I have been unsubbed for a month or so now, but wasn't really playing much for a couple months before that. I would still be playing if the dungeon and raid content played more like WotLK did. I did the whole "hardcore" thing during vanilla and BC, but I actually enjoyed the game the most and had healthy playing habits during WoTLK once I got over the whole people weren't earning their "welfare epics" like the hardcore types did mentality and just enjoyed the game for what it was rather than some epeen contest.

 

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Holy crap Boone... did someone hack your VN? You were one of the loudest voices about what a mistake casual epics and WoTLK would be during that Death and Taxes thread and a few others in that same time period.

Hell, you've been about hardcore raiding and how it's good for these games ever since ToA that I can remember, and we argued way back then about how bad that expansion was for that game.

 

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lol I don't think I was necessarily wrong at the time, but once Blizzard went down that road (one I subsequently ended up enjoying) there was no turning back.

 

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I still believe you were wrong. Come on now, I think it's obvious that WoTLK didn't hurt subscription numbers, which both you and Broken claimed back then remained to be seen. Hardcore raiding isn't some form of gaming that should be placed on a pedestal, and I still say that, taking my exact words from the Death and Taxes thread, "Either plenty of people see these games as a high form of competition and developers will continue creating an inaccessible end-game that only a few people can or will slog through for some sense of accomplishment, or more people see it my way and want accessible end-game content along with comparable rewards and developers will acquiesce."

Most people would agree that they wholly acquiesced with WoTLK and it was welcomed by the majority. We will see now if I'm wrong, as they've obviously stepped away from where they were going w/ WoTLK, maybe content accessibility or inaccessibility really doesn't mean as much as I think and argue constantly with you guys here. Maybe the end game always needs to be a competition, with smaller guilds always months behind the better and stronger ones, with just a few at the pinnacle. We'll see if they ever release subscription numbers that have gone up again (hint: They kept going up during WoTLK). I highly doubt it at this point, unless their overall development direction drastically changes. But we'll see.

 

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We will never know how things would have played out subscription wise had they kept dungeons and raiding the same as it was during most of BC for WotLK. One thing I am confident of is that the problems they are currently having in Cata with player expectations would not be happening had they not changed things. Now whether WoW would still be having the same subscriber success now that they had during BC without changing things? Again not a question that can be really answered.

I will not argue that Blizzard made a huge mistake in trying to go back to how things were in Vanilla/BC after the changes they made in WotLK. Nor will I argue that the changes made in WotLK were popular. They obviously were popular (although I never argued they wouldn't be) and I have already admitted that I ended up enjoying them myself. Sure I ended up playing less and my involvement in my guild's activities nosedived, but I also met and played with a whole lot more people than I ever did previous to the changes.

Frankly I think Blizzard needs to realize that just like social programs, once you start giving people something you can't just take it away without pissing most of them off. In the case of a consumer product it will end up killing your sales numbers.

 

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Boone I applaud you for both your change in philosophy and your willingness to discuss it.


That's awesome.


I kind of see it as - I've proven I can do 'hard' content, now I just want to have fun. Maybe that's too simplistic.

 

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No, at least not for me. While going from around 35hp to over 100k in hp was a nice boost, it appears that only the hp was scaled up and not everything else along with it. There are many other items that made the game much less enjoyable for both me and my wife -- we used to both enjoy logging on but now if we spend more than 2 hours a week playing that's quite a bit for us. Neither of us have unsubbed, but I just can't see us continuing to pay for a game that just doesn't have much left going for it in the attraction side of things.

 

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personally i like harder content. so that wasn't my complaint at all but i know alot of people didn't like the change. my biggest issues was the story and the content post 80 just wasn't interesting to me and of course all the crazy changes that seemed like random try this/try that stuff that seemed to have no real direction or thought behind them.

i'm actually pretty surprised at how this poll went, i knew alot of people weren't happy with the expansion but i hadn't realized it was quite this bad. i've unsubbed from wow myself. i've got a rift subscription going but i'm not sure if i'll keep it open or not. i'm really half tempted to resub to asherons call for a while.

 

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Becuz any form of negativity is suppressed on the official forums. People working at Activision, the ones who matter, are so incredibly out of touch it is ridiculous at this point. It is a punchline now. You had no idea people were this unhappy becuz except for small forums like this one, there is no outlet for disapproval. You can only unsub and no is going to report subscription losses, least of all Blizzard who will continue to think everything is going along smoothly. They don't even realize that many people play in hopes that the game will offer some of the enjoyment it has in the past. If leveling wasn't enjoyable to me, I would not be subbed. The game gets lame and not fun in the slightest when you reach max level. In a way, they have regressed to Vanilla and BC in the fact that endgame, WoW just flat out sucks. You can be a fanboy and claim that everything is going as smoothly as Blizzard would like you to think, but time will tell. I see sweeping changes spread out over a long period of time so the douche GC doesn't have to admit he was wrong, or the game will just peter out as they start to hemorrhage more and more subscribers.

 

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I'll see your pretty surprised and raise you to stunned.


I know people were calling out the expansion here super early, and I was saying, dudes, slow your roll, and while it's not horrible or anything I'm disappointed. Like for wotlk I did look forward to coming back and finishing leveling but the phasing stuff is just not fun to me.

 

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