so I stumbled upon a forum post by a long term MMO player of WoW that is extremely well written and a recommended read.
TLDR: You can't just fast forward to the good parts in an action movie without ruining the whole experience, which is exactly what Blizz has done to the game.
Molten Core was epic. Blackwing Lair was epic. AQ 40 was epic. Naxx 40 was epic. Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep were epic. Hyjal and Black Temple were epic. Sunwell was...kind of epic. Naxx...came back again but was less epic. Ulduar WAS epic. Trial of the Crusader was NOT epic and was a failure. Icecrown Citadel was epic on hardmode and farmville on normal. Bastion of Twilight, Blackwing Descent, and Throne of the Four Winds were mediocre individually but epic altogether. Firelands was not epic and only one step above Trial of the Crusader. Dragon soul was cool for the first 2 weeks, but not epic and lacks the staying power of ICC.
Do you see the trend Blizzard? Lots of bosses + no easy setting + large raids always = epic. Less bosses + easy setting + smaller raids = sometimes epic or sometimes fail.
C'thun was C'thun. Just seeing him in person was a challenge, let alone actually killing him. Illidan was Illidan. You either killed THE Illidan or you didn't.
Killing Arthas in ICC was cool and all, but doing it on normal just felt...cheap. What was the point of joining a hardcore raiding guild if I could kill him with a pug? What was the point of collecting hard mode gear if normal gear was enough to take down Arthas? Everyone had epix anyway and the ilvl epeen contest just seemed silly after being a hardcore raider in Vanilla and BC.
I hate to say it, because I really liked it at first, but the raid finder is the final nail in the coffin for WoW. Seeing the content and actually experiencing the content are 2 entirely different things. Like the OP said, once you turn on god mode to beat the game, you're probably not going to play it again. What's the point of putting more work into something you've already seen? What's the point of spending exponentially more time collecting gear to defeat a character you've technically already defeated?
Even people who didn't raid and either spent their time in dungeons or battlegrounds have had their progression experiences cheapened and sped up. The dungeon finder is fantastically convenient...but MMOs aren't supposed to be convenient. People don't choose to play MMOs because they're easy, fast, and fun. They play them because MMOs provide a long term progression path for a character you become emotionally invested in. They play MMOs to interact with other people online and work toward epic challenges that can only be completed with teamwork.
WoW has strayed from the path of the MMO. The dungeon finder, raid finder, and BG queue completely remove any sense of community, teamwork, and human interaction. The other 4-39 people you get grouped with may as well be NPCs, since you can complete whatever you're trying to do without saying a single word. This level of convenience with such a low chance of failure is not what people are looking for when they decide to play an MMO.
Yes, the game has become more accessible to everyone. Now anybody who is willing to put 5-10 days of play time into a character can see everything the game has to offer. Sure it's not the most difficult version with the highest item level, but it's still the same lore figures in the same instances with the same items. Everyone can now "beat" the game so quickly that Blizzard can't possibly keep up development wise. The only people who will continue to play the game at this point are those that are still stuck on the hardcore raiding treadmill, or who treat WoW's PvP like an online first person shooter. The "casual" PvE player, the lifeblood of the subscriber base, is done with THEIR content so quickly now that they no longer have any reason to continue playing until the next patch.
I used to be a hardcore raider. I killed Onyxia through Kil'jaeden with top 100 in the world raiding guilds. I never got High Warlord but I got close, and I helped my guild get 5 High Warlords on our server. I got my fancy mounts from arena on my paladin and rogue. I felt special when I was the only person on my server to have certain items, even if it was only for a couple weeks. I played way too much WoW, but I don't regret it for a second. I have great memories of raiding from dusk 'til dawn with RL and online friends trying to get that world first, even if we never got it.
Why did I do it?
I bought the last copy of World of Warcraft sitting on the shelf at Target the day after Thanksgiving in 2004 because I knew it would be something special. I wanted to see what epic adventures the game had in store for me. I saw a long path ahead, and I've never looked back until now.
To quote Aerosmith (who of course quoted Emerson), "life's a journey, not a destination". THAT is what it means to play an MMO. It is a never ending journey in a fantasy world full of epic challenges and interactions with other players. Everyone's journey ends the same way in an MMO. You quit. Blizzard, in an attempt to make the game more accessible, has inadvertently shortened every player's journey by a considerable amount, as well as making it far less epic. The game is no longer about beating the final boss or being a top PvPer. WoW is just an RPG with god mode turned on. The only thing to do after playing it once is grinding for gear, which serves little purpose besides distracting you from the fact that the game is already over.
I see little purpose spending my time obtaining additional means to an end I've already achieved. Whether it's the "real" end or not is just a matter of opinion, since the difficulty is only a part of the experience.
I have enjoyed the time I spent in Azeroth, but the future looks bleak for WoW. There are so many factors that have lead to WoW's inevitable decline, but it's too bad that it happened before it should have imo. MoP is just the final nail that has sealed WoW's fate. The end result of a snowball that has been growing for years.
For those that continue to play even after MoP, I hope they have fun and enjoy the game. But I guarantee it will not be on the same level as my experiences 7 years ago. It's a shame that Blizzard did not stay true to their original design. Yes it had problems and I know they had the best intentions with every change they've made since then, but WoW is simply not as epic as it used to be. You can't just fast forward to the good parts in an action movie without ruining the whole experience, which is exactly what Blizz has done to the game.
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/to...773060?page=22
so I stumbled upon a forum post by a long term MMO player of WoW that is extremely well written and a recommended read. TLDR: You can't just fast forward to the good parts in an action movie without ruining the whole experience, which is exactly what Blizz has done to the game. Molten Core was epic. Blackwing Lair was epic. AQ 40 was epic. Naxx 40 was epic. Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep were epic. Hyjal and Black Temple were epic. Sunwell was...kind of epic. Naxx...came back again but was less epic. Ulduar WAS epic. Trial of the Crusader was NOT epic and was a failure. Icecrown Citadel was epic on hardmode and farmville on normal. Bastion of Twilight, Blackwing Descent, and Throne of the Four Winds were mediocre individually but epic altogether. Firelands was not epic and only one step above Trial of the Crusader. Dragon soul was cool for the first 2 weeks, but not epic and lacks the staying power of ICC. Do you see the trend Blizzard? Lots of bosses + no easy setting + large raids always = epic. Less bosses + easy setting + smaller raids = sometimes epic or sometimes fail. C'thun was C'thun. Just seeing him in person was a challenge, let alone actually killing him. Illidan was Illidan. You either killed THE Illidan or you didn't. Killing Arthas in ICC was cool and all, but doing it on normal just felt...cheap. What was the point of joining a hardcore raiding guild if I could kill him with a pug? What was the point of collecting hard mode gear if normal gear was enough to take down Arthas? Everyone had epix anyway and the ilvl epeen contest just seemed silly after being a hardcore raider in Vanilla and BC. I hate to say it, because I really liked it at first, but the raid finder is the final nail in the coffin for WoW. Seeing the content and actually experiencing the content are 2 entirely different things. Like the OP said, once you turn on god mode to beat the game, you're probably not going to play it again. What's the point of putting more work into something you've already seen? What's the point of spending exponentially more time collecting gear to defeat a character you've technically already defeated? Even people who didn't raid and either spent their time in dungeons or battlegrounds have had their progression experiences cheapened and sped up. The dungeon finder is fantastically convenient...but MMOs aren't supposed to be convenient. People don't choose to play MMOs because they're easy, fast, and fun. They play them because MMOs provide a long term progression path for a character you become emotionally invested in. They play MMOs to interact with other people online and work toward epic challenges that can only be completed with teamwork. WoW has strayed from the path of the MMO. The dungeon finder, raid finder, and BG queue completely remove any sense of community, teamwork, and human interaction. The other 4-39 people you get grouped with may as well be NPCs, since you can complete whatever you're trying to do without saying a single word. This level of convenience with such a low chance of failure is not what people are looking for when they decide to play an MMO. Yes, the game has become more accessible to everyone. Now anybody who is willing to put 5-10 days of play time into a character can see everything the game has to offer. Sure it's not the most difficult version with the highest item level, but it's still the same lore figures in the same instances with the same items. Everyone can now "beat" the game so quickly that Blizzard can't possibly keep up development wise. The only people who will continue to play the game at this point are those that are still stuck on the hardcore raiding treadmill, or who treat WoW's PvP like an online first person shooter. The "casual" PvE player, the lifeblood of the subscriber base, is done with THEIR content so quickly now that they no longer have any reason to continue playing until the next patch. I used to be a hardcore raider. I killed Onyxia through Kil'jaeden with top 100 in the world raiding guilds. I never got High Warlord but I got close, and I helped my guild get 5 High Warlords on our server. I got my fancy mounts from arena on my paladin and rogue. I felt special when I was the only person on my server to have certain items, even if it was only for a couple weeks. I played way too much WoW, but I don't regret it for a second. I have great memories of raiding from dusk 'til dawn with RL and online friends trying to get that world first, even if we never got it. Why did I do it? I bought the last copy of World of Warcraft sitting on the shelf at Target the day after Thanksgiving in 2004 because I knew it would be something special. I wanted to see what epic adventures the game had in store for me. I saw a long path ahead, and I've never looked back until now. To quote Aerosmith (who of course quoted Emerson), "life's a journey, not a destination". THAT is what it means to play an MMO. It is a never ending journey in a fantasy world full of epic challenges and interactions with other players. Everyone's journey ends the same way in an MMO. You quit. Blizzard, in an attempt to make the game more accessible, has inadvertently shortened every player's journey by a considerable amount, as well as making it far less epic. The game is no longer about beating the final boss or being a top PvPer. WoW is just an RPG with god mode turned on. The only thing to do after playing it once is grinding for gear, which serves little purpose besides distracting you from the fact that the game is already over. I see little purpose spending my time obtaining additional means to an end I've already achieved. Whether it's the "real" end or not is just a matter of opinion, since the difficulty is only a part of the experience. I have enjoyed the time I spent in Azeroth, but the future looks bleak for WoW. There are so many factors that have lead to WoW's inevitable decline, but it's too bad that it happened before it should have imo. MoP is just the final nail that has sealed WoW's fate. The end result of a snowball that has been growing for years. For those that continue to play even after MoP, I hope they have fun and enjoy the game. But I guarantee it will not be on the same level as my experiences 7 years ago. It's a shame that Blizzard did not stay true to their original design. Yes it had problems and I know they had the best intentions with every change they've made since then, but WoW is simply not as epic as it used to be. You can't just fast forward to the good parts in an action movie without ruining the whole experience, which is exactly what Blizz has done to the game. http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/to...773060?page=22