Does anyone else feel the game becoming like a job?

[Traveler Voltin]

news flash, all games are jobs. pokemon, gotta grind those levels, dark souls, gotta grind those souls, shooters, gotta grind those levels so you can unlock upgrades for your guns. the difference between games and paying jobs is whether you're having fun.

pokemon has made is massively easier to level pokemon over the years.

[Villager720]

Its always had the capacity to feel this way.Speaking from personal experience, this means you're close to or have arrived at "burn-out".
Take a break until you're excited to log in again.

[bagdawoolin]

Welcome to the club, op. That is Ion Hazzikostas wet dream of what a game should be. Work.

For him, that may be true. For anyone else? Not so much.

[SkagenRora]

people don't play games just for fun anymore, they need incentive so devs develop these daily check lists and chores and call it content.

[Cozm0s]

That's why I stopped raiding. I have a busy life and the two 3 hr long blocks of time it took to raid was too much. I actually enjoy the game much more now for some reason. Which is funny, because I used to think that I played this game just to raid, but I know realize that the whole raid thing was a bit of a chore and I enjoy the rest of the game much more.

I think that my experience is indicative of a changing player base. All that group stuff was great when it was new (and had never been done before) but now its 15+ years old and starting to show its age. Players like more "fluid " grouping today (i.e.: not waiting in a que 15 mins (or more) for a group to form).

I think Blizz either has to find a way to "modernize" its grouping or start shifting its emphasis away from heavy group content focused. They are already losing players because of the dated system. I think a good way to start is with this: four armor sets for each class every patch (first three equal, fourth slightly better). One from world stuff (quests, etc) one from pvp and one from dungeons/ raids, one set that unlocks if you get the other three (you still have to earn the fourth set but you need the other three to start the "challenges" for it). This way, players can play completely how they want, earn as many sets as they want. You solo/ casual get the world set, you are group/ semi-hardcore- get two sets, you are hardcore: get all four. Play your way, as much as you want, how you want. If Blizz wants over a million subs- they have to appeal to a wide variety of players. If you go niche- its a smaller market (obviously).

That's what players want, to play the game how they want to play it and still get the rewards they want. They don't want to be "forced" into content they don't want to play to get rewards. If you sit for a second and think about that last sentence- it is terrible game design and a disaster waiting to happen (really think about it for a sec), and that's what Blizz currently does.

Sitting back and thinking about this really makes me wonder about who is managing these dev teams at the moment. Are they even aware of the state of the current game market? Or are they still making games for a market 15 years ago? I think the answer is obvious......

That’s the best part about bfa.
Where playing less is more fun then actually playing the game lol

[Aucald]

That sensation is what I generally feel when I know I need to take a break from WoW. Burnout is quite real, especially in a game as old as WoW - a creeping sense of sameness and mounting futility that edges in from the corners where ordinarily you'd be having fun and not really be thinking of external factors. I suggest you take a break, perhaps play another game or series for a bit, then come back to WoW and see if things have improved for you as concerns it.

[aceperson]

pokemon has made is massively easier to level pokemon over the years.

doesn't change the fact that a grind is a grind.

[Jinto]

Less daily grind would be good. There are too many things to do nowadays with Azerite grind, forgings etc. I rather enjoy the old formula where you had one chance per character per week to get the upgrades (via raids).

[DemonDays]

I don't mean in the sense of all the hard work you have to do, and the hours you have to put in. If anything the game is easier that way now.

I more so mean you have something you do everyday, and over the course of years they slowly start to change things for the worst, at first you think to yourself .. well it's not that bad I can live with this, but after awhile they start to add up. So you go to your boss ( offical forums ) and you ask for reasonable things to make life more enjoyable and it would not even effect the work product! ( Revert GCD, Flying , Account wide Essences , Un-Prune our classes..etc ). And your boss obviously wanting to keep you happy tells you what you want to hear, that their listening and they'll see what they can do, but despite the entire workplace all being on board with the changes very vocally, it still remains the same and even gets worse. Until one day you finally say to yourself, life is to short and you find another job with better pay and less stress with things you enjoy ( a cheaper game, with good systems in place ).

Obviously it's not exactly the same, but honestly for a game that's made for fun, and made for us the paying audience, something as simple as account wide essences would be amazing and add so much fun to the game, and no one I mean no one would be opposed to the idea, they even ask for it frequently! But is just sadly ignored. It starts to feel like one of those work places where any good enjoyable or creative ideas are nodded at and never taken into account.

Anyone else feel this way trying to stick out the game for better times?


P.S I do still really enjoy the game, I just don't get why really good fun ideas that everyone's on board with are ignored or fixed insanely late.

It's been this way since Legion.

Weekly/Daily checklist style content with insane amounts of RNG that make it feel like a Casino. Cap this off with an endless AP grind and it starts to feel like a job.

Do a Warfront. Do my Emissary. Do my 3 Islands. etc etc etc.


The problem is - the good gameplay used to mask the grind. Because the moment to moment gameplay was some of the best in the genre you didn't mind the grind.

BfA destroyed that.

[PrairieChicken]

I quit long time ago as they started to introduce more and more mandatory homeworks and RNG grinds, it was a great decision. If the game forces you to be "qualified" before you can have fun then it starts to be no longer be an entertainment.

There was nothing wrong with raid logging (as long as there are other alternative gameplays available) but blizz unfortunately decided to cater to no-lifers/

[munkeyinorbit]

pokemon has made is massively easier to level pokemon over the years.

Wow has it made it infinity easier to advance your character over the years...

- - - Updated - - -

I quit long time ago as they started to introduce more and more mandatory homeworks and RNG grinds, it was a great decision. If the game forces you to be "qualified" before you can have fun then it starts to be no longer be an entertainment.

There was nothing wrong with raid logging (as long as there are other alternative gameplays available) but blizz unfortunately decided to cater to no-lifers/

Wrong. So fucking wrong.
They decided to cater to casuals. That market is huge. What do casuals want? Progression. How do you offer progression to casuals? Infinitely upgradable goals that you can always work towards. Got 30 mins? Jump on and do some WQ and upgrade that neck. Do that every day forever and you are always upgrading.

Compare that with the classic model. What can U do in 30 mins if u LVL 60? Nothing.

The problem arises when teh hardcore demand that everyone be as the hardcore as themselves. A bar is erected stating that you can't be on the ride unless you reach an arbitrary standard. The standard is propagated and then everyone thinks this is what you have to do. This extends to Alts and then all of a sudden nobody can do anything because they don't reach this arbitrary standard that some teh hardcore set.

[Sezh]

I remember when me and all my friends thought about quitting WoW back in Wrath cause we felt doing dailies was like having a job.

[Drusin]

it is a job
you just have to quit and stop the suffering

85% of People Hate Their Jobs, Gallup Poll Says

[Raisei]

Frankly I wish my job was being an awesome Death Knight and going out fighting things with a big ass sword and death magics. Sadly it is not, so I don't really feel like I am at work when I am in game.

But there are correlations. My job also forces me to repeat the same thing every month (invoices and planning for next month and so on) over an over, it is pretty much like grinding things in game and I have learned that I am pretty good at the grind if it actually has a goal to achieve.

For example I grinded Archaelogy from scratch to 950 a few days ago and before that went back to grind Legion reputations. Why? Because I had some time and the empty bars were judging me.

[muto]

It’ll feel like a job until they remove AP.

[snaggahoolin]

It’ll feel like a job until they remove AP.

Or corruption. Or artefact power. Or anima power. Or..

They will never remove it. Just relabel it. The core mechanic will stay, easiest way for blizzard to keep people playing. Even if it just is a stupid skinner box like that. Do dumb daily quest. Receive AP.

[snaggahoolin]

They will never remove AP. Or corruption. Or Anima Power. Or ..

They will just relabel it.

[snaggahoolin]

No - you're playing too much

- - - Updated - - -



But they are in shadowlands

No, they are not. There it is called Anima Power.

[snaggahoolin]

They're removing the endless grind, that's what people don't like about AP

No, they are not removing the endless grind. It is just renamed.

Do not believe everything blizzard writes. That would be too easy.

They either

- reinvent it and relabel it

or

- replace it by something even more awkward


That is Hazzikostas design philosophy. And if i see your reaction, it seems to work with many.

[snaggahoolin]

Okay. Keep on being objectively wrong I guess

There will always be an incentive for an endless grind. If there was no big skinner box, they could not sell their content to anyone. Based on the fact it is not replayable for a long time.

Would you really play the dailies / world quests / weekly quests if there was no big reward like flying?