How healthy is World of Warcraft's future?

[Jastall]

I doubt it will happen with the crappy wages that Blizz used to pay. In the past, they could get away with it due to their reputation as a 'dream workplace'... I don't know how much of that reputation will make it past 2021.

The place's corporate culture most definitely needs a shake-up, that much is clear. I don't hate the modern game the way some do, I mostly raid and dungeoneer and on that front it's as fun as ever and far above BFA for example. But the mistreatment of employees, the clearly company-wide coverup thereof and the by now well-documented fact that they don't pay very well does not an attractive business environment make.

Now to be clear, from what I know of the people who work in tech it's never a paradise. One is at Ubisoft and she had to deal with a lot of borderline harrasment because she had tits. Another guy says he saw lots of dodgy behavior and corporate bullshit. Employees are quite disposable, especially in gaming companies where a lot of the low-tier grunts are temp workers who often consider making games in and of itself a dream job, and the bosses are eager to pounce on this, it's kind of a nerd's Hollywood in a way. But those practices being somewhat generalized does not an excuse make and the company should pull its head out of it ass if it wants to be anything other than another division of Activision that used to be a leader in its field.

Perhaps the new higher-ups will help at that. The changes to flits and emotes and such are an empty smokescreen that I consider laughable dodging of the issue, but I still wonder what goes on behind the scenes. I hardly expect everyone at Blizzard to suddenly be paragons of sainthood but hopefully the current bad situation is enough humble pie to change things for the better, for us and especially for their employees (and I think both are linked to a degree). Small hope but always better than despondent cynicism I say.

[uuuhname]

wow is dead for me at the moment blizz is being so political correct.

Unless they release new classes/specs.

oh yes, they were sooooo politically correct when members of their team drunkenly stumbled though office cubicles groping female employees....

[Itori]

If blizzard would get their head out of their ass and create content that provides challenge to content, make the leveling experience more fun, and try to return the game to a community driven enviroment then the game could go into a new golden age.

Instead of the illusion of challenge known as mythic go back to normal, heroic, and retain the name of mythic but just keep it as the most challenging experience for the 1% bring fun and exciting raids, drop the 25 man down to 10man do away with lfr and encourage reasons to communicate.

The leveling experience with scaling is just horrible, you feel like you gain no power yet evolving in level and skill. Scaling was a cool concept but ultimately fails especially in higher levels where it can become a chore to kill one mob near max lvl.

Cross servers were a fun little concept on paper but ultimately ruined the community, merge servers into giant mega servers, and let these new generation players fear being blacklisted by the server for being a prick or leaving everything early because the run wasnt smooth as butter.

[Watchers]

oh yes, they were sooooo politically correct when members of their team drunkenly stumbled though office cubicles groping female employees....

oh yes, that has to do soo much with the game.... as if i care

[Polyxo]

It's more of a general franchise/corporate lifecycle:

• Someone authors a book, or a small group creates a show or a game. It gains a cult following.

• That thing builds up over the years and becomes a respectable franchise. This is the golden age of the franchise. The company is growing.

• The original creators leave, usually by either selling off the franchise or the corporation, or they spent a very long time at the company and decide it's time to retire. This leaves the franchise in the hands of suits who do not care about the franchise and begin running it into the ground.

• Die off phase. The fans of the original are being alienated and leaving. The new folks running the franchise are unable to bring in enough new people to offset the attrition rate.

• Franchise eventually dies and goes cold.

• Reboot phase 5-10 years later, trying to prey on the nostalgia of the oldtimers and the name brand recognition of the franchise to the general public.

I also kind of feel like it's kind of 'exceptional vs average', where the original people can't be there forever, but they were really good creators, and while others that replace them aren't necessarily 'bad', the decline to average is a long way. It's also possible that a franchise this strong can last long enough for some other exceptional people to come along and make it cool again.

[uuuhname]

oh yes, that has to do soo much with the game.... as if i care

you don't care that people were sexually harassed or you don't care how that is the direct reason why these changes are even being allowed to happen?

[SinR]

I honestly think its somewhere between option 3 and 4. Leaning towards "It needs help", but sliding towards Death.

The lore is so fucked right now. I really don't care. Story just feels like its going towards a repeat of SC2 with "LOLGUYS ITS OK SHE WAS JUST DOING IT FOR THE GOOD OF AZEROTH TO OVERTHROW JAILER!!!"

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

Unless you are a share holder, it doesn't really matter what you or I think about the future.
The likelihood that they stop developing this game is extremely slim.
Like they already have planning for the next expansion, so what do you think is going to happen between now and then?

MAYBE it stops with 10.x, but one way or another, that is 2-3 years away.
I imagine half the people clamoring about all this stuff with this game haven't even played weekly for that period of time before.

And that's all that it really comes down to.
No matter what, there will be people, like myself, that will continue to play even if the game stops producing new content.

Legit, I could keep myself occupied, between Shadowlands, and potentially Classic, for another decade easily, even if they never release any new content.

Hell, all they need to do is give me access to an editor for an offline single player version of Shadowlands and I might never log on the real thing again.

[tromage2]

Not only WoW has problems but all off blizzard.
All the main and good devs that created these IPs and games and had passion for them are gone.
And the devs left in blizzard did not produce a single good game for over 5 years now.

So blizzard has large problems because I don’t see the passion and talent anymore in the current dev teams working at blizzard.

[Toybox]

Hell, all they need to do is give me access to an editor for an offline single player version of Shadowlands and I might never log on the real thing again.

Good luck with that - You can't even get an "offline" character on Diablo II without signing in to battle.net servers...

OT, things look grim, but it's not past the point of no return. So much rides on the next expansion.

[Louz]

Tranny devs make the game kill itself.

What shock.

[JoakimB]

Simple enough question folks: How healthy is WoW's future?
Things to consider:

• BFA & Shadowlands Reception
  I know both expansions have defenders, but the numbers don't lie. Whether it's gameplay, systems or lore, both expansions have had major issues with a significant amount of the playerbase.
• The Toxic/Abusive Workplace of Activision-Blizzard
  I don't need to go into this. It's beyond awful and utterly unacceptable. We all know it.
• The sanitization/bonfire of content devs no longer find acceptable.
  Removing lore, jokes, flirts, artwork has basically set the playerbase on fire. Once again, this has an impact on engagement.

You know that your 2nd and 3rd point connects with each other? Its not like they removed it for fun.

[Sinaa]

If blizzard would get their head out of their ass and create content that provides challenge to content, make the leveling experience more fun, and try to return the game to a community driven enviroment then the game could go into a new golden age.

Instead of the illusion of challenge known as mythic go back to normal, heroic, and retain the name of mythic but just keep it as the most challenging experience for the 1% bring fun and exciting raids, drop the 25 man down to 10man do away with lfr and encourage reasons to communicate.

The leveling experience with scaling is just horrible, you feel like you gain no power yet evolving in level and skill. Scaling was a cool concept but ultimately fails especially in higher levels where it can become a chore to kill one mob near max lvl.

Cross servers were a fun little concept on paper but ultimately ruined the community, merge servers into giant mega servers, and let these new generation players fear being blacklisted by the server for being a prick or leaving everything early because the run wasnt smooth as butter.

I agree with you that scaling is the worst, but I don't think leveling is bad, in fact I think the leveling in Shadowlands is much better than it had been in TBC.
Also I think having more than one difficulty is too much, anything beyond what Ulduar did doesn't sit well with me. Bosses becoming progressively more difficult is a good approach.

[MoanaLisa]

I also kind of feel like it's kind of 'exceptional vs average', where the original people can't be there forever, but they were really good creators, and while others that replace them aren't necessarily 'bad', the decline to average is a long way. It's also possible that a franchise this strong can last long enough for some other exceptional people to come along and make it cool again.

Blizzard's content has become very conservative and risk-averse. The lesson they learned from Warlords was that casual players want and like to be busy. Whether or not the current stuff is likable is kind of beside the point. It's the same systems with the deck chairs rearranged for three expansions now. They are stale.

They are also somewhat boxed in by the past. The game has to recognizably be World of Warcraft. That has its own limitations that along with their being risk-averse on content is a bad combination.

Personally I think what's needed is more simplification and transparency in systems and the story group marching back along the path to "big bad something or other that will destroy us all" and lighten up on what for all intents and purposes is a romance/soap opera storyline. Include a lot of simple side stories—which they tend to do better than their main storylines—and they might have something.

The entire combat framework is over-engineered. I do not believe that it's entirely an accident that people liked the game better when there were actual rotations instead of twitchy priority systems with too many procs. They could look at that too. I don't believe the game needs to be slowed down but simpler more direct choices about what to do next in a fight would help with the—MMO-C joke coming—90% of players who are below average.

[Super Kami Dende]

I don't think its going to die. I just think its becoming a bastion of mediocrity and bad decisions which will dwindle its lasting Playerbase.

It's the first time in nearly 2 decades where I think other MMO's will be able to flourish and thrive to a much greater extent because the "Top Dog" is now just an aging trashheap.

- - - Updated - - -

oh yes, they were sooooo politically correct when members of their team drunkenly stumbled though office cubicles groping female employees....

No they weren't, but they've overcorrected in response to it.

[Fuiking]

It will decline unless they turn the boat around quickly. I just hope they survive another 2-3 years (I geuss 2024, the date the adventures started with open beta?) So I can celebrate 20 years.. after that I can finally, truly say farewell to a game which gave me 20 odd years of happy memories.

[Amaterasu65]

I'm currently playing cause I'm mythic raiding. Most people I see online nowadays are mostly m+ players, raiders or pvp pushers. I don't see pure casuals much anymore.

Also LFG is worse than ever before. You can't find a heroic pug without having hundreds of WTS Sylvanas + KT ads messing the group list. Apalling how Blizz does nothing for it.

[Kumorii]

I'm currently playing cause I'm mythic raiding. Most people I see online nowadays are mostly m+ players, raiders or pvp pushers. I don't see pure casuals much anymore.

Also LFG is worse than ever before. You can't find a heroic pug without having hundreds of WTS Sylvanas + KT ads messing the group list. Apalling how Blizz does nothing for it.

I have opposite experience. Raiders and m+ players are usually just on for raids and weeklys. Casuals are grinding korthia and any other zone for another mount to collect all day every day. Then we can argue if they are casuals or not, which they aren't. But I use the term in this case as people who indulge in casual content.

Casuals are also the majority and majority of casuals aren't up to date with gaming news, they just play their game. At least my 2 cents on it.

[Soikona]

If your enjoyment involves supporting a company as malevolent and dispicable as Blizzard then you need to take an inward look at your priorities - anyone still subbed is just as bad as Blizzard themselves

Aye, me sitting in my office, giving blizz £10 a month is just as bad as walking around making inappropriate comments. If anything, you are just as bad for hyperbole.

[sam86]

wow future from my pov: SL is crap, no idea about next but i expect SL (which started better than BFA for sure) to have even worse fate than WoD
they aren't trying to fix anything in workplace, instead trying to distract as hard as they can from it with idiotic stupid nonsense moves like remove flirts and art that were in game since day 1, heck they change Mc'ree zone name because of 1 dev name, ignoring that there are thousands if not millions who also have that name (not to mention he still exist in OW)
I think next exp (if there is) will be make or break wow, either last exp, or a great push for many years, what i hope is of course a great push
I LOVE warcraft, it isn't a 'game' for me, it is part of me, i don't want it to ever die