I would probably play again if content was nerfed to the ease of WotLK where I could pug through most of it aside from Hardcores, which I don't care about anyways.

 

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Yeah, always wondered about why WOTLK design was so wrong from a difficulty point of view. Why make heroics in Cataclysm take inordinate amounts of time and effort for all but the uber-geared and leet guild crowd when those leet crowds aren't going to run them much anyway once they start raiding? And especially when they start raiding hardcore raids...

WOTLK was win in the difficulty department in my opinion. Easy heroics for fast gearing and casual love fests. Easy enough raids that hardcores facerolled them and PUGs were able to do them. And hardmode raids that could be tuned ultra hard for the hardcores so they didn't get bored and had something to lord over casuals. Why was that the wrong way to do it?

 

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I think the two of you have misinterpreted my feelings. I am merely putting forth a potential scenario.

My own feelings are in complete agreement with what you're saying. I loved Lich King because of its difficulty settings - I was a Kingslayer who got to see all the content, and that made me very happy. In Cataclysm, my guild's hardcore guys leveled up too quick, and because the casuals were having difficulty gearing up, they all left. Leaving behind the casuals who couldn't progress, and they all left the game. Blizzard hasn't set the game's difficulty level right.

If they did, the casuals would be able to progress and go the distance.

My final line doesn't really articulate the point I should have made - Casuals leave because there's not enough new content in the game. That, and the game's difficulty setting is what I think is killing the game atm.

 

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Oh, I wasn't busting on you really. I am just irritated that they took such a great concept as "inclusionary" content and turned it back into "need to be this .... tall to ride the ride." Just sucks cause I loved the game and had really started having a lot more fun with it in WOTLK. I got several real life friends into it but they have no interest in the hardcore playstyle brought back with Cataclysm and the time involved in getting/staying there.

Edit: Took out some of the extraneous quotes.

 

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Sorry to interrupt what was an incredible discussion here, but I want to be very clear about this:


Nothing regarding heroics drove me or my guild from WoW.


There was so much else that Blizzard arbitrarily changed in this expansion that clearly demonstrated somebody there was out of touch with their customers' experience. More than usual. Or that someone there had decided that WoW's age was going to attrit older subscribers and concluded that changing the game to attract new customers was the correct business model.


So many things that were negative for us had nothing to do with heroics. Start with changing the world, rail-cart leveling, unmitigated overuse of phasing (affecting grouping and ability to complete quests, etc), trite lore, dry zones (e.g. not immersive) with lesser quality graphics (obviously different artists which was jarring), I could pull up multiple threads with concerns, feedback, regarding all this.


I wanted to like Cata. Go back and read my posts, I was excited about the changes coming. Looking forward to getting back to "harder" instances, and 5-man "raiding.


Something is wrong when someone like me, who has for over a decade, rolled 3-4 accounts of characters per game, gets into an MMO (Rift) that has 2 starter zones, has gone through those zones at least 45+ times total (between testing et al), and still finds that more enjoyable than the "wider" offerings of 10 starter zones in WoW.


In the end, as Azure said, many of us know the difference between "tired" or "burnt out" and not having fun. The expansion felt poorly cobbled together, claustrophobic (zones squeezed in), annoying, and just fell flat. And sadly, I and my guild walked away from endgame with a bad taste in our mouths. That's the only way I can really describe it. From someone who has always said, "fun in an MMO is what you make", I'm shaking my head and going, "where is it?"


Is Blizzard losing "significant" enough subscriptions to even think about paying attention to the feedback they are getting from people as they leave? Who knows. If they do pay attention, will they choose to make changes, assuming they are able? Will they swing it back to WotLK's gameplay, large-open continent, meatier-lore, graphics, less directed questing and minor use of phasing? Will they want to? Can they?


Will they ever get the balance right between "hardcore" and "casual"? Or will they assume they can continue to swing that gameplay every 6 months to 2 years?


I'm interested in reading a Harvard Business Review on this someday.

 

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I always just choose "Will Of The Forsaken nerf"....

Why you might ask?

Tit for tat I say, as I put as much thought into my response as they put into formulating the options to choose from.


I would, however, resub solely for the opportunity to choose "Ghostcrawler is a moron." if they ever added that option.

 

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Is there not an 'other' option you can use to type out your own personal reason?

 

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There is. I typed "Ghostcrawler is an arrogant asshat who has completely lost touch with what players want. Fire him and I will re-subscribe."


No joke, that is exactly what I typed.

 

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Yes Quasi, but if Blizzard really wanted viable feedback, they would have a realistic list to choose from, not things like a 5 year old nerf..

 

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i've seen defunct guild boards with more action than this board and somehow 81 people voted for this?

 

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