Lots of interesting reader feedback to my interview with Irena Pereria, on what went wrong with WoW, based on her insights as a former Blizzard designer/developer. Irena's core argument is that changes to World of Warcraft starting with the Cataclysm expansion degraded the sense of World of Warcraft as a dynamic, living virtual world and hurt its appeal as a virtual community where you wanted to socialize with other players.
On my Facebook feed, Richard Bartle -- who literally wrote the book on designing MMOs -- stopped by to offer some complementary thoughts:
The deleterious effects of many quality-of-life changes were obvious to most experienced designers as soon as they were discussed, and the effects were exposed by Asheron's Call 2. It put them in and it failed. Nevertheless, most modern MMOs now put them in as standard (or, for some things like fast travel, sell them). Some such features are unavoidable, though. When WoW didn't have a LFG mechanism, there were addons available that provided that functionality (albeit not with instant teleportation into an instance). Once the genie is out of the bottle, it's hard to put it back in again without changing the bottle.
Instead, it's better to nudge players to play with each other, as they do in countless Minecrafter servers, as Bartle writes:
Self-directed entertainment isn't just entertainment: it's fun. If people merely want entertainment, they can passively watch TV or listen to music. If they want fun, they can play games. Minecraft isn't just entertaining, it's fun. When an MMO becomes the equivalent of a movie but you have to play a combat mini-game between scenes, the fun is leeched out. The same thing happens when other players become objects rather than subjects: you may as well play a single-player game.
Some reader responses, some concurring, some disagreeing, after the break -- though I'd read the original interview first to get the full context:
For me WOW really blew it when they started the cross realms.
Before that you knew a ton of people in your realm and had the ability to join up with them for raids, instances and quests. when they opened up crossing realms to do instances and raiding they ruined the community.
If you were new in your role you could not develop it with people you knew, everybody just wanted to slam through content. cross realm also made it so people could steal loot or just raid till they got what they wanted and then poof--there was no honor anymore. It stopped being fun. and now, even with new content, I have no reason to ever go back.
Posted by: daralish
I agree with much of this. I'd add that splitting servers due to population was devastating.
I got multiple communities onto one server on launch day, ensuring that there was a good balance of Horde and Alliance, and we had a server split forced on us.
When the dust settled both sides were completely unbalanced. When Cataclysm came in, that was it.
Almost everyone on the server switched to Horde, and the server transitioned from an awesome collection of communities to the place you transfer to if you want to mindlessly slam out raids.
Another crime, was the end of the 40 man raid. I am 100% guilty of advocating for smaller raids, and at the time I as server first guild leader believed it was the best thing as it would make scheduling and managing easier. I was right, but by god did that really screw up the game.
In any given raid I would have about 10 to 15 people who, while they knew the strats, weren't doing anything much useful because their gear sucked their talents sucked (I refused to dictate talents to members and instead encouraged class officers to educate) or they hadn't prepared enough.
Removing 40 mans removed that fat, and that "fat" was often a friend or partner or son or sister, mother, or grandfather. It crushed the community spirit. And for what? So I can have an easier time organising, and people's PC isn't overwhelmed by spelling effects? We tried running multiple raids but that was even more of a hassle and bred resentment.
Posted by: Doug
This begs the question of why a game like FFXIV is so popular, where the emphasis is precisely on those elements you claim are killing WOW, namely emphasis on the story and making it possible to play through the most of the story solo.
I played WOW on and off for about 15 years, but hated the elitism and the unkindness shown towards people who just wanted to experience the story instead of bothering with spreadsheets, macros, add-ons etc. Dungeons were mostly unbearable due to almost constant toxicity, but so much was gated behind them, even for crafting. I finally decided to take a break 18 months ago, because I could not cope with dragonflying at all, took months just to get through the basic tutorial and still was unable to do it properly after that , yet WOW in its elitist way had made its use pretty well mandatory for a bearable life in the land of the dragons.
I dipped into the FFXIV free trial instead and have never looked back, becoming a subscriber just a few months later because I wanted the full experience. Now I can live through a fabulous story and take my time doing so, because it all stays relevant. Gathering and crafting also remain relevant at all levels so are a pleasure to do. I can play all roles on a single character, so can chop and change my personality and experience different sub-stories at whim without needing to make alts. When I choose to interact with the community, it is usually a far, far more wholesome experience than I had in WOW. Right from the start, I have been far more incentivized to spend time in Eorzea than I ever was in Azeroth.Posted by: CJ
The FFXIV comparison is an interesting one, though if I'm looking at recent stats right, there's been quite a lot of churn with the MMO, attracting nearly 60 million registered users, but only retaining some 300,000 daily players.
Anyway, much more here.
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Really there are many reasons why WoW declined or lost popularity and all the reasons outlined by millions of players over the last few years are all valid, and even added to my own reasons are subjective and up to what one likes or does not like.
It all equates to "WoW got old", and everything that entails.
For me, I left when it got cute with Pandas, when I was fighting flowers with hitpoints of 350,000 - each of which could easily have taken out all of Orgrimar in it's day by its stats alone, lol.
Hyper inflation on the market so you're paying 1000G for a stack of cloth, armor and weapon stats no more about +5 agility or +7 on armor, but now inflated to +350 agility... the numbers just start looking ridiculous and the game turns into a joke.
The simplifying or 'dumbing down' of the game of course would anger old time players, but then WOULD increase new players who grew up with easy passive games. Still, the majority moved to "CLassic WoW" when it was available, because difficulty = fun and skills to master, over just RND roles.
I joined WoW for the spontaneous inworld combat that did not exist beforehand, and I also left when spontaneous inworld combat ceased in favour of people farming XP and gear in battlegrounds.
In general though, WoW was fun, and still holds a place in my heart as it was an amazing experience firsthand, but it got old.
There is much to be said for playing such things patiently. I had gamer friends who had to be the top level as fast as possible - as it came with benefits on farming and selling high level goods, status as a top clan in the WoW community, etc. I pissed off my clan by 'smelling the flowers' along the way. Taking my time, exploring every corner (before there even was an achievement for that), patrolling an area protecting levelers from abusive ganker types... I had more fun just enjoying the game and areas and activities than finishing quests.
Also, I think in the end the biggest reason to stop playing, was to realize you would NEVER stop playing, that the game will NEVER end, because as soon as you waste your real life attaining all the status, armor, weapons and baubles in WoW, they will release yet another expansion...
And there you are.. The Mighty Warrior of Undercity and Orgrimaar, fighting the Lich King and expelling him from the land... "Go pick flowers for me, and I will give you 3 gold" WUT!
Posted by: WoWisEternal | Thursday, August 29, 2024 at 08:12 AM