The Only way to make a Successful MMORPG that has very good and stable subscription numbers is by making people work for what they want in the game. YES Vanilla WOW did this. It took you 6 months to reach max level if you didnt power level for a month. It took you months to gear up, months to raid, get your mount, you didnt run Dungeons all the time. The games took time to get to where you wanted to go then.
Well, even if WoW is dying, it's going out about a decade after it should have, so your ideas don't seem to jibe with the truth. Of course there are a lot less players playing it. There are more sophisticated games with better graphics and a totally different type of gameplay. Honestly, WoW's generation of MMOs is dead, or has at least split into two distinct camps: Themepark and Sandbox.
Also, don't forget that it's still making a LOT of money for Blizzard.
BfA is hastening the decline because it's poorly designed, not because of the "needed" addition of even more grind (aka "working for") to get neat stuff. It's got a terrible story. Classes are designed poorly that make some completely unusable in ANY group configuration let alone solo. And those are just two issues that have to do with design philosophy that, no matter how many of the things on your "must have list were included, would still be killing the game.
You have a preference, we get that by your triple post. But what you believe is the cause of the decline of WoW is not, in my opinion, even close. 10 years ago? Maybe. Now? Nuh uh.
Games gonna die, they have no idea what there doing and have way to much to backtrack on now. Legion artifacts had to take place of the lost talents and missing spells, now azurite has to replace lost talents, missing spells, AND artifacts. Next they will need to come up with a system to replace lost talents, missing spells, artifacts, and Azurite. Its a total shit show and fundamentally flawed.
"The classes and specializations feel like they have been stripped to the bare minimum to match the developers’ vision for how each is “supposed” to be played."
No, this is the never ending drive to easy mode in MMOs, that is the only "vision" at play here.
Make Classes more complex, they're currently brain-dead rotations and priorities that somewhat run on RNG for that extra shot of excitement once in a while. Legendaries started going in the right direction by changing up rotations and priorities, but the bad outweighed the good and it was a terrible system that never achieved it's potential. Right now, I change a talent and move something up or down the list in terms of my priorities. It's not interactive enough.
Give some real attention to progression. Right now it feels excessively hollow. I can't even get a kick out of raiding with my friends anymore, nothing feels like I'm really progressing in the grand scheme of things. Key areas of progression no longer exist or are just handed to you on a silver platter. Does anyone remember attunement? I 'memba.
The saddest thing for me is that I thought the lore was going to be a return to the core Warcraft universe lore that made Warcraft 3 and WoW the great games that they were. Blizzard has completely missed an opportunity to return to the lore that made the Warcraft universe interesting to begin with.
Regarding leveling, tThe lack of any skill/talent upgrades each level makes a senseless activity. The only goal is to get to max so you can then grind world quest and rep. Really? They're just daily quests by another name.
Reaching max level during WotLK took a significant effort. In guild I managed at the time you were rewarded with an Epic item when you got to max. Hitting max level actually meant something.
Today's WoW doesn't take any effort at all. And there are too many areas to fix for the game to have any semblance of what it once was.
I would definitely bet that WoW has less active subs than FFXIV. So many have switched from WoW to FFXIV. We are all just waiting for the next thing, but I think the nail has already been put to the WoW coffin. Tehre is not coming back from this and no changes that can be made will save BFA. Let WoW die with what little dignity it has left.
They need an ESO style review and fixing crew to come through and fix the problems.
They need to start with the armor problems.
Then they need to fix the class specs they have ignored in order to rush out the expansion.
There are serious holes in the design of many specs in classes that have been neglected for far too long!
They need features such as housing and house decorating.
They could add a whole new series of things to the game such as event items that could be placed in the house which could be linked to special events in the game like the battle of the lich king. They could also add to several already existing craft systems, the ability to make furniture decorations and lighting.
They need to add a group that give rewards to the dungeoneers and raiders for raiding such as the dauntless in ESO.
We need mounted combat.
We need glider mounts or flying mounts given glider abilities in zones that you have to earn flying in.
Additionally I totally agree with these:
Reforging
Profession bonuses (belt buckles, leatherworker-only enchants, specific upgrades, etc.)
Enchants for most of the gear
Secondary stats
Glyphs that changed how abilities work (cosmetic glyphs still remain)
Tier sets & PvP vendors
We need ALOT of updates to this game to make it a modern game.
But do the devs listen to their playerbase?! nope!
I got onto one of the support people in reddit and twitter because they claimed that posting the wow forums would make a difference. I pointed out the sheer years of being ignored by the developers in the forum, which makes them liars.
Its funny, what I get from your comment is more RPG aspects being placed back in the MMO. And I whole heartily agree. Outside of all the surface problems we are mentioning here, at its core WoW is moving away from being an RPG where you progress a character with options to customize more into a generic action-based MMO.
ESO is a great example of having RPG concepts in an MMO, but its fundamentally different from how MMOs started way back in the 90s. To really have RPG concepts in an MMO (today) means essentially making levels meaningless (more a milestone of progression versus a growth in actual power), horizontal progression (linear progression cannibalizes itself by having ever increasing power which requires ever increasing mobs -- it doesnt scale in the game), scaling (which people seem to REALLY hate because they don't *feel* strong when they actually are), and world content (the idea of consolidating each expansion into one small concentrated area while ignorning the rest of the world is a waste). The idea of leveling up through gated zones, only to get to max level and run raids over and over and over until the next expansion is boring. THAT would make me quit. Endgame should be taking part in whatever I find fun and being able to progress that at my own pace.
The people who started with WoW don't like the new evolved progression of WoW (and MMOs in general). I don't think this will ever change, especially since I believe there are more people willing to play the current iteration of WoW (with obvious improvements) over the older iteration (which also is viable). That is why Classic WoW makes so much sense. It gives an option for those who love WoW (and what it was) to go back to exactly what they loved and leave the retail game for those who like where the game is going.
I currently have 0 issues (that would make me so mad that I'd have to speak up about it) with BfA and slowly loving it more than Legion (which was my favorite expansion). There is so much for me to do giving me options at each play session I have. While at the same time I have long term goals I can work against. Im excited for 8.1 and 8.2, but especially excited for what I heard they are doing for the new endgame island in 8.2 (bringing in concepts from timeless isle, and other past content to increase replayability).
I'm sorry that so many people are hating BfA - but I don't see it going back to what it once was and see Blizzard actually pressing forward on the path they are now.
People kept feeding Blizz with ideas for years . Nothing ever happened because Blizz just dont care. Pinnacle of WoW was BC + Wotlk. After that (because they had to change what worked) everything went to shit. Solution is simple. Get back to what worked. BC+ Wotlk.
For some reason Blizz loves to re-invent the wheel with every single expansion. Legion was generally well received - from my guilds' perspective - raiders kept playing up until Nighthold. That is 3 raid instances of money spent. After Nighthold there was a break for the entire guild until summer when Tomb of Sargeras came out - raid team came back. Legendary items RNG was bullshit, but it was still tolerable.
Now we have done Heroic G'huun twice and our raiders stopped playing. This was well over a month ago now. The fact there's no class specific armor sets to collect cheapens the entire purpose of raiding now. You can just chain-spam mythic+ and get everything expect azerite pieces. Even then those 385 azerite pieces can drop from your weekly chest and that azerite system has bad luck protection.
This expansion was pushed out early to meet stockholders demands of gain. It is not about making the game better or fresh. It's about a fucking loot casino.
I feel this will be another abandoned expansion like Warlords of Draenor was. After that there was a good expansion, so hope the same happens now.
Comments
Also, don't forget that it's still making a LOT of money for Blizzard.
BfA is hastening the decline because it's poorly designed, not because of the "needed" addition of even more grind (aka "working for") to get neat stuff. It's got a terrible story. Classes are designed poorly that make some completely unusable in ANY group configuration let alone solo. And those are just two issues that have to do with design philosophy that, no matter how many of the things on your "must have list were included, would still be killing the game.
You have a preference, we get that by your triple post. But what you believe is the cause of the decline of WoW is not, in my opinion, even close. 10 years ago? Maybe. Now? Nuh uh.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
At this point, they may have to pull a Dallas, and have everyone wake up and realize the entire expansion was a bad dream.
Gut Out!
What, me worry?
No, this is the never ending drive to easy mode in MMOs, that is the only "vision" at play here.
Getting us out of bed in the morning can be difficult mate, be you a young teen or creaky oldster.
Make Classes more complex, they're currently brain-dead rotations and priorities that somewhat run on RNG for that extra shot of excitement once in a while. Legendaries started going in the right direction by changing up rotations and priorities, but the bad outweighed the good and it was a terrible system that never achieved it's potential. Right now, I change a talent and move something up or down the list in terms of my priorities. It's not interactive enough.
Give some real attention to progression. Right now it feels excessively hollow. I can't even get a kick out of raiding with my friends anymore, nothing feels like I'm really progressing in the grand scheme of things. Key areas of progression no longer exist or are just handed to you on a silver platter. Does anyone remember attunement? I 'memba.
Regarding leveling, tThe lack of any skill/talent upgrades each level makes a senseless activity. The only goal is to get to max so you can then grind world quest and rep. Really? They're just daily quests by another name.
Reaching max level during WotLK took a significant effort. In guild I managed at the time you were rewarded with an Epic item when you got to max. Hitting max level actually meant something.
Today's WoW doesn't take any effort at all. And there are too many areas to fix for the game to have any semblance of what it once was.
RIP, WoW.
Its funny, what I get from your comment is more RPG aspects being placed back in the MMO. And I whole heartily agree. Outside of all the surface problems we are mentioning here, at its core WoW is moving away from being an RPG where you progress a character with options to customize more into a generic action-based MMO.
ESO is a great example of having RPG concepts in an MMO, but its fundamentally different from how MMOs started way back in the 90s. To really have RPG concepts in an MMO (today) means essentially making levels meaningless (more a milestone of progression versus a growth in actual power), horizontal progression (linear progression cannibalizes itself by having ever increasing power which requires ever increasing mobs -- it doesnt scale in the game), scaling (which people seem to REALLY hate because they don't *feel* strong when they actually are), and world content (the idea of consolidating each expansion into one small concentrated area while ignorning the rest of the world is a waste). The idea of leveling up through gated zones, only to get to max level and run raids over and over and over until the next expansion is boring. THAT would make me quit. Endgame should be taking part in whatever I find fun and being able to progress that at my own pace.
The people who started with WoW don't like the new evolved progression of WoW (and MMOs in general). I don't think this will ever change, especially since I believe there are more people willing to play the current iteration of WoW (with obvious improvements) over the older iteration (which also is viable). That is why Classic WoW makes so much sense. It gives an option for those who love WoW (and what it was) to go back to exactly what they loved and leave the retail game for those who like where the game is going.
I currently have 0 issues (that would make me so mad that I'd have to speak up about it) with BfA and slowly loving it more than Legion (which was my favorite expansion). There is so much for me to do giving me options at each play session I have. While at the same time I have long term goals I can work against. Im excited for 8.1 and 8.2, but especially excited for what I heard they are doing for the new endgame island in 8.2 (bringing in concepts from timeless isle, and other past content to increase replayability).
I'm sorry that so many people are hating BfA - but I don't see it going back to what it once was and see Blizzard actually pressing forward on the path they are now.
Now we have done Heroic G'huun twice and our raiders stopped playing. This was well over a month ago now. The fact there's no class specific armor sets to collect cheapens the entire purpose of raiding now. You can just chain-spam mythic+ and get everything expect azerite pieces. Even then those 385 azerite pieces can drop from your weekly chest and that azerite system has bad luck protection.
This expansion was pushed out early to meet stockholders demands of gain. It is not about making the game better or fresh. It's about a fucking loot casino.
I feel this will be another abandoned expansion like Warlords of Draenor was. After that there was a good expansion, so hope the same happens now.
Also fire Ion and devolore.