I'm not a big forum poster, but I am on here daily, reading the hot topics of the day. While I have no idea what portion of the community posts or reads, I do feel at times I must be in the minority based on comments I see, like people wanting to get rid of LFR and flying and how easy it is to make gold and raid etc etc. I'm posting here today to give my 2 cents, from a normally non-vocal player.
I have been playing since BC and have never stopped my subscription. I remember the awe I felt when first logging in to the game knowing the other characters running around were real people somewhere out there in the world. During my time in BC, I met many very friendly people, joined a guild based solely on me helping one of them out one day, went through some trial runs with them and eventually made the raiding team. There were always plenty of people in guild chat and one only had to mention needing help once before receiving plenty of offers from other guildies to assist. It was my first MMO and I was thrilled.
Fast forward to today and many of the people I once played with have left the game. I rarely run into anyone who is friendly or helpful. The guild is mostly dead and I haven't been in any of the raids this expansion. The game I once loved and still do for the most part is suffering and it is mostly due to the attitudes of the players. While many people are not happy with the direction the game is going, it is their reaction and toxic attitude that is the real downfall.
I do LFR, because I don't have enough guildies to run a full raid. I don't like to pug, because where once it was a great way to meet people and form a team, it is now just an exasperated drama filled group of unfriendly people with very little teamwork. It has become a place to complain when there is a wipe or when someone didn't get their drop or about how someone else made a mistake. Because I don't pug, I'm left with LFR. So do I enjoy LFR? Yes, I like the fights, I like when I get a drop I can use, I like learning how to better my character by watching others of my same class and it helps pass the time while I wait for friends to log on. What I don't like are the players who endlessly complain throughout the entire run or who purposely want to grief others. Would I care if they took LFR away? No, it's not my game and I don't really care what decision Blizzard makes with their game as long as I have something to do. If I don't and I'm bored, I'll move on to something else. For instance, I dislike dailies, so I don't do them, unless I really want some reward being offered from doing them. I never once felt pressured to do them. It is just a game after all.
I really like flying. In fact, when I can't fly in a zone, it drives me a little crazy and I can't wait to get out of that zone. I enjoy the scenery just fine without needing to be grounded. It makes sense to me to not fly through a brand new zone while leveling, like the whole of Mists, but only on 1 character. Once I have a character at max and learn to fly in that area, all of my alts should be able to fly as well (for a fee of course). I don't need for them all to be grounded. It is a time waster and is not enjoyable. But do I jump to the forums and blast Blizzard for their decision? No, I make due and move on.
I don't want the game so hard that I spend my time frustrated never achieving anything, but I don't want it so easy that I don't feel like I accomplished anything either. I felt like BC and Lich King had a nice balance. I had to work towards getting that raid spot. We had to progress through the content by working together week after week knowing full well it would take time and we were ok with that. I looked forward to logging in, chatting with my guild mates and doing what we could to enhance our characters in preparation for raid night.
I miss have group will travel, it was very handy. I think most items that are soul bound should be account bound, like spirits. What does it matter what character I earned them on? I still earned them, by myself and I should be able to pass items I've earned to other characters. I can pass gold between characters I've earned, what's the difference? I miss being able to farm trash in a raid. It was another way to pass time and possibly earn gold or win that rare drop. It was also a great way to meet fellow people on your realm. Sometimes when the group was good enough, we would end up doing the raid and not just farm the trash. It was a fun way to test your skills, it was fun to earn materials or gold or every now and then a piece of gear. I miss being able to earn reputation while doing dungeons, by wearing tabards. I thought that system worked well. I miss their being some sort of accountability and responsibility as a fellow gamer and human being instead of the anonymous asshats who now plague the game getting away without repercussions.
For me, in the end, the game is just a game, a way to pass time while having fun. I miss the days when people's idea of fun was playing the content instead of bashing one another. I'm bored a lot, but not because there is nothing to do, but because I'm doing it alone. I have the most fun playing with friends and doing even the simplest of things, like hunting down rares, or doing achievements in older content, or trying for mounts and pets. I don't care if I have the latest and greatest of anything in the game. In fact, I don't understand the point of having seen, done and acquired everything. I mean, once you have it all, then what do you do? I like that there is always something else out there to try for.
I may be in the minority on these forums, but I like the game and will continue to play as long as I am having fun and have friends to play with. I may question some of Blizzard's decisions at times, however my right to complain is equaled to their right to ignore my complaints. I do not want a small minority of very vocal players to determine the direction of the game and I have faith that the tools at Blizzard's disposal to analyze game play are being utilized. I say this because I disagree with the posters on this site the majority of the time and believe I would no longer enjoy the game if they had their say (like doing away with flying, like huh are you bat **** crazy? lol). I can only hope there are many many others out there that feel as I do and are just not normally vocal about it, like me.