No, just no. By the end of BC they had even removed most (if not all) of the key grinds - only one person for example even had to have the Kara key to get in, I remember doing The Eye and Hyjal with no attunment etc. There may have been some grind still in BC (I remember getting my Netherdrake and Netherrays for example) but it was MUCH less grindy than Vanilla had been.
In Vanilla wow was a great game and it drew millions of people to it. There was no real competition and that is one reason it did so well. It was easy to pick up and play even if it wasn't so easy to be great at it and required a lot of grind. In BC the grind was less, it was easier to level up multiple characters (by the end of BC I think I had at least 5 70s) and while still harder than Wrath it was a lot easier than Vanilla and offered a lot more. That attracted a lot of players. Then came wrath which is often (and I believe correctly) claimed to be the most casual friendly xpac. It was during the end of Wrath - when it was at its easiest - that WoW saw its biggest numbers.So what attracted all those players if the complaint among the general populace of players (to which you say are the casual players) was that the game is too hard? How come WoW peaked at 12 million subscribers? It cant be because they switched gears to a more raid friendly environment during WoTLK, because all those players were already there.
You are right - I do not KNOW with certainty. However it is unreasonable to assume that people will not get bored playing the same game for several years. True, I haven't (well more so than originally - but I still play so not that much) but I also know many people who have stopped simply because they had other things going on and they had "been there, seen that" with wow. I have many many computer games from over the years - but most just gather dust in a cupboard. Why? Simply: I got bored of them. I do not KNOW with certainty that the majority left wow because they simply moved on - but it sounds a lot more reasonable to me than "They did something wrong - change it and they will flock back". I believe it would be a very bad choice for Blizzard to turn round and say... "You know what? We dont know for sure why these people left.... lets take a gamble on all the people that log in every day and change it to how it was before most of our current subs even played. Just in case we get people back". To answer your last question - I never meant to say anything with "authority" I was stating my reasonings for "believing" why people leave. I still believe that, and I do not need any authority to believe how I wish (just as you don't).How do you know millions of players WOULDN'T resubscribe? What if, just what if millions of players got fed up with the direction they have and are taking this game? (I know at least one person for sure) What if, just what if players who played in TBC saw how casual friendly they were making the game, and the fact that because they were making the game so easy to allow more players access to something they didn't really have an interest for, it diminished their accomplishments in the game? And furthermore, how do you know why a person decides to unsubscribe or not? Where is your authority on the matter???
I think this is YOUR knee-jerk reaction actually. I for one certainly do not think "Oh its a Jaylock thread". Personally I have no clue who you are, and do not really care either (I don't mean this in a bad way - I have no thoughts - good or bad about you as I do not know you). You going by the name Jaylock has no bearing on anything to me - so it is no "knee-jerk" to your thread.The problem with this quote right here is your implied knee jerk reaction. Just like many of the other posters in this thread, you see a few things that tip you off to completely rejecting the ideas presented:
1) "Oh its a Jaylock thread, move along, nothing to see here" This dismissal attitude severely limits discussion. People think its not a serious topic and therefore will only post to flame me and try to get me infracted for trolling or whatever else they think the post is.
2) The knee jerk reaction of seeing something that they dont like, they automatically dismiss it even if they didn't know how it would affect the way the game plays out. If flying mounts were removed, how do you know that blizzard wouldn't compensate for that change in some way? How do you know or not that the gameplay would be much better in the new areas of an expansion without flying capability?
I also am not just seeing a suggestion I dont like and "automatically dismiss" it. I read your suggestion and reasoned why I didn't think it would work. Your rebuttal to my objections to your idea are met with questions like "how do you know blizzard wouldnt..." etc. I don't but I also have no reason to believe they would. You cannot successfully argue a point based on "what if something else I haven't suggested and have no basis for believing happened?"
I can't disagree with this and personally I am a little concerned with Blizzard saying they plan to use the timeless isle method more and more. I don't hate it, but it has got VERY stale already.I'm glad you still find enjoyment out of the game. I don't anymore because of some of the ridiculous changes and "improvements" they have made to the game.
I will say one thing though. I went to my brother's house, and he still plays WoW religiously. I decided to get on one of his many 90 characters, and I decided to try out the timeless isle to see what this whole new "questing" hub was about. I maybe played it for a couple hours before it got stale. Is this really what this game has come to? A couple hours of entertainment with a full content patch? Rehashed raid environments, boss models etc.
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No, we don't. Really. Exploration is something that is done ONCE. After that it's called commuting!