Originally Posted by
kaiverrettu
Thanks for making this thread OP! I completely agree to your statements here.
This is exactly the same sentiments as I have. I used to do some raiding, and I had a couple of epics, but the guild eventually disbanded and reformed as a new one and I wasn't able to get in, so I just focused on the PvP epics.
And when I finally got exalted in AB, it felt so epic. I finally got to around 4.4k health, and the set bonus, it felt such a nice accomplishment, and I felt like this was the maximum amount I could reach, and it felt so good. Like, I've really earned this. I only wanted more similar PvP/reputation grinds like that for every gear slot and I would've been more than happy just grinding my ass out for them. Add this along with all the engineering trinkets/fun that existed back then, and PvP was already superfun! Almost like the feeling I got when I got trolls exalted with the same undead rogue in Vanilla(yes, in Vanilla) and the troll epic mount.
I think old WoW touched upon the sentiments what many of us wanted from open-ended RPG games in the past. When we played Morrowind and similar other open world RPG's, I think all of us sighed and hoped for something that would do it more grand and better. When WoW came out, that was like one of the best games ever, and for a good reason.
I think WoW really answered to what so many of us wanted back then - providing us what I call this, "realistic medieval fantasy simulator." In terms of providing a realistic item grind and progression, like in real life - unlike the one infested with expansion and invalidating of content, that I feel the state of the game is/has become right now.
Nowadays, WoW just feels like a dumbed-down arcane game. I think it can still offer some content for people who never played it absolutely, but I don't think the WoW devs never quite understood how to play to their strengths, and that it's the WoW I originally knew and love. Afraid of the incoming sub loss of competition, the developers made a number of these "convenience" features in order to make people stay. But it is these same convenience features also that I feel have slowly turned the game into nothing but a mere shadow of it's original glory.
Remember realm transfers? Innocent convenience tools to give raiders and easier to way to get to good raiding guilds.. but ironically, at the same time, it completely and utterly destroyed unique realm communities and memorable personalities.
No need for summoning stones; LFG and LFR; join battleground tools; innocent "convenience" features, but dramatically served to destroy the immersion in the world.
Easier to acquire epics? This is the worst one imo.. there is nothing sense of accomplishment in the game anymore. Epics should be HARD to acquire. But there is nothing hard in joining LFR and playing a bunch of random strangers to get some epics. I feel it has completely and totally served to ruin any grand sense of accomplishment and immersion within this game. It's truely as you said, the game feels like it lacks the RPG element wich it used to have in the past.
I really liked this example! It is really small things like this that used add to the atmosphere and make the world feel far more unique, dangerous, and immersive back then. Now you just 2-3 hit all the mobs, boring, and soon outlevel the content pretty fast anyways.
Exactly!
To me, to you, and likely many others, the adventure/realism aspect of WoW is what got us hooked into the game in the first place. It was what I call a "realistical medieval fantasy simulator." It was good for what it was, and it was never required for it to become anything else(e.g, a dumbed down arcade game).
In hindsight, someone might say that those were annoying; but, in the end, it's small things like these wich used to make classes so much more unique and interesting before. I wouldn't mind them in the game, but it obviously wouldn't fit into the current dev mindset.
This is coming someone who hasn't played WoW in a long time, so I think I am being quite objective here. I used to jump on the PTR's to play abit every now and then(since it's free), even multibox, but I don't think I can take what the game has become to do even that anymore.
Sadly, I don't think that this game is in capable hands anymore. They get too much revenue from things like server transfer to cut them off completely, especially with the recent sub losses, plus they already alienated their older playerbase, so changing some things might hurt them more at this point(at least in the short term).
The new expansion idea also seems pretty ridiculous. it's like they completely ran out of content/ideas for story this time around, and openly admit it. "Hey, we give you something that was epic in the past, because we are uncapable of procuding anything interesting new, so let's use something wich many players are familiar with from the past, and hope it attracts enough consumers."
It seems like WOW has completely abandoned the idea of unique, interesting and fun roleplaying game and gone for the mass-appeal instead.