How will 8.3 keep casuals occupied for 9+ months?

[ghost wrekk]

I'll be leveling a Zandalari DK and trying out the horrific visions and the new world content. I also want to get back to farming old raid mounts, so if I find the time, I'll do that.

[CrawlFromThePit]

EDIT: sorry, this was meant for the general discussion forum.

With 7.3 lasting 9 months, it is safe to assume that 8.3 will also be around for at least just as long, especially with such a big raid. So the real question becomes, what is going to motivate the casual playerbase to stick around for 9+ months?

No new outdoor zones, no new dungeons. Just the same WQ's and assaults formula from the last 5 patches. What is Blizzard expecting casuals to do after 9 days, let alone 9 months?

And the worst part is, it doesn't even seem like those cut development resources have made their way into Shadowlands either, which is spreading content just as thinly.

What Blizzard should expect, and what everyone should do, is take a break from the game, go do literally anything else, come back for Shadowlands if you want to, doesn't matter, it's just a game, it doesn't need to be (and should not be) your only hobby.

[Apexis]

I have plenty of alts left to level both through current content as well as allied races who are 22 and 85. If I have time, I will go back and grind mounts, pets, and mogs from the previous content.

[cparle87]

Yeah but he's right. And he doesn't have to be a hater for that. I mean I myself like downtimes and play everything WoW offers, but it's true that in Wrath I had no downtime while in BfA I do. The reason is pretty simple for me: in Wrath our 10m guild was also running heroic, we worked on hc LK until the end of the expansion. In BfA we don't have enough ppl for Mythic so we stop at heroic. Which means we kill it on hc a few times and then we stop. And I'm OK with it. If I wanted more, I'd join a Mythic guild.

In Wrath you had no downtime? In the era when you could do 25 of the 100+ dailies in the game and there you were incapable of doing more? Where there was no repeatable, farmable content like islands and mythic plusses? Where mounts and pets took up bag space so there were limits on how many you could hold, limiting your ability and desire to farm older content? Where there was no transmog so there was even less motivation to farm older content?

You can choose not to do all the things that modern WoW has available. But don't lie and say there's less to do now than there was in the past. Because it's objectively wrong.

[kranur]

There were many expansions that had similar things. 2.4 had a tiny zone and a dungeon that got boring after a few weeks. 3.3 had 3 dungeons that also got boring fast, etc.
It's not like the past the final patch was filled with content that you didn't know what to do first, let's be honest.
Besides, there are still the nazjatar and mechagon metas that I doubt casuals have completed.

[Ifeanychukwu]

No, but WoW Classic will.

And that's if WoW still has any player base after the great Blitzchung betrayal.

People are hardly even talking about that anymore. Nobody really cared, people just like to jump on bandwagons because it's popular and it makes them feel superior for "supporting" a cause that they don't have to make any changes to their daily lives to support. People were already unhappy with Blizzard. The Blitzchung thing was just a convenient way of justifying their "outrage" because players realize they can't do anything to affect the way developers handle their game yet they're all still stuck on playing WoW because it's such an ingrained habit that they can't tear themselves away from the game even though they're miserable while playing.

I say this as someone that's very unhappy with Blizzard and disagrees with almost all of their decisions over the last few years. I'm just tired of all the pretend activists.

[Schmilblick]

it won't and Blizzard is accustomed to lose customers in the end of every expansion.

[splatomat]

Just desub and come back later. That's what I do now.

New Expansion! -> Play for 6-7 months -> Get infuriated by terrible decisions and timegating -> desub -> go play something else -> come back after a year -> hey all the content they tried to spread over an entire year is perfectly suitable for 1-3 months -> desub -> New Expansion!

[Sluvs]

Yeah but he's right. And he doesn't have to be a hater for that. I mean I myself like downtimes and play everything WoW offers, but it's true that in Wrath I had no downtime while in BfA I do. The reason is pretty simple for me: in Wrath our 10m guild was also running heroic, we worked on hc LK until the end of the expansion. In BfA we don't have enough ppl for Mythic so we stop at heroic. Which means we kill it on hc a few times and then we stop. And I'm OK with it. If I wanted more, I'd join a Mythic guild.

- - - Updated - - -



I thought I was the only crazy one farming these now. I actually farmed 1k in the past few weeks and got the pet and now I have to get one more thousand for the pet and I'm done.

- - - Updated - - -



I unlocked Lightforged Draenei a while ago (I think it's been a year at least). She's level 31. You can level at a snail pace in retail if you want as well, it's not something inherent to Classic.

Yeah, but classic has a different approach to leveling, it IS the content. Retail is completely different, not to mention that it takes a LONG while to level in classic. They are not even remotely the same.

[styil]

According to the PTR testers, this patch includes more content than the release of BFA and the Nazjatar/Mechagon patch.

They're staying in Blizzard's good books until they get exclusive Shadowlands Alpha access.

[Doffen]

I have a strong feeling we get 8.3.5 with more allied races and some small updates, just like 8.2.5.

[Elias01]

it won't and Blizzard is accustomed to lose customers in the end of every expansion.

Wasnt case for TBC and Vannila.

- - - Updated - - -

Yeah but he's right. And he doesn't have to be a hater for that. I mean I myself like downtimes and play everything WoW offers, but it's true that in Wrath I had no downtime while in BfA I do. The reason is pretty simple for me: in Wrath our 10m guild was also running heroic, we worked on hc LK until the end of the expansion. In BfA we don't have enough ppl for Mythic so we stop at heroic. Which means we kill it on hc a few times and then we stop. And I'm OK with it. If I wanted more, I'd join a Mythic guild.

- - - Updated - - -



I thought I was the only crazy one farming these now. I actually farmed 1k in the past few weeks and got the pet and now I have to get one more thousand for the pet and I'm done.

- - - Updated - - -



I unlocked Lightforged Draenei a while ago (I think it's been a year at least). She's level 31. You can level at a snail pace in retail if you want as well, it's not something inherent to Classic.

Slow leveling is optional on retail thats why it is not option at all. Only fool would handicap himself. In classic its forced on you and thats how it should be.

[Beefhammer]

Amounth of months betweem patches have nothing to do with content droughts. Content drought starts counting when most people consume all viable major content which never happed in wotlk.

Yeah no. This forum love to have revisionist history about terms. Content drought has always meant the lack of new content from the last main content patch to the pre release patch of the next expansion. So like the 7 months in between 2.4 and 3.0.2 or the 10 months in between 3.3 and 4.0.1, or the 9 months in between 4.3 and 5.04 and so on. It has never meant when most people have consumed all viable major content. I have never seen that argument nor estimated dates as to when that happens. It has always been measured from last major patch to pre release patch.

[Jetstream]

Wasnt case for TBC and Vannila.

Of course it was. The influx of new players was just fast enough that it was a net positive basically all the time. It peaked at 12 million and its slumped since. Because of course it has.

[Brewhan]

I've been unsubbed from BFA for 6.5 months. I want to play it sometimes to unlock flying but I realize it's pointless because I won't even need to fly once shadowlands come sout and does leveling revamp. I won't need to level in BFA zones ever again, the transmog from BFA is ugly AF as well so no point going there. The only set I like are the plate warfront sets which I have and the leather mythic BoD raid set which I'll never get. Seems not much has changed in BFA. I did play the PTR a few days ago to test out new worgen updates that I missed and also played around on mechagnome and vulpera. They were alright I guess. Vulpera looked better to me than reskinned gnome but still its not resubbing for that. 8.3 looks like boring content to me. If I wanted to resub I'd want to play through 8.2 and enjoy 8.3 content but 8.2 looks like boring WQ simulator grinding pearls and rep to unlock flying. 8.3 looks just as boring and I hate the corruption idea that will be removed in 9.0 anyway so whats the point of try harding that.

I still miss wow and want to play it but meh. Nothing to hook me in.

[Canderous1]

i feel like casual players are the bulk of who sticks around at the end of an expansion. raids last us longer, we can usually find stuff to do.

its the upper echelon of mythic talent that becomes a ghost town... until the pre-expansion patch anyway.

[Jeina]

Continually farm transmog and level new alts... same as we do at the end of every expansion.

[Strippling]

We'll be playing classic while we wait for 8.3.5

[MORGATH99]

no matter how much content casuals will still feel like theres nothing for em thats why they are casuals

[Sezh]

They're staying in Blizzard's good books until they get exclusive Shadowlands Alpha access.

Ah, I didn't realize you came here to reinforce your own bias. I'll step away then.