There has been a worrying amount of negativity surrounding the latest expansion. This is usually a somewhat common thing among the playerbase displeased with some game change or another. Normally it doesn't affect me as a casual player too much since I don't really level alts, participate in PvP or the end game PvE content but I have felt a massive drop in interest for the game lately and I have decided to compile a list of problems that in my subjective opinion are harming the game. Not to say that the rest of the feedback is somehow invalid or inaccurate but there has been some lingering problems with the game design for quite a while now and I don't see them being discussed nearly as much as the others.
I feel the majority of the problems derive from the way the developers structure their content. The amount of control that they want to maintain over individual gameplay experience goes beyond restricting things like acquiring gear or your daily activities and is felt even in such smaller things like character customization.
Let me share my view of these problems and then try to offer some solutions that could reinvigorate my personal interest in the game and, perhaps, other players' as well who didn't consider these things before.
--- The Relevance of the Outside World ---
I know this has been the case with every expansion to some extent but it feels like with every new one coming out the world just keeps getting smaller. The entire playerbase is funneled into a few new locations that are saturated with relevant content while the rest of the huge and beautiful world that I fell in love with is not worth coming back to at all, save for an occasional sightseeing tour, roleplaying or leveling an alt. This seems like a collosal waste and makes the world overall feel hollow and dead.
What is the point of going through "legacy content" when you know that you're not progressing your character and most of your achievements will become irrelevant as soon as a new expansion comes out? For example, we've had quite a few factions over the course of the game's life cycle that could become relevant again. Mag'har Orcs from Outland, Laughing Skull Clan from Draenor, Zandalari Tribe from Stranglethorn Vale, Thorium Brotherhood from Searing Gorge. With the addition of the new allied races (which I will talk about a bit later as well), these could serve as a great vessel to reward older and more dedicated players who had raised those reputations in the past with new added content like gear, cosmetics and profession recipes. Instead, everyone has to farm convoluted new reputations that artificially prolong their gameplay. While technically still considered "new content" I refuse to acknowledge it as such, because I feel it's a cheap way to engage a player and force them to do content they might not necessarily enjoy. Moreover, it dilutes the pool of factions, making them just as irrelevant as the rest of the outside world content as soon as a new expansion launches. It also harms the game from the lore and immersion point of view.
--- Immersion and Storytelling ---
You might think that among the long list of issues present with the game these would be near the very bottom of it but I disagree. At its core, World of Warcraft is a roleplaying game and it is has become increasingly difficult for me to either care about or immerse myself in the universe that is built upon moment to moment excitement instead of a consistent story . A story that threads itself throughout multiple expansions with a host of characters seeing progression and development instead of getting new ones every couple of years who get brushed off and forgotten except for a couple of fan favourites. It has gotten so absurd that when the troll chieftain had to be slain in order to further the story of another horde character, the darkspear trolls were left with not a single prominent properly developed character to even represent them. How many memorable gnome characters can you name off the top of your head, beside Gelbin and Wilfred Fizzlebang? How about the draenei? We had poor Velen appearing in all places at once during Legion simply because we had no one else to represent the draenei. How about the Forsaken? Why does all the forsaken "character development quota" have to be funneled into Sylvanas and Nathanos? Same with the orcs and Saurfang. Same with the darkspear trolls and Zekhan. The list of bizzare character development choices can go on.
I do understand that you cannot envelop all of this into just one patch or even a whole expansion, but if it's done right, you wouldn't have to. For example, Nazgrim had one of my favourite character arcs in the entire game. A simple soldier who we fought beside over the course of multiple expansions for years and who was then forced to choose between honor and loyalty. Sounds familiar doesn't it? I am glad that Saurfang is getting a spotlight but with the entire orc "character development quota" diverted to one character it just cheapens the whole racial narrative. What is the point of introducing new NPCs with every expansion if they keep getting shelved and forgotten as soon as a new expansion forever chains them to their post in "legacy content".
Now let me touch upon immersion and how it directly ties into storytelling and the game world as a whole. Cataclysm, despite all of its flaws was one of my favourite expansions, simply because it breathed new life into the old world. I saw the world transform and develop, old settlements grow or get destroyed, new ones spring up, giving a feeling of excitement and wonder. Once again I felt like an adventurer, travelling and exploring the lands so familiar, yet thrilling and new. To this day I come across something that I've never seen before during the Cataclysm and it always fills me with the same childlike joy and excitement that I felt when I fist took a step in Azeroth. The changing world opened up many opportunities for new stories to be told. Many old and new characters alike could finally enjoy some screen time and development.
Revamping the whole world at once was obviously a massive undertaking, which proved to be very challenging even for Bllizard. I am happy they are finally trying to do it in smaller bits like we've seen with the Darkspear Revolution and Legion invasions, or the War of Thorns campaign and warfronts, but it's still not enough to keep the world pulsing with life and sending the players out there on an adventure instead of camping in the capital city in a dungeon queue.
--- Character Customization and Fantasy ---
One of the biggest hooks of roleplaying games and a major factor of immersion and investment for me is ability to customize my character. I know that player choice is something that is nearly impossible to realize in a massively multiplayer game like World of Warcraft when it comes to story but I find it incredibly jarring how very little choice there is when it comes to customizing my characters. I gave up on tyring to make an alt a long time ago when I realized that I couldn't make a character of any race that I felt connected with. Everyone feels like a faceless clone with the same few facial options, skin colors and hairstyles, most of which still look just unappealing and wrong after the model update.
It feels painfully frustrating that my female troll has less piercing options than a human or a gnome, only one young face option and maybe two or three hairstyles that don't make me want to weep. If you think I am being unfair by picking one of the least customizable models to illustrate my example, I can assure you that I've tried to make blood elf and human characters who have considerably more customization options and was still faced with a similar issue. To put things in perspective, if you don't count a couple of new eye colour options for blood and night elves and the new posture options for male orcs, I don't think we have gotten ANY new character customization since Wrath of the Lich King when the barbershop feature was introduced.
I fear this might be a symptom of the same game design philosophy when the art resources are being directed purely into new races locked behind a long and tedious reputation grind in order to artificially prolong the gameplay. I would probably give the Mag'har or the Dark Irons a try, because I really like their aesthetic but since it requires me to go through multiple hoops, one of which would require me to get a max level alliance character, that I do not currently have, I just gave up on the idea altogether. This is all on top of having the expansion purchased which feels even more unfair, considering that the new races were advertised as one of the major selling points of the expansion.
This is why I don't like the whole concept of these "allied races" at all. They feel like another case of "the Blizzard way" that we got with the Garrison that was supposed to be our version of player housing. I don't know about everyone else but when the community asked for "subraces" I thought what they actually meant was "more customization". I cannot fathom why this couldn't be done by adding new skin color options and hairstyles to the existing races except for that same design choice of squeezing more game time out of the players. Or was it because an idea of a "new playable race" seemed more attractive as a selling point for the expansion rather than "new customization options"? Character model update was probably my absolutely favourite feature of that expansion and I was sold purely because of it. I do honestly believe that adding new races instead of expanding the existing ones so frequently also harms the lore and immersion. How relevant has pandaren been since Mists of Pandaria? Why did something as ridiculous as Void Elves have to be invented despite having a large community demand for high elves since the Burning Crusade with supporting lore and characters already present in the game?
The lack of character customization also gets in the way of race and class fantasy, so vehemently pushed by certain game developers in the past couple of years. Why am I forced to wear elven garments and sit on a draenei spaceship in order to realize my troll priest fantasy? Can you not see how absurd it is? By having more options like war paint and markings, piercings, hair styles and tattoos, and, of course, armor to wear I could achieve way deeper and meaningful race and class fantasy for my character than some kind of median stereotypical "priest fantasy" experience. A lot of great race and class fantasy inspiration could be found in the old strategy games. The new heritage armor sets is a step in the right direction, but it shouldn't be a once in a decade occasion. With the art team no longer having to create twelve unique armor sets with each new raid anymore, they could probably spend their time on more casual and themed armor designs that could be distributed throughout the whole of the game, adding something fun and exciting to legacy content.
Since I've already mentioned armor customization I would also like to criticize the transmogrification system in its current state and, more specifically, its restrictiveness. I do not understand why a clearly plate armor set that is the Stormwind Guard outfit from the Draenor garrison (and only from there for some inexcusable reason) is available to wear for all alliance classes, including priests, mages and warlocks, but other regular plate, or even leather armor is not. Some of the newer cloth armor sets have some kind of plate armor pieces attached to them as well but getting a leather piece of armor for my priest transmog is forbidden for some reason. Why is as simple and perfect looking shoulder piece like the Defiler's Pauldrons which look like two pieces of wood and some feathers are locked behind the mail-only class? I can understand the whole armor class segregation from a game design point of view, but visual restriction is beyond my comprehension, especially considering that we already have many toy items available to us in the game that can alter our armor appearance. Once again I am being told what my class fantasy is denying me the joy of experimentation and producing more clones in the same armor sets from Classic and the Burning Crusade.
--- Professions, Player Housing and Roleplaying ---
These are the last couple of things that I'd like to mention. Let's start with professions and how they've fallen out of relevance as well, so much so that an entire secondary profession had to be removed from the game altogether. I personally view professions in roleplaying games as an extension of character customization. They add another layer of flavor to your character and sometimes even provide you with an alternative of progression. Maybe you or your friend didn't get lucky with a gear drop this week, or perhaps you managed to get a hold on a rare recipe that very few players on your server have? How about crating a unique cosmetic armor set or an item that you wouldn't be able to get from anywhere else? Maybe some cool accessory for your roleplaying adventure? Like a tent that you could camp in? That would not have a severe zone and time restriction thus completely eliminating its purpose? Imagine that! As of now, beside maybe enchanting, jewelcrafting and alchemy, the entire selection of professions does not offer anything exciting or useful. This is also exacerbated by gathering professions taking up an entire primary slot, making a lot players just opt for mining and herbalism for trading and just that. There has been some positive changes to some of them, including archaeology since Legion but they are still in a dire need of a major overhaul.
The fact of the matter is right now professions do not provide an engaging and meaningful gameplay experience, serving at best as an idle distraction and at worst a pointless chore. Why spend time and resources developing a brand new feature for an expansion to stick it on the box rather than focusing on improving the core features of the game that have been there since the beginning? That new feature might not work out and get abandoned after the expansion is over at best and at worst you would cling to it like the mission table which somehow managed to get even worse than in Warlords and Legion.
Going back to another expansion-selling feature that got abandoned and forgotten like a feverish nightmare, the Draenor Garrison. Originally heralded as "the Blizzard way of doing the player housing" it turned from one of the killer features of the expansion to one of its killers. It has been discussed and taken apart plenty of times, explaining everything that was wrong about it so I will not spend time repeating it. I am just, once again, befuddled by the design choice of giving absolutely everyone the same uniform experience with minimal customization (if you could even call swapping a couple of buildings around that). Instead we could have gotten a regular, "non-Blizzard version of housing", where a player would have a choice of picking a zone to settle down and decorate their cozy little haven with trophies from their adventures, exotic items from faraway lands, class and racial heirlooms to play further into their fantasy. The amount of content that could derive from that and get built upon could potentially last forever. Instead, everyone got a military base in the middle of nowhere on another planet in an alternate dimension with poor peons, grunts and champions forever prisoned inside.
For a casual player like me, the discovery of roleplaying was a real treasure and a saving grace. I was amazed by the breadth of content suddenly open to me that was built and maintained purely by the community itself. Ever since I've transferred to a roleplaying realm almost 8 years ago I could always find something fun to do. Just travelling around the world and seeing players out there communicating and working together was incredibly heartwarming. However, over the course of these years I have felt my imagination and inspiration dwindling, almost completely distancing myself from that aspect of the game some time after the Warlords launch. It is really hard for me to nail down this particular issue but it is probably related to all the other problems that I have described above, such as lack of character customization, the relevance of the world as a whole and the direction of storytelling. I am also incredibly disappointed by the lack of the developer support for one of the core parts of the game. Even some of the new awesome features and things that do get added into the game usually get some kind of restriction, completely eliminating its roleplaying value. Another example of that is the archaic language barrier that prevents horde and alliance players from interacting with one another, having to resort to third-party addons for something as trivial as simple communication.
--- Possible Solutions ---
I do not pretend like I am some sort of grizzled game design veteran that "knows better" than a large and venerable game developer. I judge these things from a point of view of a casual, yet passionate player who just wants to feel the same magic that I felt when I stepped into the wonderous world of Azeroth for the first time twelve years ago.
Stop putting all the development time into the new zones at the expense of one of the largest and most beautiful world that gets only more stale and hollow as the time goes by.
You can still tell an exciting and interesting story by introducing little changes here and there on a regular basis. For example, it was really exciting to see NPCs working on the Stormwind Harbor and later explore a whole new area of the city. A revamp of the questing is definitely in order with a focus on smaller, more independant stories that would not be as affected by the large story sweeps like big evil dragons burning everything and leaving it like that for ten years. New restructured story could pave way for new sets of world quests with dynamic rewards generously scattered throughout the whole world and not concentrated just in that one new zone that came with the brand new expansion. Vendor lists for legacy factions could be expanded with new recipes, collectibles and cosmetics.
Events like timewalking could also be reimagined. For example, placing diablo-style bounties on legacy dungeons with appropriate rewards, would make legacy dungeons relevant all the time and not just once in a blue moon when it shows up on calendar.
Stop putting all the new character design into new races at the expense of the rich lore and culture of the already established ones.
By spreading visual customization and story throughout a larger pool of available races its depth suffers and so does the player experience. Not everyone is ready to level another alt, but giving them more choice to maintain their character identity would only enhance their fantasy and give more positive reinforcement.
Stop trying to invent unnecessary features and clinging to the ones that clearly do not work.
Bloating the feature list just for the sake of it does not feel like a sensible game design direction. I honestly feel that the development resources would be better spent on improving and building upon the features that already exist in the game. Professions, combat, gear and visual customization, something that would not be tossed aside like the Garrison, Artifact weapons or Azerite gear as soon as the new expansion rolls out.
Give players more freedom in progression, customization or roleplaying.
War Mode is an interesting addition to spice up your PvE but it only really appeals to PvP players. Bring back gear vendors, add more relevant items to profession crating lists to counter bad luck and just to have an alternative to your character progression aside from the high-end mythic plus dungeon runs and raids. It doesn't have to be on the same power level, but it would be great to have something to work towards instead of trying to win in a titanforged roulette.
Relaxing the transmog restrictions would immediately provide people with lots of new things to collect and show off. Just imagine all the exciting new armor combinations the players would come up with. Fixing and updating character customization would definitely breathe new life in alts and roleplaying.
--- A Closing Word ---
I've been looking forward to Battle for Azeroth, being a huge troll lore and culture enthusiast. The art team did an incredible job, I have no words to describe my admiration for the beautiful lush jungles of Zuldazar, unsettling eerie marshes of Nazmir and absolutely gorgeous sand dunes of Vol'dun. However, my character felt lost and abandoned with all the new things given to another troll race that I will probably never be able to play.
I know this might seem petty and vain compared to the host of other serious problems with this expansion, but most of them did not affect me at all, aside from the aforementioned reputation grind and NPC scaling, but I felt that it stemmed from the same fundamental design flaw and I wanted to share my concerns from a casual player's point of view.
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TLDR: つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Please give more slutmog.
Submitted October 22, 2018 at 03:31AM by Leiandri https://ift.tt/2NVrJ1V
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