Focus solely on raiding/dungeons = no more content droughts

[Barnabas]

I believe raiding is the single most important aspect of WoW. Sure vanilla lured a lot people in cause of the franchise's strengh and the fact that MMOs were new for most players. But raiding is what kept WoW going strong in the following years. And then they lost a lot of people cause of content droughts.

If they abandoned everything except raiding and dungeons there wouldn't be any content droughts. Stop making a new content every addon and leveling zones that is just not worth the time and effort. The questing experience is a chore for most people and done much better in any singleplayer rpg (mass effect, dragon age, witcher, kotor, etc.).

Emphasize the multiplayer aspects of this game. Multiplayer content is the future (see Mobas), very mediocre fake singleplayer content (kill 20 boars, collect 30 teeth) is the past and won't be tolerated any longer. Group content (primarily dungeons and raiding) is what made this game so successful.

I think wow has become too focused on instancing everything. So I don't see how your suggestion would improve the game from my point of view.

[Wries]

I'd agree with "Kungen" on this one. Raiding used to be the icing on the cake, but the cake was what everyone came for. In short you came into this amazing online world as you wanted to explore and build your character. Sometimes you raided and that felt amazing. But most of the time you screwed around in the world with the rewards given to you from raiding, and you also needed to be outside the raid instances to prepare your character with supplies before the next.

But now when you pretty much only raid, as everything else is designed to be wasted effort, it loses most of its appeal.

[Sinyc]

I believe raiding is the single most important aspect of WoW.

Thanks for your opinion, but the 90% of WoW players that don't raid disagree with you. And that's the beauty of it.

[DeadmanWalking]

I believe raiding is the single most important aspect of WoW. Sure vanilla lured a lot people in cause of the franchise's strengh and the fact that MMOs were new for most players. But raiding is what kept WoW going strong in the following years. And then they lost a lot of people cause of content droughts.

If they abandoned everything except raiding and dungeons there wouldn't be any content droughts. Stop making a new content every addon and leveling zones that is just not worth the time and effort. The questing experience is a chore for most people and done much better in any singleplayer rpg (mass effect, dragon age, witcher, kotor, etc.).

Emphasize the multiplayer aspects of this game. Multiplayer content is the future (see Mobas), very mediocre fake singleplayer content (kill 20 boars, collect 30 teeth) is the past and won't be tolerated any longer. Group content (primarily dungeons and raiding) is what made this game so successful.

Just like you I think the game should be designed around my needs and nobody elses, not even yours. So I agree with you in that all things should revolve around me but I disagree in that it should not revolve around you.

More importantly ME!!! ME!!! No silly, not you, ME!!!

Oh, and btw, without the leveling zones how would you introduce the raider to why they are raiding? Why are you in Hell Fire Citadel? There was no questing zones so we were never introduced to alternate reality Draenor where the Orcs tried to attack us on our azeroth so we never knew why we were on Draenor, we also never were introduced to the enemies in zones to explain why they were raid encounters. Why are we fighting a giant rock eating rolly polly guy? Why are we fighting a giant rock monster with glowing glyphs on its body? Why are we fighting these 3 orcs on a ship? Why are we fighting a Sha dragon thing in Pandaria? Who knows? We never had leveling zones to introduce us to them, but yay mechanics! Who are these spirits floating on the windy bridges in Thunder kings temple? I don't know.... Where the hell in the world is Highmaul? Why are Ogres important? I don't know because we were not introduced to the story and themes of the expansion without the questing zones.

Questing zones give context, story, background and more importantly it gives a player a sense of the physical space of the world they are inhabiting. It explains why you are doing what you are doing.

[Kokolums]

I'd argue subs would be around 20 million today if they cut raiding content in half (not saying they should cut it in half, just an example here) and made the game social again.

I'd say WoW would have 20 million subs if these exact changes were made and nothing else:

1. Eliminate LFR
2. Eliminate dungeon finder
3. Reinstate global chat
4. Remove the custom group finder tool
5. Remove garrions
6. Remove phasing
7. Remove cross-realm play
8. Cut raiding content in half

If you do all that, if forces people to be social and then they start building their own in-game communities again. Its those social communities that drive the game.

If they did of the above, and pumped out lots of raiding content, then I'd say we could go to 30 million subs or higher.

If they leave all the antisocial tools in the game, we go to 1 million subs.

[Eleccybubb]

I'd argue subs would be around 20 million today if they cut raiding content in half (not saying they should cut it in half, just an example here) and made the game social again.

I'd say WoW would have 20 million subs if these exact changes were made and nothing else:

1. Eliminate LFR
2. Eliminate dungeon finder
3. Reinstate global chat
4. Remove the custom group finder tool
5. Remove garrions
6. Remove phasing
7. Remove cross-realm play
8. Cut raiding content in half

If you do all that, if forces people to be social and then they start building their own in-game communities again. Its those social communities that drive the game.

If they did of the above, and pumped out lots of raiding content, then I'd say we could go to 30 million subs or higher.

If they leave all the antisocial tools in the game, we go to 1 million subs.

30 million AHAHAHAH. I laughed harder than I should at this.

[Deleted]

Thanks for your opinion, but the 90% of WoW players that don't raid disagree with you. And that's the beauty of it.

Everything except raiding and dungeons is done better by various other games. If you don't want to engange in group play why play a MMO? There are so many superb singleplayer rpgs out there (witcher, mass effect, dragon age, kotor, jade empire, vampire bloodlines, etc.).

[DeadmanWalking]

I'd argue subs would be around 20 million today if they cut raiding content in half (not saying they should cut it in half, just an example here) and made the game social again.

I'd say WoW would have 20 million subs if these exact changes were made and nothing else:

1. Eliminate LFR
2. Eliminate dungeon finder
3. Reinstate global chat
4. Remove the custom group finder tool
5. Remove garrions
6. Remove phasing
7. Remove cross-realm play
8. Cut raiding content in half

If you do all that, if forces people to be social and then they start building their own in-game communities again. Its those social communities that drive the game.

If they did of the above, and pumped out lots of raiding content, then I'd say we could go to 30 million subs or higher.


If they leave all the antisocial tools in the game, we go to 1 million subs.

Thats right, because just like you I am incapable of making friends and being social unless someone forces me to do it to play a video game. No wait, thats just you. I am completely capable of being social and making friends with people and having a random dungeon button. In fact I make groups of friends then hit that random button so my friends and I can do an activity together without having to hump a ground mount to a dungeon door for 30 minutes.

2005 called and wants its game design back.
I also love how you pull 20 million subs out of thin air, no doubt from the years of data collecting you did while as a professor atPSOoMA University (Pulling Shit Out of My ASS University) "Go Fighting Turd Flingers!".
- - - Updated - - -

Everything except raiding and dungeons is done better by various other games. If you don't want to engange in group play why play a MMO? There are so many superb singleplayer rpgs out there (witcher, mass effect, dragon age, kotor, jade empire, vampire bloodlines, etc.).

So you are saying that if the game isn't designed the way other people would like then they should leave the game and go find one that fits their playstyle? Well wow isn't designed with just raiding in mind so you should go find another game that fits your playstyle.

In fact you should go make a game that only has raid bosses in raid rooms and stop putting your crazy in everyone elses peanut butter. The game isn't designed for you, it is designed for everyone and everyone should have access to activities they enjoy too because you are not the center of the universe.

There wouldn't even be a game if it was just raiding.

You also make a mindless assumption that the same guys making dungeons/raids are the same guys making world and questing content, when there are seperate teams working in unison. They have this thing, called teams which can produce different things -at the same time-. *brain blown sound effect.*

[Sinyc]

Everything except raiding and dungeons is done better by various other games. If you don't want to engange in group play why play a MMO? There are so many superb singleplayer rpgs out there (witcher, mass effect, dragon age, kotor, jade empire, vampire bloodlines, etc.).

Tell that to those people who find enjoyment in other facets of the game.

[ItachiZaku]

I believe raiding is the single most important aspect of WoW.

I disagree and stopped reading.

[Kokolums]

I don pull 30 million out of thin air. The truth is that subs were on a rapid ascent as long as there were true in-game communities where people were well known in the actual game world. It peaked around 10 million many years ago and then once they destroyed those communities with lack of global chat, xrealm, phasng, lfr, etc it truly began a descent.

I FIRMLY believe the ascent would have just kept going had they left it alone. Easily we pass 20 million by now. 30 is a pretty good marker.

[Darkeon]

I don pull 30 million out of thin air. The truth is that subs were on a rapid ascent as long as there were true in-game communities where people were well known in the actual game world. It peaked around 10 million many years ago and then once they destroyed those communities with lack of global chat, xrealm, phasng, lfr, etc it truly began a descent.

I FIRMLY believe the ascent would have just kept going had they left it alone. Easily we pass 20 million by now. 30 is a pretty good marker.

I dunno what it is, but I'll have what you have been smoking!

Also, don't sell short, go higher! 100m, minimum!

-

On topic: Developers removing their thumbs out of their bums and stopping designing with the "quickly move on to the next expansion"-type of mentality and instead focusing on releasing proper content during each expansion pack would lessen content droughts.

But the way they are developing now brings in more income in relation to effort put into WoW... so we know how we'll continue to have it.

[Sanguinerd]

Yes.. more focus on raiding.. Cus that worked out so well for WoD right?

>_< how can people be this clueless.

[Raetary]

sure, if you want to completely butcher the game, remove everything except dungeons and raids.

[Golden]

I'd argue subs would be around 20 million today if they cut raiding content in half (not saying they should cut it in half, just an example here) and made the game social again.

I'd say WoW would have 20 million subs if these exact changes were made and nothing else:

1. Eliminate LFR
2. Eliminate dungeon finder
3. Reinstate global chat
4. Remove the custom group finder tool
5. Remove garrions
6. Remove phasing
7. Remove cross-realm play
8. Cut raiding content in half

If you do all that, if forces people to be social and then they start building their own in-game communities again. Its those social communities that drive the game.

If they did of the above, and pumped out lots of raiding content, then I'd say we could go to 30 million subs or higher.

If they leave all the antisocial tools in the game, we go to 1 million subs.

I think Blizzard would be much more likely to make a hardcore server that had the changes you requested than ever even considering forcing those changes on the rest of the community. Since it would be a server where some extra stuff is disabled, it wouldn't be a maintenance nightmare for Blizzard...and let's face it...one server would probably be enough to service all the people actually interested in this kind of play.