The REAL reason WoW is declining: The loss of sense of accomplishment

[OrkInferis]

OP, killing Ragnaros Heroic, or Spine heroic is more of an accomplishment than killing any Vanilla or TBC boss.

So no, its not that.

Long, tedious things dont give a sense of acomplishment, they give a sense of tedious.

And, depending on what tediousness you do and do not surpass... a sense of tedious without accomplishment.

I don't miss the feeling of BC - constantly spinning my wheels, and never really getting anywhere except the same place over and over again...

[Beazy]

its a 10 year old game. . . . . ..that gets updated every few months. Why has this excuse only been around for that past year and a half? Maybe it's because the updates feel old.

Im not sure where you have been, but WoW has been "old" since BC. What does updates have to do with its age. . . . do you get younger when you buy a brand new T-Shirt? I have no idea where why your saying 'this excuse only been around for last year' ? Sounds to me like you only started playing WoW last year. . . . . . .

[Recid]

Very good read and I agree completely. I had more fun in this game leveling for over a month to hit level 70 in bc, and then slowly collecting epics, meeting people, and developing my character than any other game ever. The game is still fun enough for me to play, but I dont find myself thinking about the game and playing the game like I did in BC or even early wrath, it's just not the same and it wont be the same ever again.

[Silvasurfa]

I love the people who miss the entire point of the OP, the people who state "if you want a sense of accomplishment do XXX hardmode". The point is that the PROCESS of leveling and developing a character has been compromised in order to assuage those of you who want to see everything, as if you are entitled to see every single end boss of ANY video game that you buy. Those of you who wish to power level to 85 and immediately jump into DS are flexing your epeens in a way that is relevant to the way the endgame was structured years ago, however it is completely obsolete now IMO. No one cares that you have the "heroic" label on your gear. No one cares that you downed madness weeks before the rest of your server. When I was one of the first on my server to get the Elementium Reinforced Bulwark I had people left and right asking where it was from and how I got it, enthusiastic about the prospect of going through the PROCESS of picking one up for themselves. Those same people nowadays can jump into LFR and get the same looking gear as the rest of you tools bragging about "server first heroic! server first heroic!". Hell, I have more people whispering me asking about my Dragonscale Encrusted Longblades transmog than anything I have ever picked up in DS.

And before you say "but very few have completed the heroic modes, the accomplishment is still there", I feel that for quite a few players having completed madness in LFR the mystery was gone and therefore the motivation to complete a hardmode, or even a normal mode, is gone. I know how the book ends, why would I try to read it again with less lighting and a mongoose gnawing on my testicles?

Read the OP, he is lamenting the current PROCESS, not the goals. Why not have a keyring? Why not still mix your own poisons? Were these "inconveniences" really hindering your gameplay? Does there really need to be an Un'goro Crater flightpoint? I feel as though those of you complaining that it takes too much time to gear up for end game would feel even more leet for downing heroic madness if you actually had to gear up in the old manner rather than using badges, buying badge gear from the AH, and new raid patch epic quest items. Then you would have really achieved something.

Nice post, unfortunately WoW is now a fruit machine set to 95% payout and declining rapidly, bring back hard raids, bring back interesting raids, bring back longer levelling time and hopefully all the impatient whiners might quit and go play something else, I mean its an MMO, its bound to be time consuming, the whole point of stuff being hard meant something to work towards, sometimes you wouldn't get it but shit hey thats life. Blizzard should dump Activision and go back to what they did best instead of this money hungry attitude ruining a perfectly good game.
Makes me wonder sometimes if all the crying whiners that demand stuff so easily and want it all easymode do the same with any game they buy and can't beat? Highly unlikely ;p

[Eon Drache]

Wrong, it is becoming easier. Seeing as the only "hard" fights in DS Heroic were Spine and Madness.

Heroic Morchock is harder than most of the vanilla fights. And it is pretty damn bare bone in mechanics.

[Zoldor]

I don't know if its that or if they are just putting less effort into the game. Its like anything else though nothing is epic the 500th time you do it, and it won't be. Thats life generally do you get as excited to eat ice cream now as you did as a kid? Probably not. It was great to slow level and get epics that felt epic, but there was also a lot of time where nothing was going on, where you had to be babysitters to people's massive egos, dealing with politics instead of playing the game. Looking back I think it would be nice to bring back that sense of accomplishment, but again can I get that back. In 7 years can I really kill another boss and it feel as good as Hakkar in ZG in vanilla, Ony in Vanilla, Illidan in BC, Prince in BC, Archimond in BC, Kael in TK in BC, as you can see the list keeps going so think about that. Its like winning a game, winning always feels good but not like those rare few times you got the first big win. Its almost impossible for old players to keep that accomplishment sense alive. Before you thought we'll never kill that boss, now we all know for sure its really just a matter of time till it dies.

The decline is the game is aging, less new players, and less effort on blizzard's part to do anything but bring in new people.

btw for those really confused about "difficulty" this game has never been hard. There are a few, very few fights that are HARD. Vanilla had just as many as each expansion about 3 really hard bosses that aren't just gear checks per expansion. Those fights live on as hard fights to this day, but other than that. The game is simple and it always has been, the hard part is getting 10, 20, 25 and 40 other people to do it all just right the first time. After that its all easy mode.

[keese]

Im not sure where you have been, but WoW has been "old" since BC. What does updates have to do with its age. . . . do you get younger when you buy a brand new T-Shirt? I have no idea where why your saying 'this excuse only been around for last year' ? Sounds to me like you only started playing WoW last year. . . . . . .

I guess I wasn't reading the same forums or talking to the same people that you were when wrath and BC were out. I've only been seeing this excuse since Cata. Also I'll see your analogy and raise you one, if you take an old car and rebuild it from the ground up, new engine, transmission, everything, do you expect it to run like a new car or an old car?

[Beazy]

I guess I wasn't reading the same forums or talking to the same people that you were when wrath and BC were out. I've only been seeing this excuse since Cata. Also I'll see your analogy and raise you one, if you take an old car and rebuild it from the ground up, new engine, transmission, everything, do you expect it to run like a new car or an old car?

Show me an updated engine in WoW and we can talk. People have been saying WoW was getting old since before BC even hit store shelvs. Im not concerned with what forums you did or didnt read that on. Im sure you also aware of all the forums through the years that said every new innovation to wow was the END AND DEATH of WoW. . . . thats getting old too.

Its old, face it. People are sick of WoW. They are so desperate for something new its not even debatable anymore.

[Art3x]

Even if you're playing 5 hours a day every day 14/played takes you over 2 months.

Christmas break ftl .

[Herethebeef]

Anyone who thinks they know the "real" or therefore "singular" reason WoW is declining........should be automatically disqualified from knowing what they are talking about. There is no "real" reason. No "one" reason. If there was some way to actually collect this data, there would a whole rainbow of reasons why people quit. But even then, there is no one reason people quit. Nobody is like..... "Oh i love the rest of the game, everything is great but this OOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEE thing, fuck it, I quit" Someone is always unsatisfied with more than one aspect of the game.

[keese]

Anyone who thinks they know the "real" or therefore "singular" reason WoW is declining........should be automatically disqualified from knowing what they are talking about. There is no "real" reason. No "one" reason. If there was some way to actually collect this data, there would a whole rainbow of reasons why people quit. But even then, there is no one reason people quit. Nobody is like..... "Oh i love the rest of the game, everything is great but this OOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEE thing, fuck it, I quit" Someone is always unsatisfied with more than one aspect of the game.

Read the OP. This one reason contributes to almost every other small reason people quit.

[Fedexkilla]

Thanks for your insightful input bro. I'm so moved by it I'm changing my whole outlook on life.

Good to know you might actually do something productive/constructive or creative. A step is a step.

[Bigsilly]

oh look, this topic AGAIN......

[Trassk]

You know whats funny. In a recent poll from the uk magazine pc gamer, out of 100 best pc games, WOW Still scores in the top 5 even today, at number 3 right behind skyrim and another. The quote was wow's system is one of the best, with a simple to follow learning curse, slick design, and as said, despite the naysayers claiming otherwise, wow is still more of the largest thriving pc games still out there.

[Bigbazz]

Seeing the first warglaive rogue, those guys who raided sunwell on release day, an arms warrior with cataclysms edge, or earlier on a full T4 warlock, or even a full epic player. Stuff like this was something to behold during TBC, compared to today. I was raiding sunwell when I still wanted the gruuls lair trinket, I still had the A'lar main hand fist, it was still awesome, when I killed Vashj I still had ragesteel set shoulders and gloves, they were as good as T4 but without stamina, getting full epic was fairly hard and many items from T4 could/would last you until sunwell (where you would have to be in at least T5-T6 in every slot).

Everything took a bit longer to get, items lasted longer though, thats just a small tiny example of accomplishment pre cataclysm, but cataclysm has become too lacking of depth and too fast food mcdonalds style.

So i totally agree with the original post, it is 100% correct. People also keep telling blizzard this, but they keep trying to go in the handing out the content on a platter model. They normalise and homogenise the game removing depth trying to make everything accessable to everyone.


Old windfury was fun, we loved it. Hybrid specs were fun, they killed them off when they turned up, a 33/28 arms/fury warrior in TBC was great fun. Choosing between 2x flamtongue, 2x windfury or 1 of each was fun as an enhancement shaman. My spirit beast pet did moonfire and it was awesome, they changed it to a heal. Fury warriors in wrath had a lot of rage and were great cleave dps, but not great mass aoe, i loved that but they removed it, now fury sucks at both but hey its ok because now it has a generic mass aoe like all the other classes. Chain heal was the main spell for resto shamans, it was their thing and blizzard killed it.

Some changes were good but it just seems they keep killing off the best unique aspects of each class to try to bring the classes closer together.

[Herethebeef]

Read the OP. This one reason contributes to almost every other small reason people quit.

Really? Almost EVERY other small reason people quit? Thats quite an all encompassing post, that not only has all that in there, but that the OP can read peoples minds and know ALL the reasons people quit.........thats quite a feat for one man.

[Tic Tacs]

True Story: Subed in January after half a year brake, got several set pieces from LFR, got full PvP welfare set, decided that game is too easy, got bored, canceled sub.

P.S. yay killed Deathwing game over

[Kiry]

And when things were harder, sales were lower.

I dont believe that's true. From what I thought, BC was peak for Blizzard, and that is when they had attunements, hard heroics, and lots of reputation grinds. People wanted to do something, make it worthwhile. Not what it is currently. I have no motivation to log in right now except to raid, and that's sad.

Plus there's a ton of really awesome games out and coming out. WoW has competition for game time.

[Cipero]

This always makes me wonder, had The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, and the Cataclysm never came to fruition, would people still be playing? Think about it...Vanilla WoW and all of it's "Glory" stretched out over 6 years.

In my opinion, no... WoW would not only be minuscule in comparison to what it is today, but people who played day one would be long gone due to complete and utter boredom.

No matter how nostalgic you are about it, content in any game only has a certain lifespan. I'm not trying to speak for everyone, I'm just stating the truth. Even Everquest, in the many years it has been alive, still upgrades it's game with content.

The nostalgia is exactly like music... Someone today can hear a great hit from the 80s that they remember and think 'this song is the best song ever, man i miss the 80s' but what they are forgetting is that when that song first came out it was played out by the radio and everyone got bored with it. It only sounds THAT good now because it's been gone for so long.

Progressing the game is the only way to make the game survive, otherwise it'd be no different then a one time release, much like what goes on in console games.

[keese]

This always makes me wonder, had The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, and the Cataclysm never came to fruition, would people still be playing? Think about it...Vanilla WoW and all of it's "Glory" stretched out over 6 years.

In my opinion, no... WoW would not only be minuscule in comparison to what it is today, but people who played day one would be long gone due to complete and utter boredom.

No matter how nostalgic you are about it, content in any game only has a certain lifespan. I'm not trying to speak for everyone, I'm just stating the truth. Even Everquest, in the many years it has been alive, still upgrades it's game with content.

The nostalgia is exactly like music... Someone today can hear a great hit from the 80s that they remember and think 'this song is the best song ever, man i miss the 80s' but what they are forgetting is that when that song first came out it was played out by the radio and everyone got bored with it. It only sounds THAT good now because it's been gone for so long.

Progressing the game is the only way to make the game survive, otherwise it'd be no different then a one time release, much like what goes on in console games.

I agree. But progress doesn't have to be at the expense of this feeling of epicness, which I feel Cataclysm has taken away.