What Would Bring You Back to WoW?

[DragonsBeard]

Lol yeah ok dude. Keep on thinking that playing games for fun is toxic, discourteous, and/or entitled. Doesn't even seem like you know what any of those words mean. Bet you'll make tons of well adjusted friends with that mentality . There's nothing normal about your mindset, just something spawned from playing too much of one game within a small, insulated group.

playing the game for fun, is fine. Refusing to improve and dragging everyone else down with you when you fail over and over is discourteous of other peoples time. Your fun, doesn't overwrite everyone else's. If you refuse to improve and play better, you are the toxic one. Not the people who refuse to deal with it. If you are playing with Friends, that's different. You and your friends can have as much fun and waste each others time as much as you want. The moment you step into a public group, You have a social responsibility to put in the effort. Again, your fun doesn't overwrite everyone else's. Doesn't matter if you are enjoying the game when you are actively harming everyone else's by playing like shit.

In a Raid, you have a responsibility to learn the mechanics and improve at the role you are there to fill. In PVP you have a responsibility to learning the mechanics of the Battleground or the layout of an arena map and learn the finer points of your class in pvp. If you don't, you are actively harming everyone elses ability to enjoy the game by dragging them down to your level. If you think that's fine, then yes. You are being entitled, toxic and discourteous. If you don't wanna put forth the basic effort needed to not suck at the game. Then play with your friends who have agreed to accept it. Don't force it onto random people who are also there to have fun.

[Adamas102]

playing the game for fun, is fine. Refusing to improve and dragging everyone else down with you when you fail over and over is discourteous of other peoples time. Your fun, doesn't overwrite everyone else's. If you refuse to improve and play better, you are the toxic one. Not the people who refuse to deal with it. If you are playing with Friends, that's different. You and your friends can have as much fun and waste each others time as much as you want. The moment you step into a public group, You have a social responsibility to put in the effort. Again, your fun doesn't overwrite everyone else's. Doesn't matter if you are enjoying the game when you are actively harming everyone else's by playing like shit.

In a Raid, you have a responsibility to learn the mechanics and improve at the role you are there to fill. In PVP you have a responsibility to learning the mechanics of the Battleground or the layout of an arena map and learn the finer points of your class in pvp. If you don't, you are actively harming everyone elses ability to enjoy the game by dragging them down to your level. If you think that's fine, then yes. You are being entitled, toxic and discourteous. If you don't wanna put forth the basic effort needed to not suck at the game. Then play with your friends who have agreed to accept it. Don't force it onto random people who are also there to have fun.

The idea that you have a responsibility to play a game a certain way is ridiculous. That's not how games work. If you have a guild or make your own group then you can certainly make up whatever arbitrary rules you want others to abide by, but you don't dictate how everyone else should play the game in general. You're essentially saying that new, inexperienced, and casual players should be barred from certain parts of the game until they go out of their way to do things outside the game (downloading addons, researching strats and character optimization, etc). That's obviously not how the game itself works, so you're taking it on yourself to gatekeep and that's what makes YOU the entitled, toxic, discourteous asshole in this situation.

This isn't a mentality that's exclusive to WoW, but you only really see it in select video games where anonymity helps assholes be assholes and people who don't really have much going for them IRL put too much weight on their gaming performance. This isn't just a "play with your friends however you like" sort of thing. Go to any trivia or board game night at a bar or a sports pickup game and see how everyone treats you when you start berating people for not practicing/researching before turning up and telling them they don't deserve to play on the same team as you. You'll be rightly mocked and then no one will play with you again. You know why? Because the vast majority of people don't take games (video games or otherwise) overly seriously and losing in a low-stakes, non-professional setting doesn't send them into a rage and make them think they just wasted their time playing. You can blame your quirk on having a more "competitive" mindset, but that's a personal thing for YOU to deal with, not for everyone else around you to accommodate.

Again, make your own groups and make sure everyone who joins knows what they should expect, or play as you like and let everyone else do so as well. You say "your fun doesn't overwrite everyone else's" and that's absolutely true. The thing you have wrong is that someone who is playing for their own enjoyment and has no intention of ruining anyone else's fun isn't "actively harming" anyone. The issue is that you're hitching your own enjoyment to how everyone else is playing. And if you're barring other people from playing for whatever reason then yeah, you're the one actively doing "harm" (harm in quotes because the whole idea of not winning enough in a game as harmful is fucking laughable).

[Kuja]

Improvements to transmog farming, and making old raids more easily soloable, like mythic raids from previous expansion. Preferably not just by adjusting numbers, but doing something new for a change. Like allow us to recruit an NPC companion that will tag along in legacy instances.

I love that in EQ when you can have a mercenary with you at all times, who becomes like a friend to you.

[anveena]

Nothing. I'm just sticking with classic through wotlk and moving on from this game.

[Ilookfly]

Master loot

[DragonsBeard]

The idea that you have a responsibility to play a game a certain way is ridiculous. That's not how games work. If you have a guild or make your own group then you can certainly make up whatever arbitrary rules you want others to abide by, but you don't dictate how everyone else should play the game in general. You're essentially saying that new, inexperienced, and casual players should be barred from certain parts of the game until they go out of their way to do things outside the game (downloading addons, researching strats and character optimization, etc). That's obviously not how the game itself works, so you're taking it on yourself to gatekeep and that's what makes YOU the entitled, toxic, discourteous asshole in this situation.

This isn't a mentality that's exclusive to WoW, but you only really see it in select video games where anonymity helps assholes be assholes and people who don't really have much going for them IRL put too much weight on their gaming performance. This isn't just a "play with your friends however you like" sort of thing. Go to any trivia or board game night at a bar or a sports pickup game and see how everyone treats you when you start berating people for not practicing/researching before turning up and telling them they don't deserve to play on the same team as you. You'll be rightly mocked and then no one will play with you again. You know why? Because the vast majority of people don't take games (video games or otherwise) overly seriously and losing in a low-stakes, non-professional setting doesn't send them into a rage and make them think they just wasted their time playing. You can blame your quirk on having a more "competitive" mindset, but that's a personal thing for YOU to deal with, not for everyone else around you to accommodate.

Again, make your own groups and make sure everyone who joins knows what they should expect, or play as you like and let everyone else do so as well. You say "your fun doesn't overwrite everyone else's" and that's absolutely true. The thing you have wrong is that someone who is playing for their own enjoyment and has no intention of ruining anyone else's fun isn't "actively harming" anyone. The issue is that you're hitching your own enjoyment to how everyone else is playing. And if you're barring other people from playing for whatever reason then yeah, you're the one actively doing "harm" (harm in quotes because the whole idea of not winning enough in a game as harmful is fucking laughable).

No, i'm not gatekeeping or baring anyone who are inexperienced from playing the game till they do anything. If you are inexperienced, you need to play to get better. That doesn't mean joining whatever group content you want and dragging people down because of it. It's a social activity. If you are inexperienced, you have a responsibility to inform the group and to put in the effort to improve. If you are unwilling to do the basic's, you are an asshole. Yes, games are meant to be fun. But it's not fun to wipe for 6 hours because that one "inexperienced" player wasn't upfront about it, unwilling to learn or simply not up to the skill required for the content. It's not fun to lose a Battleground because that one "inexperienced" player wasn't upfront about it or unwilling to learn.

If you know you are not experienced, and know you have a lack of understanding about the mechanics. You shouldn't be blindly joining groups, and withholding that information. There are expectations when joining people you don't know to play a game. And a simple fact, some people are just unable to meet a skill floor required for some content. As shitty as it may sound. They need to understand, joining a group that is not aware, prepared, or interested in carrying them, are 100% entitled to NOT allow them in the group. Because, again.. It's a Social activity. Your inability to preform can and does ruin the experience of people there looking to make progress and succeed. You are not entitled to waste my time because you are unwilling to do the basics required.

Casual or not, playing a game with a group of people you don't know, means you are able to preform at a base level. If you are not, then YOU make your own group and play with people who are interested in carrying you. As for the idea of it being "harmful" is "laughable", time finite, not everyone has the time to sit there failing all night because you are not willing to improve. That's harmful, It hurts the enjoyment because, there is no enjoyment to be had if you make no progress because someone ELSE is fucking up repeatedly. If you find it fun, good for you. It's subjective, but clearly, i'm not the one in the minority here.

Respect other peoples time, do the basics required.
The basics
Know your class and be able to meet the dps, heal or tank checks required to succeed
Be willing to Learn
And most importantly be upfront with your inexperience and weaknesses.

Otherwise, don't join someone else's group. Make your own with the expectation set that you are looking to be carried. Don't ruined everyone else's fun because you are unwilling to do what's required.

[arkanon]

- 1v1 Arena, full reward including gladiator title, for obvious reasons DPS only
- zero parallel progressions systems
- no speed limits (daily quests, weekly quests, raid lockouts and so... complete removal of these systems, repeatable quests can be repeated 100 times per day, if someone wants, same thing for raids)
- allowing to complete your character really fast, like having the best gear in like two weeks into the expansion as a casual player, after that, there's nothing you can do for the next 6 months... except for playing the game for fun and going for the things you like (achievements, rating, titles, mounts and so on)

Looking back I can say that the only times when I really had fun in this game was when I had nothing to do in regards of character progress. When my character was complete and had the best gear in the game and I was FREE to do whatever I wanted.

I must be reading this wrong. You want a casual player to be able to have a complete set of the best gear in the game 2 weeks after an expansion launches? You can't be serious, can you? Are you?

[T-34]

Lol yeah ok dude. Keep on thinking that playing games for fun is toxic, discourteous, and/or entitled. Doesn't even seem like you know what any of those words mean. Bet you'll make tons of well adjusted friends with that mentality . There's nothing normal about your mindset, just something spawned from playing too much of one game within a small, insulated group.

Nah dude, I know people like you.
In RL such people wouldn't dare to be so lazy and disrespectful of others, because that would mean that they would be out of job, would have no friends or spouse.
Because nobody would hire, marry of be friend with a person who wilfully is bad and leeches of the efforts of others.
But when people like that go on-line then they let their toxicity free. And people like that even have the audacity to demand that others should cater to their toxicity.

Respectful and non-lazy people know that "playing for fun" means "I don't give a shit and want to be carried by others".

[Alkizon]

Well, well, and again this topic... where were my messages lost around? Oh yes, here they are:

Well... technically... at this stage, they can already work towards (since there're "differences" between faces and other things now) to add classic-like geometry (size, shape, color for body/face/hair) and animations (pose/posture, running and other basic animations) in a way of customization. That is, to gradually add “customisation” elements, which will make it possible to turn new models into maximum likeness of old ones without losing what they have already worked on top at the moment. I understand that prospect is still illusive, but "a man can dream".

At the moment, no matter how many customizations within same geometry and animation framework they add, I just can't accept it. Don't get me wrong, I'm very glad that they have come down to this direction in general, I appreciate time spent, I'm happy for others and for their hype, etc., but... for me it remains different, not what I needed

...On my own behalf, won't be lazy to add about need for returning of old models of basic races as customization choice (well, or! they have really talented artists, which can either bring new models in harmony with old ones (which, in theory, will require their complete processing, because they basically have nothing in common with each other), or finally provide exactly their (old) more modern equivalents), but they are kept in some casemates and don't really give them anything to do, and all work goes on open source to worthless mediocre amateurs). They may not even expect my emergence there without this, just as starting with WoD. If I'll want to play heroes from Shrek universe, I'll buy myself a console

let's start with this, so that I'd even want to consider/discuss this game in the sense of how to turn its design into an alternative to my current free time pastime.

[T-34]

A video game is not a job. This is your problem, you view it as one.

A game that you play with other people = no different from interacting with people anywhere else.
If we would discuss a single-player game then it would be different, but this isn't a single-player game, unless you consider those that you play with for "bots" that should obey your wishes and carry you?

[odamienskii]

I'm sure this has been asked before but I didn't see any recent posts about this in my, admittedly, brief search of the forums.
For those who are no longer playing the game, what would bring you back to the game? What would you like to see in perhaps a new expansion?

For me I would like them to focus on making the classes fun again and do away with the convoluted temporary power systems. I feel like those systems only serve as a weird grind that makes it less desirable to play alts or even other specs.

So I think it would be cool to get 4th specs for the non hero classes and just work on class/spec identities and make them fun to play. Take a look at some balancing. Why have Disc priests and Holy Paladins been so dominant for M+ for so many expansions now? (because they provide both the most dps AND the damage reduction Healing CDs) just as an example. I think 4th specs would also allow for other classes to do roles they normally wouldn't be able to do.
I know a lot of people are against the 4th spec thing but I think it would be cool.

Secondly, just focus on a system that is fun primarily and design it with the intent that it could stick around as a permanent feature in the game. Torghast had so much potential as an alternate way to play the game. Just turn the powers up to 11, offer more build paths (it really needed like 3 times the amount of powers just to start). I could go on an entire rant about this but I will leave it at that

a system that seperates the good players from the bad rather than a bottleneck where all the bad players hinder the progress of the good. would bring back all those frustrated old school players because they could actually find good players again.

[Foolicious]

I'm sure this has been asked before but I didn't see any recent posts about this in my, admittedly, brief search of the forums.
For those who are no longer playing the game, what would bring you back to the game? What would you like to see in perhaps a new expansion?

I just want to pop in when i feel like i have some spare time and want to play wow at this point in my life. Usually when a new patch comes out. Sometimes when im bored and would like to farm mounts and/or transmog. Or run something with my friends that still play the game. I don't want to have the highest itemlevel and mythic score. I don't care about that. never have, even when i did highest pve content regularly.
But my problem is that i do not see the point why i should pay 15 dollars for the five to ten hours i play a month. I still play diablo 3 every now and then for a few hours because i can. Because i don't have to pay every time i feel the urge to play again after months of hiatus.


I don't know if there will ever be a gameplay feature or a class that makes so much fun i want to spend every evening in wow. But i would like to keep playing the world that i still love the way i want to not the way a subscription tells me to.

[Pakheth]

-MoP style class design
-Class skins
-Badge/Valor gear
-More colour out in the world
-Armor sets that aren't overdecorated.

Bonus: Housing

[CopyX1982]

I've said, quite a bit, that since I left WoW Feb last year (Time really does fly) that I'd see what 10.0 brought to the table, I mean, I played SL for a couple of months plus change, so I could return and catch up in a couple of weeks or so, but if 10.0 doesn't interest me I'm never coming back, I feel I'd fall too far behind with whats going on/whats gone on.

That said, new classes, but, BUT, I want them to start from level 1, I haven't done the adventure isles, and I really want an excuse to level through Northrend again (started WoW a week and a half before 3.2 'Call of the Crusade') with a fresh persepctive, and a new class, as well as a refresher on how to play the game.

[Nerovar]

Well, well, and again this topic... where were my messages lost around? Oh yes, here they are:


let's start with this, so that I'd even want to consider/discuss this game in the sense of how to turn its design into an alternative to my current free time pastime.

The stuff about the new models resonates with me. Also the new customization options added with Shadowlands look like fucking garbage. The new hair doesn't even have a hairline texture like the old options. Human beards have been "reworked" to look like glued on to the character's face (presumably to be compatible with the cheap, copy pasted Kul Tiran beards). Certain races like Night Elves (especially male) are hideous to a point where I simply don't want to play them anymore etc.

[Tertullian72]

1. Stop wasting time on systems.
2. Use saved time to create content. This content does not have to relate to player power. It can reuse old expansions, continue their stories.
3. Stop being afraid to implement features which the min-max crowd will feel they "have" to do to progress (relates to the above).
4. Get rid of borrowed power and stop tying everything new to a single expansion. Let the game evolve through features like player housing.
5. Enough with the time gating. There will always be people who rush through everything and then complain they have nothing to do. Ignore them and design for everyone else.

[Yriel]

I know this has been beaten to death but most of my lifelong wow friends are raiders and 95% of them have quit for all kinds of reasons, but nothing approaching that the game was "Designed for them." Non-stop chores and parasitic systems do not seem designed for anyone except (cynically) shareholders.

I wish we could change the community attitude away from blaming the big bad hardcores and just blaming the devs for delivering poor quality casual content. Feels like the office workers and factory workers arguing with each other rather than going after the actual bad guy here, the boss.

It's not the fault of the people that enjoy that content but it seems really obvious that Blizzard only wants so invest a certain number of dev-hours into new content, especially in patches.
And raids probably bring the most player hours per dev hour, even the everyquest devs basically said that when they "invented" raiding back then (why make 5 normal dungeons when you can make one super difficult one, players take the same time finishing both and difficulty is just a few numbers in a database). Plus a lot of the Blizz design honchos like raiding themselves.
So they use the vast majority of their dev hours on raids and shit out some grinds for everyone else. Since they spend so little time on the additional content it's mostly boring and tedious. But you get a gorgeous raid and biig M+ dungeon.

[Zorachus]

First off get rid of all the "systems" and "multiple currencies" and no more "time gating" in 10.0 to bring me back.

Go back to a more MoP style of character talents and play style and way of gearing up, but keep M+ dungeons, those are cool.

- - - Updated - - -

1. Stop wasting time on systems.
2. Use saved time to create content. This content does not have to relate to player power. It can reuse old expansions, continue their stories.
3. Stop being afraid to implement features which the min-max crowd will feel they "have" to do to progress (relates to the above).
4. Get rid of borrowed power and stop tying everything new to a single expansion. Let the game evolve through features like player housing.
5. Enough with the time gating. There will always be people who rush through everything and then complain they have nothing to do. Ignore them and design for everyone else.

100% agree.

[czarek]

Slow down progress more walkthrou zones not clunky and complicated like ravendreth. No borrowed powers. Dungeons and pve vendor. Good story telling without cluffhanging all over again.

[Dadwen]

1: Bring back ranged survival hunter (tried playing the game once around BFA *didn't last more than a 2 months, since they removed it and its not the same without having my main for so many years.)
2: Get rid of scaling or make it optional.
3: bring back classes and system design closer to a mix between Wotlk and MOP

*I might resub for LK classic not sure, but as of now the only thing that would be worth playing.