The game has become "how can I do the things I need to do as fast as possible"

[dcc626]

I just wish I could be done with all the chores so I can do some dungeons but it does not really matter because I can't join any game with the specs I enjoy playing anyway, thanks to the terrible game balance if you can even call it that anymore.

Unless I see a complete change of the meta on beta there is no way in hell I'm going to subject myself to one more cockblocking expansion.

this is the way you have to look at things. if you arent happy with it, dont play.

but this isnt what happens. people decidfe instead to just keep playing and being salty. dont see what that accomplishes.

oh yeah, see you in shadowlands. its not like you are going to stop.

[Nachtigal]

Most
Efficient
Tactic
Available.

To change it you’d have to create a game without a META.

[sociald1077]

Blizz TRIED to stop this..community wasn't having it..
Blizz is still TRYING to stop this..the whole punishing you for changing covenants thing but not really is an ATTEMPT to do this...and people aren't having it
hell the little secrets like the hivemind is a way to try to give that sense of wonder back....but lets be real its mostly the entire community waiting for the secret finding discord to find it so everyone else can get it

Hell the sell for World Quests and The MoP Dailys were actually "You aren't supposed to do ALL OF THEM ALL THE TIME" and what did the community do? DO ALL OF THEM ALL THE TIME. Not to mention sites like this, wowhead, discord, etc pretty much find everything you need to know, tell you the mathematically best spec you can be, and how to kill whatever boss immediately and the community expects you to already know this stuff.

Also before you blame "Current expansion" for this..it started in Wrath. It existed in vanilla and BC but Wrath's "Everyone can Raid" slogan essentially spread this like a virus. Blame group play for it too because for every person that wants to discover something theres 2-4 other people who just want to get things done and you are ruining THEIR fun which in turn ruins YOUR fun.

Hitting the nail on the head. All of your post is excellent, but that last sentence is pure distilled truth. The exploration died with the initial run of leveling from 2004-2006. Everything after that has been a race. I wasnt even in a big league guild on my server when TBC started and we had goals to get leveled and get end game rolling ASAP. It was just as much part of the culture then as it is now.

[Jonnusthegreat]

That's essentially the problem with current WoW.

It has gone from exploration and immersion in a huge fantasy RPG world to "I have this list of tasks, how can I get them done as fast and as efficiently as possible".

If WoW ever wants to be great again, it needs to move away from tasks and chores, away from daily and weekly things to do and rerunning the same content over and over again, and towards creating more unique content that is supposed to be done once for the mere fun of it.

WoW has always been like this. You just didn't realize it while you were exploring the world. You have changed, not the game.

[Tarba]

I dont see the Problem in the Game. I see the problems in the mindset of the community. Online-Gamers in 2020 dont have the Mindset from Gamers 10+ Years ago.

The Mindset today is just toxic & competitive. Thats why i play with casuals now, its way more fun and relaxing.

I mean the best exapamle are the mimimi about covenants and conduits. 95% of the mimimi-guys dont even play content where its relevant to mix/max a char.

Community is less toxic than it was in vanilla. Dramas and ninjas were legion back then.
I allways hated having to play a pve build in pvp or vis versa. No need to be a minmax guy to feel the obvious.

[Jonnusthegreat]

Most
Efficient
Tactic
Available.

To change it you’d have to create a game without a META.

Wow, I never knew meta was an acronym. Is this real or did you just make it up? I thought it was just short for metagaming (like metacognition).

[Nachtigal]

Wow, I never knew meta was an acronym. Is this real or did you just make it up? I thought it was just short for metagaming (like metacognition).

It is indeed an acronym.

[Grimbold21]

You forgot one bit: it's what you said plus "I've done all my chores now ill complain about not having anything to do"

[Powerogue]

Please explain how vanilla WoW is not also a list of tasks, just less clearly laid out and more dependent on out-of-game guides.

[huth]

It is indeed an acronym.

Except it isn't. It's a backronym, where an existing word was then turned into an acronym. It is in fact the same meta as in metacognition or metaphysics.

[schwank05]

The Game can move away from being "fast-paced", but will the players change their attitude?
I honestly just want my daily gaming chores to be out of my way as fast as possible so I can do things I enjoy be it in or out of the game.

That has always been my biggest Beef with WOW since MOP really, I hate daily chores I loved BC-CATA where I could simply raid log or I could spam dungeons for gear. I never really messed around doing the daily quests in any of these expansions and still achieved the highest difficulties of Raid's that I could do.

[Baneto]

That's essentially the problem with current WoW.

It has gone from exploration and immersion in a huge fantasy RPG world to "I have this list of tasks, how can I get them done as fast and as efficiently as possible".

If WoW ever wants to be great again, it needs to move away from tasks and chores, away from daily and weekly things to do and rerunning the same content over and over again, and towards creating more unique content that is supposed to be done once for the mere fun of it.

Since Legion throughout BFA we have had more and more timegating more systems in place to just make getting to the fun part be halted and slower than it was before.
I would say I hope that it will be different in Shadowlands, but as we've seen with covenants conduits and soulbinds and anima power it seems to be more of the same systems that we had in BFA.

[sunnycutie]

I'm not even taking about META, I'm talking about things as simple as not having a certain mount like the Legion paragon mounts, and doing the emissary on all your alts. Once the emissary pops up it's another task added to your list. "Do the emissary on all your characters within the next 3 days or miss out on (currently) 3000 rep per character". I guess you could see that as META because you are maximizing your chances of getting the mount as fast as possible, but it's more about the accumulating things you can only do once a day or once a week that you have to do otherwise you miss out on a chance to get something. It adds up, especially if you play several characters. The game puts pressure on you. Do this now or miss out. I don't even raid beyond LFR so I don't care about anything power-related too much.

[Nachtigal]

Except it isn't. It's a backronym, where an existing word was then turned into an acronym. It is in fact the same meta as in metacognition or metaphysics.

Nobody when discussing the “meta” in a video game is discussing metacognition or metaphysics. Nobody. When people discuss the meta, they’re discussing the
most efficient tactic available.

Dull your blades, basement dwelling edgelord, I can smell you from here.

[Sansnom]

That's essentially the problem with current WoW.

It has gone from exploration and immersion in a huge fantasy RPG world to "I have this list of tasks, how can I get them done as fast and as efficiently as possible".

Surely that is the player's decision and not the game? There is no time limit on completion of these "tasks" so if a player wants to rush, say to max level, then that is their choice. Not the game.

If WoW ever wants to be great again, it needs to move away from tasks and chores, away from daily and weekly things to do and rerunning the same content over and over again, and towards creating more unique content that is supposed to be done once for the mere fun of it.

If I recall, WoW has always been running daily, weekly and rerunning the same content for loot.

[Leyre]

The Game can move away from being "fast-paced", but will the players change their attitude?
I honestly just want my daily gaming chores to be out of my way as fast as possible so I can do things I enjoy be it in or out of the game.

Yes, yes it can, WotLK is a good example of this, the daily frost badge for your first heroic dungeon of they day wasnt a "one day thing you, didnt do, me you lost" thing, you could easily wait until sunday to do all your heroics runs and get your badges

[Eapoe]

That's essentially the problem with current WoW.

It has gone from exploration and immersion in a huge fantasy RPG world to "I have this list of tasks, how can I get them done as fast and as efficiently as possible".

If WoW ever wants to be great again, it needs to move away from tasks and chores, away from daily and weekly things to do and rerunning the same content over and over again, and towards creating more unique content that is supposed to be done once for the mere fun of it.

Ummm, so you want it to be something it never was? Rerunning the same content is what has existed since WoW was 1st released.
Pick another hill...

[Nachtigal]

I'm not even taking about META, I'm talking about things as simple as not having a certain mount like the Legion paragon mounts, and doing the emissary on all your alts. Once the emissary pops up it's another task added to your list. "Do the emissary on all your characters within the next 3 days or miss out on (currently) 3000 rep per character". I guess you could see that as META because you are maximizing your chances of getting the mount as fast as possible, but it's more about the accumulating things you can only do once a day or once a week that you have to do otherwise you miss out on a chance to get something. It adds up, especially if you play several characters. The game puts pressure on you. Do this now or miss out. I don't even raid beyond LFR so I don't care about anything power-related too much.

Unfortunately it is very hard to escape the presence of a meta. In pretty much all games if there’s something you want, there’s a meta to achieve it.

The developers would have to design everything with that in mind to ensure that no matter what the player does, it won’t increase/decrease the rate at which the goal is reached.

You’d have to have something akin to ESO’s daily log in reward system. Where the only metric to earning it is to log in. At that point then the only thing holding you back is how fast you can log in XD

[TEHPALLYTANK]

That has always been my biggest Beef with WOW since MOP really, I hate daily chores I loved BC-CATA where I could simply raid log or I could spam dungeons for gear. I never really messed around doing the daily quests in any of these expansions and still achieved the highest difficulties of Raid's that I could do.

MoP wasn't where dailies got bad, you only needed to do them for a few weeks then you would be finished with dailies from that faction for the entire expansion. Legion is where that shit got bad when they moved from dailies to WQs. WQs and emissary chests kept the rewards relevant throughout the expansion, so you couldn't take a break from dailies without losing out on substantial rewards.

[Cyanu]

That's essentially the problem with current WoW.

It has gone from exploration and immersion in a huge fantasy RPG world to "I have this list of tasks, how can I get them done as fast and as efficiently as possible".

If WoW ever wants to be great again, it needs to move away from tasks and chores, away from daily and weekly things to do and rerunning the same content over and over again, and towards creating more unique content that is supposed to be done once for the mere fun of it.

You are right but you dont seem to be aware of Why its so

Its because players figured that theres No profit In roaming aimlessly

I used to wander too In vanilla, why? Because i was a silly kid that actually believed that a chest In the ruined tower of trisfal might contain something powerful

It didnt then, it doesn't now, all that Changed is that i know better