If World of Warcraft is to grow again, it needs a change in philosophy

World Of Warcraft Shadowlands Torghast Source: Blizzard

Globe of Warcraft (WoW) holds a special place in my heart. I accept more than 10,000 hours played, and I've watched the crumbling MMO evolve from RPG powerhouse to shallow MAU harvester for Activision'southward quarterly shareholder reports. Like much of the community, I long for a return to improve days for the game, and recently, at that place has been a ray of promise.

Microsoft is attempting to purchase Activision Blizzard, and thus World of Warcraft in the process. There's no guarantee the deal will actually become through, but I for i hope that information technology does, since Activision Blizzard desperately, desperately needs a alter in leadership. Grossly overpaid Robert Kotick has overseen 1 of the biggest drops in user retention in Blizzard history, seeing Earth of Warcraft go from industry staple to limping joke, all in the infinite of a few years. A scandal at Blizzard, coupled with brain drain from a mass staff exodus, has certainly hit all of Activision Blizzard's games. Today, though, nosotros're here to talk about WoW.

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said in a recent interview that he wants Globe of Warcraft to grow over again, and obtain more players than ever in the process. Given the state of Earth of Warcraft in 2022, I'd debate that's a tall order.

If the stars align, and Blizzard does end up costless of Activision'southward dire shareholder culture, here's how I remember WoW needs to realign to not merely survive only thrive.

Make it a video game again

World Of Warcraft Shadowlands Review Source: Windows Key

My biggest result with modern World of Warcraft is its contempo and aggressive focus on time-gating mechanics. Blizzard has walked some of these back in the latest Shadowlands expansion, only it ignored literally all of the criticisms from of the mechanics from the previous expansion, and besides ignored all criticisms from the Shadowlands beta. It was just after players started quitting over it en masse that they sabbatum upwards and said, "We hear you." Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice ... you know the rest. After Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands, Blizzard seems intent on making fools of its community repeatedly. Training players to look to be ignored isn't a good await.

Activision's business model seems to hinge entirely on marketing, nostalgia, and hype, hoping that its more egregious gameplay designs slip through and perhaps go a few players fond without alienating others in the procedure. Unfortunately, they've overstepped the mark in contempo years, doubling downwardly on these kinds of mechanics in the latest expansion.

Time gating generally refers to the practice of artificially blocking content from players until the post-obit calendar week. Every layer of the latest WoW expansion committed to this practice, with story elements gated, equipment upgrades gated, and character progression mechanics gated. Not behind skill or time spent actually playing, simply by specific dates. This actually incentivized players to simply log off, rather than actually play, and ironically seek out other games that volition actually, you know, allow them play.

WoW Source: Windows Cardinal

Blizzard also went manner too far focusing on a weekly reward chest, rather than getting boodle from, you know, killing bosses. What made me quit recently was the fact that I counted no fewer than twoscore boss kills without getting a single item. Xl. That's dozens of hours of play, across irritating customs interactions trying to get groups every bit a form office that isn't in as high demand as others. Blizzard instead wants me to look until the following Wednesday to loot the Mythic chest, which gives you a random class reward based on your "date" with the game the prior week. This mechanic feels wholly designed around padding on-going appointment figures, with bosses relegated to a numbers game rather than a rewarding feedback loop. Blizzard's de-emphasis on dominate kills has backfired, though. Instead of waiting for Wed to get rewards and unlock activities, I just unsubscribed.

Blizzard's de-accent on boss kills has backfired, though. Instead of waiting for Wednesday to get rewards and unlock activities, I merely unsubscribed.

Various other aspects of WoW make the game experience more than similar a chore than a game these days. The scheduled loot drops on a weekly timer. The scheduled activities on a weekly timer. The abrasive Raider.IO addon ranks players based on their fourth dimension spent in-game and luck in groups, rather than their individual skill. Every layer of WoW has started to make me feel similar I was just a statistic, rather than a actor, with the game no longer respecting my costless time or my will to actually have fun.

By comparing, Final Fantasy XIV has plenty of side content that can be experienced in between pre-made raid groups, with permanently embedded features like player housing to keep gamers interested in the game's earth. Blizzard expansions operate on this very Activision-like "borrowed power" philosophy, where expansion features are thrown abroad between retail purchases, leaving a graveyard of pointless and abandoned content that could've been developed into interesting rolling gameplay features. Mists of Pandaria had a cool farming system that felt like a alleviation prize for players who had been asking for player housing. Nevertheless it lays abandoned, much like the Warlords of Draenor Garrison system. Both of these features had their issues merely could accept evolved to exist something more interesting tied to your character growth, giving players something "RPG" to do outside of waiting for Blizzard's lame timers to actually play.

Refocus on community health

WoW Source: Windows Central

I touched upon Raider.IO and how I feel similar information technology has had a chilling outcome on the community at large, but it'south only really one slice of a much larger puzzle. When Blizzard activated cross-realm play and LFG and LFR random matchmaking for dungeons, they finer killed server communities in the procedure. Players y'all saw running effectually on your screen generally were not actually from your server, leading players down a path of disconnection from others around them. There'southward probably a wider analysis that could factor in here, with changes in consumer habits, the evolving internet, and the way social media has practically dehumanized everyone online, simply I'1000 non certain it would totally hold weight for WoW. Why? Because Final Fantasy XIV, a competing MMO, generally seems to have a far nicer, kinder, and more supportive community than the 1 Blizzard has curated effectually WoW in recent years.

Blizzard's insistence of turning WoW into a MAU-padding auto "job" rather than game probably goes some mode to making players somewhat resentful of the fourth dimension they spend inside WoW. If you're not playing absolutely optimally 100% at all times in a group, players tin very easily meet from your talent choices or gear, or Raider.IO mod score, and guess you for having too much fun rather than expediting their speed through a dungeon. Indeed, Mythic+ dungeons all come with a timer attached to them, adding a sense of urgency that is supremely fun to vanquish with friends, only dire and toxic with random players — who thanks to cross-realm play, are largely anonymous. I suppose the argument would be, "Well, play with your friends," just that's a whole other trouble worth addressing.

Warcraft Jailer Sylvanas Source: BlizzardThe controversial and contradictory writing of Shadowlands has become something of a long-running joke amid WoW fans.

Blizzard's design around the Horde vs. Alliance faction war has likewise been impacted by this full general change in player behavior, fostered by Blizzard itself or not. As players increasingly seek to play WoW in the most "optimal way" possible, rather than having fun, servers have become increasingly lopsided betwixt Horde and Alliance players. Horde and Alliance players cannot play or even communicate with each other, at to the lowest degree as of writing. There are signs that Blizzard is gearing up to intermission open the barriers between the 2 factions, assuasive Horde and Alliance players to raid and group up with each other for the first fourth dimension in the near future. I'd contend that this doesn't get in enough, though.

I logged into my WoW server this calendar week for the offset time in a year, saddened to find information technology was practically empty.

Given the way the WoW story has evolved, I think simply dropping the faction divide entirely would solve the faction imbalance result across servers, and allow communities to abound again in a more logical way. If you're a Horde actor on an Alliance-favoring server, chances are none of the Horde players yous'll end upward in a group with are really from your server. I logged into my WoW server this week for the outset time in a year, saddened to observe it was practically empty. Yes, people are waiting for the large nine.2 WoW patch and many are probably checking out Lost Ark and FFXIV, simply even during peak times, finding people to play with has become harder than always in modern WoW. Partially considering players are quitting, just too because the faction imbalance, coupled with dead and empty servers, are killing server communities.

At that place are obvious and easy means to solve the faction divide in the story. Raise a ceasefire treaty between the Brotherhood and Horde. Allow players to learn the language of other races in-game (gameplay features, wow!). Perhaps allow opposing faction players to larn a passport to other cities via the near-abased reputation system. Allow players who enjoy PvP to join radical and secretive sub-factions loyal to Genn Greymane or the late Garrosh Hellscream who still hate their opposing Alliance or Horde enemy, and reposition battlegrounds as a war for supremacy between those sub-factions, and open up-world PvP as a compensation-hunting bump-off system between these aggressors. The fashion the faction war has get central to the community server infrastructure health just doesn't work in 2022.

Brand Blizzard a powerhouse again

Blizzard logo Source: Windows Central

Finally, perhaps the most important and complicated slice of the puzzle — make Blizzard a desired identify to work once more. It'southward no secret that Blizzard has undergone a massive exodus in longtime staff in recent years, with some of the visitor's brightest stars heading to competing companies similar Tencent's Riot and so on. I'm reluctant to link the dip in WoW's quality to the churn of personnel at the company, only I incertitude information technology's had a positive effect on the game.

The worlds Blizzard has created have inspired millions upon millions of players.

Blizzard was once (and notwithstanding is) ane of the almost beloved developers in gaming history. The worlds Blizzard has created have inspired millions upon millions of players, created lasting connections and friendships, and touched the lives of and so, and then many people. Watching the scandal unfold over the by couple of years has been disheartening equally an onlooker, only I tin't imagine the stress and pain it has acquired people internally, specially the victims of Blizzard's poor workplace culture. Many of the perpetrators have been removed, but it remains to be seen whether Blizzard can turn things around at present, just getting rid of CEO Robert Kotick should get some way to brainstorm repairing the damage.

This article merely really touches on a very small-scale number of issues with World of Warcraft. There are, of course, many, many more than, from poor story commitment to weak reward mechanics, unrewarding class design, and bad expansion features. With ex-Xbox CVP Mike Ybarra at present leading Blizzard, who himself is a hardcore WoW raider, I can only hope that Blizzard will find its feet again from a game design standpoint, focusing on fun rather than date. From a culture standpoint, at that place's a clear opportunity for Microsoft to bring a wave of positivity and benefits to anybody at Blizzard, WoW dev or not, in a sorely needed reprieve from months of poor treatment from the top down at Activision Blizzard.

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