Originally Posted by
HMG
Casuals did not ruin WoW. It is as fun as it ever was. Although, they are a factor in the game's subscription loss. In my opinion, the added LFR feature was the mistake that caused a great chain reaction. Don't get me wrong. I couldn't care less if some other dude got epics from a boss I am struggling to get a kill on, without him even being in a guild. Here is the way I see it, tho: LFR is an option and noone is forced to do it. I fully agree with that, but it is a badly executed option. Blizzard is totally right in the idea to focus on casual players, but not giving them a progression path and simply red-carpeting the way to the current end boss is not the way to go. It removes the mystery and fun of fighting a new boss. Now, you may ask, why is this a problem for someone who doesn't do LFR. The answer is that it is not, but it is one for their guild.
Let me tell you a short story:
Back in ICC I was a casual type of player. I had 3 main character. They were fully badge-geared, doing VoA and organizing ICC pugs every week. But, doing that for an extended period of time did not provide the satisfaction mainly because other people I was around got better gear (thus out-healing me) and most importantly- telling me how fun X boss is. This gave me the incentive to try and find a good raiding guild. I did so and managed to down LK. That is not the important part tho. Having met a bunch of friends and being introduced to team-play made the game more fun. 2 expansions later I can say that raiding for me has turned 180-degree from what I perceived it to be back then. Getting gear and raiding for the sake of out-healing someone is not what I am looking for right now. I don't care about those things. I'd gladly give the shoulders I've won to someone else if he says that he needs them. I play to have fun and progress with people I consider friends. The moral of the story- if the game hadn't pushed me to give more serious raiding a try, I'd have remained as casual as I can be and not look for a way to better myself and, eventually, I would have left the game entirely.
Now, let's return to LFR. It does bring an option for casual players to do and in theory should bring more people into the raiding environment. This is not happening in the current state of the game. Its goal is the right one, but the way it is executed is not. It gives an option to experience end-game content while in a single-player environment. Multiplayer aspects are not present in this system. You don't need to communicate. You don't need to prepare. You are a robot. You join, heal/dps/tank and leave. It not only gives you the impression that you have beaten the end-game boss but also gives you the ability to say "That guy only beat me on dps because he has that normal-level axe. Therefore I am top on the damage meters among people with my level of raiding." And you leave the raid with the feeling of accomplishment. And what happens when you do this for 2-3 months straight? You have diminished the incentive to graduate to normal because you have already seen the fights. You might consider them great but having seen them 5-10 times already diminishes the desire to do them on normal. Not saying that casuals don't want to progress to normal. They do, but they already beat the bosses in LFR and might think that their time is better spent out of the game than to look for a raiding guild.
In the end you feel that you are done with the game without even experiencing the multiplayer aspect of it. You have no desire to play with other people. You don't want to try the harder part of the game. You don't need to acquire better skills to do so. This causes the chain reaction. I know that this is not the case with all of the LFR community, so to speak. But even if 10% of them feel this way it severely lowers the amount of people capable of normal raiding. This, in turn, lowers the amount of potential recruits. Normal guilds suffer from this and there are many of them who just disband. People leave because they cannot raid with their guilds. HC guilds suffer as well in the same line of logic. Thus the subscription losses occur.
LFR was a mistake but removing it now would be an even greater one. An idea I think would work is to give LFR normal gear drops and limit it to the previous raiding tear before the current one. Leave flex raiding as the new entry level current raiding. This way LFR would be used for what it is used now- introduction to raiding and gearing up. In the process you will get enough gear to do the new flex raid with a guild and eventually graduate to normal. There is still the feeling of mystery after out-progressing LFR.
Of course, this idea has flaws of its own, like what to do with the first and last patches of an expansion, but I believe there are people who have the responsibility and experience to think of a better system.
P.S.: Keep in mind that "casual" is a relative term. I use it to address players who only do LFR.
P.S.2: LFR raiders, don't get hostile. I know that you want to experience the content as well, even if you don't have the time to commit to the game. Fact is, there are a lot of casuals/new-comers who have the time but don't have a desire to graduate to normals, just because single-player and not having to commit to a guild is what they like. They need a push for the greater good of the game (and themselves, essentially). I really hope flex raiding does the job.
Tl;dr: In my opinion, LFR should not give the sense of accomplishment. It should tease.