A reason that makes us not identify with the game anymore that we rarely consider.

[epigramx]

It's easy to think that we may not identify with the game if we have no friends in it anymore or if we're abstractly "bored" of it but that may be inaccurate or at least too surface level.
I believe most of us identified with the game purely for its art too; meaning the voice acting and manerism and the general nature of its NPCs as well may play a big role; that may not be relevant anymore.

So if the devs want to strengthen the game: they may want to refresh the art design around the NPCs.

Doesn't "King's honor friend" and "Zug zug" get old after a point?

[Lochton]

It's easy to think that we may not identify with the game if we have no friends in it anymore or if we're abstractly "bored" of it but that may be inaccurate or at least too surface level.
I believe most of us identified with the game purely for its art too; meaning the voice acting and manerism and the general nature of its NPCs as well may play a big role; that may not be relevant anymore.

So if the devs want to strengthen the game: they may want to refresh the art design around the NPCs.

We see refreshed art assets almost every expansion without taking away the identity of the game?

Doesn't "King's honor friend" and "Zug zug" get old after a point?

Not really, at least for me. The only time to see that change is if the world had a huge skip forward to bring the factions out of the seat they are in.

[elderu]

Hearing those exact NPC quotes only reinvigorates my nostalgic passion for this game.

Take them out and I'm headed to Classic for real i guess, lol

Chris Metzen's Grunt voice lines give me chills to this today.
"BLOOD and THUNDER"
"Dabu..."
"STRENGTH and HONOR"

No, for me this stuff never gets old. The game feels old when it strays too far from these kind of tropes/tones.

[Konteil]

i got bored with retail because it seemed like iw as loging on to do chores rather than play a game. and raiding lost its luster when i couldnt just go raid somethign i had to have x item level and this spec and this gem and this chant or this IO score to be able to do anything. so id go into the world and itds dailies all day every day. world quests or whatnot for a miniscule bu,p in power. and gearing doesnt make the game easier to play anymore cause zones are scaled to level and power. so going and getting op t make farming easier doesnt exist. need a node and tehre are enemies around it .....kool im iver geared ill just kill em fast and grab node. ...now its grab em all and take too long to kill em so someone comes in while you are fighting and tags your node. thats at least fixed now but it just doesnt seem as fun. classic howver is what i remember and works teh way i like it too. so i play that over retail. at least there people talk and gear means something as far as power scaling to make the world easier to get around in.

[Unholyground]

If they keep adding more skill based systems in the game it would create more fun moments within the reward loops.

I think they should add a new profession called hunting where you actually have to hunt rare creatures and potentially even trap them. It would yield stuff for multiple professions from the animals once they've been harvested properly. Something like that would be really fun.

You would just give all hunters a passive bonus to this profession as a class passive.

[Konteil]

that sounds fun actually

[Kralljin]

Changing things for the sake of change simply alienates veteran players.

And considering at least some of Blizzard recent art updates have received rather mixed reactions, i'd say that they should err on the side of "If it's not broke, don't fix it".

[elderu]

Uh dear... Metzen didn't do those voices though.

Here comes Mr. Knowitall not knowing what I or they are even talking about! WOW!

Drop the condescending 'tude, it's disgusting. "Uh dear..." ... Who are you to talk like this to people?

You don't even deserve evidence, not that you'll see this as it anyway since you could never -HEAR- it as Metzen to begin with,
but if you tell me these aren't Metzen lines, I declare you a liar and troll, plain and simple.

https://www.wowhead.com/sound=6020/o...ardnpcpissed02
Probably safe to say these Pissed lines are the most telling of the bunch, but allow me to find the three I was referencing:

DABU: https://www.wowhead.com/sound=6019/o...rdnpcfarewells first one that plays of the 5 farewells
STRENGTH and HONOR: https://www.wowhead.com/sound=6018/o...rdnpcgreetings second one that plays of 6 greetings
BLOOD and THUNDER: https://www.wowhead.com/sound=6018/o...rdnpcgreetings sixth one that plays of 6 greetings

Next you'll tell me Archaedas, Nefarian, and Vol'jin before MoP were voiced by other people too Metzen's voice is unmistakable.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I loved the old gritty powermetal aesthetics. Despise the turn towards bland cartoon (with tumblr furries layered on top) that it became.

The old voice acting was iconic as well.

[epigramx]

Not really, at least for me. The only time to see that change is if the world had a huge skip forward to bring the factions out of the seat they are in.

Changing things for the sake of change simply alienates veteran players.

Hearing those exact NPC quotes only reinvigorates my nostalgic passion for this game.

Take them out and I'm headed to Classic.

But that defines Nostalgia explicitly, and that's by definition a fake form of quality in art because it's not really the quality of the current art you appreciate but your OLD feelings surfacing in your memory.

In order to progress you need art that CURRENTLY would make you appreciate it even if you had no memory of old feelings.

[Imrindar]

Hearing those exact NPC quotes only reinvigorates my nostalgic passion for this game.

Take them out and I'm headed to Classic for real i guess, lol

Chris Metzen's Grunt voice lines give me chills to this today.
"BLOOD and THUNDER"
"Dabu..."
"STRENGTH and HONOR"

No, for me this stuff never gets old. The game feels old when it strays too far from these kind of tropes/tones.

Not only did it never get old for me, it was the core of the game that evolved from Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. I stopped identifying with the game, and subsequently stopped playing it, when it went totally off the rails with cosmic threats.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

Not being able to fly is what does that for me. TBC was the first time I actually got a character past level 15. It was the first time I raided and did dungeons, so my experience with the game has always been that I could fly in current content (mind you, it was really fucking slow, because I didn't have enough gold to get 280% flying, so 60% flying speed is what I had to deal with).

MoP was the last expansion I really enjoyed, and it isn't a coincidence that it was the last expansion that allowed you to fly relatively freely after hitting max level at least once. Every expansion after it I wasn't able to enjoy the open-world content in any way, because I was too busy treating the whole fucking world as an obstacle I didn't have enough attention to spare to actually try and appreciate any of the aesthetics (every time I tried, I would inevitably get stuck on some tiny divot in the terrain or a tree root that I didn't notice because I was trying to somewhere other than the ground in the direction I was moving).

WoW without flying isn't a game I can enjoy any sort of open-world content in; Dragonriding isn't anywhere close to being enough to fix that for me.

[Chilela]

But that defines Nostalgia explicitly, and that's by definition a fake form of quality in art because it's not really the quality of the current art you appreciate but your OLD feelings surfacing in your memory.

In order to progress you need art that CURRENTLY would make you appreciate it even if you had no memory of old feelings.

Herein lies the issue: If you decided to overhaul the artistic aspect of NPCs, would that not eventually get "old", similar to what you accuse the original art of doing? It would likely just end up requiring regularly-scheduled overhauls, which is a grossly unnecessary time and resource investment. Plus, there's no guarantee that the newer art would retain the iconic nature of the older art, particularly if Blizz's track record of sound effect overhauls the past couple of years has been any indication.

[Kralljin]

But that defines Nostalgia explicitly

It doesn't.
That's like saying someone only prefers the Star Wars special editions because of nostalgia, which is just false.
The error that you're making is that you assume that simply because someone enjoys something, it must be nostalgia when it also can just be that it's good.

This is why i said "change for the sake of change".

[Mardux]

Here comes Mr. Knowitall not knowing what I or they are even talking about! WOW!

Drop the condescending 'tude, it's disgusting. "Uh dear..." ... Who are you to talk like this to people?

You don't even deserve evidence, not that you'll see this as it anyway since you could never -HEAR- it as Metzen to begin with,
but if you tell me these aren't Metzen lines, I declare you a liar and troll, plain and simple.

https://www.wowhead.com/sound=6020/o...ardnpcpissed02
Probably safe to say these Pissed lines are the most telling of the bunch, but allow me to find the three I was referencing:

DABU: https://www.wowhead.com/sound=6019/o...rdnpcfarewells first one that plays of the 5 farewells
STRENGTH and HONOR: https://www.wowhead.com/sound=6018/o...rdnpcgreetings second one that plays of 6 greetings
BLOOD and THUNDER: https://www.wowhead.com/sound=6018/o...rdnpcgreetings sixth one that plays of 6 greetings

Next you'll tell me Archaedas, Nefarian, and Vol'jin before MoP were voiced by other people too Metzen's voice is unmistakable.

Why are your feelings so hurt when you are the one that implied those were Metzen lines?

[Nerph-]

It's easy to think that we may not identify with the game if we have no friends in it anymore or if we're abstractly "bored" of it but that may be inaccurate or at least too surface level.
I believe most of us identified with the game purely for its art too; meaning the voice acting and manerism and the general nature of its NPCs as well may play a big role; that may not be relevant anymore.

So if the devs want to strengthen the game: they may want to refresh the art design around the NPCs.

Doesn't "King's honor friend" and "Zug zug" get old after a point?

Not for me at least, quite the opposite. It's this sort of nostalgia that keeps me around.

[VMSmith]

I'll never tire of "Me not that kind of orc!", or any of the orc peon comments, for that matter.

Some say that familiarity breeds contempt, I believe it breeds comfort. Especially as I age, major change becomes ever more difficult to adjust to and just not something I enjoy.

[Shadowferal]

MoP was the last expansion I really enjoyed, and it isn't a coincidence that it was the last expansion that allowed you to fly relatively freely after hitting max level at least once.

I thought the Dragons were impressive.

[elderu]

Why are your feelings so hurt when you are the one that implied those were Metzen lines?

Real question is why would Venziir remove their post now? Probably because they recognized the error of their ways trying to debunk the reality I stated.
They almost certainly are Metzen lines and it seems the opposition agreed when given enough context.

So, to be humorous I'll use one of the lines to explain why it bothered me. https://www.wowhead.com/sound=6020/o...ardnpcpissed03 (3rd track of 5 Pissed Orc responses.)

"YOU DISPUTE MY HONOR?!"

[epigramx]

If you decided to overhaul the artistic aspect of NPCs, would that not eventually get "old", similar to what you accuse the original art of doing? It would likely just end up requiring regularly-scheduled overhauls

That's a strawman argument. Nobody told you for devs to develop an unhealthy obsession with updating the game no matter what because that's bad design.

But the fact of the matter is: something that connected with people 20 years ago may not be up to date with how people communicate now to begin with.

You may claim "I communicate with it" but I'm suggesting "you can communicate with movies from the 1950s too but they're not as up to date".