Blizzard should swallow their pride to save WoW

[Zarc]

I think the game would be alot better if they returned to the vanilla/tbc style of inaccessible content. So that lesser players can have something to aspire to, and so that world first ans what guild in the world is #1 and stuff like that starts being interesting again. That adds an aspect of quality to the game for both casuals, who won't experience the content, and the hardcore who will. But - unlike the vanilla/tbc style - they should continue what they are doing now and keep focusing on the casual players and release tons of stuff for them to do. Basicly they should do both - and no, they are not doing both now. Heroic raids and challenge dungeons etc. are not the same as releasing hard core content. That is just buffing existing content making it harder, turning the game into a grindfest rather than an epic adventure.

What they need to do is have raid content that is not the same with a bunch of difficulties, but rather they need make raids with 1 difficulty that are truly challenging and hard the way they used to be - and then they should also have casual content. Start making like 10-man casual raids and 25-man hardcore raids, and if the endboss of the game is Azshara well then she will obiously be the last boss in the last 25-man raid, and then have a few 10-man casual raids where some Lady Vashj-style lieutenants of her are the last boss - that you have to defeat because they are guarding the Queen's Citadel or something.

Basicly, they need to do less difficulties and more content. And vary the difficuly on the content. Introduce legendary items as the item drops from 25-man raids, keep epic items for 10-man raids and keep rare items for 5-man dungeons. And make more 5-man dungeons and less daily quest hubs, too.

Some kind of combat system for word PvP would be cool too. Like, if a bunch of people clash out in the Barrens some kind of semi-Arena game with automatically launch and x Horde and x Alliance players in proximity to eachother / in party will automaticly be invulnerable to outsiders as they fight to the death - and the team that wins will automaticly have all their fallen instantly revived as they win and their HP go up to 100% (as to prevent spectator killing off the winner should he have like 10% hp left as the game ends). Stuff like that.

Also, more attunment. They say they didn't like attunments because it was.. what?... I don't remember, something about complicated or time consuming or something? Yet since then they have introduced daily quests which is perhaps the most boring piece of crap the game has ever seen? (although I like it being part of the game, for casual players mainly, although - as all things - it should be kept to a certain level of moderation) ... Basicly make it harder to just quit the game, come back after 7 months and jump back in where everyone else are. Just a tiny whiny bit harder.

[Ceece]

As a few of you will know who have seen my recent WOW videos I have returned after a 3 year break to see what has gone wrong with the game I played 6 times a week for 6 years of my life.

One word can easily sum up what is wrong with WOW and that word is "IMMERSION"

When I played through Vanilla and BC many years ago this game was incredible, the immersion of the whole experience engulfed you so much that you literally could lose yourself for hours in the world of Azeroth.

To get immersion the one thing you need is a thriving world and WOW used to have that in abundance. Everywhere was busy, Horde and Alliance would often meet in random places as two guilds were on their way to various Dungeons and this small skirmish would often escalate into a large war.

The game was total sandbox, no one had any idea what would happen during your daily play time. Our guild would have a plan to maybe go to BRD but on the way we may be ganked by another guild, again this would start a war off which usually ended with both sides calling in other guilds for help. Then when you eventually got into the Dungeon you had to concentrate, use your class well and be prepared for at least a good hour long Dungeon.

Then we had the questing, quite often I would find my quest areas compromised by Alliance and have to send for help in order to get them to leave, it was great fun. Sure you sometimes were corpse camped but Azeroth was dangerous back then.

Sometimes we would be in Org discussing what we would be doing when 100 Alliance would storm through the gates to kill Thrall, it was just an amazing living thriving world, totally in the players control.

Now though it's totally different, the Cities are full but the towns and roads are empty. People don't need to leave their capital city, they can teleport everywhere like lemmings, striving to get gear but for what? So they can dual outside their City gates?

All over Azeroth the little towns and villages that attracted so much world PvP are now guarded with level 90 Guards. Instead we have to PvP either in the boring battlegrounds or try and find someone questing.

The trouble is why would anyone be questing now? They can level up in BG's and Dungeons without leaving the AH.

World PvP is the thing that brought immersion and it was immersion that brought the players and the players brought the money. If you look at a graph of the subscribers you will see a steady rise in Subs while wow was immersive during the Vanilla and BC times but then as WOTL arrived you will see it level off and then fall and it's falling fast now. This is because people left but more important, people left and told others how bad the game had become.

The correct word to use is: suspense. There's none of it left. Without that, you can't be immersed.

So lets talk solutions:

Blizzard need to swallow their pride, admit they got it wrong and give Azeroth back to the people.

The game was changing anyway, and old hobbies were dying out. They changed the game, introducing content too fast.

Remove the following things:

All ability to teleport to Dungeons, Make everyone ride there.
Remove Flying mounts from Azeroth
Remove all high level guards from low level towns and villages
Buff Dungeons so that you actually need to play your class properly
Remove at least 50% of wind riders and graveyards, get the traffic back on the roads
Remove Ability to teleport into Battlegrounds, make us go to battlemasters as in the old days (just make more of them to avoid griefers).
Remove a lot of phasing as it ruins immersion when you chase someone and they suddenly vanish.

› Riding (flying not included) to a dungeon was never fun - after the first couple of times.
› No, no, no. I like flying, even if exploration is more epic while grounded.
› Answer not available about removing guards from hubs.
› Dungeons have multiple difficulties now.
› I agree with you about the traffic.
› Going to a Battlemaster was a lot better.
› Phasing is interesting technology, but I don't always agree with it.

Add the following things

All future expansions should take place in Azeroth, do not add any more zones, just develop the story on Azeroth so it thrives once again.

Not every expansion should take place in the same area. In fact, Cataclysm was a test and it failed.

Conclusion

Ofc none of this will happen as the tears that would be shed could possibly flood the world and wipe us all out. The new breed of player has no balls, has no ability to shake him/herself down after being ganked and certainly has no patience to ride from A to B. Can you imagine the wow players of today trying to survive in Vanilla, they would have a heart attack at how hardcore it used to be. No I am afraid MMO's now are so easy, so spoon fed that the players today simply could not cope with old wow.

All of what you suggested, will not save WoW - only kill it quicker. The communities and player-base has changed, and players today wouldn't cope with it. The game itself was already changing. A grindfest that Vanilla was, not sure how anyone can find that fun. Yeah, you might feel proud for doing something grindy afterward. It's not really healthy either, you know?

From a business point of view Blizzard are currently their own worst enemy, they are killing the game by making it so easy and forgiving. If they opened a BC server millions would return, but this would be an admission of doing it wrong and the PR department won't allow that

You're probably right about Blizzard being their worst enemy, and I doubt millions would return for a BC server, but the game should progress forward - not backward.

[Wildtree]

Blizzard doesn't have to swallow their pride.
They need to start to grow some balls instead.
The game was at it's best when they didn't listen to every single internet expert, who knew absolutely what would make the game even better.
As the game moved on and evolved, so did the community. A community of self entitlement, and arrogance evolved from the game. A part of that community (as a careful guess, about 15 - 20%) turned to the online platforms like fansites, forums and the like, and that community part became very vocal. Everyone had an opinion, mostly another one than the next guy.. But we know how it is with opinions. Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one. And more than often there's no difference on their value. For years now, Blizzard tries to please their community. Essentially not a bad thing, who doesn't like great customer service?
But is that still customer service? I doubt it. Blizzard got lost in a maze of different opinions... The game shifted in a direction where it's development comes across like a giant Wishing Well. Reality is.... Ones glorious idea to the better, is absolutely hideous for the next guy. Yet Blizzard got caught more and more in that jungle of requests, and complaints. Resulting in them flip flopping back and forth.
When you constantly flip flop, you losing your direction, you are throwing everyone off. That can lead to a wide alienating of your customer base.
Hence...... Blizzard needs to grow some balls.
Blizzard created a game that was beyond anything ever seen before. They had it all right, and the sub numbers grown ever larger. The only thing that really changed was to what extend they've listened to their community. If they would stop listening, using their original instincts again and go from there, chances are that it could become better again. WoW was NEVER perfect, but that imperfection was part of what made it great.
The game got "ruined" (if one can really call it that) in team work. By Blizzard and by the community. To end that cycle, Blizzard needs to step out of it, and the community needs to accept the game for what it is. A product offered to them as customers, and then make their only real choice they have.
Either play it, or don't. it is not a wishing well.. That part got the game into the current state, and it isn't the best state, that's for sure.

[phyx]

Blizzard tries to attract too many different kind of gamers. There are not only 'casuals' and 'hardcores'. There are many, many subcategories. My personal opinion is that Blizzard tries to satisfy far too may types of people, keeping only profit in mind. The loss of 2 million players from the start of MoP is combination of that, global economy and the fact that game is simply old.

Although I love the game, raiding most particularly, I honestly think Blizzard doesn't know how to handle such diversity of players. Also, I find it extremely unfair that they just refuse to merge servers. I think that's an unbelievable dick move. Any other game does it without a problem while Blizzard 'is working on a solution' for the last couple of year. Argument that really pissed me off was when GC said that one of the reasons they can't merge servers was because population gets a lot bigger when new patches hit. There are servers that have so few people that even if they had 1000000% increase in population, they would still be empty. That argument showed us that they are running out of excuses, because that was a really bad one (not to mention the issue with players with the same names). With money in mind, they don't want to look bad to investors and stock holders. WoW did start as a game made from passion to gaming and Warcraft franchise but as the game grow they've gotten to the point where they cannot handle requirements for those 12 million people (peak) to be happy because it's simply impossible to keep everyone happy, and they are persistent in doing that.

[Deleted]

What they need to do is have raid content that is not the same with a bunch of difficulties, but rather they need make raids with 1 difficulty that are truly challenging and hard the way they used to be - and then they should also have casual content. Start making like 10-man casual raids and 25-man hardcore raids, and if the endboss of the game is Azshara well then she will obiously be the last boss in the last 25-man raid, and then have a few 10-man casual raids where some Lady Vashj-style lieutenants of her are the last boss - that you have to defeat because they are guarding the Queen's Citadel or something.

Basicly, they need to do less difficulties and more content. And vary the difficuly on the content. Introduce legendary items as the item drops from 25-man raids, keep epic items for 10-man raids and keep rare items for 5-man dungeons. And make more 5-man dungeons and less daily quest hubs, too.

VERY well put imo. It reminds of how AQ was introduced. A small welcoming 20 man raid with individual bosses and story, leading to the 40 man legendary raid. You are exactly right that the problem today is that all difficulties of the raids nonetheless has the same bosses / story / "adventure". There is really nothing that separates people anymore as anyone has been there done that in some way. Whereas back in the days people would wonder and got curious of whats behind those gates, how and where that sick looking gear was from, etc, as it was 'inaccessible' for the newcomer/newbie. Blizzard mistook a valuable thing for a problem and thought they had to "help" out the newcomer by streamlining things, and spoon feeding people. What they forgot though, was that it created a mass of brats and spoiled kids who left the server communities desolate. It was a mature game with immature graphics back in the days, and that was its charm.

---------- Post added 2013-05-11 at 01:23 PM ----------

I 100% agree that Blizzard not merging servers is a dick move. Truly is.
They have listened to so many stupid ideas, tried to please so many that they trample on others while doing it. But the one thing everyone can agree on is not being done; Merging servers with low population.

I'm playing on Runetotem EU, and we have struggled to keep our raiding guild going since the server experienced a serious drop of players on the horde side after Mist, and leading up to. The primary reason for the down drop was due to a huge influx of Italian people at the start of ICC; sadly I should say, this destroyed the community a little as Italian was now the primary language in /1 /2 though I have nothing again'st Italians, I would had loved if English would had stayed for all. But then they were offered their own servers before Mist, resulting in over 50 % horde leaving. -> resulting in then further guilds giving up.
The people in my guild have all played on Runetotem since Vanilla, and we would be a little sad if we had to leave what remains. Rather, we still fight and raid , and hopefully some day before we are gone the server will be merged with another.

I should say this; we are only 3 raiding horde guilds on the server. - None of which has killed Lei Shen. So if they really want us to be able to experience all the content, and not in raidfinder, then I say this to them; Merge the fucking servers.
And if Blizz are so honest, they should write to newcomers, instead of "low/high popu" on server tags, rather write "possible to raid yes/no"
Its VERY hard to have a 10 man guild going on Runetotem, its impossible to make a 25 man horde raiding guild.

[LaughterJones]

Completely agree. There is no community, no immersion, no "world" anymore.

They've turned this into a single player game.

Log on, queue up to instantely do anything in the game for an hour or two with a couple strangers, log off.

YOU WIN!

It's destroyed the game.

Yup - I would come back to play if even half of these items were reverted back. I know of others who would do the same.

The single player game description is right on. This game pretty much plays in a sandbox now. Definitely in comparison as to how the game felt previously.

[Zulkhan]

Spot on, Wildtree. The whiny bastards criticize Blizzard anytime they respond "rude" or ignore them, while Blizzard should TRULY ignore almost all of it, especially when you consider that these pathetic crybabies, bitching about everything, threaten them with crap stuff like cancelling sub if they "don't do this" "don't do that", which is hilarious, since these guys are, mostly, excatly the kind of addicted gamers that will NEVER leave the game, but still love to use this excuse for try and see if their useless whims are listened and satisfied.
Ironically, in fact, those who truly abandon the game are the far less vocal players, people that never wrote whining posts but simply decided, at some point, that they were done with the game.

[metatation]

Ya take away all of those QOL and the game will magically be better now!!!! This is probably the most absurd argument I have ever read since ya know riding from point A to B is sooooooo awesome, whats even better is people can still do that but they choose to fly. So I'm guessing he is specifically speaking about riding through an area with the possibility of being ganked, a more pvp realm, which was so much fun and added so much immersion especilly since the people that did this tended to be in a rather large party. Ya lets increase the time sink even more for no apparent reason and the people will love it just liked they loved all the gated daily content in the incipient stages of MOP. I'm an old timer and I disagree completely, all of those things have been great in my opinion for the game. I mean hell who enjoyed flying/riding to the entrance then wait for another mofo to get there to start summoning then have the tank/healer drop and be b ack at square 1 and then the group breaks up. Ya that was great and a big waste of time.

[Agartha]

He called wow a sandbox. Burn him.

[Sansnom]

Conclusion

Ofc none of this will happen as the tears that would be shed could possibly flood the world and wipe us all out. The new breed of player has no balls, has no ability to shake him/herself down after being ganked and certainly has no patience to ride from A to B. Can you imagine the wow players of today trying to survive in Vanilla, they would have a heart attack at how hardcore it used to be. No I am afraid MMO's now are so easy, so spoon fed that the players today simply could not cope with old wow.

From a business point of view Blizzard are currently their own worst enemy, they are killing the game by making it so easy and forgiving. If they opened a BC server millions would return, but this would be an admission of doing it wrong and the PR department won't allow that

You seems to know exactly what is required. How can you be wrong? I think you should apply to Blizzard as one of their senior strategist. Blizzard would be stupid not to hire you.