Time to take matters into our hands

[Sonqopura]

So BFA has been out for 2 months now, and we have all tasted one way or another how bad it actually is. Of course I am not alone here, as the majority of the community (I would say roughly 70-80%) is disappointed to say the least with BFA. The reasons are numerous, and to be completely honest I actually think that at this point, the cons outweigh the pros and by a good margin, in terms of playing WoW overall.

I will not be thoroughly explaining why I think BFA is not the expansion that the community wanted. Many players have similarly raised their concerns or disappointment with valid arguments and through proper channels (I will just ignore all the salty people and their comments that frequent nowadays in the forums, as they do more harm than good). Whether in official forums, in actual articles, or by other means, the community has time and time again united, in order to provide feedback to the development and design team, with hopes that their efforts will not go in vain.

Let's put this into context. As a shaman player, who considers himself to be an end-game player (meaning pushing very high keys at least in Legion early seasons, and clearing mythic raids with relatively good world rankings), I have watched the development lifecycle of shamans from Legion to BFA and let's just say that it felt like we were homeless, begging for change on the street and the dev team, even though it was just us and them on the road, walked back and front several times while displaying how rich they are. All the issues that came up during these 2 months of live, were asked from the respective spec communities (e.g. stormearthandlava or ancestralguidance) and somehow here we are, a broken class trying to pick up little pieces and calling it food. I have learned the hard way that stressing over it and raging does not benefit anyone, so the past few years I sat back and watched gruesome things happen to the game, while I tried to enjoy it as much as I can.

I did not bring up the shaman issue to focus on that, it was just a very recent and easy to use example of ignorance and bad design/development/communication on behalf of the game developers. My point is that what happened to one class, has happened to many classes over the years, and will continue to happen in the coming years. Same thing applies to several aspects of the game. M+, an exciting end-game content was introduced in legion and was only made worse in BFA (takes a lot of skill to do that). Artifact power grind and tier sets were revamped into more grind for gear and artifact power through the worst system ever made the one and only Azerite gear. Unattractive new content added (hello dear Island Expeditions and Warfronts). Overall I think the only good aspects of the game came from previous expansions, and all the new exciting stuff we were supposed to have just isn't there.

The result is a vicious cycle of Q&A's where devs try to address or at least answer the numerous complaints that the community has, and they are spoon feeding us tiny bits of new content updates or class balances or w/e to keep us juuuuust a little bit curious to continue playing. At this point I am not sure if it is actually even that or just the habit of playing all these years. I am not gonna lie, I have said to myself numerous times over the years that I would stop playing, but for some reason I always kept going, mindlessly doing my WQ's, my dungeons and my raids, like a programmed robot or something. It's the time of the year again where its becoming hard to balance everything (i.e. work, real-life, wow) and I am considering once again stopping for good. But to be frank, what might just push me over the edge this time is the aforementioned negligence and continued disregard for the player-base which is getting worse and worse as wow becomes more and more of a product rather than a game for the developers and the consumers. We are at a point where it's more like "this is our game, we decide what to do with it so if you don't like it piece off". On one hand it is indeed their game but on the other hand there is no game if there are no players to play it. So my whole post comes down to this:

Unsubscribe for 1 month (or for as long as it takes to get our message across)

Some will laugh, others will continue on to the next post, others will for some reason call me a noob or a crybaby or whatever. But some will actually let it sink in and realize that it just might be a good idea. Cause the way I see it, we either remain in the current state of meaningless back and forth communication and then devs having their way, or we force their hand. At the end of the day we dictate how long this game goes on for, and even 1 month without a good portion of its current player base is enough to make them listen. If money is their only concern, make them work for it. We are also at fault here for sticking to the game so many years without getting value for our money but this has to stop at some point.

TL;DR I am interested in seeing how many people are tired of paying for a broken game, and how many are actually willing to do something about it.

P.S. I have tried to keep the post civil, without harsh language so I would appreciate it if you did the same.

[Deleted]

Not subscribing is literally the only way to bring about immediate change.

But unfortunately most people who are unhappy with wow are still not capable of doing this.

[Flarelaine]

Unsubscribe for 1 month (or for as long as it takes to get our message across)

Some will laugh, others will continue on to the next post, others will for some reason call me a noob or a crybaby or whatever. But some will actually let it sink in and realize that it just might be a good idea. Cause the way I see it, we either remain in the current state of meaningless back and forth communication and then devs having their way, or we force their hand. At the end of the day we dictate how long this game goes on for, and even 1 month without a good portion of its current player base is enough to make them listen. If money is their only concern, make them work for it. We are also at fault here for sticking to the game so many years without getting value for our money but this has to stop at some point.

TL;DR I am interested in seeing how many people are tired of paying for a broken game, and how many are actually willing to do something about it.

Oh, another call to unsubscribe. Must be that time of the week.

I'll keep playing. And I'll keep paying. The game does not strike me as broken.

[Tinytalon]

Don't tell me what to do >:V

[maccajoe]

Make your own game and enjoy it or unsubscribe nothing fancy to see here.

[Sethus]

Unite internet experts, let us fix the world!

[Surreality]

(I would say roughly 70-80%)

Do you have a source for this? Because we already know for a fact that that vast majority of WoW players do not comment on any forums anywhere, let alone here. So I think what you meant to say is "70-80% of the forum posting community". Which is substantially less than the non-posting community. Realistically, as a guess, I would say maybe 3-4% of the whole of the WoW community think the game is "bad". Personally, I am not one of those people. I play every day. I have fun. I never run out of things to do. That being said, I don't raid because I already have a full time job. I don't do much PvP because dealing with a constant flow of idiocy isn't my idea of fun. I'll bust out an occasional string of mythic+ with my guild mates if they need a healer to run with, but that's about it.

[Evilfish]

It's not that hard. If you are miserable playing this game then stop paying the sub. Be done with WoW or come back later, you decide, but trying to start a riot and get others to follow you is petty and spiteful.

[HordeFanboy]

Retail wow is garbage

[Sonqopura]

Do you have a source for this? Because we already know for a fact that that vast majority of WoW players do not comment on any forums anywhere, let alone here. So I think what you meant to say is "70-80% of the forum posting community". Which is substantially less than the non-posting community. Realistically, as a guess, I would say maybe 3-4% of the whole of the WoW community think the game is "bad". Personally, I am not one of those people. I play every day. I have fun. I never run out of things to do. That being said, I don't raid because I already have a full time job. I don't do much PvP because dealing with a constant flow of idiocy isn't my idea of fun. I'll bust out an occasional string of mythic+ with my guild mates if they need a healer to run with, but that's about it.

Firstly, no I do not have a source for this, and yeah the posting community is definitely a better term. As far as the 3-4% of the whole wow community that you mention I personally think that it is a much much higher number based on personal experiences and people I have played with over the years who also find certain aspects of the game plainly dull or badly implemented. I am glad that you enjoy the game everyday, but truthfully this post is mostly targeted towards players who do play for the end-game or at least a part of it, since that is where the design and balance flaws come into play. In any case thank you for your reply

[Jyggalag]

I missed the first few weeks of launch because reasons. First expansion since WotLK where I wasn't overly bothered, all others I participated in the leveling race and in more recent expacs (Legion/WoD/MoP) was looking forward to stomping through content with a competent guild and chasing higher and higher world ranks (best being 36 in WoD). I mained a Shaman in MoP and WoD and loved it, re-rolling to Balance in Legion.

Now in BFA, being several weeks behind the curve, I've poured my energy into the few nights I have free each week (which used to be enough to clear all mythic cutting edge content in at least a top 200 setting), into WQs and other, garbage, repetitive, faceroll solo content, that I don't care for, in an attempt to get the necessary rep and Azerite power needed to allow me to queue for anything above a +3 mythic key, in a seemingly vain attempt to apply to a semi decent raiding guild.

I find myself wanting to reroll to a FotM class/spec as I'm getting passed up on most keys awarding gear at my level. Tried all of the pure DPS ranged classes and seriously have difficulty identifying with any of them. They're just not that fun. My 1st mistake was assuming that there is in any way shape or form a decent catchup mechanic in place for Azerite or reputation. In WoD, I re-joined after a short break in mid-HFC (Gorefiend progress). This was a world top 20 2 night/week raiding guild in need of an arms warrior. They brought me in, fed me gear, and I became instrumental to their Gorefiend kill within 1-2 resets (ghost duty) and went on to clear the tier with them. In BFA this doesn't seem remotely possible. I feel like I'm stuck on that treadmill of solo/LFD play until I am useful to any guild from the moment I join a raid. If I want to re-roll to something more appealing to groups, I set myself back weeks of progress locked behind RNG on top of RNG, and the barrier for entry in M+ just gets higher and higher.

My gf has just recently taken an interest in WoW and we're enjoying leveling together on her first ever character, so I'm not ready to unsub just yet. I'm taking the time to level each class to 120 and writing off this tier, praying that the next patch brings some well needed changes if this game is to appeal to me long term going forward.

[Justpassing]

If I were you I'd make bomb threats to Blizzard HQ and Ion's house! What can go wrong?

[Speedlance]

I honestly don't give enough of a shit to do such a thing, when I get bored I simply quit for a while. Atm I'm having fun doing mount runs and some raids here n there. Let it go buddy, if you're bored, quit.

[Sonqopura]

It's not that hard. If you are miserable playing this game then stop paying the sub. Be done with WoW or come back later, you decide, but trying to start a riot and get others to follow you is petty and spiteful.

What you call petty and spiteful is what I call an effort to fix core issues in the game we all enjoyed for so many years, or at least try to. Had you actually understood the context of my post you would not be saying that I wrote it out of spite. It is simply a drastic measure to something that has been ravaging the game for a while now. I could unsub today, tomorrow or a month later and come back whenever I felt like it. But the truth is that if something does not happen there won't be a game to come back to.

[DarkAmbient]

The only thing you can do is stop giving them your money and stop playing the game. Log out, cancel your sub, and don't log in again, ever, for any reason. Not until a substantial change occurs that gives you a reason to think you might enjoy the game again.

I personally feel very disillusioned with Blizzard in relation to WoW. Overpriced character services, shitty class design, shitty talent trees, shitty gear acquisition, shitty time-wasting game mechanics, I could go on. It feels like they just don't give a fuck anymore. Consequently I'm unsubbed and won't be giving them a penny until they fix the game, if that ever happens.

Just deprive them of your time and money, it's the only thing they care about.

[Sonqopura]

The only thing you can do is stop giving them your money and stop playing the game. Log out, cancel your sub, and don't log in again, ever, for any reason. Not until a substantial change occurs that gives you a reason to think you might enjoy the game again.

I personally feel very disillusioned with Blizzard in relation to WoW. Overpriced character services, shitty class design, shitty talent trees, shitty gear acquisition, shitty time-wasting game mechanics, I could go on. It feels like they just don't give a fuck anymore. Consequently I'm unsubbed and won't be giving them a penny until they fix the game, if that ever happens.

Just deprive them of your time and money, it's the only thing they care about.

That is what I think as well, which is why I believe that something more than an individual unsub might awaken some spirits

[Soon-TM]

I'm waiting to see what happens with 8.1. If it happens to be the same mess that you can see in the PTR, then bye bye

[oldgeezer]

I don't consider the game to be broken, in fact I'm enjoying it, so your post is invalid. That's how this works, right?

[kokuten]

nice to see the majority happy with BfA, i'm tired of seeing so much hate on my behalf... i don't hate this expansion i LOVE it

[Deleted]

Oh look, this thread is original and defo not a copy/paste from another thread.

70-80% of the community are disappointed? So you're the official spokesperson for the community? I assume you have legitimate links to legitimate figures that support your claim. I think what you'll find it that the majority of people are happy with it, what you see on the forums is the vocal minority, those annoying types that cry about everything just because someone else did.

Again, another post that claims things aren't good, gives examples, but fails completely to say WHY, and of course, this is ALL YOUR OPINION, as nice as you might think it is to assume you can force your own views onto other people, it doesnt work like that, spud.

I didn't even bother reading the rest of it, you've just made a thread and started it with mindless babble. Here's a thought, if you don't like the game, feel free to fuck off, it is literally THAT simple, just go, we don't need another pointless and toxic thread from people like you.