World of Warcraft: Current Year

I think we are shuffling between the problem(s) and the problem(s) that hit each of us individually.

I don't think it really has anything to do with balancing time or appeasing one group vs another but they're simply making features/systems that are touted to be one thing and it simply falls flat.

Coming out of BFA, everything really seemed to be moving into a direction that was answering the cries of a lot of the player base, especially folks that play alts or looking for ideas that were fun and simply got lost after several expansions. They did make it a little more alt-friendly but everything else is simply no fun... so when you take away The Maw, Torghast, and just the general fatigue or raiding/M+ you're left with next to nothing.

HOWEVER, the expansion still has room to grow and maybe the new raids, dungeon, and storyline progression will breathe some energy into the game.

Players just get through content so quickly now and the stuff that I actually thought would be fun and would persist after some of the key running and raiding settled simply wasn't.... I think if they can finish out the Maw and do something with Torghast, that will help significantly.

They intend to continue the loot diet and more punishing RNG weekly chests being the only way to get loot in 9.1 so I'm pretty sure this expac is cooked. BFA is superior RNG and has the key rewards on par with raiding, making it worth the grind.

Mist said:

You just can't make a game that's fun for adults to play for 25+ hours a week every week all season long.

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I used to play a game like that called World of Warcraft and it's expansion The Burning Crusade.

Ehrgeix said:

What like... went wrong this expansion? I was going to buy it before it got delayed, but was too busy after the delay. I thought it looked alright (but too many systems) on release, and a couple of mates picked it up and said they liked it then stopped talking about it and now all I see is the usual wtf blizzard? Is it just the delays / no content?

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Least amount of content in an expansion ever with 4 full zones. BFA had the same amount of content per faction (3 full zones plus war campaign in enemy zones).

Time gating everything while also having catch up gear at launch, so you could just make do with the catch up gear.

Major features Torghast and The Maw being very basic. The Maw has less meaningful things to do in it as an endgame zone than solo play in classic endgame zones. Torghast is just the most boring Rougelike you've ever played with basically no rewards other than one slot having higher item level.

Mist said:

I just feel like people are claiming there is both too much, and not enough, shit to grind in the same paragraph.

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Too much boring stuff to do, not enough fun stuff to do?

Chris said:

I used to play a game like that called World of Warcraft and it's expansion The Burning Crusade.



Least amount of content in an expansion ever with 4 full zones. BFA had the same amount of content per faction (3 full zones plus war campaign in enemy zones).

Time gating everything while also having catch up gear at launch, so you could just make do with the catch up gear.

Major features Torghast and The Maw being very basic. The Maw has less meaningful things to do in it as an endgame zone than solo play in classic endgame zones. Torghast is just the most boring Rougelike you've ever played with basically no rewards other than one slot having higher item level.

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I could nitpick a lot of things about the game, but thats probably the best summary.

There really isn't much else to say. It's been pretty obvious for a while. Blizzard only cares about what they *think* extends sub life. The problem is without any definitive competition in the space anything they do will contribute to their own confirmation bias. You need dozens of real competition in a space for things to pan out and "data" on player subs to matter. When you only have 2 (FF 14 and WoW) you end up with what is essentially a 2 party system, which doesn't really prove anything about what players want but rather what they are willing to put up with to play a game in a genre they want to like.

Flying in WoW is a great example of this. Not only do they just not make it available for long periods of time in a new expansion, but they believe that blocking players from accessing it for extended periods of time after it's released is good business practice to keep players subbed. The flight whistle was a great addition. It was actually a pretty good way of removing flying from the game that didn't make players cringe at suddenly losing an easy travel mechanism. Then they removed it... even though most players probably wouldn't have minded flying being gone forever if they just made flight whistles usable everywhere and starting at like level 10.

Tigoles left Blizzard. Dead Company.

Yeah I don't know who works there anymore heh.

Does that mean Tigole can come home to shitpost here?

xmod2 said:

I wonder where Tigole is going? Would be pretty great if he ends up at Dreamhaven.

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Riot is my guess

I wouldn’t be surprised if he was forced out, since there has been a long standing purge of the old guard. Makes me wonder who really pushed for the early OW2 reveal, since the concept wasn’t ready and I have to imagine they didn’t want OW to become another Call of Duty.

Anyways, I suspect he will end up at Dreamhaven or some other major dev house given his background.

Araxen said:

Tigoles left Blizzard. Dead Company.

New Leadership for Overwatch

New Leadership for Overwatch

playoverwatch.com

Overwatch Director Jeff Kaplan Leaves Blizzard Entertainment - IGN

Jeff Kaplan the director of Overwatch is leaving Blizzard Entertainment after almost 20 years.

www.ign.com

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Him and Furor left similar time. Rumour is they are secretly working on EQ3.