We had a deal

[Deleted]

Hi there. I really would like to post this on the us.battle.net forums, but as a european player i am not allowed to. I also want to share my thoughts with you guys, because i am following this site for well over 7 years now. If anyone of you agrees with what i am writing here and has the opportunity to post on the us.battle.net forums i would be very pleased if you could post this text there, too. Adn if you make it though the whole text, thank you for your time .

Hi there,
first of all, i want to give you an idea of what kind of person is writing this:
I am a huge blizzard nerd. I played Warcraft Orcs & Humans, Warcraft II, Starcraft, Diablo and nearly everything, that came after this. I even played Rock'n Roll Racing on my SNES and had an absolute blast playing it. Today i mainly play World of Warcraft, with some vacations in Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm now and then. Last year was a very big year for me, because i got the chance to visit BlizzCon in Anaheim (i am from Germany) and it was amazing.

When i play World of Warcraft i mainly do raids (i play a warrior tank since Molten Core and raid lead since then) or like to quest or do five man dungeons. I am a huge fan of the lore of Warcraft and read every book from Christie Golden or Richard A. Knaak and read every quest text to fully enjoy the typical blizzard magic which is, at least in my opinion, always present when i explore new zones.
Now why am i making this post here? I really struggled with me if i should wait for the announcement of the new expansion in the coming week or if i make it before the rolling thunder of replies and threats rolls over this forum. But i think now is the right time.
Every other expansion people are complaining about the actual expansion and how everything was much better in the previous ones. I really liked a post, i believe it was during cataclysm days, where a player wrote "remember all these complaints and nitpicking here because it will be what's called 'the good old days' when we are playing mists of pandaria". People will always be complaining and you can never ever fit everyones needs or expectations. I liked Mists of Pandaria because it was a perfect warcraft-style interpretation of the asian style. I liked the questing, i liked the raids, i liked the zones. It was a really good expansion in my eyes. I liked Cataclysm, too. The raids were really fun and the whole story around Thrall (i play horde) was well crafted. Wrath and BC, no question, where both amazing.

Now there is Warlords of Draenor. And for the first time i am really concerned. At first i defended it up to the hills in discussions with friends or colleagues. The questing was unquestionably fun and i really liked Highmaul and Blackrock Foundry (we mosten times clear Heroic just before the next raid opens, so pretty casual). Then Patch 6.1 came and i thought. Well, okay, some features for those social media folks out there. Why not. At this time i was, without any doubt, absolutely certain, that there will be a patch 6.2, 6.3 and 6.4. In an interview we heard, that it is more likely to be called Patch 6.0.5 and everything was fine, at least for me. Patch 6.2 was announced and i was thrilled to hear, that we would enter the Hellfire Citadell again. Great move. But rumours had been going round, that this would be the last content Patch before the next expansion. I couldn't believe that. In my mind i thought "Guys, settle down. Blizzard has a deal with us. Every two years we gave 40 $ in trustfull hands and are given great new content, new zones, new endgame content and at least three or four patches with new dungeons, new raids and general new content for free. Why change that?".
Boy, was i wrong. Directly after that really high feeling of "OMG. Hellfire Citadell!" came the infamous interview where he said "We think a model with two big patches is great. People want expansions faster." I was shocked. Honestly. Because if this is really the true mindset behind the things that are actually going on right now, then this would mean, that there is a total disconnection between the things that most players want and the things that blizzard thinks, that most players want. It is severely wrong to think, that we want to pay for expansions in shorter periods and get less content "for free" in between those releases. What we want, is a shorter duration between big content patches or between the last big content patch of an expansion and the start of the next expansion. This is a huge difference.

Warlords of Draenor was set up beautifully. The Lords of War series introduced the lords of the clans perfectly and i was so ready to dive deep into this world of savage orcs. Kargath turned out to be the first walk over boss of Highmaul and should have been at least the second to last boss of this raid. Although i must admit, that the elevator to the arena was undeniably cool . Kilrogg was just another raid boss and only has little cool aspects through the tanaan campaign where we visit the place where he received his vision. And then Grommash. I was sitting here after the end cinematic you see after defeating Archimonde and wasn't able to tell my emotions. I was angry. I was sad. I was disappointed. So much potential. When i first saw the monument, which is tied to the legendary quest chain (i think), i thought okay, we will be hunting Grommash and will bring him down while also helping Kadgar to hunt Gul'dan and join him or support him in his epic fight against Gul'dan. I liked that idea. And then... this. Grommash completely free. No questions asked. He even gets to scream the victory shout in front of all those he either used to threaten the whole world or the ones he had threaten. My hope for some kind of resolving that puzzle through the tanaan quest chain was washed away after is helped the fallen warlock fight Gul'dan in an absolute meaningless fight. And at the the end of Hellfire Citadell... Gul'dan disappears into the twisting nether. That's it? Not even talking about the fact, that we random scrubs where able to defeat Archimonde with the help of Grommash, Kadgar and Yrel. It's Archimonde! Shouldn't he be a bit more powerful?

And so here i am now. I don't know what i should think right now. I really, really want to trust you guys, to deliver the best content you can deliver for the best deal you can give us.

Next week you will be presenting the next big expansion for World of Warcraft. No big showing at BlizzCon with Chris Metzen on Stage setting it up perfectly. No two days of panels about lore and class changes and art and music. A trailer. And three days later. Developer interviews. For me, and i really think i am speaking for myself here, that has always been part of the blizzard magic. That's the reason i had planned to go to BlizzCon agein. In 2017. For the 10th BlizzCon. But it seems, that this is no longer the style of announcement we can count on.

My horror scenario:
We will get a trailer for the next expansion on thursday. It will undeniably be a well crafted, great trailer. We will be following Gul'dan and be fighting demons again. And at the end you will be charging 40 $. The same price as always. With the bitter taste of half the package we used to get.

I hope i am wrong.

Thank you.

tl;dr
Well, that really doesn't make any sense here. Scroll back up and read the whole thing you lazy peon

[Kryos]

tl;dr: Nostalgic EU gamer opinion about lost potential in WoD and has now trust issues with Blizzard and thinks their product is overpriced.

[Asrialol]

"I feel that my opinion is special so I'll make a new thread"
"Etc, etc, etc, money".

Is basically all I could get from this thread.

[Feredir]

ouch my eyes!

[Deleted]

Great summary Kryos. Although i wouldn't go as far as calling it a rant.
On a side note: you are a very quick reader

[Deleted]

I agree with Kryos, while it is well written and probably took you time to write it, its still someone whos speaking out his feelings about WoD being bad. This is more of a blog post saying "look at my feelings". I wouldnt call it a rant either tho :P

[Feali]

tl;dr: Nostalgic EU gamer rants about lost potential in WoD and has now trust issues with Blizzard and thinks their product is overpriced.

So.. classic Friday Night. Alright.

[Maudib]

Sorry Grimbrock,

The lame responses you've had are indicative of what has happened to this game. Hateful, pitiful people without the ability to reason open their mouth and let the cesspool of ignorance spew out.

Your opinion matters, and you make a very valid point. Blizzard isn't releasing more content, they are releasing LESS, more frequently, and charging more for it. But the average WoW player (today) isn't sharp enough to pick up on that.

They blather fanboi retorts and don;t realize that refuting common sense statements is simply another failed "test" by them.

Years ago there was a commercial that was very popular... and it's relevant to this situation.

Many players are looking at the hyped current and coming expansion asking "Where's the beef?" And following by saying.. "I don't think there's anybody back there..."

[ComputerNerd]

People really shouldn't defend Blizzards decision to deliver half the content for the same price without providing a proper reasoning why they are happy to accept it.

Someone who is intent on being negative will not accept any reason we give for still being happy to play.
You shouldn't criticise someone's reluctance to enter into a pointless conversation with the human equivalent of a brick wall.

Sorry Grimbrock,

The lame responses you've had are indicative of what has happened to this game. Hateful, pitiful people without the ability to reason open their mouth and let the cesspool of ignorance spew out.

Your opinion matters, and you make a very valid point. Blizzard isn't releasing more content, they are releasing LESS, more frequently, and charging more for it. But the average WoW player (today) isn't sharp enough to pick up on that.

They blather fanboi retorts and don;t realize that refuting common sense statements is simply another failed "test" by them.

Years ago there was a commercial that was very popular... and it's relevant to this situation.

Many players are looking at the hyped current and coming expansion asking "Where's the beef?" And following by saying.. "I don't think there's anybody back there..."

Point proven, someone dismisses every view contrary to the one they favour with a "fanboi" accusation, which by its nature couldn't ever be determined by any quantity of posts by a single player on such a narrow subject matter.
Instead it would need to be based on the entire spectrum of their views, which nobody using that accusation has never bothered to check for one player, let alone the multiple being accused in this thread.

Your response is the lame one here.

[Deleted]

I think ariassh is right. It's format and content are more suited for a blog post. Sadly, or as i read the responses so far, luckily, i have no blog

It is nothing more than a "look at my feelings". But hey, maybe sometimes it's just time to open up a valve and release some pressure. I really hope that's not some kind of inappropriate messaging, but that's how we describe it here

[Blufossa]

tl;dr: Nostalgic EU gamer rants about lost potential in WoD and has now trust issues with Blizzard and thinks their product is overpriced.

Lol. Ok then.

WoD is fine. Not great, not bad, just fine.

[Deviant Groove]

Someone who is intent on being negative will not accept any reason we give for still being happy to play.

Just like people like you don't give a wit about anyone else's opinion unless it matches yours.

Yet somehow you think you're in the right and deserve to mock them, but God forbid anyone points that out.

[Ursiel]

tl;dr: Nostalgic EU gamer opinion about lost potential in WoD and has now trust issues with Blizzard and thinks their product is overpriced.

Thanks /10

[Deleted]

On a side note: you are a very quick reader

Spoiler alert: He probably didn't bother to read it all and just guessed what your post was about knowing so many similar ones already exist

[Gum]

Quite a good post. I think, if many sat down and really thought about WoD, compared it to previous installments, both lorewise and contentwise, they would come to the conclusion that they got shortchanged. Not by a massive amount. But enought to make them wonder if they want to go back to that store again.

Im a massive blizz fanboy, and i will by buying the new expansion. But theres alot of things i personally, from an RPG POV, feel they have just moved away from entirely. Many gameplay elements taken out over time, and commitment requirements totally forgotten. That i feel, has left us with the current issues that we as players face today.

Im not a gamedesigner, and i dont claim to be, but WoD leaves me with a feeling of disgust, for i believe theres so much potential in WoW, but not alot in WoD. Sitting around waiting for a cold beer, while sipping your warm one, isnt my idea of fun.