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[Interview] World of Warcraft: Addressing the Criticism

SBFordSBFord Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129

Since its announcement in November last year, World of Warcraft’s latest expansion has come under a fair share of criticism. Have players been left waiting too long for new content? Does Blizzard’s MMO still hold up after ten years at the top? Can it still hope to bring in new players as it once did?

Read more of Gareth Harmer's World of Warcraft: Addressing the Criticism.

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Comments

  • greatskysgreatskys Member UncommonPosts: 451

    It will never bring in new players as it once did there is far too much competition these days . I'm sure there will be new players though because its a very appealing game to children and its a good starter mmo . 

    The over all trend will continue to be downward I suspect . 

  • LudwikLudwik Member UncommonPosts: 407
    WoW will stand the test of time.

    Too many shenanigans from the other AAA developers to ever build a following.
  • ButeoRegalisButeoRegalis Member UncommonPosts: 594

    "Have players been left waiting too long for new content?"

    Don't hate! It takes a while for World of Borgcraft to assimilate all the good stuff that's been done in newer MMOs.

    image

  • AlalalaAlalala Member UncommonPosts: 314

    I enjoyed most of the game play, although the 4 rows of buttons and addon management got tedious.

     

    What drove me and my mates away was how childish WoW became - cuddly pandas, adorable pets, cute mounts.   Those expansion trailers are the only thing left in WoW that feels dark and adult; everything else feels like being in a kids' cartoon.

     

    Yeah, I'm part of the millions of folks who left WoW.  There are as-good MMO options out there, some free or B2P.

     

     
  • redrain84redrain84 Member UncommonPosts: 88

    I use to play wow also, and this game doesn't give the people what they want. Wow is at its end of days, and it has been a long time coming. Every thing will meet its end at one point. This was once the great MMO but no more. They had their  fame now its time for them to sit down and reminisce over the days they once were great.

    I play games now  where its the only one game the developer has so it updated often i.e. Marvel Heroes 2015.  Blizzard has to many games so one cant get the attention its need to flourish. Also they take way to long to come out with Expansions in my opinion and when they do the expansion isn't really good. They make you wait a long time they when its released it sucks. This is the Blizzard formula...

     

  • MrMelGibsonMrMelGibson Member EpicPosts: 3,033
    Originally posted by redrain84

    I use to play wow also, and this game doesn't give the people what they want. Wow is at its end of days, and it has been a long time coming. Every thing will meet its end at one point. This was once the great MMO but no more. They had their  fame now its time for them to sit down and reminisce over the days they once were great.

    I play games now  where its the only one game the developer has so it updated often i.e. Marvel Heroes 2015.  Blizzard has to many games so one cant get the attention its need to flourish. Also they take way to long to come out with Expansions in my opinion and when they do the expansion isn't really good. They make you wait a long time they when its released it sucks. This is the Blizzard formula...

     

     [mod edit] How are they on their way out with 7 million subs?    [mod edit]

  • PepeqPepeq Member UncommonPosts: 1,977
    Originally posted by MrMelGibson
    Originally posted by redrain84

    I use to play wow also, and this game doesn't give the people what they want. Wow is at its end of days, and it has been a long time coming. Every thing will meet its end at one point. This was once the great MMO but no more. They had their  fame now its time for them to sit down and reminisce over the days they once were great.

    I play games now  where its the only one game the developer has so it updated often i.e. Marvel Heroes 2015.  Blizzard has to many games so one cant get the attention its need to flourish. Also they take way to long to come out with Expansions in my opinion and when they do the expansion isn't really good. They make you wait a long time they when its released it sucks. This is the Blizzard formula...

     

    [mod edit]

    How are they on their way out with 7 million subs?  [mod edit]

    Why does it matter one way or another... they guy who left the game, left it... adios... the guy who still plays the game, still plays it... gratz... neither of which need to ever cross paths... and yet, they seek out the other half like it's some sort of quest of absolution.  Really, both halves of the argument come off exactly the same no matter how you try to spin it.

  • meonthissitemeonthissite Member UncommonPosts: 917
    Originally posted by Ludwik
    WoW will stand the test of time.

    Too many shenanigans from the other AAA developers to ever build a following.

    Sadly I think due to the number of new players who don't know a bad deal or bad economy when they see one they still continue to build followers despite serious game design flaws.

    Archeage, GW2, NWO are great examples of economies that are terrible but somehow the fanboys just keep on paying.

  • FeonixoFeonixo Member UncommonPosts: 36
    I have been playing Archeage lately.. I can never go back to WoW. I never really liked how WoW looked, but I got into it because my girlfriend was playing. My 12 year old son loves it, he gets to play it when he stays with me, and I think that is the market that Blizz are appealling to the most (whether they mean to or not).
  • MrMelGibsonMrMelGibson Member EpicPosts: 3,033
    Originally posted by Feonixo
    I have been playing Archeage lately.. I can never go back to WoW. I never really liked how WoW looked, but I got into it because my girlfriend was playing. My 12 year old son loves it, he gets to play it when he stays with me, and I think that is the market that Blizz are appealling to the most (whether they mean to or not).
     

    Yep, all 7 million subs are just housewives and children.  You nailed it on the head. /rollseyes

  • PissedjediPissedjedi Member UncommonPosts: 31

    As an Adult of 41 who has played wow for 10 years... I don't play wow because its cute and cuddly. I play wow because many of its systems are well thought out. Because they do have a good organized pvp system. Because I do enjoy the lore and universe they have created. Because They still try to compete. I have tried many mmos.. Wildstar recently.. had a fun combat system. But Instead of utilizing their past experience from Wow as developers and having a  smart well balanced pvp system.. They had a pvp system that was terribly flawed easily exploited and sadly they didn't decide that having a serious pvp support system was worth it and .. sadly that game has suffered greatly because of it. 

    Warlords of Draenor appears to  definitely have learned from the mistakes they made with pvp and the lack of support and instead are finally giving pvp a greater due it long deserves. This is why I Am vastly more interested in this expansion then expansions past.

  • JoeyjojoshabaduJoeyjojoshabadu Member UncommonPosts: 162
    Originally posted by Ludwik
    WoW will stand the test of time.

    Too many shenanigans from the other AAA developers to ever build a following.

    I think this is true. Many people here are too personally invested in other MMOs or have been burned out in WOW to be even slightly objective. If you were to 'helicopter' the situation - objectively look at the overall layout from above - it's clear that WOW just does it better than the others. It's not that WOW is the Best Game Ever, just that there is a solid trend for other MMOs to be  messy or clumsily executed or inefficient or niche (by comparison at least). Of course, this is a function of mostly money and time - WOW has more of both behind them than other MMOs. If the others had as many subs and 10 years up time behind them, they would be as content-rich and polished as well.

     

  • GravargGravarg Member UncommonPosts: 3,424
    Originally posted by Pissedjedi

    As an Adult of 41 who has played wow for 10 years... I don't play wow because its cute and cuddly. I play wow because many of its systems are well thought out. Because they do have a good organized pvp system. Because I do enjoy the lore and universe they have created. Because They still try to compete. I have tried many mmos.. Wildstar recently.. had a fun combat system. But Instead of utilizing their past experience from Wow as developers and having a  smart well balanced pvp system.. They had a pvp system that was terribly flawed easily exploited and sadly they didn't decide that having a serious pvp support system was worth it and .. sadly that game has suffered greatly because of it. 

    Warlords of Draenor appears to  definitely have learned from the mistakes they made with pvp and the lack of support and instead are finally giving pvp a greater due it long deserves. This is why I Am vastly more interested in this expansion then expansions past.

    QFT

    I couldn't have said it better myself.  I've played wow since launch and one of the things that keeps me playing is that the game is so polished.  Not only does everything works (except on few occasions), it works extremely smooth.  Then there's also the lore of the Warcraft Universe, which I've been playing since WC1.  With WoD, it seems they're going to revisit the older world, which is very exciting for me.  I always thought when WoW was announced it would start in the era of the Dark Portal, just like the series.  I was wrong, but I'm happy to see that they're revisiting it.

  • WizardryWizardry Member LegendaryPosts: 19,332

    The bottom line is this"""HOW players are playing the game.Blizzard can many any speech they want but if all players  are doing like 99% of them ,are just rinse and repeat instance dungeons,that is not much to brag about at all.It also means that the word content is over used,you can narrow it down to one dimensional gaming and that is it.

    In other words,you cant say we do this and that and is a very ambitious xpac yet players are still doing just ONE thing 99% of the time.Its engine is very outdated,its graphics are outdated,still linear questing and instances,really that has been done a million times by EVERY game.

    Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.

  • blubstererblubsterer Member Posts: 88
    Originally posted by Tom Chilton

    Then there are all the potential barriers to getting into it. Certainly with our previous expansions, if you had dropped out somewhere leading up to that expansion, like prior to it, then you had the barrier of getting through all the expansions you didn’t do, to get to whatever the current one is. So we’re really trying to lower that barrier with the level 90 boost and make sure that, if you are excited by this, that you can jump right into it.

    Yeah, right. First you let people pay for the expansions all those years. Then you let them pay for insta level to 90. And then you call it "lower the barrier". If you really want to lower the barrier you could simply make all expansions but the newest one free. And bring back the Scroll of Resurrection. That is actively lowering the barrier without robing the players. But then you have to pass on a bit of money. And that will never happen.

    That's the greatest problem I have with WoW (and Blizzard in general) nowadays:  don't piss on my back and call it rain ...

  • VorthanionVorthanion Member RarePosts: 2,749
    Originally posted by Alalala

    I enjoyed most of the game play, although the 4 rows of buttons and addon management got tedious.

     

    What drove me and my mates away was how childish WoW became - cuddly pandas, adorable pets, cute mounts.   Those expansion trailers are the only thing left in WoW that feels dark and adult; everything else feels like being in a kids' cartoon.

     

    Yeah, I'm part of the millions of folks who left WoW.  There are as-good MMO options out there, some free or B2P.

     

     

    I think the cutesy stuff is there to attract asian gamers who love that lovey dovey anime style.

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  • syriinxsyriinx Member UncommonPosts: 1,383
    The two types of people on MMORPG.com that always come across as clueless and pathetic:  WoW bashers and SoE bashers
  • furbansfurbans Member UncommonPosts: 968

    I pre-ordered the deluxe edition of WoD.  Will I play WoW when WoD releases?  Sure.  Will it keep my attention?  Doubtful since SoO just reinforces that I am really sick and tired of the treadmill gear grind of WoW raiding and that its the only form of PvE end-game content.  I'd skeptical that Blizzard will ever make any sort of PvE endgame content besides raiding.  I'm looking towards sandbox games that are coming out to really to my MMO time with.  EQN really has my attention with their exploration and storybricks which hopefully what they actually deliver out of all their talk will be enough.  That or hopefully PFO delivers what they set out to do and is graphically acceptable.

     

    WoW has had a huge and successful run and still running, but for me who played every xpac with the exception of Cata, who played the very first Warcraft game done by the real Blizzard, WoW is a tired old horse that needs to be let out to the pastures.  Doubtful that the experience will change even with these new features.

  • ArglebargleArglebargle Member EpicPosts: 3,381

    WoW is big because it's big.   It came from an established company with a ton of fans, a company that had a bit of business acumen.   It's built up a large base of players with time in grade.  And for the neophyte, it's the first name they know.   Like certain other internet phenomenom,  say, Ebay or Paypal, it hit at the right time, right place.   It's not that Ebay or Paypal are that great, its more their ubiquity.   They are the big dogs of their genre, and the name that everyone knows.

     

    Me, I bounced off WoW hard, didn't like the world or the writing.  But obviously, millions of folks don't agree with me.... ;)   Of course, millions of folks bought Brittany Spears recordings too.

    If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.

  • greatskysgreatskys Member UncommonPosts: 451
    Originally posted by Bigdaddyx
    Originally posted by Bannuk
    Originally posted by MrMelGibson
    Originally posted by Feonixo
    I have been playing Archeage lately.. I can never go back to WoW. I never really liked how WoW looked, but I got into it because my girlfriend was playing. My 12 year old son loves it, he gets to play it when he stays with me, and I think that is the market that Blizz are appealling to the most (whether they mean to or not).
     

    Yep, all 7 million subs are just housewives and children.  You nailed it on the head. /rollseyes

    Oh look, a fanboi got his feelings hurt.  You can tell because the only argument he has is the number of subscriptions WoW has, which has been falling for a while now and how many are of those are in Asia?  Oh wait, don't answer that.  It usually gets you fanbois all wound up because it seriously bloats the numbers and you don't want to admit that now do you?

    I'm sorry your feelings got hurt because Feonixo's 12 year enjoys your beloved game.  What upsets you more, the fact that a 12 enjoys it, or the fact that his 12 year old is capable of playing at all and probably at a high level because the game is and always has been ridiculously easy?  No, don't answer that either.  A kid can't love a hardcore raiding game.  That would make people seriously reconsider how "hardcore" all those that play it really are.  I mean a hardcore raider can't be hardcore if they play a little kids game can they?  Oops.  Forget that question as well. 

    The game has always appealed to kids and teenagers because of it's cartoon art style and like what Feonixo said or not, he is correct to a point.  Blizzard made a game that was easy so those that didn't have the skills/time to play EQ could finally have a game of their own.  Don't worry, EQ2 was designed for the same thing and that by itself isn't necessarily a bad thing.  Then they make it all cartoony to capture the younger gamers so they would get hooked early and grow up with the game.  Overall, not a bad strategy.

    But I think what really got your goat was the fact that Feonixo's 12 year old son is not only playing but that he kicked your hardcore ass in PvP.  Just kidding.

     

    By the way, only the third paragraph is serious.  Lighten up MrMelGibson, he wasn't suggesting that all WoW players are 12, but you prove that many act like it when anything negative is said about a dumbed down cartoony EQ clone that copies ideas from just about every other MMO developed since its release.  If you like it, great!  Log in and raid until you get that last drop you needed if that's what makes you happy. 

    Lets look at all the rehashed troll arguments that we get against WOW.

    1.) WOW's majority of subs come from Asia. (its no big deal because Asian players do not matter)

    2.) Wow's sub numbers are bloated again thanks to Asian players.

    3.) Wow is extremely easy and ALWAYS has been.

    4.)  Wow is for 12 years old.

    5.) Its cartoon style which automatically means it is for kids and teenagres (even though guy like him often have trouble differentiating between cartoon and stylised).

    6.) WOW is nothing more but a dumbed down EQ cartoony clone. (even though anyone who played EQ knows that WOW and EQ hardly got anything in common)

    Am i missing anything else? oh yeah...make sure you use word 'fanboy' repeatedly.

    Thanks you for such a complete WOW bashing post full of every cliche that has been thrown around for last 10 years.

    image

     As long as your being fair in your criticisms I don't see it as trolling myself but I imagine people that like a game want to defend it .A lot of WoW players seem to be more extreme than most and fanatical in their devotion to Blizzard . That always strikes me as very strange to the point its almost a mental health issue . It kind of reminds me of attitude to Marvel comics I had from the age of 5 upwards .I just thought they were superior to DC because Marvel were very good at making you think that and given all my friends were into Marvel we kind of brainwashed each other into believing it . When I grew up a bit I tried DC and found they were perfectly fine and in fact in many cases they were better than Marvel . 

  • BraindomeBraindome Member UncommonPosts: 959

    I really like this expansion, quite alot. That's saying quite a bit considering I have hated the game ever since the first expansion TBC. I loved vanilla WoW.

    I like Garrisons, I like the open world pvp zone, I like the new item squash, I like the crafting changes to more like the original vision rather than stat boosting.

    In many ways this is more of what I expected WoW to originally be, at least conceptually and I will be playing as I have waited for this type of change for 8 years, which is pretty sad, but i'll be trying it nonetheless.

  • jayemlegacyjayemlegacy Member UncommonPosts: 23
    Oh boy.. So many WoW Haters. The end of WoW is coming really? Pretty much half of the MMORPG community disagrees with you. I do agree that there are other great MMO options, but come on people, get real. I personally love World of Warcraft, the past expansion wasnt the best but it defenitely was not bad. The new features in Warlords of Draenor seem great. Bringing back what the game used to be about.  A lot of cool characters are coming into the game as NPC's and bosses that are well known in the Warcraft Universe. Im just as excited for this xpac as I was Burning Crusade. Im a huge Illidan fan and I defenitely liked Grom Hellscream as well.  WoW isnt going anywhere. I cant even comprehend why someone would think it was going anywhere when it still has BY FAR the biggest community of gamers playing it. BY FAR.
  • jayemlegacyjayemlegacy Member UncommonPosts: 23
    Im sure the "it may have the biggest community, but its the worst community" argument is incoming. But to counter that argument, You clearly arent part of the community if you think so and probably dont belong anyways. So it doesnt really matter. Go play the game you are going to play. Sitting on forums saying the game is going to die isnt going to make the game die.
  • BigdaddyxBigdaddyx Member UncommonPosts: 2,039
    Originally posted by greatskys
    Originally posted by Bigdaddyx
    Originally posted by Bannuk
    Originally posted by MrMelGibson
    Originally posted by Feonixo
    I have been playing Archeage lately.. I can never go back to WoW. I never really liked how WoW looked, but I got into it because my girlfriend was playing. My 12 year old son loves it, he gets to play it when he stays with me, and I think that is the market that Blizz are appealling to the most (whether they mean to or not).
     

    Yep, all 7 million subs are just housewives and children.  You nailed it on the head. /rollseyes

    Oh look, a fanboi got his feelings hurt.  You can tell because the only argument he has is the number of subscriptions WoW has, which has been falling for a while now and how many are of those are in Asia?  Oh wait, don't answer that.  It usually gets you fanbois all wound up because it seriously bloats the numbers and you don't want to admit that now do you?

    I'm sorry your feelings got hurt because Feonixo's 12 year enjoys your beloved game.  What upsets you more, the fact that a 12 enjoys it, or the fact that his 12 year old is capable of playing at all and probably at a high level because the game is and always has been ridiculously easy?  No, don't answer that either.  A kid can't love a hardcore raiding game.  That would make people seriously reconsider how "hardcore" all those that play it really are.  I mean a hardcore raider can't be hardcore if they play a little kids game can they?  Oops.  Forget that question as well. 

    The game has always appealed to kids and teenagers because of it's cartoon art style and like what Feonixo said or not, he is correct to a point.  Blizzard made a game that was easy so those that didn't have the skills/time to play EQ could finally have a game of their own.  Don't worry, EQ2 was designed for the same thing and that by itself isn't necessarily a bad thing.  Then they make it all cartoony to capture the younger gamers so they would get hooked early and grow up with the game.  Overall, not a bad strategy.

    But I think what really got your goat was the fact that Feonixo's 12 year old son is not only playing but that he kicked your hardcore ass in PvP.  Just kidding.

     

    By the way, only the third paragraph is serious.  Lighten up MrMelGibson, he wasn't suggesting that all WoW players are 12, but you prove that many act like it when anything negative is said about a dumbed down cartoony EQ clone that copies ideas from just about every other MMO developed since its release.  If you like it, great!  Log in and raid until you get that last drop you needed if that's what makes you happy. 

    Lets look at all the rehashed troll arguments that we get against WOW.

    1.) WOW's majority of subs come from Asia. (its no big deal because Asian players do not matter)

    2.) Wow's sub numbers are bloated again thanks to Asian players.

    3.) Wow is extremely easy and ALWAYS has been.

    4.)  Wow is for 12 years old.

    5.) Its cartoon style which automatically means it is for kids and teenagres (even though guy like him often have trouble differentiating between cartoon and stylised).

    6.) WOW is nothing more but a dumbed down EQ cartoony clone. (even though anyone who played EQ knows that WOW and EQ hardly got anything in common)

    Am i missing anything else? oh yeah...make sure you use word 'fanboy' repeatedly.

    Thanks you for such a complete WOW bashing post full of every cliche that has been thrown around for last 10 years.

    image

     As long as your being fair in your criticisms I don't see it as trolling myself but I imagine people that like a game want to defend it .A lot of WoW players seem to be more extreme than most and fanatical in their devotion to Blizzard . That always strikes me as very strange to the point its almost a mental health issue . It kind of reminds me of attitude to Marvel comics I had from the age of 5 upwards .I just thought they were superior to DC because Marvel were very good at making you think that and given all my friends were into Marvel we kind of brainwashed each other into believing it . When I grew up a bit I tried DC and found they were perfectly fine and in fact in many cases they were better than Marvel . 

    So you think he was being fair with his generalisations and back handed insults? if you think that is a sign of a healthy mental health then i have no more words to express myself here. But yeah lets ignore that and focus on WOW fans and their mental health issues.

     

     

  • jayemlegacyjayemlegacy Member UncommonPosts: 23
    Originally posted by Wizardry

    The bottom line is this"""HOW players are playing the game.Blizzard can many any speech they want but if all players  are doing like 99% of them ,are just rinse and repeat instance dungeons,that is not much to brag about at all.It also means that the word content is over used,you can narrow it down to one dimensional gaming and that is it.

    In other words,you cant say we do this and that and is a very ambitious xpac yet players are still doing just ONE thing 99% of the time.Its engine is very outdated,its graphics are outdated,still linear questing and instances,really that has been done a million times by EVERY game.

     

     

    World of Warcraft does everything better. Thats really all there is to it. Has it ever occured to you that not everyone has your same mindset? Could it be possible that people enjoy the graphics/questing/dungeons/raids in WoW?  I believe the amount of WoW subscribers answers that question. You can keep complaining/sitting around waiting for that new mmo to come out, and I hope it does because all gamers deserve a game they can really enjoy but in the end it isnt going to change that WoW is the best mmorpg out on the market.

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