Does WoW still feel like a traditional RPG?

[Ferocity]

no it doesnt, no its not traditional RPG. Huge part of RPGs is leveling, leveling your character has to make some sense, the journey is important but WoW lost this after TBC release.

Tbh TBC still had some sense of journey (with minor exp nerf in 2.3), and WotLK managed to keep it to some degree (though there were more exp nerfs and nerfs to game systems). That's when Cata launched, everything went totally upside down.

That is big reason for why there are 2 groups of people, 1 group likes Classic-TBC-WotLK, and other Cata+. WoD subverted that journey in many ways possible - by "item squish", by "ability pruning", by new stats (old stats being thing for 1-90), mega-fast leveling, inconsistent storytelling and many other things.

Basically players are forcefully pushed to the max level and into THE END, which goes against everything that is CRPG and which helped the massive burnout in WoD.

[PuppetShowJustice]

WoD subverted that journey in many ways possible - by "item squish", by "ability pruning", by new stats (old stats being thing for 1-90), mega-fast leveling, inconsistent storytelling and many other things.

Are people actually still upset over the stat squish? Did it really make people feel like they are less powerful?

[Deleted]

U wot m8?

No Blizzard game ever was a traditional RPG.
It was always arcade-type games which sometimes had elements of RPG.

[Ferocity]

Are people actually still upset over the stat squish? Did it really make people feel like they are less powerful?

Journey in CRPGs has statistical representation, subvert that representation, and you subvert the journey.

Btw, what would be the point to want to make your character stronger, if WoD's raiding hyper-inflated everything infinitely far beyond different world? "Item squish" will again be required for next expansion, unless there will be change from 32-bit variables to 64-bit. And all for what? To further subvert CRPG elements instead of actually making solution to ever-increasing inflation?

[Transmigration]

FFXIV's story mode is pretty RPG as far as MMOs are concerned. Maybe give that a go.

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

It never had for me. It was always about the other people and playing the character to an ends, not just roleplaying.

[Azwing]

no it doesnt, no its not traditional RPG. Huge part of RPGs is leveling, leveling your character has to make some sense, the journey is important but WoW lost this after TBC release. By the definition of RPG you can shovel almost any modern game into this category but honestly most of them are some kind of arcades with few RPG elements. There is 0 character customization, you are either hunter shooting rainbows, hunter shooting rainbows with different colors or hunter shooting rainbows and pet farting rainbows as well, same gear, same looks, blah.

A lot of what you (and a couple others in this thread) are talking about is game mechanics, not RPG, per se. Those elements (leveling, character progression) have traditionally been in RPGs, but they do not define RPG. Role-playing is what defines it. Inhabiting that character, not just moving an avatar, but becoming that personality, becoming immersed in the world as that personality, reacting to the world as that personality. Most modern games are not RPG.

WoW can be an RPG game, for those that choose to. But, it is not central to the game, or progression in any way. You can ignore RP altogether, and many do, and get along just fine. As a game, there just isn't much there to support RP. The people that do so, build their own communities. It's probably better off that way, anyway. I can't really imagine real RP working in an open world with LegolasLOL trolling people that were actually trying to RP. The griefers would ruin it for everyone.

[SMBComix]

Did it ever?

[Haselden]

Well it did feel like a RPG more at the beginning when WoW first launched. However, slowly after WOTLK when the community died. Nah, not anymore. It all feels more like a solo player & no body talks anymore.

[Ferocity]

A lot of what you (and a couple others in this thread) are talking about is game mechanics, not RPG, per se. Those elements (leveling, character progression) have traditionally been in RPGs, but they do not define RPG. Role-playing is what defines it. Inhabiting that character, not just moving an avatar, but becoming that personality, becoming immersed in the world as that personality, reacting to the world as that personality. Most modern games are not RPG.

Game mechanics define video game genre. Every video game gives opportunity to "role play" if you have enough passion and imagination, but it doesn't make the game a CRPG.

If you will make deep touching story and give deep personality to each character in Mortal Kombat, so you can easily identify yourself with that character and feel immersed with story and constant cutscenes after each fight, with dialogues giving you choices to change game flow (which opponent to fight next), it will still be a fighting game and not a CRPG.