Where WoW went wrong

[Mosotti]

When I saw the title I thought "this must be another retarded thread about how LFG destroyed the "community"". Fuck me, I'm a genius alright, it really is the 1057837935th retarded thread about how LFG destroyed the "community".

What I don't understand is why people still want to be a part of this "piece of shit stupid game with stupid piece of shit community" and not move on? It's not like the real life, where if that sucks, there ya have it, it's the only one for you. Just move on, to other magnificent games, great games, with great communities. Like SWTOR and GW2, for example. Don't drown yourself in nostalgia, don't torture yourself with the flying mounts. JUST DO IT!

[Deleted]

srsly, wow to easy? Has nobody played cata before 4.3?

[mosely]

Bullshit. Design decisions don't undermine a community, the people within it do. There is _nothing_ stopping you from forming the same tight-knit community that whatever nonsense you quoted earlier claims existed in Vanilla (hint: it didn't) except yourself and your unwillingness to go out and find new people to replace those who have moved on for whatever reason (new game, new commitments that don't let them continue playing, et cetera). To claim that all of this imaginary problem is caused by something like LFD/LFR is utter nonsense.

If I have to put in more effort to get the same social experience I was getting before certain game design changes were implemented, then I would call that a pretty clear case of Blizzard undermining the social fabric of their game. What are you even arguing? That WoW has attained perfection and it is therefore invalid to desire improvements?

[celinamuna]

Just the change in design, in Vanilla WoW was a lot more DnD like, with racials, crazy resist systems, grinds for items, multiple elite outdoor zones and etc.
However later on they decided to change the game more into multiplayer one, mostly for balance sake (pvp playing not the last roll in this).

Not sure if it's for better or worse.

And while LFG did create "some" problems for server / community, i still feel like i know a lot of people on servers i play on. Albeit i don't need to spend ~2 weeks time to find a group to do Mara on one of my alts.

[Reyzzz]

That picture is taking it to right direction. If it means more pvp players quit, maybe they can devote more time to develop pve content.

[Arbs]

Good luck being a dick or a ninja in tbc and finding people to group with.

Many people still did it back in the day & after they were blacklisted across the server they transfered as alot of people had only 1 or 2 alts and could move themselves. An than continued the trend on another server.

[Deleted]

Wow didnt became a less good game imo - i think the game is stronger now, for experienced players, than when i started playing at launch. Better graphics. More things to do for the player - and fun gameplay in all branches.

Wow did feel more simpel back then - Blizzards philosophy of "easy to play - hard to master" somewhat failed with the addition of literally hundreds of skills across the classes. Its not difficult to jump in and start a new character - but its impossible to jump in and pvp at max lvl (even if you had a fully geared toon at max lvl, a new player would still need alot of time to figure out abillitys).
And its very difficult even for a experienced player to try a new class. You have to learn a shitloads of abillitys and what they do - if you want to be viable in pvp at max lvl. Even in pve alot of players will be looking up guides, before they can nail their rotations.

Games like LOL have become the goto games, it seems - because it better fullfill Blizzards philosophy.

Wow could prolly gain from the "skillshot" model.
Alot less abillitys - maybe shave the important hotkeys down to ~10. But make the strongest spells much more intuitive and challenging to land. Skillshots, wich you have to aim, and wich can be dodged manually (by strafing out of its path), works fine in FPS games today. The good thing about skillshots is that they are pretty easy to figure out for new players, but demands practice to master in pvp environment.
Hotkey games feels kinda outdated. Having to write macros and configure dozens of hotkeys ( and know what they do and wich abillitys they counter) isnt very plug and play.

[Deleted]

After Wotlk.

My opinion.

[Slummish]

The LFG tool did remove the interpersonal communication (pardon my use of ridiculously modern buzz-wordage) aspect of the game. There's really no reason to chat in public channels any longer. Even in /trade, I might see "LF chanter" or something similar or whatnot every one in a while, but that's about it. Where once I recognized players based on personality or in-game interested because of global banter, now there is simply an army of otherwise silent toons dashing about from AH to bank or sitting idle for hours near a mailbox.

Hell, even the implementation of mailboxes everywhere you look in capital city has separated us. We used to have to all congregate at the same places to conduct business: one mailbox, one bank, one AH. Along with convenience and task de-centralization came the social disconnect.

[YouAreAllWrong]

WoW is not a game for MMO players that actually like to play the MMO. Most people play WoW for the carrot on the stick and most people like to play solo in an MMO environment.

[khalltusk]

One of these threads again.

I played during Vanilla and yes I will admit the server I was on had a good community among the major guilds on both factions. I sat on IRC talking to my alliance counter parts while I was raiding on my horde shaman. Organised things on the green dragons when possible (to avoid huge fights over the damn things) and general chit chat. We used the forums as a form of progress tracking on raid tiers and also a list of the top end crafts men. Armoury and other websites now dominate this feature so makes realm forums a dead area that you only use to put up recruitment pages now.

TBC was the same as Vanilla and part way through wotlk was similar to this but it did start to change towards the end as more and more people checked other sites than your normal realm forums.

People MOAN at the lack of communication in battlegrounds/lfr/lfd I often talk in LFR mainly to the other tank (asking what he wants to do on next boss aka are you doing adds etc) and that normally leads to some chit chat. Other than that I say hi in raids and only really speak to the raid if something needs to be addressed (its normally always galaron and whos kiting or its elegon and im doing a raid warning telling people to get off the platform :P)

If you want to get that community feel back just try communicating to people on your server and making friends that still works you know as for realm forums they seem pretty dead compared to the "old days" a bit of a shame but the game is overall a lot better now than it was then.

[Coldhearth]

Link to the picture referenced http://i.imgur.com/sPLBsw3.jpg?1

That pic is awesome. Most of the people I began playing this game with years and years ago no longer play. But, such is life. People come and people go. I wonder what happened to some of them...

But to the point: I don't think LFD/LFR was a bad addition. If anything, these features enhanced the content and gave the game longevity.

People who are saying that those features "ruined the game" probably didn't have to search 3 hours to find a tank to run a dungeon back in the day. They are just piggybacking on what everyone else is saying. Chances are actually pretty high people who say LFD ruined the game weren't even playing at the time it was introduced.

[Arbs]

That pic is awesome. Most of the people I began playing this game with years and years ago no longer play. But, such is life. People come and people go. I wonder what happened to some of them...

But to the point: I don't think LFD/LFR was a bad addition. If anything, these features enhanced the content and gave the game longevity.

People who are saying that those features "ruined the game" probably didn't have to search 3 hours to find a tank to run a dungeon back in the day. They are just piggybacking on what everyone else is saying. Chances are actually pretty high people who say LFD ruined the game weren't even playing at the time it was introduced.

^ This guy is awesome, true points. The time wasted & the people leaving not being able to fill a group up for Herioc Shattered Halls, removing someone & having to go back to Shattrah for another person was a pain in the arse.

Well I found the link to the reddit Click Here that isn't even on the WoW reddit, but the gaming reddit and this picture has clearly popped many times and clearly has been twisted many times. That alone makes it very fishy.

I also found it was post on the EU & US forums, people posting it so it had made it rounds for sure.

US forum post
EU forum post

[Deleted]

Sorry i dont get it.

Why a pic with some people and another taken when someone is alone relevant to this masked *WoW is dying and i am right abotu it because my opinion is a fact* thread?

[AnotherInternetOpinion]

Looking at all these replies, im glad i dont have to speak to the community
What a fine bunch of specimens.

[Deleted]

Sadly, this is very true. I remember in Wrath I had tons of people around me, people that all started playing in vanilla anf became friends with each other. But now I am completly alone like the paladin in the picture : (. Of course the game is a lot better now than it used to be, but still there is no community nowadays, which makes me a sad panda.

[cFortyfive]

Being afk has become way too rewarding.

[Vardjavi]

Here's a fresh, new topic that's never been covered before.

Haha. I like irony.

[Deleted]

So now you admit people could always be dicks, and trying to pull in "reputation" as the reason. Man Mitt anything you want to flop?

dude ure embarassing urself just stop

'Dicks' used to be dicks yes, but back then before the lfg tools, dicks were blacklisted and shunned and thus the community was better as a whole because everybody knew WHO the 'dicks' were

[Deleted]

it went wrong as soon as it started catering for cunts who wanted epix for just logging on
oh and it went even more wrong when it went cutesy petsy fites cunty kungfu gangnamy stylee bolex...
oh and some of the things mentioned above..