Influencers got their will, Bliz listened to their feedback, yet noone plays game

[MiiiMiii]

For years influencers have complained about all the "main stream" issues about the game. Like "REMOVE BORROWED POWERS" and "REMOVE MANDATORY CONTENT".

Just to be specific, I am talking about people in this sphere:
- Asmongold
- Preachgaming
- Belluar
- T&E

Just to be clear, those influencers are just echoing how they see their communities talk, so it's more of a community thing. I am not trying to hate on the influencers.

Influencers have made video after video complaining about the same things and tunnelvisioned on certain things like

- no more borrowed power
- no more required content that force you to log in every day
- no more infinite AP grinds
- no more Sylvanas
- more focus on permanent systems like
* talent system
* battlepass system
* crafting system
* flying system
- more communication about the future patches and plans

We all know the list they dreamed of is kinda accomplished in Dragonflight.

Influencers no longer have anything specific to complain about. Great, I guess the game is so fun now?

Because to me it seems they all have never played the game as little as they do in this expansion.

And the influencers have just conveniently moved on to other games, while simutatiously have nothing to complain about. "I'm just not that into the game right now".

I seriously worry that Blizzard took the influencers feedback way too seriously to heart, but the reality is that following them does not make a game that people want to play.

What do you think?

[ReVnX]

It's okay to not feel forced to play WoW non-stop.

[MiiiMiii]

I think the issue is not that people don't feel "forced to play" it's more that they DONT "feel like playing and having fun in" the game.

[Makorus]

It's okay to not feel forced to play WoW non-stop.

That's the biggest issue with the WoW community.

They feel like they are obligated to stay subscribed after being done with a patch or a season, and then bitch like crazy.

Just because there's a system that forces you do something every single day doesn't mean that the game is better. Just because more people are playing because they feel like they have to doesn't mean the game is better.

[kranur]

The game is actually doing better now, yes. Still has some bullshits but it's great to be able to do whatever you like doing instead of being forced into shit if you want all the performance you can get out of your char(s) (at any level of play).
And there's nothing wrong with not being forced into daily chores or fall behind.
Also, it's not that they took influencers to heart, they took the drop in subs to heart.

[Ealyssa]

The game is actually great currently better than in years.
The problem isn’t garbage system missing, it’s the lack of actual content. We need dungeons/raids/quests.

The grind of the same old 8 dungeons days in days out is just boring. And it’s not by giving garbage AP at the end that it would fill any different (it would be worse, because not only would the grind be the same but you would actually fall behind if not running the hamster wheel non stop)

8 dungeons per season and 10ish bosses is lazy ass content. We pay ~15$ every month, that’s more than microsoft game pass FFS !!! Players just expect more in 2023, and blizzard should definitely release more content.

And don’t get me wrong, I love this game, playing since vanilla release and not stoping any time soon. But while DF is mechanicaly good (if not great) and for the first time since for ever it looks like Blizzard is actually trying (not always good, but we had a lot of balancing even a spec rework before even season 2). But the game just feels a little too small for everything offered outside wow (I didn’t log for the last 3 weeks, playing a lot of other great game). I love the feeling of not fallong behind while not playing tho. I just wish we had more to do to keep me playing.

[Calfredd]

What do you think?

That your post history shows off that you may or may not have issues and I don't mean WoW-related ones.

[Makorus]

The game is actually great currently better than in years.
The problem isn’t garbage system missing, it’s the lack of actual content. We need dungeons/raids/quests.

The grind of the same old 8 dungeons days in days out is just boring. And it’s not by giving garbage AP at the end that it would fill any different (it would be worse, because not only would the grind be the same but you would actually fall behind if not running the hamster wheel non stop)

8 dungeons per season and 10ish bosses is lazy ass content. We pay ~15$ every month, that’s more than microsoft game pass FFS !!! Players just expect more in 2023, and blizzard should definitely release more content.

No one forces you to pay $15 a month if you don't enjoy the content anymore. Why would Blizzard release more content if you are actively paying them for, in your opinion, not enough content.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I don't raid or do dungeons over and over. MoP kept me satisfied throughout the 14 month patch drought because of the sheer amount of things to do. There were 7 zone questlines and they were good, several extensive reputation storylines which were also good, the legendary questline, Timeless Isle was excellently designed (unsurpassed to this day), the celestial tournament, etc. There were also new PvP battlegrounds being added. The RP scene was also thriving and there were huge events being hosted out in the world and PvP wars. Later expansions didn't have anywhere near as much fun stuff to do that interested me. Also the RP scene (at least on my server) is dead-ish compared to the MoP days. No huge PvP campaigns anymore.

[Khaza-R]

Pretty easy to dismiss the premise of this thread by the fact DF had lower initial sales figures than previous expansions. So a lack of borrowed power or systems is very unlikely to blame when a non-insignificant number of players wouldn't even give the expansion a try in the first place.

If there are less people overall in DF, I would say a combination of the following is to blame and NOT a lack of borrowed power :

1. People were burnt by Shadowlands and unwilling to give the game another try

2. Changes were not significant enough to warrant the interest in prospective returning players

3. Theme or tone of expansion doesn't resonate with as many players as previous expansion

4. People are financially impacted by the economy or simply to choose to invest their time in other things

[klaps_05]

WoW's state in shadowlands was simply a low hanging fruit everyone took. If you ever thought those people cared about the game's status and not about just making money off videos, I got some bridges to sell you in Sahara.

[Eazy]

The less I have to play to actually be competitive and the more the actually skill matters the better.

Having to grind some things to be able to kill the bosses, even though having the required skill, isn't fun at all.

[Lochton]

We finally have more freedom in the game, people aren't forced to play or do anything mandatory unless demanded by the same people they play with. I see plenty of people having fun now, more than SL and BFA.

[BB8]

For years influencers have complained about all the "main stream" issues about the game. Like "REMOVE BORROWED POWERS" and "REMOVE MANDATORY CONTENT".

Just to be specific, I am talking about people in this sphere:
- Asmongold
- Preachgaming
- Belluar
- T&E

Just to be clear, those influencers are just echoing how they see their communities talk, so it's more of a community thing. I am not trying to hate on the influencers.

Influencers have made video after video complaining about the same things and tunnelvisioned on certain things like

- no more borrowed power
- no more required content that force you to log in every day
- no more infinite AP grinds
- no more Sylvanas
- more focus on permanent systems like
* talent system
* battlepass system
* crafting system
* flying system
- more communication about the future patches and plans

We all know the list they dreamed of is kinda accomplished in Dragonflight.

Influencers no longer have anything specific to complain about. Great, I guess the game is so fun now?

Because to me it seems they all have never played the game as little as they do in this expansion.

And the influencers have just conveniently moved on to other games, while simutatiously have nothing to complain about. "I'm just not that into the game right now".

I seriously worry that Blizzard took the influencers feedback way too seriously to heart, but the reality is that following them does not make a game that people want to play.

What do you think?

I have never and will never be influenced by an influencer. Really I dont care. I do not even know who they are.
For me the game is still nice and like changes every xpansion. Some features removed is sometimes sad, but its a game. We get over it.

[neescher]

For years influencers have complained about all the "main stream" issues about the game. Like "REMOVE BORROWED POWERS" and "REMOVE MANDATORY CONTENT".

Just to be specific, I am talking about people in this sphere:
- Asmongold
- Preachgaming
- Belluar
- T&E

Just to be clear, those influencers are just echoing how they see their communities talk, so it's more of a community thing. I am not trying to hate on the influencers.

Influencers have made video after video complaining about the same things and tunnelvisioned on certain things like

- no more borrowed power
- no more required content that force you to log in every day
- no more infinite AP grinds
- no more Sylvanas
- more focus on permanent systems like
* talent system
* battlepass system
* crafting system
* flying system
- more communication about the future patches and plans

We all know the list they dreamed of is kinda accomplished in Dragonflight.

Influencers no longer have anything specific to complain about. Great, I guess the game is so fun now?

Because to me it seems they all have never played the game as little as they do in this expansion.

And the influencers have just conveniently moved on to other games, while simutatiously have nothing to complain about. "I'm just not that into the game right now".

I seriously worry that Blizzard took the influencers feedback way too seriously to heart, but the reality is that following them does not make a game that people want to play.

What do you think?

What do you mean? I don't care what "those influencers" say, but the game is better than it has been in years. Dragonflight is the best expansion in years, even if 10.0.7 has been a step back.

Why do you care so much if influencers play the game? I know I certainly enjoy the game much more, now that I don't have to endlessly grind reputation/renown, or farm dumb quests in new zones and fly around for hours farming rares.

Do you actually think the game is worse now than it was in Shadowlands? In an expansion where we had locked covenants, conduit energy, endless currency farm in Korthia and ZM, timegating content for months, mandatory Torghast every week, bad and expensive legendary system, mission tables, aoe caps, shards of domination, extreme alt and offspec unfriendliness, and seasons lasting for 7+ months with next to no new content (and no information on what or when will be the next patch).

Many of these issues were brought up for years by the community (not just "influencers" btw), and they finally listened to a lot of it. And whether some influencer still plays the game or not, I really don't give a shit. If I have fun, I play the game, and right now, for me subjectively, I'm having more fun in DF than I had in a long time, mostly because they listened to feedback this time and got rid of bullshit systems.

[VMSmith]

It's a short hop from "Cool! I don't have to log in!" to "Why do I even want to log in?"

[pahbi]

I'm shocked that Blizz actually listened.

How many times have players given feedback on the PTR or other testing servers, only to see absolutely nothing change.

[Phunkle]

Apart from Preach, aren't all of the ones you listed still actively playing the game?

[Malkiah]

We finally have more freedom in the game, people aren't forced to play or do anything mandatory unless demanded by the same people they play with. I see plenty of people having fun now, more than SL and BFA.

it's an interesting dichotomy, showing two vastly different styles of player.
i would suspect based on what you typed here that you and the 'people you see having fun' are all the sorts of people who really enjoy the content drought period at the end of an expansion, because that is effectively where the state of the game is right now - there's a handful of catchup activities you could grind for a few weeks if you've not played the game before, but once you're at the upper end of content there's absolutely fuck-all to do.

i suspect every person praising DF is like the youtubers the OP mentioned: people who used to play WoW a lot and loved it when WoW had content, and then they got old and shit out a few baskets of mewling crotch fruit and now that don't play WoW a lot, but they still want to *feel* like they did when they played WoW a lot, so they want there to be less WoW.
they are diminished as people because of their poor life choices, and so they want the game to be diminished to match them.
this seems to hold true of every single person who has expressed any sort of positive opinion on DF so far.

in contrast, people who enjoy playing WoW regularly are at their lowest point - the people i associated with mostly are like me, people for whom WoW is a primary leisure activity and so play it quite a bit.
5-6 months into SL or BFA or legion i was happily playing WoW for hours every single day, having ample 'stuff' to do between my assorted alts to fill my free hours in the day playing a game i love doing 'stuff' that felt like it mattered even when it was something small.
now, i have about 45 minutes of inconsequential chores to do every tuesday to max out profession knowledge, and then i don't play for the rest of the week (other than the couple of hours it takes for me to run an M+ dungeon on each alt) and i'm bored and listless trying to find something to occupy myself with.

anyways TL;DR for the livejournal post... WoW had been catering to people who enjoyed playing WoW regularly, and now it caters to people who don't like playing WoW and only want to do so infrequently.
i personally think that's worse, but i'm biased because my capacity to enjoy WoW has been substantially diminished this expansion.
but, i also get that my discontent comes at the new found happiness of others so to an extent i can empathize that hey now you get the version of the game you enjoy and good for you.
but philosophically i think i have a better case for the game functioning the way i prefer it over the way you do, though certainly your way requires less effort so it makes sense the devs would glom onto that.

[enigma77]

It's okay to not feel forced to play WoW non-stop.

Bro, after 2 months the game pve wise stops. You can either play alts, or quit.

That's simply bad design, as long as patches last longer than 2 months.