Do O Hqve to Buy Warcraft Again

Source: Blizzard

World of Warcraft (WoW) holds a special place in my middle. I accept more than than x,000 hours played, and I've watched the aging MMO evolve from RPG powerhouse to shallow MAU harvester for Activision's quarterly shareholder reports. Like much of the community, I long for a render to better days for the game, and recently, there has been a ray of promise.

Microsoft is attempting to buy Activision Blizzard, and thus World of Warcraft in the process. There's no guarantee the deal will actually go through, simply I for one hope that it does, since Activision Blizzard badly, desperately needs a modify in leadership. Grossly overpaid Robert Kotick has overseen 1 of the biggest drops in user retention in Blizzard history, seeing Globe of Warcraft go from industry staple to limping joke, all in the space of a few years. A scandal at Blizzard, coupled with encephalon bleed from a mass staff exodus, has certainly hit all of Activision Blizzard'due south games. Today, though, nosotros're hither to talk most WoW.

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said in a recent interview that he wants World of Warcraft to grow once again, and obtain more players than ever in the process. Given the state of World of Warcraft in 2022, I'd contend that's a alpine society.

If the stars align, and Blizzard does end upward gratuitous of Activision's dire shareholder culture, here'southward how I think WoW needs to realign to not only survive only thrive.

Arrive a video game once more

Source: Windows Central

My biggest issue with modern World of Warcraft is its recent and ambitious focus on time-gating mechanics. Blizzard has walked some of these dorsum in the latest Shadowlands expansion, but it ignored literally all of the criticisms from of the mechanics from the previous expansion, and also ignored all criticisms from the Shadowlands beta. Information technology was only after players started quitting over it en masse that they sat up and said, "Nosotros hear you." Fool me in one case, shame on yous, fool me twice ... you know the residuum. Later Boxing for Azeroth and Shadowlands, Blizzard seems intent on making fools of its community repeatedly. Preparation players to look to be ignored isn't a proficient await.

Activision's business model seems to hinge entirely on marketing, nostalgia, and hype, hoping that its more than egregious gameplay designs skid through and peradventure get a few players addicted without alienating others in the process. Unfortunately, they've overstepped the mark in recent years, doubling down on these kinds of mechanics in the latest expansion.

Time gating generally refers to the exercise of artificially blocking content from players until the post-obit week. Every layer of the latest WoW expansion committed to this do, with story elements gated, equipment upgrades gated, and character progression mechanics gated. Non behind skill or time spent actually playing, but past specific dates. This really incentivized players to simply log off, rather than actually play, and ironically seek out other games that will actually, you know, allow them play.

Source: Windows Central

Blizzard also went style besides far focusing on a weekly advantage chest, rather than getting loot from, you know, killing bosses. What made me quit recently was the fact that I counted no fewer than 40 boss kills without getting a single item. Forty. That's dozens of hours of play, beyond irritating community interactions trying to get groups equally a class role that isn't in equally high demand as others. Blizzard instead wants me to look until the following Wed to loot the Mythic chest, which gives you lot a random class reward based on your "engagement" with the game the prior calendar week. This mechanic feels wholly designed around padding on-going engagement figures, with bosses relegated to a numbers game rather than a rewarding feedback loop. Blizzard'due south de-emphasis on boss kills has backfired, though. Instead of waiting for Wednesday to get rewards and unlock activities, I only unsubscribed.

Blizzard's de-accent on boss kills has backfired, though. Instead of waiting for Wednesday to get rewards and unlock activities, I but unsubscribed.

Diverse other aspects of WoW make the game feel more like a job than a game these days. The scheduled boodle drops on a weekly timer. The scheduled activities on a weekly timer. The annoying Raider.IO addon ranks players based on their time spent in-game and luck in groups, rather than their individual skill. Every layer of WoW has started to make me feel like I was but a statistic, rather than a player, with the game no longer respecting my gratis time or my volition to actually take fun.

By comparison, Final Fantasy Fourteen has enough of side content that can exist experienced in betwixt pre-fabricated raid groups, with permanently embedded features similar player housing to keep gamers interested in the game'due south world. Blizzard expansions operate on this very Activision-similar "borrowed power" philosophy, where expansion features are thrown abroad between retail purchases, leaving a graveyard of pointless and abased content that could've been adult into interesting rolling gameplay features. Mists of Pandaria had a cool farming system that felt like a consolation prize for players who had been asking for player housing. Yet information technology lays abandoned, much like the Warlords of Draenor Garrison organization. Both of these features had their problems but could have evolved to be something more interesting tied to your graphic symbol growth, giving players something "RPG" to do outside of waiting for Blizzard's lame timers to actually play.

Refocus on community health

Source: Windows Fundamental

I touched upon Raider.IO and how I feel like information technology has had a chilling result on the community at large, but it'southward just really one piece of a much larger puzzle. When Blizzard activated cross-realm play and LFG and LFR random matchmaking for dungeons, they effectively killed server communities in the process. Players you saw running around on your screen mostly were not really from your server, leading players down a path of disconnection from others around them. There's probably a wider analysis that could factor in here, with changes in consumer habits, the evolving cyberspace, and the mode social media has practically dehumanized everyone online, but I'm not sure it would totally hold weight for WoW. Why? Because Terminal Fantasy XIV, a competing MMO, generally seems to have a far nicer, kinder, and more supportive community than the one Blizzard has curated effectually WoW in contempo years.

Blizzard's insistence of turning WoW into a MAU-padding machine "chore" rather than game probably goes some way to making players somewhat resentful of the time they spend inside WoW. If you're not playing admittedly optimally 100% at all times in a group, players tin very easily see from your talent choices or gear, or Raider.IO mod score, and judge yous for having too much fun rather than expediting their speed through a dungeon. Indeed, Mythic+ dungeons all come with a timer attached to them, adding a sense of urgency that is supremely fun to beat with friends, just dire and toxic with random players — who cheers to cantankerous-realm play, are largely anonymous. I suppose the argument would be, "Well, play with your friends," but that's a whole other problem worth addressing.

Source: BlizzardThe controversial and contradictory writing of Shadowlands has get something of a long-running joke among WoW fans.

Blizzard'south design effectually the Horde vs. Alliance faction war has besides been impacted by this full general modify in histrion behavior, fostered by Blizzard itself or non. Every bit players increasingly seek to play WoW in the most "optimal style" possible, rather than having fun, servers have become increasingly lopsided between Horde and Alliance players. Horde and Alliance players cannot play or even communicate with each other, at least as of writing. In that location are signs that Blizzard is gearing up to break open the barriers between the 2 factions, allowing Horde and Alliance players to raid and group up with each other for the first time in the nigh time to come. I'd argue that this doesn't become far enough, though.

I logged into my WoW server this calendar week for the start time in a yr, saddened to detect it was practically empty.

Given the way the WoW story has evolved, I think but dropping the faction split up entirely would solve the faction imbalance event across servers, and let communities to abound once more in a more logical way. If you lot're a Horde thespian on an Brotherhood-favoring server, chances are none of the Horde players y'all'll end upward in a group with are really from your server. I logged into my WoW server this week for the first time in a twelvemonth, saddened to notice it was practically empty. Yes, people are waiting for the big 9.2 WoW patch and many are probably checking out Lost Ark and FFXIV, only fifty-fifty during meridian times, finding people to play with has become harder than e'er in mod WoW. Partially considering players are quitting, but also because the faction imbalance, coupled with expressionless and empty servers, are killing server communities.

In that location are obvious and easy means to solve the faction dissever in the story. Enhance a ceasefire treaty between the Alliance and Horde. Allow players to learn the linguistic communication of other races in-game (gameplay features, wow!). Peradventure let opposing faction players to acquire a passport to other cities via the near-abandoned reputation system. Allow players who enjoy PvP to join radical and secretive sub-factions loyal to Genn Greymane or the belatedly Garrosh Hellscream who still detest their opposing Alliance or Horde enemy, and reposition battlegrounds as a war for supremacy between those sub-factions, and open-globe PvP as a bounty-hunting bump-off arrangement between these aggressors. The way the faction war has become fundamental to the community server infrastructure wellness just doesn't work in 2022.

Make Blizzard a powerhouse once again

Source: Windows Central

Finally, peradventure the well-nigh important and complicated slice of the puzzle — make Blizzard a desired place to work once more. It's no secret that Blizzard has undergone a massive exodus in longtime staff in contempo years, with some of the company'due south brightest stars heading to competing companies like Tencent's Riot so on. I'm reluctant to link the dip in WoW'southward quality to the churn of personnel at the company, merely I doubt it's had a positive outcome on the game.

The worlds Blizzard has created have inspired millions upon millions of players.

Blizzard was once (and still is) one of the most honey developers in gaming history. The worlds Blizzard has created have inspired millions upon millions of players, created lasting connections and friendships, and touched the lives of so, then many people. Watching the scandal unfold over the past couple of years has been disheartening as an onlooker, but I can't imagine the stress and pain information technology has caused people internally, especially the victims of Blizzard'south poor workplace culture. Many of the perpetrators have been removed, but it remains to be seen whether Blizzard tin can plough things around now, only getting rid of CEO Robert Kotick should go some way to begin repairing the damage.

This article simply really touches on a very small number of issues with World of Warcraft. There are, of grade, many, many more, from poor story delivery to weak advantage mechanics, unrewarding class design, and bad expansion features. With ex-Xbox CVP Mike Ybarra now leading Blizzard, who himself is a hardcore WoW raider, I tin can only hope that Blizzard volition find its anxiety again from a game pattern standpoint, focusing on fun rather than appointment. From a culture standpoint, there's a clear opportunity for Microsoft to bring a moving ridge of positivity and benefits to anybody at Blizzard, WoW dev or not, in a sorely needed reprieve from months of poor treatment from the top down at Activision Blizzard.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/if-world-warcraft-grow-again-it-needs-change-philosophy