Blizzard doesn't want you to play

[Deleted]

They want you to pay.

I'll try to be as constructive as possible here. The more you play, the less time you will subscribe, so Blizzard has done everything they possibly can to slow down your gaming experience to keep you subscribed for longer.

AP/AK
They say they want AP to come 'naturally', but there's nothing 'natural' about the AP/AK system. The system has been deliberately designed to make you feel like waiting for the next 5 days for your next order instead of playing the game now. The more you wait = the longer you are subscribed.

Time gating
The less you see, the better. With content time gated and players waiting weeks or months for the staggered release of content (e.g. LFR, flight), Blizzard feels as though they will subscribe for longer.

No more destinations
Blizzard has also removed the ability to really 'complete' a lot of their content including reputation farming. You can no longer ever really finish reputations. This might sound like a good idea on paper ('if they never finish the reputations, they'll never unsubscribe!') but when people realise that there is no longer any goal to achieve, they will stop bothering.

Nerfs
Every lucrative source of currency has been nerfed to oblivion (Mythic+ AP, Nethershards, Mage Tower AP, etc). Why the nerfs? The slower you earn currency, the more time you need to buy items. More time = subscribed longer.

I hope that we return to a 'gameplay first' model rather than a 'metrics first' model. That is the way to retain long term subscriptions as opposed to cheap tactics like AK.



From the US Forums by Ikhj - https://us.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/20753797048

[Justpassing]

I know people will be accuse me for defending Blizz and shiet but what did you expect man? It's a freakin company, ofc they want more money.

[Teri]

Of course there's reasons why they didn't make Rep account wide or AP Character wide, they want to keep you subbed.

The only "destination" for hardcore raiders is BIS 925 Gear but that's behind a huge wall of Titanforge/socket RNG.

Gameplay 1st was lost long ago when they added more then 1 version of a raid/dungeon.

Seeing how ToS drops 930-940 on mythic, they want bigger itemlevel gaps between content (the original plan was 925 KJ loot, but they increased it all by 15 late in PTR, seeing how they realized heroic/mythic NH already drops 925 sometimes)

Let's assume Tomb loot Titanforges to 955 (max itemlevel always been +15 over mythic).

I guess 7.3 Argus will bring another Dungeon/WQ update, maybe more AK levels, some more pvp brawls/reps.

[Deleted]

Legion has certainly made me think this especially with 7.2

[kaintk]

am i the only one who just do the 4 wq for emissary + wq for new reput and disconnect ? 7.2 is a huge let down for me;p like adding more air in an already empty bag

edit: just waiting to be able to fly anyway, for the leveling of alts (because leveling with alt is 10000 x better with flying) but that's all.. blizzard devs dont have any clue anymore what to do with their game, oh yeah, they made invisible wall to make sur people dont stop paying their monthly account

[Volitar]

I know people will be accuse me for defending Blizz and shiet but what did you expect man? It's a freakin company, ofc they want more money.

To make the game great first and foremost, and when its great you won't have to worry about nickle and diming people because everyone wants to play the shit out of your game.

[Teri]

am i the only one who just do the 4 wq for emissary + wq for new reput and disconnect ? 7.2 is a huge let down for me;p like adding more air in an already empty bag

edit: just waiting to be able to fly anyway, for the leveling of alts (because leveling with alt is 10000 x better with flying) but that's all.. blizzard devs dont have any clue anymore what to do with their game, oh yeah, they made invisible wall to make sur people dont stop paying their monthly account

Most of my time spent is WQs, often on multiple characters, flying will indeed be awesome, but other then that I can see 7.3 being similar to 7.2, with a raid added on in 7.3.5, just everything with bigger numbers (itemlevel/AK)

[Tack980]

They want you to pay.

I'll try to be as constructive as possible here. The more you play, the less time you will subscribe, so Blizzard has done everything they possibly can to slow down your gaming experience to keep you subscribed for longer.

AP/AK
They say they want AP to come 'naturally', but there's nothing 'natural' about the AP/AK system. The system has been deliberately designed to make you feel like waiting for the next 5 days for your next order instead of playing the game now. The more you wait = the longer you are subscribed.

Time gating
The less you see, the better. With content time gated and players waiting weeks or months for the staggered release of content (e.g. LFR, flight), Blizzard feels as though they will subscribe for longer.

No more destinations
Blizzard has also removed the ability to really 'complete' a lot of their content including reputation farming. You can no longer ever really finish reputations. This might sound like a good idea on paper ('if they never finish the reputations, they'll never unsubscribe!') but when people realise that there is no longer any goal to achieve, they will stop bothering.

Nerfs
Every lucrative source of currency has been nerfed to oblivion (Mythic+ AP, Nethershards, Mage Tower AP, etc). Why the nerfs? The slower you earn currency, the more time you need to buy items. More time = subscribed longer.

I hope that we return to a 'gameplay first' model rather than a 'metrics first' model. That is the way to retain long term subscriptions as opposed to cheap tactics like AK.



From the US Forums by Ikhj - https://us.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/20753797048

Ap/Ak- why are you using this as gameplay, never understood this. Just play the game?

Time gating - Ok i see your point, it does feel a bit like crap.

Reputation farming- more the main rewards are capped, just gives an extra passive way to gain gold, seeing everything in legion gives rep anyways....

Nerfs- Ap wasn't nerf in mythic, Mage tower gives you more ap... how is this a nerf?


Ending- why is everyone using ak as an excuse? They did put a lot of game play this time around.

[Eleccybubb]

Cool and you don't have to pay. Nobody has a gun to your head. Either cancel your sub or go play a different game that you are happier with.

[Volitar]

Cool and you don't have to pay. Nobody has a gun to your head. Either cancel your sub or go play a different game that you are happier with.

There is no middle ground between 100% happy with the current state of the game and hating to play but someone is holding a gun to your head? Cool thanks I had no idea.

[Eleccybubb]

There is no middle ground between 100% happy with the current state of the game and hating to play but someone is holding a gun to your head? Cool thanks I had no idea.

No worries. Maybe now you will be able to realize that nobody really is making you play the game other than yourself.

[Swalload]

It's called retention.
As a company you want to keep players playing your game as much as possible, that's even more true for MMO developers.

That's not a secret, you simply happen to realize it now. You have 2 choices, support this and keep playing, which you should probably do if you enjoy the game, why not pay the people who give you entertainment? Or you can quit, judging that the entertainment provided is not worth what you pay.

You also have the right to cry about it, but you should not believe you have the power to change this, they are not stealing from you, you are not forced to play, you can stop anytime you want.

And no, they will not lower prices because you feel entitled to it for some shady reasons. They decide the price and the content, you decide if it's worth it FOR YOU AND ONLY YOU, you are not the community.

[micwini]

Complete bullshit. If they wanted to make you pay, they would do that by making you WANT to play. I mean you could just unsub/not buy gametime until the next catchup mechanisms are unlocked and do stuff then. You know why there were so many people paying for the game a few years ago? Because there was shit to do. They paid because they WANTED to play.

They don't really care whether someone pays or not, because they dont NEED more people to pay. If the game goes on with the current size of a playerbase, the game will go on for years. To better understand what I mean, google BCG matrix.

[Volitar]

No worries. Maybe now you will be able to realize that nobody really is making you play the game other than yourself.

I can't tell if you're serious or not.

player 1: Wow the current balance of arena is a little wonky I wish blizzard would fix this
Eleccybubb: QUIT BLIZZARD ISN'T HOLD A GUN TO YOUR HEAD

player 2: I wish they would add voice acting for all these quests, they are a little boring.
Eleccybubb: QUIT BLIZZARD ISN'T HOLD A GUN TO YOUR HEAD

Do you see how your logic is dumb?

[Zyky]

I know people will be accuse me for defending Blizz and shiet but what did you expect man? It's a freakin company, ofc they want more money.

Except it wasn't like this until Legion, so that's a blanket excuse. Now after the massive failure that WoD was, that cost them almost 6M subs in a year, they're punishing players with these endless grinds and endless everything. There should always be an end game, there should always be an attainable finish mark, and there just isn't anymore in any aspect of the game. AP has a hard finish, its attainable after 6 months, but hard gated behind those 6 months of knowledge ranks. Raid gearing, no one will ever be full BiS because of the garbage Titanforged system(not to even mention that they tune raids around good RNG with this system, different argument though), it's just impossible. No one will ever be full 925 gear with sockets in every slot. Blizzard maintained subs throughout 3 expansions, maintained and grew subs. BC the sub count kept growing and growing did we have any kind of endless forced grind? nope. Wrath maintained 9-10M subs throughout the whole expansion, was there a forced grind? nope. Cata dropped a few subs, but it wasn't a large amount, but the content was overall pretty good, was there a forced grind? nope. So good for Blizzard wanting to make money, but they made far more money when they actually listened to the playerbase and didn't force a ton of shit on players that no one wants to be a part of.

[Queen of Hamsters]

They're doing a piss poor job then, because I've been playing for moving on 10 years now.

And since paying and playing goes hand-in-hand, this entire post is pretty asinine.

[druenos]

Cool and you don't have to pay. Nobody has a gun to your head. Either cancel your sub or go play a different game that you are happier with.

The standard douchebag response.

[Deleted]

the white or black internet warriors destroy topics like this.

[Lady Dragonheart]

I disagree with your point, as I'm enjoying the game quite well and agree with much of gating and time-segmented factors, since I hate feeling overrun with things to do. I've been playing this game for about 12 years, now, and I greatly prefer this sort of methodology compared to previous models of progression and content release, as I always have something new to look forward to in the future, which is making me more likely to play more and more likely to pay for playing.

[Eleccybubb]

The standard douchebag response.

"I don't agree with your opinion so I will insult you". Nice to see you have nothing to bring to the table.