Xcore Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Hello, With SW:TOR's launch and having played the game since the 13th, I am now fully committed to this game as my MMO. I know you are reading this thinking "this is just another WoW thread" or "just another WoW noob". What this really is, is a reflection of my past 6 years as a Gamer and an analysis of WHY I have left WoW and come to SW:TOR. I wrote this out on WoWs Forums as well, and I would like to share it with you here as well: (In the hopes that this will not be dismissed as a troll post or offensive) Original Post: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3797810236 Full Post: Hello Reader, Of course most of you will be fellow gamers but I do write this from the heart and in hopes to express my gratitude to Blizzard for a very large part of my life. Perhaps one of the Blizzard family will read this as well, I truly do not mean to offend or troll. I am currently 25 years old, this means that I have played WoW and have been fascinated by WoW and the Warcraft Universe since my late teens! We have all (likely) quit WoW at some point, for whatever reason... but always found our way back and I am no different. However, this is it for me and this realization actually saddens me. It saddens me because I would love to continue this journey and go on, I would love to experience a "true" Alterac Valley Match, Server BGs, the joy of Burning Crusade Raid Progression etc. At this point you may be thinking this is just another "I quit" post but I hope it is more than that. I would like to try to analyse why I am leaving. I feel like Blizzard deserves a fair analysis on this and based on the many questions when canceling ones subscription... they appreciate it. I truly believed that Blizzard is the absolute greatest company in the world, where magic is made so to speak. This image has been tainted for me but I still respect Blizzard enough to write this up. The Evolution of World of Warcraft: I could write a complete analysis starting with my first ever log on coming from SWG as a Male Night Elf Hunter in Nordrassil... but the charm of Vanilla WoW is a dangerous subject so I will skip to the parts where broken down for me. 1) Everything has become too "Casual" This is an epic debate BUT I sincerely believe this to be the turning point and the reason for a 2millon decline. I believe that with the evolution from TBC to WotLK the developers saw that "Casualization" works, has its benefits and continued along that path of logic.. Casualization --> More subs --> Even more Casualization --> Even more subs etc. I think the problem starts with the evolution of Vanilla to TBC. This was arguably the greatest WoW era, a huge spike in subscriptions, popularity etc. TBC was by no means perfect but it was seen by most (if not all) players of the time as an amazing Expansion, Improvement and generally the community was excited. What was really learned from TBC? why was Raid Gating/Keys removed? Why did we introduce the badge/vendor epics. What have we learned from PvP and Arenas? And here is the real point at which the cracks appeared in WoW for me... WotLK. Though still seen as "successful", I don't believe anyone would argue that it was nearly as successful and evolving WoW as much as TBC. I believe that the core reason that WotLK was successful was TBC, people expected another TBC. If we really look at WotLK, what have we learned? (my opinions follow) a) Phasing Technology is a great tool b) Vehicle PvP is a completely wrong direction c) World PvP is an enigma and DOA d) Casualization is the new Game Direction e) Raiding is no longer as prestigious on average (Hard) d) Focus is on Arena PvP (Season 5 aside!) e) More emphasis on storytelling in questing f) Introduction of new Class has many unforeseen challenges and marginalized overall balance. g) Outside of Ulduar and parts of ICC, Raiding was a complete unimaginative failure. In the end my conclusion is that WotLK kept riding the Casualization wave, believing that it is the key to higher subscriptions and more "new" customers. The successes of WotLK then were wrongly attributed to Casualization instead of prior TBC evolution and hopes of a repeat. With Cataclysm, it was promised that "Raiding" will be "Hard" again and the same goes for heroic. Basically, Blizzard appeared to want to go back to TBC Attitudes. However, this wasn't the case... in fear of alienating the now very comfortable "casual" playerbase the "prestigious" Raiding Scene was further casualized with the gear equalization of 10/25 format. On top of that, Heroic Difficulty as well as Average Raid Difficulty was reduced to WotLK levels (or near). Thus slowly but surely Blizzard has alienated their "Core" Gamer Audience (perhaps a minority but a more influential part). I think they key is to understand that the vast majority of player (those that don't raid etc.) is not necessarily the audience to cater to. It is your Upper Middle-Class (not Paragon lvl Top End!) that may be more important. Which part of the community is "larger" is not the issue, it is more a question of which is more "influential". For me Blizzcon was the end, as I see no light at the end of the tunnel. Mists of Pandaria I see like this: a) A wild and unguided attempt at gaining subscriptions once more to levels of the old days with random seemingly popular items such as: Pokemon, Pandas (turns out not so popular) (Worgen/Werewolf -Twilight Parallel can be drawn). b) An aim at the Asian Market due to the decline of WoWs current subscriber base and popularity as well as SW:TOR release, and subsequently GW2. Pandas are not a coincidence... c) Perhaps Blizzard is deliberately taking WoW into a new/different direction due to Project Titan? I think all of the above, perhaps mostly critique comes off of my heart because I will miss the days of WoWs TBC era. I realize that all of this is merely my opinion but that is the point isn't it? I would love to read your opinions and objections to my analysis. I am gone, leaving WoW for good but I look back at the past years happily. Blizzard, you have done an amazing job. You have changed "gaming" and the way gamers are perceived. However, I believe that you have miscalculated the right direction for WoW and furthermore, lost control of this "ship". Perhaps I am leaving not for a "better" game but one that has a distinct direction. I feel like the "directionless" WoW is too wildly swinging about... A SW:TOR, fresh and young with a motivated and driven team of developers who have a clear direction... is a better investment. SW:TOR, I hope can live up to mine and everyone else's expectations. Ty for reading and I look forward to the replies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kunitsukami Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 This is about a different game, you can;t post this on these forums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thaltom Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Inb4 lock for being about another MMO that isn't TOR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kclemens Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 No one cares dude. Post this **** on the wow forums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibage Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Do we really need more of these topics? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kclemens Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 And why do you have the audacity to think anyone gives a **** what your playing? (Currently Playing: WoW, StarCraft 2, Football Manager 2012) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sireene Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 Hey there! While we definitely appreciate the amount of time you put into this, as well as your enthusiasm for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™, we will be going ahead and closing this as it is off-topic for this forum. Thanks for understanding! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts