"There is a pervasive myth that making content hard will induce players to rise to the occasion. We find the opposite. " -- Ghostcrawler
"The bit about hardcore players not always caring about the long term interests of the game is spot on." -- Ghostcrawler
"Do you want a game with no casuals so about 500 players?"
Most people expect that when they purchase the game for $60 (all expansions) and pay their $180 per year, that they will actually be able to play? That's at least what the box reads?
Now having to realize "Oh shit, I picked the wrong server and it's a pile of shit" and Blizzard then saying "well you can't play now, but you can play if you pay another $25" isn't a very good feeling.
- - - Updated - - -
Which was my point all along... that's what people did. In your words, "GG"
Yeah gearing on Andorhal is pretty difficult to say the least. My guild was decent but basically retired from raiding in Cataclysm so most people left.
At peak hours there are maybe a dozen horde in Orgrimmar and maybe 20 more in the Shrine of Two Moons. Andorhal is basically the Simple Math server, they're rank 115 US.
I took a break in January and have just come back, and gearing is pretty slow. No way I'm paying for a transfer. I have 3 90s on this server and 5 85ish characters, and I've already spent way too much on character transfers and faction changes in the past. Let's be honest here, the prices that Blizzard charges for those services are greedy as hell. $25-30 dollars in a $15/month sub game? No thanks.
I'm pretty sure the box didn't promise you would be able to get into a raiding guild on every server etc. You are still able to play the game, the game still works whatever server you are on. Blizzard can't take responsibility for the player community.
- - - Updated - - -
I think he's lying if he says he doesn't have ~€20 he can spend on whatever he wants each month.
So I can start eating Ramen... just so I can actually play the game? Not surprising most people choose the restaurants. Just so you know, you guys with your high horses are actually the "poor community." As you gleefully pointed out, of course I still play the game and maintain a geared toon. But it's obvious that the number of people who left the game is massive and exactly for this reason, both in terms of personal anecdotes (the amount of realID that I have "last online: 4 months" or something with exact reasons I know for why they left, number of guildmates that have left and not been replaced) and completely confirmed by overall worldwide numbers.
And those losses due to shitty gearing system, shitty realm setup, shitty pugging, do affect me even if my main toon can handle gearing.
Some of the fanboy Blizzard die-hards will say that "even with 1 million players this is still the best game EVAR" but ask yourself if 7/8 of the game population - including your RealID, your guild, your realm were just decimated tomorrow... would you really still keep playing?
Maybe more devs should approach this random approach to game design. Chop out a few levels in every few copies leaving it to blind luck which purchaser get's to own the full game? I'm sure devs could get away with randomly taking out things like cinematics or VOs? How about a pot-luck approach to what MP maps you purchase? Should really spice up the gaming market, don't you think.
Player experience on dead realms is absolutely Blizzard's responsibility. Hence their "Connected Realms" solution. It's only in bizzaro-world (or someone who doesn't yet have a family) who can say fifteen quid for a single character transfer isn't a substantial amount of money. Christ, I could just see my wife's face when that Visa bill in and I told her I spent 150 bangers transferring my WoW chars to a realm where I could PuG in. Hell, fifteen quid spent would see me on the couch.
That's funny because I don't know of a single person who has left the game because of the difficulty of gearing alts etc. Are they playing less alts now compared to earlier? Yes, of course they are, so am I. But they are still playing the game with their main.