So i got a response from J Allen Brack (which I wasn't expecting)

[Sharpbladez]

If this is real, thank you for taking the time. You wont get a positive response on these forums because the worst of the worst type of WoW players are on here.

Im disappointed with his answers & gives me very little hope things will ever change because as you pointed out, Ion is the problem & if he is not removed, WoW will keep repeating its current pattern.

[elmoe420]

Please save and share the EML so we can verify the DKIM signature is correct.

[GreenJesus]

You had a chance to speak to the CEO of blizzard and you typed up this bullshit? Wow. Im almost sorry for you dude.

[odamienskii]

Are you really surprised that he responded to your pet issues and assumptions with the obvious responses that the community never wants to hear but needs to accept?

Spoiler alert: The game isn't losing subs because it's getting worse or because they're not listening to the community -- it's losing subs because it's over 15 years old and the hardcore install base has grown up and has either burnt out or no longer has the time to play it and the market simply isn't there to continue sustaining those kinds of numbers. 15+ year old games don't maintain subscriber numbers, period. The fact that WoW is still the king of MMOs is a testament to how well-designed and popular it is.

I'm not trying to be a dick here, but you're way off base on your assumptions.

i did wonder this, does my hatred for the game stem from outgrowing it, nothing being new anymore.....but no....its blizzards job to make content new, interesting, lasting.

Spoonfeeding the entire community is not the answer infact it makes everything worse because there is nothing to work towards quicker and the things you are working towards are timegated anyway, so its just a matter of time....for everyone...no difficulty, no challenge. the challenge comes in the competitive areas......which is then restricted to the chosen classes/specs which are far overtuned compared to others....which excludes another large portion of players.

Il tell you why i know i didnt outgrow the game..

taughast was fun.....untill they nerfed it.
i did layer 8 on my resto druid as soon as it opened, while everyone was writing in general about how impossible it was, another resto druid in my guild saying "its impossible"......no its not, just never pull 2 elites at the same time, if you have to then just make sure one is rooted if its mellee or cycloned if its a caster.
"oh i never thought of that, thats genius".......is it? using your toolkit is genius is it?

visions was fun....untill you maxed level and it became easy and a grind. (disregarding the whole corruption talk, talking about the actual content)

I have said it before and il say it again, the problem isnt the game being old and the old hardcore players outgrowing it, the problem is the game has no meaningful content for the best players unless those players just happen to love m+ and just happen to play an overtuned class.

I put all the effort in early expansion that i do in every expansion and i ran out of things to do in 3 days, that includes leveling, gearing and running m0. 180 ilvl in 4days, the next week....capped, run m0 and thats it nothing to do, the week after that capped at +7 i think it was.

first 3 weeks of the expac there was NOTHING to do for hardcore players, in the first 2 weeks of m+ before overpowered classes came into play i was world 54 resto druid pugging, untill the community realised that shaman and pala were overpowered in comparison and my invites to good parties abruptly stopped to be replaced with hours of sitting getting declined to replies "need shaman" "need pala".....on a top 100 world rdruid.

This expac i had 2 weeks of enjoyment

3 weeks of grind > 2 weeks of enjoyment > 5months of absolutely dispising the game.

The issue isnt the players outgrowing, its blizzard literally pushing them out the door by not giving them any content to do above the level of casuals.

I remember when i came back and i made a +18 key......barely any signs....on horde. i was astonished at how few players there were, not even bads, as a test i put the key to 14

sign sign sign sign sign sign sign sign sign literally hundreds of signs instantly a full lobby. all of the bad players buffing there weekly spoonfeed.

embarrassing really. so yeah, the game is thriving at the casual level, anything above....really really struggling.

This might be ok i hear you say? what happens when the casual moves up the skill ladder, or moves up the dedication ladder and wants to step into the higher echalons?....there is nothing there because all the good players left.

[Uurdz]

Are you really surprised that he responded to your pet issues and assumptions with the obvious responses that the community never wants to hear but needs to accept?

Spoiler alert: The game isn't losing subs because it's getting worse or because they're not listening to the community -- it's losing subs because it's over 15 years old and the hardcore install base has grown up and has either burnt out or no longer has the time to play it and the market simply isn't there to continue sustaining those kinds of numbers. 15+ year old games don't maintain subscriber numbers, period. The fact that WoW is still the king of MMOs is a testament to how well-designed and popular it is.

I'm not trying to be a dick here, but you're way off base on your assumptions.

This. Actually shocked that Brack responded. WoW is definitely not their future - it's on the way out as a genre.
If games like AoC come out and are half decent it's going to be incredibly hard for WoW to compete.

True is that the age of MMO-RPGs has come to an end. People will still play it, but it's likely going to replicate the path of the RTS genre.

[Samuraijake]

i went to blizzcon several times and took selfies with J allen brack... shook hands with ion.. etc.

forgot to make an MMO forum post about it though... my bad.

[qwerty123456]

I once watched 6 hours of a baby chimp trying to revive its dead mother and this has got to be the saddest thing I have ever seen in my life.

[arkanon]

This. Actually shocked that Brack responded. WoW is definitely not their future - it's on the way out as a genre.
If games like AoC come out and are half decent it's going to be incredibly hard for WoW to compete.

True is that the age of MMO-RPGs has come to an end. People will still play it, but it's likely going to replicate the path of the RTS genre.

What is AoC?

[Clozer]

Ion is probably the best thing that has ever happened to WoW. He was a hardcore raider for years. Always driven by character progression and improvement. He got the old mmo spirit while also being modern enough to allow changes. He wants the game he loves to be amazing, that's the most important part. He is not disconnected from the player base, since he still actively plays - although I can imagine his job is quite demanding.

Also if you believe that he is responsible for all decisions made in WoW - I feel truly bad for you. Also, what is wrong with WoW? Can you make up your own opinion instead of what was being said in those clickbait videos from those drama content creators? PS: You get more clicks from shitting on the game, than from praising it.

[Stickiler]

What is AoC?

Ashes of Creation, it's ANOTHER attempt at that whole "The world is totally alive and reacting to everything players do guys" MMO.

[Nite92]

And Ion himself was just a WoW addict at some point, just like how many of the original devs were addicted gamers with zero dev experience before joining blizzard like Jeff Kaplan who joined Blizzard with nothing more than a crazy addiction to EQ and a knack for writing (not trying to devalue him in general, just saying this in response to Allen).

Ye, and what is the percentage that goes from playing games to making games?

- - - Updated - - -

Did... Did you just email a man's boss to get him removed from his position because you don't like the game, and used some Youtube influencers as "proof" of his lack of ability?

Dude, no.

It is pretty weird to deman Ion fired. But I think that many systems in past expacs were fundamentally flawed, and became great systems, after the beta suggestions of said content creators were implemented.

[Zmagoslav]

This. Actually shocked that Brack responded. WoW is definitely not their future - it's on the way out as a genre.
If games like AoC come out and are half decent it's going to be incredibly hard for WoW to compete.

True is that the age of MMO-RPGs has come to an end. People will still play it, but it's likely going to replicate the path of the RTS genre.

Looking at the state of AoC i'm gonna say WoW is, despite how ran into the ground it currently is, fairly safe.

I agree with you however; the MMO genre will, slowly but surely, become a fringe genre, much like RTS did...
and, mainly due to how hard developing a half-decent MMO is, WoW is pretty much synonimous with the genre itself.

[Kallisto]

Oh come on Bellular is the king of clickbait and it’s mostly negative clickbait

Hell in a matter of weeks he made both a "game is too hard." and "game is too easy." comment with his friend. Which is it as these are polar opposites that can't exist in the same space.

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Ashes of Creation, it's ANOTHER attempt at that whole "The world is totally alive and reacting to everything players do guys" MMO.

Yeah I can't see players being happy trying to build something, having to log to sleep/work/whatever then logging back on finding it all to be for nothing because someone else thought it would be funny to mess with.

[Nerph-]

If this is real, thank you for taking the time. You wont get a positive response on these forums because the worst of the worst type of WoW players are on here.

Im disappointed with his answers & gives me very little hope things will ever change because as you pointed out, Ion is the problem & if he is not removed, WoW will keep repeating its current pattern.

You forgot to add /s at the end.





or were you actually being serious?

[TENTACLELUVR]

You sent an email like that? You sent it every day? That's spamming and it's weird. Worse yet, you cited Asmongold, Bellular, and someone else. They are youtubers who offer meaningless analysis meant to be consumed by disaffected players so they can feel validated about their opinions. Pulling the "financial incentive" card as corporate higher-up is cringe, but let's be honest here, this isn't real. Most likely OP fabricated a whole story in which he gets owned by J. Allen Brack. Epic bread nonetheless

[arkanon]

Ashes of Creation, it's ANOTHER attempt at that whole "The world is totally alive and reacting to everything players do guys" MMO.

Right, i have actually watched most of the updates for that - the world looks ok, i dont like a LOT about it though, and tbh, the combat looks absolutely terrible. Hopefully that improves in time, as the animations and visuals have, but at this stage it looks set to flop pretty hard, which is a shame.

[Revamp Man]

i thought brack left

[Azadina]

What. The. Hell.

Are you seriously harassing the dude daily, with asinine questions, and citing youtubers?

Give it a rest. Seriously.

Now now, he says he's being reasonable here. So clearly it must be so!

[Lolites]

I did use the statistic that there has been massive player loss (30% over 3 years specifically) but that's using evidence

im sorry, did i miss something? bcs we have no evidence at all about sub numbers since wod, and thats more than 3years ago...

[Daymanmb]

nostalgia is a powerful drug,also 90%+left in the first week

And less than a million people play retail... we can both make up numbers if we want, but it doesnt accomplish anything. The nostalgia part you have right, though. WoW fans long for a time when the game was fun, which gets back to my main point, that retail WoW isnt fun anymore and the sub number losses are a direct result of that.