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They’ve been doing that the past 20 years. The gameplay in TBC was better than vanilla, Wrath further improved upon the gameplay and Cata was better still. While I haven’t tried the latest expansion the gameplay certainly looks amazing.

The problem is how much can you do with regards to the constraints set by the vanilla framwork. Because at a certain point you wind up with a completely new game: retail. The vanilla experience definitely has its charm, but the actual gameplay is rather lacklustre.

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what kind of sick guild do you play in?

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You have only described one type of players within a season, a time limited game mode that includes catchup and speed up mechanics.

However, why bother with “they”, “we” or any group of players, speak for yourself because what matters is your fun and your playstyle not how others play a game.

To answer your question it seems to be your fault.

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Its retail brainrot creeping into SoD, also pre merge Crusader strike was comfy af, meanwhile LF pugs are something out of a nightmare. More players bring around anonymity soo people just act like absolute human waste

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To be honest, I believe there needs to be a balance, you cannot just invite any naked char into your raid and expect it to work smoothly or to clear in under 5 hours.

I lead some 3-7 pugs weekly and I don’t remember having this issue on Lone Wolf, but ever since I’ve moved to Living Flame I’ve noticed more and more people without a single trinket or ring but with like 5-6 pieces of tier1, not sure if is boosted chars or what, but I guarantee you would not experience “fun” while accepting those into your raids.

So TLDR there must be a balance in choosing players for raids, some just exaggerate.

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I call this “marketing rollover effect”.

Companies such Blizzard nowadays seems to only care about marketing and merchandising KPIs: number of visits in websites, number of blogs, number of specialized review, number of streamers, number of VoDs, number of internet searches, number of viewers, etc.

Game development doesn’t care at all, the fact is that you’re enhanced to purchase games even in development phase, nor beta or alpha. You’re enhanced to pre-purchase the game, with lot of bonus.

The content of a game is consummed even before its official launch, and when people put their hands into it, what only want is to get up to the top and experience what they have seen in Youtube/social networks/Twitch …

When SoD was promoted back in the BlizzCon, in one of the interviews with the development, one of them state “there’ll be a new world buff, we, as players, do love world buffs” (or something similar); but if you ask players, a great number don’t love WBs at all.

The current developers of the game are into this toxic-consuming environment, and no longer can handle or manage the playstyle and game design of 20yo game and its spirit.

Is sad, but is the true.

1 Like
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Making up your own statistics because you don’t like something is a very bad argument.
Can you show us the data and numbers please to backup your statement. Thanks.

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I don’t have numbers that reflect that feeling, but you can take a look at other posts in this forum https://eu.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/search?q=world%20buffs

Most of the them, and comments, goes into either two (2) directions:

  • Make them exchangeable with any kind of coin in-game.
  • Remove them at all.

And when talking w/ peps all around the community, the idea I extract is that WBs are:

  • a question of social filter:
    • you don’t get invited 'cause you don’t have the WBs
    • you get punished 'cause you don’t parse 'cause you don’t have WBs
  • a principal thing to care:
    • boon/unboon is a mechanic between major pulls
    • ppl don’t unboon unless is mandatory
    • pp don’t unboon if they feel is not safe
  • a time-waste:
    • you are kind of forced to hunt 'em down
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I mean its the same for most wow expansions?
You gear up and quit its kinda the design of the game.
Yes retail might be less gear dependent beacuse of the esports part of it.
But nothing stopping you from doing ur own gameplay.

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And what makes you think that a forum that is only used by a minority of hundred thousands WoW players is representative? The reality is, you don’t have the data.

Blizzard does, but you know better what players want? Ok

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I do enjoy the game but what i don’t like is the stupid amount of times i have to do a dung or raid to get 1 as in ONE certain item that never seems to drop. The latter has the potential to burst my bubble and have me quit this game.

If there would be something that allowed me to reserve an item up front and get nothing else but that 1 item would drop, then i would sign up for that.

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Have Blizzard make any survey specifically about WBs to the whole community?
I’m afraid not. So even Blizzard don’t have the real “feeling” about WBs. Neither you can proof it.

Back in original TBC, WBs were removed because “they altered the expected base mechanics of the game” - as Blizzard state. Indeed, you were still able to trigger Onyxia’s WB, for example, but it only works on <60 level characters.

WBs is one the of “curve” social filters of this game and it alters the game MMO base mechanics. Back the days of Vanilla (2004-2008) most of players experience end-game content up to AQ40 without WBs. Naxxramas was the only one that require WBs for some encounters, not all of them, and only if your guild was lacking in any source (health/dps/healing).

Seasson of Mastery proved that the end-game was achievable even w/out WBs.

“Going through the hole” and follow a “self-imposed social mechanic” is, in most cases, something that people don’t like. The outcome is what I told before:

  • WBs became a social filter
  • WBs became a mandatory requirement
  • WBs became a prio concern

So, ask this to yourself: if all community is driven by a “self-impossed mechanic” just in order to obtain larger metrics/parses and “fast” loot for specific members, in a “safer” mode, that means all people in the community are good with it?

The answer, if you have a bit of common-sense and both history and social knowledge, is that when people seems or feels to be forced to do or care about something, they usually dislike it.

Adding extra “mechanics” that enforce or enhance that feeling is not what I would say … a nice feature.

So the options, in mid/long term, are:

  • remove the feature.
  • make it easier to fullfil as it not a game required mechanic but a self-impossed social one.