For the long-time players still playing WoW today, I don't think it matters how good or bad the game is or becomes. Over 15 years the game has done irretrievable damage to their brain wiring and psychology and to undo that deep conditioning would probably be a traumatic event.
You just lost The Game
I again go back to that Mass Effect thing from years ago where a tiny % of players actually complete games. I'm sure that's still true, but it's also a problem with DLC - the number of people who will buy it outside of a bundle pack is tightly constrained if most people never finish it in the first place.
Like everything else, that 80/20 principle is probably pretty close! And designing for that 80 is foolish
Itt are a bunch of anti social ass hats who are so unlikable they want to force other people to play with them because if given a choice no one would.
If wow focused on making quality content and made everything doable solo with the option to group the game would see sub levels surpass lich king era.
If you want people to play with you maybe try being a person people want to play with rather than insist that people be forced to do so.
People couldn’t do them because they were poorly tuned and had a timer.
Of course it Blizzard’s idea of “difficulty” always include a stupid timer and zero tuning, yes, most scrubs won’t even touch the content.
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Zero downtime is the reason I love ARPGS like Diablo and hate playing in groups. Stopped playing M+ also because I couldn’t afford wasting half of my time searching for a group.
I also generally hate timers, however they're a bit of a necessary evil if you want to actually pressure people into performance. Without timers, not only would extremely defensive play be rewarded disproportionately, it'd also encourage things like AFKing for cooldowns etc. which lead to toxic gameplay loops where people feel they can't progress until their X minutes are up.
It's very difficult to challenge DPS unless you actually force them to do good damage in some way.
For the same reason I didn’t really cope that much with Command and Conquer serie but I loved Age of Empires serie: the environment. I like WoW fantasy style, I don’t like the Witcher fantasy style or Final Fantasy fantasy style.
That’s why I would just love a single player RPG based on Warcraft universe.
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D3 rifts do have timers but I really never in 10 years thought for ONE time “damn if only there wasn’t a timer”, even when pushing high GRs. And WITHOUT EVEN NOTICING you are naturally pushed gently to try and finish them in the fastest way possible. I dare say I LOVE those timers because every time I beat my previous time I feel sooo satisfied. If you take too much you can just review your build and/or lower the difficulty level, you’ll only get less rewards (not lower level rewards, LESS rewards).
This happens when timers are designed in a good way and cope well with gameplay. When the design is poor and timers are there only to punish, you end up with horrible visions.
This is actually a reasoning i'm doing pretty consistently lately. I love raiding in wow because of two main reasons - playing with friends and being able to just log in and do what i wanted to. Pretty sure would be the same with an m+ static group.
I'm keeping an eye on d4. IF it's really a good game and not something as short-sighted as D3, i can see myself playing that much more (while still playing wow for the raids with my guild).
Non ti fidar di me se il cuor ti manca.
You can have a timer that provides additional loot or bonuses if you beat it (notice “additional”) or you can have a timer that provides you nothing if you fail it.
Given I am not a fan of timers (Dark Souls say hello) - and you know, we had some interesting chitchat about this in the past - because for me they are a cheap way to measure skill, I do recognize that some of them are better thought than others.
You don't need a punishment for failing, you just need no reward .. the timer just makes it a zergfest, I prefer the good old days when you planned pulls and used CC and stuff.
All they need to do is NOT decrease the key level when you fail to complete on time (reduce it when you fail to complete), unless you choose to. It is that simple.
Challenge Mode : Play WoW like my disability has me play:
You will need two people, Brian MUST use the mouse for movement/looking and John MUST use the keyboard for casting, attacking, healing etc.
Briand and John share the same goal, same intentions - but they can't talk to each other, however they can react to each other's in game activities.
Now see how far Brian and John get in WoW.