It's not "overwhelmed" but rather frustrated. These systems simply add nothing interesting for me in terms of gameplay, choices, fluff etc.
I liked the game when its "systems" were rather simple but designed with a certain roleplay factor in mind. Talents and Glyphs made sense to me, as did the original iterations of gear, stats and reagents. Nowadays it feels like everything has become so far removed from these basic foundational systems that the game just keeps getting more unintuitive and muddied.
When I played Classic, my basic rotation on my Warlock might have been very simplistic but it felt like every time I pressed my Shadowbolt button, I knew exactly which items, talents, stats etc. contributed to the result I would end up seeing on the screen. It's a very immediate and effective sort of feedback that makes the ability fun to use despite the simplicity of the gameplay. In the modern version of the game, things have become so needlessly complicated that much of the fun simply gets sucked out of the process. It also doesn't help that most of these systems are complete garbage thematically speaking.
The absolute state of Warcraft lore in 2021:
Kyrians: We need to keep chucking people into the Maw because it's our job.
Also Kyrians: Why is the Maw growing stronger despite all our efforts?
no i dont. i just ignore them and do what a guide says.
now i've always followed guides so i think the reason i pay less attention to what i'm actually doing is probably just because i'm less invested in the game nowadays and not so much that the systems are too complicated. might be because the systems change so often nowadays that it's not really worth the hassle of learning their inner workings anymore though, but that's probably more something like decision fatigue than being overwhelmed.
The systems themselves I think are quite engaging, especially if you enjoy to min max and do different types of content. Whether it's legendaries, conduits, soul binds or talents, I setup differently if it's Tyrannical or Fortifed, this boss or that raid boss etc. There is always a bit of wiggle room to change this or that. Got a bit stale after a time, since I have my favourite setups, but I've never felt there's a single build to rule them all.
overwhelmed? no. annoyed by how poorly thought out they are? absolutely. for some reason the current lead devs only do one of two things. they either ignore us completely or they listen to us and then change our suggestion to how they want it. it's one step forward and then either two or three steps back. it infuriates me that these people talk down to us and ignore us, just so they can bumble around like idiots and make obvious mistakes.
i might not be a game dev but i sure as heck can tell when something is going to go horrible wrong. it comes with 15+ years of gaming experience.
after a couple of hours are not hard to understand, but they are too many and is anoying as fuck. i just want raid and stuff
One particular problem is systems where you are asked to make a choice that matters, on limited information. For example, covenant choice. It means you either go do the research out of the game or you risk making a wrong choice and perhaps screwing yourself. The combination of complexity and competition leads to something I didn't enjoy at all.
"There is a pervasive myth that making content hard will induce players to rise to the occasion. We find the opposite. " -- Ghostcrawler
"The bit about hardcore players not always caring about the long term interests of the game is spot on." -- Ghostcrawler
"Do you want a game with no casuals so about 500 players?"
At the start of the expansion it took me about 2-3 weeks to understand what I need to do weekly to keep up and that was with my buddies explaining it to me. I've played since launch and never had such issues until Shadowlands. 9.1 I know what's happening since I've been reading patch notes mostly. Only thing I can't understand and I can't even find an answer on google for example is how many Soul Cinders I can get in week 1. I have 220 and I've done Torghast and every quest in Korthia, yet it says we get 500 or so a week on wowhead. I can only assume we don't get that much first weeks because of Torghast being time gated BUT I'm still not sure and I find it very annoying as I don't want to fall behind on one of the most important currencies for progression right now.
I don't like the way it's done, I want to log on and play the game because it's fun, not because if I don't I'll miss out and fall behind everyone.
Man often meets his destiny, on the path he takes to avoid it.
Lol no, but then i actually think for myself and not just blabber what some youtuber said in an over the top fashion to clickbait for more views.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Personally I don't find it overwhelming since I've been playing for a long time and had the chance to progressively learn each system at a time. That said, yes, I find their development philosophy of making 2-3 currencies and arbitrary new systems just to say they did something "new", confusing and annoying.
I'm overwhelmed by the amount of crap that seems to fill my bags from Korthia. The amount of fragment items is crazy
On a systems note I've seen that they have enhanced conduits with renown. I haven't got a clue what happens to them yet.
Dristereau - Axxolentus - Infernus - Sequentia - Nulo - Desterrar
Silvermoon - Shadowsong/Aszune - Tarren-Mill/Dentarg (SL Mage Tower: 29/36)
Feel like the general feelings are that they aren't overwhelming. They're simply tedious, an annoyance. I like just having:
- PvE (M+, Raiding)
- PvP (BGs, Arena)
- Pet Battling
- One system, one relatively easy system where it can be increased via the other 3 options as well as through daily quests, storyline quests, etc. Almost like the legion weapons, you just power them up and they slowly get stronger.
Beyond that, I don't enjoy it much.
When you ding max level and then open up a new pile of content... maybe. When you keep chugging along at cap... no, that's just you being a thicko.
Many of these systems feel pointless. Especially introducing choice, so much dev time was wasted on trying to balance azurite or soulbinds/covenant. Legion way was just minor points you have to get, "covenant" was set to your class/spec and people loved it.
But complicated? Nah. It's no more complicated than doing attuments in TBC, legendary questline in MoP/WoD or geting artifact in Legion. People just bitch when they have to do anything different.
I don't feel overwhelmed, but I find there's so many systems I just don't care about that get replaced/dumped by the end of the xpack anyway that I just mega shrug at them and only do the bare minimum, because I haven't been high-end raiding since Cataclysm anyway.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Also, it's should HAVE. NOT "should of". "Should of" doesn't even make sense. If you think you should own a cat, do you say "I should of a cat" or "I should have a cat"? Do you HAVE cats, or do you OF cats?
I wonder if Blizz themselves feel overwhelmed by having to work them in and balance them with everything else. I just get confused at first dealing with new systems until I settle down after being around them for a few days or weeks. I'm not really excited for them much either nor do I really hate them.
They went through a lot of trouble and complaints to bring in the Covenant system along with soulbinds/legendaries. And I was almost on their side when it came to their intent behind it. But after the strained releases and other issues, we only just get a step down to the artifact system again. Not bad but not really good either; not really a reason for me to be excited to engage with the game, just plain side dish for such a supposed big feature.
I wish their mistakes would be better building blocks for future system but somehow they keep fumbling around with future iterations. Not like the artifacts didn't have problem but I still liked that way better than what we got for BFA or SL.
I don't feel overwhelmed by systems considering most of them are kinda staggered and you don't need to learn everything right away, I get more overwhelmed by overload of content. Thankfully 9.1 has been very good with that IMO as I have been able to enjoy the new zone and new things without feeling overwhelmed. I think the nightmare for me was the Nazjatar/Mechagon patch where it was just too much content at the same time. I remember spending maybe 12 hours a day just in the new zones and I still felt I didn't get to do the things I wanted because of rare timers and such.
In Shadowlands?
Not at all. There are barely any, and what there are is not requiring much effort.
https://www.youtube.com/@DoffenGG
Gaming and WoW stuff