In a few hours my 7 free days will expire, and I find there’s no real reason for me to pay money for this game; not for months at a time anyways.
I saw all the content inside a single day, mostly thanks to the LFR thing; but love it or hate it, it wouldn’t have really changed the overall impression of the state of the game. That impression was and still is a resounding “meh.”
There’s just nothing to do. The only thing I did that was of any interest was hunting down some items for the purposes of transmogrification, but once that’s done there’s nothing else. There’s nothing that immerses me into this game, as the story is absent, or hidden, or simply poorly presented. There is no game past the endgame anymore, and boy is the endgame boooooooring.
Yeah I’m sure the normal Dragon Soul raid, or the Heroic Dragon Soul raid has more interesting mechanics than the face roll LFR, but I’m pretty sure whatever they are; I’ve done them already. I’m also pretty sure they’re all some flavor of “Burst DPS this or wipe” or “Dodge the fire or wipe” or “Stack/Spread or wipe” this is of course on top of the always present “Bring this much DPS and Healing for bosses or be prepared to be frustrated for hours on end.
Maybe there’s something to be said about instances with a lot of trash (or at least memorable trash) with forgiving bosses, as opposed to instances with almost no trash and utterly unforgiving bosses. The path traveled should be more interesting than the final destination. Raids seem to have devolved into simply loot pinatas, there’s no journey involved anymore. The last time I felt I entered into a raid that felt… “large” was Ulduar, and most of the raids before that. It felt like you were faced with something insurmountable and perhaps it was; and perhaps that’s the point: To be tested.
I ran through the LFR four times total, and the experience was hollow and empty. I didn’t feel I was a part of the narrative, or important to what was happening. It just felt like another dungeon run in where you burn through the content as fast as possible and get your loot reward at the end. I truly do miss a lot of the unseens of the old game. Like leadership skills or friendship skills that were supplanted by the LFD tool. Or how classes and fights were designed that it required some skill and effort to execute; every class is face-roll now.
I felt far more rewarded and accomplished after completing a run through Shattered Halls, than I did completing Dragon Soul, or any of the newer raids really. Shattered Halls was one of those things in where it demanded much from 5 people, and it made obtaining the loot meaningful. Though I should note that when I compare what you had to do in Shattered Halls to say “Heroic” Raid fights is this: In the old BC dungeons what it demanded from players was to deal with a difficult situation for about… 60 seconds. Whatever it took to manage the pull. Heroic raids on the other hand requires at least 10 people to maintain near perfect execution for 10 minutes. This kills off anything in which I would consider fun, and is closer more to gouging one’s eye out; I do not miss it.
The game design I feel was at it’s peak was when people had to be smart and skilled for no longer than 5 minutes, and most often 1-2 minutes. Now it’s just on retarded levels in where the game demands absolute perfection for 10 minutes. One of them gives the effect of “That’s fun, let’s do it again.” the other gives the effect “Dear gods that was horrible, I really don’t want to do this again”
On another note, when the boss model becomes larger than a barn; you sort of lose the ‘epicness; of a boss fight because all people end up looking at are body parts and not the whole thing.
I also dabbled in a bit of PvP and I find I don’t miss that either. Not the max level PvP anyways. It’s just a game of “beat down the healer or nothing dies.” I do have a Starter Edition account in where I play in the level 20-24 bracket with a level 20 freebie toon, and I’ll just say this: Night and Day. Simply put in the level 85 bracket, people just form a big ball of not-dying. If one big ball meets another big ball, nothing dies. It’s just melee people chasing other players, and players running from melee; while the healers heal. In the 20s bracket sure people form big balls of death, bit it’s actually possible to kill people in that ball. Where at the 85 bracket it’s about who is CCed to death in a few seconds; the 20 bracket is just people dying in a few seconds sure, but the difference is people who die quickly in the 20s bracket is because they were reckless. This is different from the 85 bracket in where people die because 2-3 people decided to chain their CCs on you to ensure you die. Basically death at the 20s bracket is more due to your own fault, and death at the 85s bracket is because you were denied any actions. As such PvPing in the 20s bracket I found was a lot more fun. Mainly because things actually die, and the other is that there is virtually no CC, so there’s ebb and flow to the fights.
Finally, as far as gear goes: I chuckled to myself looking back on my free week. In the span of pretty much a day gear I worked months to assemble was replaced. My top end raiding gear: Useless and replaced by the new dungeon gear in like… 6 runs? My PvP gear which took countless hours of arenaing to build up, all useless and outclassed by the new crafted sets. All the previous work I put into my character ending up as utterly pointless and meaningless. Kinda sad really… actually a lot of sad.
I’ll also drop a couple of cents on the Scroll of Resurrection: I don’t understand it. Yeah okay you get a free 80, sure. Someone gets a free mount, grand. So where’s the recognition for the players who have been playing for a long time? There’s nothing really. It’s not like it’s hard to figure out who’s put what into the game, it was certainly there in my billing history. Years of subscription into the game, so what did I get for my loyalty back then? Nothing really. What do people get for their loyalty right now? Nothing really. Even a simple ‘rewards’ system of “Players who have subscribed for X amount of time gets this!” would make people happy. Instead Blizzard throws at it’s player base the “Annual Pass” subscribe for a year and get free cool stuff. Sorry Blizzard, I was subscribed for something like 6 years? Where’s my cool stuff? What’s that? Nothing for me? Nothing for other customers who put in years into this game as well? What a shame.
Sure, not like Blizzard owes us anything, it’s their game; they can do what they please with it.
Problem is, from the lack luster storyline that needs supplementary information outside of the game to fill in the blanks; and the story elements that shifts the focus away from the player, I don’t feel like I’m part of the narrative thaAt is World of Warcraft. How Blizzard has treated it’s customer base on a whole, I feel like I’m some mentally challenged individual that is to be told that he is wrong should he ever disagree, and that I’m not part of the customer narrative either.
With those thoughts in mind, I have no reason to come back to WoW. It’s offerings these days is just one big “meh.”
