Is everything going to break?

[TheBigBB]

I don't see anything being broken at all right now, I mean even with easy epics, the reason they're epic is because of the stat distrubutions, but the variation between good and bad epics is still pretty large; as large as the differences between raid gear and blue gear in old WoW. The problem is mostly that they don't make more than one map for each battleground, and then you end up playing the same map of WSG for 4 years with no changes. Everything else is just nitpicking.

[Catamer]

it really cheezed my that Wintergasp broke with the Horde owning it on my server so alliance was SOL until it was fixed.

[Hachoo]

I'm on the other side, WG is now stuck on horde side which works out good for me.

Then again we always have wintergrasp anyway because alliance sucks so bad on our server they can never get it, and 99% of the time random alliance in the world get owned by horde so fast the only time we get killed is when theres 3+ of them to 1 of us and/or they're 80 attacking a level 70-.

Thats how its been on Burning Legion US since I started playing the game in early 05.

[Catamer]

I ran two heroics and I thought my shaman rocked

[Rin]

99% of the time random alliance in the world get owned by horde so fast the only time we get killed is when theres 3+ of them to 1 of us and/or they're 80 attacking a level 70-.

hahaha so true, so very true.

[Greythan]

The problem is mostly that they don't make more than one map for each battleground, and then you end up playing the same map of WSG for 4 years with no changes. Everything else is just nitpicking.

Spot on.

[mmcookies]

I get the feeling WoW production has now fully transitioned into the hands of a secondary team (the primary team having wandered off to other, more awesome projects in Blizzard), and that secondary team readily bends over for management and marketing demands (schedule, workflow, quality changes, etc.)

[BobGnarly]

I hear a lot of this "decline" in WoW, and I'm sorry, I don't really see it. I wonder if those who think this really remember the early days of this game, and all the frustrating things we had to put up with. There were tons. I'm not going to say it doesn't have its problems, but on balance it's a much better game today than it was. I think we all get sentimental about the "good ole days" when WoW was young, and those were good times, but that doesn't mean the game was better, it was just newer.

Perhaps the reason I think this is because I'm in the category of people who benefit most from the ways it has changed. I'm not casual (I play a lot), but I don't belong to a raiding guild. I like to run raids with my friends, but it's not a weekly requirement. I like to pvp - BGs, arena, world. I do wish they would separate the pvp rules from pve, but I know why they don't want to - it would be a TON more work. I like that I can do most things now without having to take a second job raiding. I assert that this is a more healthy approach to a game that contains, mostly, casual players.

Speaking of raids, do people really expect raids to cater to a small minority of people? Honestly, I'm surprised that lasted as long as it did, and if you step back and think about it objectively for a second I think you'll realize they are doing what they should be doing - making their game enjoyable for as many people as possible. Sorry if it's not super-duper hard, but here's a news flash: raiding in the past in WoW has been not so much about skill, as time. For myself, I don't want to be part of a militaristic regime (read: raiding guild) anymore. So, that's meant that I missed out on a huge part of the game in the past. I'd like to run the game with my friends and still see all the content, and why shouldn't I be able to?

So yeah, scandal in the Blizzard offices concerning massive Vivendi "dumb-down" conspiracy and/or a plot to appease hardcore pvpers that want to raid, or a company trying to make their game approachable by more people. I'll take Snakes In The Grass for $1000, Alex!

[mmcookies]

people aren't awesome from the start, but they do learn to do their jobs better
we saw this when wow first went live, then things got smoother as they had time to learn from their mistakes

i believe the recent rockiness are signs that there's a new learning curve happening

as for casualization, this is an ongoing theme ever since wow launched, and i'm happy for it since i am a casual
please note that i pointed out scheduling, workflow, and quality changes in their bending over, and nothing about raids or content

[Yamio]

Well put BobGnarley, and I mostly agree with you, but I'm a casual player

I don't PvP anymore because I don't like how it plays out with the rewards and ratings. I don't raid with others because most of my friends have quit playing due to either money/time/family. The changes made to spell dmg or power or totems or whatever doesn't really bother me, and tbh, I ignore a lot of it. I was a solo player before and now that I multibox I'm even moreso. I used to group because I had to; now I rarely do it cause I don't need to. In the old days I would take on just about anything in anyplace at anytime, which means I would have to adapt to constraints of whatever the game offered. It didn't matter if I like the changes or not, they're the cards I'm dealt so I have to adapt.

Everybody has an idea of how to make things better, but it's MUCH harder when you're the team that actually has to implement things. Kind of like being a armchair quarterback.

It makes sense that Blizzard caters to the largest number of players it can. Hell, if I designed a game, casual players would be crowd I'd shoot for. "If it's good enough to keep the casuals coming back, we're bound to hook some hardcores in the process!"....and making a hard game doesn't fit into that idea.

I hear others say the old days of pvp were great, but like you, I remember them as being a pain. Remember the first honor system? /cry

Overall Blizzard has done a good job designing a game that pleases both PVE'er's/PVP'ers and casuals/hardcores in the process. That's definitely not an easy task. And while I don't believe nor partake in conspiracies, I do believe we're playing a game that's different than the original devs design. I have no idea if the difference is vast or not. Did their initial plan have less players than the current player base? More or less world PVP? BG's and Arenas? It's all speculation and subjective at best.

The one thing I do know; there's enough in WoW that keeps me coming back again and again, and spending me hard earned money on it in the process.