Should we just give up and admit WoW's community is entirely driven by cosmetics?

[Kithelle]

I am familiar with ToR but it's a different scenario since they monetize virtually anything; ToR IMHO has a very poor F2P system. I don't see WoW stooping to those levels. At least, not any time soon.

I meant more what type of cosmetics do you think would be in crates? ToR as example covers all sorts of things. If WoW covered, say, armor in loot crates, do you think it would replace decent looking armor in raids? Or would it be more like, say, FFXIV, where special themed sets were sold for $, while the sets in game were still fairly decent and themed with the content?

I guess I am asking is, how bad do you honestly think it would get? I don't think WoW would ever reach ToR's level IMHO, but it could easily reach FFXIV's level in terms of selling cosmetic armor at exaggerated prices on the Blizzard store.

You never know what the future may hold....look at the way some games work, I mean lets take OW or HotS...you have gambleboxes....you can earn them...but it's just soooooo much easier to grab the debit card and buy some.

They could do something like that with WoW if they really wanted to.

[Boricha]

Cosmetics didn't get me into wow and they didn't stop me from quitting back in October. I like cosmetics, but I would only change my transmog maybe 3 times a year. I'd race change about once per expansion, mainly because I wanted to have new attack animations for a while. The main thing that kept me playing was class design and game mechanics, more so than any progression system. I can do any mundane mobgrind/pvp ladder if I enjoy the gameplay, but without it I can't stay interested.

[Shadowspire]

Haha, Fanbois will tell you that you are dead wrong and are an idiot. A week later Blizzard agrees and the fan bois turn around and applaud Blizzard.

Pretty much.
It's annoyingly stupid and it leads to possible destructive choices.

[Battlebeard]

Who says we need innovation. Innovation is what has ruined a lot of the game. The talent system of vanilla who lasted a few expansions (don't remember how long) was the BEST and was ruined by innovation. Other innovations were queing for instances, LFR and much more that has been bad.

If it ain't broken, don't fix it.

Anyway, I don't see this as a problem. I rather have cosmetic rewards than gear. Gear already mean too much in this game.

[rrayy]

Who says we need innovation. Innovation is what has ruined a lot of the game. The talent system of vanilla who lasted a few expansions (don't remember how long) was the BEST and was ruined by innovation. Other innovations were queing for instances, LFR and much more that has been bad.

If it ain't broken, don't fix it.

Anyway, I don't see this as a problem. I rather have cosmetic rewards than gear. Gear already mean too much in this game.

The talent system of vanilla was a joke. It was nowhere close to the same zip code as the best.

[Freshouttajail]

I don't give a single fuck about any cosmetics. I don't even look at armor when they drop, I automatically transmog stuff to my currently saved transmog and once every 3 months if I'm bored I will make a new transmog set.

I don't care about mounts unless they do something special, I never farm them. I don't care about pets either, I right click them to make them disappear from my inventory and I legit get pissed when I already have 3 of that pet so I'm forced to drag it out of my inventory and type "delete" in the box.

Cosmetics are not a video game, I want them to make good content and gameplay. People will play if the game is fun and won't feel the need to be constantly rewarded with useless stuff.

[Vargas]

Should we give up on trying to innovate in gameplay, admit defeat, and say we are all driven by cosmetic rewards?

Lets face it, you and me and Blizzard are out of ideas to innovate in gamplay (warfronts and Island expeditions)
And there is no character progression in talents and spells and different builds like in other overly complicated RPG's.
Gear progression is only relevant for Raid/Mythic+ progression and is useless in most other parts of the game.

So...this is the part where we tell Blizzard "Just give us something fun to login everyday and work for a cosmetic reward"?

"Give us something fun to login everyday..." - seems important, dont you agree?

"...for a cosmetic reward" - This is where we might disagree. I already gave up on trying to innovate in gameplay. Did you?

OR

You want Blizzard to keep trying to innovate in gameplay?

OR

Something else?

The problem is, if they innovated the gameplay (and I mean REALLY reworked it) most of you guys would still bitch and whine about it because its new. And new is scary and therefore bad.

[msdos]

My friend on here does nothing but collect toys, mounts and pets. I'm the exact opposite. I ignore all cosmetic things except for transmog and I mostly do the competitive stuff.

I just don't see how collecting pets is fun. I think these people fall into the "FIFA" category. They're happy doing the same thing over and over, collecting tiny variations of stuff they already collected, over and over and that's fine, whatever makes them happy.

I'm more into exercising skill and finesse and you need abilities and mechanics for that and honestly, Warfronts and Islands don't have mechanics. There is nothing to finesse in those places. They're just busy work nests.

Arena, BG, raid and dungeon are where skill is practiced and displayed.

[Battlebeard]

The talent system of vanilla was a joke. It was nowhere close to the same zip code as the best.

It was a lot of fun. Getting 1 point per level was really encouraging. Todays system is so boring and leveling up feels so boring.

[rrayy]

It was a lot of fun. Getting 1 point per level was really encouraging. Todays system is so boring and leveling up feels so boring.

IT wasn't encouraging at all. There was nothing fun about using ap point to get .1% more haste or critical strike. There was nothing fun about going to elitist jerks to get your cookie cutter spec, set it to that, and then forget it. UNder the new system I am changing talents all the time. It's a lot more fun.

[Orby]

considering the way I play now days, I seem way more driven by cosmetics... my god whats happened to me?

[Battlebeard]

IT wasn't encouraging at all. There was nothing fun about using ap point to get .1% more haste or critical strike. There was nothing fun about going to elitist jerks to get your cookie cutter spec, set it to that, and then forget it. UNder the new system I am changing talents all the time. It's a lot more fun.

Really? The new system has always had a BiS specc. Maybe one for AoE and one for ST, but that's it. Some talents are utterly useless and litterally never ever used. There is ONE way to specc, if you don't, you WILL underperform.

I change between Cheat Death and Leeching Poision (assa rogue). Cheat death when I do raids, high m+ keys and serious pvp and leeching the rest of the time to just heal up faster and do WQ etc more efficient, cause im not close to dying there anyway.

Other than that, there is a set specc for Assassination as an example, no variation.

And swapping between 2 talents, cheat death and leeching, when I want both, is so boring. I rather specc in both and give up other things instead.

The old system gave us so much more freedom.

[korijenkins]

Originally the community wasn't driven by cosmetics, but gradually watering down the rewards have basically made "it looks cool" the only reason to go for something.

It's also incentivized the art team to make weaker looking sets, knowing players aren't locked into them for a tier. There was something exciting about Blizzard revealing the new tiers on the forums in the past that's been lost in recent years.

[Adoxe]

It's because cosmetics are the only real reward WoW has left. Gear is meaningless because it's given out to everyone for no effort, there's no point in chasing it.

[Leodok]

Rewards are the reason we do things.
Gameplay is the reason we enjoy (or don't) the things we do.

People wanting a particular reward is no reason for not improving gameplay.

[Rozz]

I'm driven by cosmetics because there is poor customization.
Almost everything is predetermined. Character customization is limited, there isn't freedom in origin(Ex: If you're a human, you're only from Stormwind of KuL'Tiras.), and the factions also have no real political fluidity available to players in game. You can never be an orc who feels repentant and biased towards the Alliance. You can never be a NE who detests humans and joins the Horde.

In a game where you are given an identity you can never deviate from, the only way to express yourself after that point is through collectibles, gear, weapons, mounts, and titles. It's one of the few things I have control over, so it's valuable to me. It's probably why ARs are so popular, because they're fulfilling the wish of players locked out of specific identities. (ie: Didn't want to be a green orc, wanted to be a proud pure one).

[Vakir]

That's the entire AAA game industry at the moment. Most things are endless and ill-defined feedback loops with an aesthetic carrot. Things are deliberately being designed in mind as "lifestyle games."

[Wolfman31]

I don't even feel like grinding rated PvP this season because the rewards are not cosmetically appealing to me. I'm a PvP'er so I'll probably end up with it anyway, but yeah I was more driven last season because I liked the look of the sets more.

[rrayy]

Really? The new system has always had a BiS specc. Maybe one for AoE and one for ST, but that's it. Some talents are utterly useless and litterally never ever used. There is ONE way to specc, if you don't, you WILL underperform.

I change between Cheat Death and Leeching Poision (assa rogue). Cheat death when I do raids, high m+ keys and serious pvp and leeching the rest of the time to just heal up faster and do WQ etc more efficient, cause im not close to dying there anyway.

Other than that, there is a set specc for Assassination as an example, no variation.

And swapping between 2 talents, cheat death and leeching, when I want both, is so boring. I rather specc in both and give up other things instead.

The old system gave us so much more freedom.

No it didn't. It gave you thye illusion freedom. You went to elitist jerks and used that spec or you got laughed at and were called a gimp in raids. Even alll the changes you mention is far better than "set it and forget it". And god forbid choices are actually given meaning. IT would be even less fun if we were given everything all at once. No point in having a talent tree if they are going to give you everything anyway.

[Jerot]

Its because non-cosmetic rewards have been completely devalued by the fact they get thrown out every new expansion. Cosmetics are the only thing that persist.