Does anyone else think Shadowlands looks like time gated rep grinds: the expansion?

[Flower Milk]

The main feature of the expansion, Covenants, just looks it will be nothing but time gated rep grinds by doing world quests, and it's going to be extremely important to do, because it will unlock new abilities that are probably very much required to do content like raiding, Mythic+, etc.

Then on top of that, it's more time gated rep grinds to unlock flying through Pathfinder. Probably even more time gated rep grinds to unlock gear and cosmetic rewards.

And then to top it all off, I hope you like being slowed down in your content consumption even more, because Titanforging is here to stay.

It seems like every design decision lately that Blizzard makes has only one goal in mind: slow down our content consumption to increase the MAU numbers by keeping people playing for longer, and make sure they're logging in every day by stopping their progress for the day and telling them to come back tomorrow. When do we get content that is just designed to be rewarding and fun to play through? Will this game ever go back to being just a well designed video game, and not a cash cow for Blizzard to design to milk the most profits from to funnel to other projects?

I don't think it ever will honestly, I know people will still buy and play Shadowlands, they'll say "time gating everything is fine, people shouldn't be able to rush through the content and then complain about having nothing to do", and Blizzard will never stop tacking a time gate on everything or making every design decision based around slowing down our content consumption as much as possible.

I can't stand it anymore, it has completely ruined my enjoyment of this game, and I don't think I can stand to play through another time gated rep grinds: the expansion. If Shadowlands isn't that, I'd be glad to give it a shot, but everything I've seen about it so far pretty much points to exactly that.

[ArmatisUlv]

You use the word probably a lot to instantly condem an expansion that hasn't shown much and is still in development.

[cparle87]

The main feature of the expansion, Covenants, just looks it will be nothing but time gated rep grinds by doing world quests, and it's going to be extremely important to do, because it will unlock new abilities that are probably very much required to do content like raiding, Mythic+, etc.

Then on top of that, it's more time gated rep grinds to unlock flying through Pathfinder. Probably even more time gated rep grinds to unlock gear and cosmetic rewards.

And then to top it all off, I hope you like being slowed down in your content consumption even more, because Titanforging is here to stay.

It seems like every design decision lately that Blizzard makes has only one goal in mind: slow down our content consumption to increase the MAU numbers by keeping people playing for longer, and make sure they're logging in every day by stopping their progress for the day and telling them to come back tomorrow. When do we get content that is just designed to be rewarding and fun to play through? Will this game ever go back to being just a well designed video game, and not a cash cow for Blizzard to design to milk the most profits from to funnel to other projects?

I don't think it ever will honestly, I know people will still buy and play Shadowlands, they'll say "time gating everything is fine, people shouldn't be able to rush through the content and then complain about having nothing to do", and Blizzard will never stop tacking a time gate on everything or making every design decision based around slowing down our content consumption as much as possible.

I can't stand it anymore, it has completely ruined my enjoyment of this game, and I don't think I can stand to play through another time gated rep grinds: the expansion. If Shadowlands isn't that, I'd be glad to give it a shot, but everything I've seen about it so far pretty much points to exactly that.

Reps have been time gated for as long as there have been dailies, which was BC. Why are people acting like it's a new thing that the new evil ActiBlizz has put in deliberately to ruin their fun?

As for your whole conspiracy theory about how they're deliberately slowing us down to milk MAUs, here's a piece of info for you. It is literally impossible to create content at the pace the playerbase consumes it. We had people complaining on day three of the expansion that they'd levelled to max, did all the mythic 0s, and then came to the forums crying "is that everything? where's the content?"

[Cosmic Janitor]

Since we know literally nothing about the actual implementation - much like Blizzard themselves - no, I really doesn't feel like that. A weekly cap for one resource does not make it the time gate expansion.

[Lolites]

Reps have been time gated for as long as there have been dailies, which was BC. Why are people acting like it's a new thing that the new evil ActiBlizz has put in deliberately to ruin their fun?

very much this, in one older thread someone was saying "why cant we go back to when we get rep via quest line with story" and i was baffled as there NEVER was a reputation you get to exalted via plot quest line only (maybe tranquilien in ghostlands if i remember correctly, but that rep is hardly of any importance)

[ReVnX]

When you are done using your crystal ball please let me use it for a couple of days

[Lolites]

The main feature of the expansion, Covenants, just looks it will be nothing but time gated rep grinds by doing world quests, and it's going to be extremely important to do, because it will unlock new abilities that are probably very much required to do content like raiding, Mythic+, etc.

Then on top of that, it's more time gated rep grinds to unlock flying through Pathfinder. Probably even more time gated rep grinds to unlock gear and cosmetic rewards.

And then to top it all off, I hope you like being slowed down in your content consumption even more, because Titanforging is here to stay.

It seems like every design decision lately that Blizzard makes has only one goal in mind: slow down our content consumption to increase the MAU numbers by keeping people playing for longer, and make sure they're logging in every day by stopping their progress for the day and telling them to come back tomorrow. When do we get content that is just designed to be rewarding and fun to play through? Will this game ever go back to being just a well designed video game, and not a cash cow for Blizzard to design to milk the most profits from to funnel to other projects?

I don't think it ever will honestly, I know people will still buy and play Shadowlands, they'll say "time gating everything is fine, people shouldn't be able to rush through the content and then complain about having nothing to do", and Blizzard will never stop tacking a time gate on everything or making every design decision based around slowing down our content consumption as much as possible.

I can't stand it anymore, it has completely ruined my enjoyment of this game, and I don't think I can stand to play through another time gated rep grinds: the expansion. If Shadowlands isn't that, I'd be glad to give it a shot, but everything I've seen about it so far pretty much points to exactly that.

you literally just pull idea out of your ass to get mad at something... we know jack shit about shadowlands, so perhaps wait until you actualy see anything before whining about nothing...

[LordVargK]

Reps have been time gated for as long as there have been dailies, which was BC. Why are people acting like it's a new thing that the new evil ActiBlizz has put in deliberately to ruin their fun?

As for your whole conspiracy theory about how they're deliberately slowing us down to milk MAUs, here's a piece of info for you. It is literally impossible to create content at the pace the playerbase consumes it. We had people complaining on day three of the expansion that they'd levelled to max, did all the mythic 0s, and then came to the forums crying "is that everything? where's the content?"

There's a difference though: In BC the gating was implemented to keep players from playing 24/7 like some did in vanilla for health concerns. Now in BfA it's to keep players even subscribed. In BC the reputation grind unlocked patterns, mounts and gear, whereas now you unlock storylines, flying, abilities (essences) and even the access to dungeons (and patterns, gear, mounts, toys, pets, etc). If you view the azerite/artifact grind as a form of reputation, then you see that many of your class abilities are also gated. And this was not the case in BC, where you could entirely ignore the rep grind and still be able to enjoy your endgame content.

But OT: The devs said, that covenant rep doesn't work like the reputation system currently does. Whatever that means. I'm cautiously optimistic, maybe they'll come up with a fun system this time around.

[ghost wrekk]

To answer your question: nope. They also said that each Covenant will have its own campaign (a la the War Campaign and the Suramar Campaign), I can easily see that being the primary driver for the Covenant gameplay and unlocking stuff. There's not really any evidence that points to it being world quest-driven as you suggest. I imagine that one of the biggest features of the expansion is going to be much more than just 4 reputations like it seems you think it will be. It's too early to be sure about anything.

[sfbr]

I mean while we are at it why not cry about how every expac is gated by time, why do we have to wait for the patches? Why did I spend X$ for the game for you to patch content. Blah blah is gated by blah blah. If you don’t like the way a game is made-
STOP
PLAYING
IT
It’s not hard just stop. If you want there to be a problem with a game you’ll find a problem with the game.

[hulkgor]

The main feature of the expansion, Covenants, just looks it will be nothing but time gated rep grinds by doing world quests, and it's going to be extremely important to do, because it will unlock new abilities that are probably very much required to do content like raiding, Mythic+, etc.

Then on top of that, it's more time gated rep grinds to unlock flying through Pathfinder. Probably even more time gated rep grinds to unlock gear and cosmetic rewards.

And then to top it all off, I hope you like being slowed down in your content consumption even more, because Titanforging is here to stay.

It seems like every design decision lately that Blizzard makes has only one goal in mind: slow down our content consumption to increase the MAU numbers by keeping people playing for longer, and make sure they're logging in every day by stopping their progress for the day and telling them to come back tomorrow. When do we get content that is just designed to be rewarding and fun to play through? Will this game ever go back to being just a well designed video game, and not a cash cow for Blizzard to design to milk the most profits from to funnel to other projects?

I don't think it ever will honestly, I know people will still buy and play Shadowlands, they'll say "time gating everything is fine, people shouldn't be able to rush through the content and then complain about having nothing to do", and Blizzard will never stop tacking a time gate on everything or making every design decision based around slowing down our content consumption as much as possible.

I can't stand it anymore, it has completely ruined my enjoyment of this game, and I don't think I can stand to play through another time gated rep grinds: the expansion. If Shadowlands isn't that, I'd be glad to give it a shot, but everything I've seen about it so far pretty much points to exactly that.

Considering you have absolutely no idea about what reps there'll be, how they'll be obtained, or what systems will even be in place in the expansion, since well, nothing was shown yet, this thread is just a big, 'ol pile of crap. POOP.

Good riddance buddy.

At least wait until SOMETHING, ANYTHING, is known.

[cparle87]

very much this, in one older thread someone was saying "why cant we go back to when we get rep via quest line with story" and i was baffled as there NEVER was a reputation you get to exalted via plot quest line only (maybe tranquilien in ghostlands if i remember correctly, but that rep is hardly of any importance)

The 5.1 Horde/Alliance stories in Krasarang was closest. You'd do dailies until you hit a breakpoint, unlock a bit of storyline, rinse and repeat. When you got to revered and got that "double rep" commendation you'd blow your way through the rest of the chain in one day as each storyline part got you enough rep to do the next.

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There's a difference though: In BC the gating was implemented to keep players from playing 24/7 like some did in vanilla for health concerns. Now in BfA it's to keep players even subscribed. In BC the reputation grind unlocked patterns, mounts and gear, whereas now you unlock storylines, flying, abilities (essences) and even the access to dungeons (and patterns, gear, mounts, toys, pets, etc). If you view the azerite/artifact grind as a form of reputation, then you see that many of your class abilities are also gated. And this was not the case in BC, where you could entirely ignore the rep grind and still be able to enjoy your endgame content.

But OT: The devs said, that covenant rep doesn't work like the reputation system currently does. Whatever that means. I'm cautiously optimistic, maybe they'll come up with a fun system this time around.

That bolded part is where you go offtrack and go into tinfoil land. Not that I disagree with the rest of what you said.

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Exactly. They *have to be* timegated, or the people who play 16 hours a day, 7 days a week would have the whole expansion done in a month or less, and be complaining that Blizzard should make them more content, while casuals who actually have lives and/or jobs and/or families wouldn't even be max-level yet.

Basically, if you're complaining about time-gating, you're consuming content faster than it is designed for. Go do something else for a while.

A month? That's way too generous. Like I said there were people on day THREE of the expansion who had gotten to 120, explored everywhere, done all the quests, done all the M0s, and cried for more.

[Teekey]

For sure. There's not going to be an infinite grind ala AP. But you're going to have a chore list daily/weekly to keep up, and if you don't you'll fall behind with no way to catch up.

They'd rather people log in every day for a little bit than log in and grind all day on the weekend.

[Xalea]

The obvious answer to how to play any expansion put out by this Game Director and dev team is to only play in the 2nd year it's out. By then the time gates are mostly out of the way and one can actually play the game. What a novel idea.

[Flower Milk]

The obvious answer to how to play any expansion put out by this Game Director and dev team is to only play in the 2nd year it's out. By then the time gates are mostly out of the way and one can actually play the game. What a novel idea.

Pretty much exactly how I feel at this point honestly. But I'm so sick of the time gating at this point I couldn't even bring myself to do that for BfA. If Shadowlands is the same, I think I just give up forever, no point in ever coming back, even 2 years later.

[Beefhammer]

Reps have been time gated for as long as there have been dailies, which was BC. Why are people acting like it's a new thing that the new evil ActiBlizz has put in deliberately to ruin their fun?

As for your whole conspiracy theory about how they're deliberately slowing us down to milk MAUs, here's a piece of info for you. It is literally impossible to create content at the pace the playerbase consumes it. We had people complaining on day three of the expansion that they'd levelled to max, did all the mythic 0s, and then came to the forums crying "is that everything? where's the content?"

People seem to forget only being able to gain rep in Heroics after revered but you could only run each once a day. Seems like timegating to me back in the glory day before Blizzard became Activision and evil.

[Vynestra]

didnt they say covenants weren't reps? lol

[Drusin]

People seem to forget only being able to gain rep in Heroics after revered but you could only run each once a day. Seems like timegating to me back in the glory day before Blizzard became Activision and evil.

People like to remember when Blizz gave us tabards to wear that gave us rep
People like to remember when flying was bought at the vendor

People like when things were ideal to them, no surprise there.

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I can't stand it anymore, it has completely ruined my enjoyment of this game, and I don't think I can stand to play through another time gated rep grinds: the expansion. If Shadowlands isn't that, I'd be glad to give it a shot, but everything I've seen about it so far pretty much points to exactly that.

It's cool, just wait until the expansion beta gets here Maybe it'll be fine

- - - Updated - - -

(maybe tranquilien in ghostlands if i remember correctly, but that rep is hardly of any importance)

Le gasp!!!!

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A month? That's way too generous. Like I said there were people on day THREE of the expansion who had gotten to 120, explored everywhere, done all the quests, done all the M0s, and cried for more.

Me Except day 2, wtf were they doing on the second day where it took them an entire day to get M0s done? Plebs. I don't cry for more though, progression cap and start the next alt

[Dystemper]

The main feature of the expansion, Covenants, just looks it will be nothing but time gated rep grinds by doing world quests, and it's going to be extremely important to do, because it will unlock new abilities that are probably very much required to do content like raiding, Mythic+, etc.

Then on top of that, it's more time gated rep grinds to unlock flying through Pathfinder. Probably even more time gated rep grinds to unlock gear and cosmetic rewards.

And then to top it all off, I hope you like being slowed down in your content consumption even more, because Titanforging is here to stay.

It seems like every design decision lately that Blizzard makes has only one goal in mind: slow down our content consumption to increase the MAU numbers by keeping people playing for longer, and make sure they're logging in every day by stopping their progress for the day and telling them to come back tomorrow. When do we get content that is just designed to be rewarding and fun to play through? Will this game ever go back to being just a well designed video game, and not a cash cow for Blizzard to design to milk the most profits from to funnel to other projects?

I don't think it ever will honestly, I know people will still buy and play Shadowlands, they'll say "time gating everything is fine, people shouldn't be able to rush through the content and then complain about having nothing to do", and Blizzard will never stop tacking a time gate on everything or making every design decision based around slowing down our content consumption as much as possible.

I can't stand it anymore, it has completely ruined my enjoyment of this game, and I don't think I can stand to play through another time gated rep grinds: the expansion. If Shadowlands isn't that, I'd be glad to give it a shot, but everything I've seen about it so far pretty much points to exactly that.

With out a doubt, this dev team dont know how to do any thing else

[Drusin]

The obvious answer to how to play any expansion put out by this Game Director and dev team is to only play in the 2nd year it's out. By then the time gates are mostly out of the way and one can actually play the game. What a novel idea.

You're actually right lol. If you aren't a competitive player then x.3 or x.4 is an ideal time to play. All (most) of the bugs will be fixed, the gating will be minimized or removed, the catchup gear is there. Maybe x.0.x - x.2.5 is post beta beta and x.3/x.4 is the actual launch lol.