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Prefer to Listen? Copy and paste the text here: https://www.naturalreaders.com/online/ I started playing World of Warcraft during covid. The physical isolation from loved ones was difficult, but this was one good thing to come out of it. Since most of us were stuck inside, we became more reliant on virtual connections. Zoom calls, Facebook messenger, I even dusted off my skype at one point. This new world not only made it possible for me to attend work and coven at home, but it gave me a little more time to connect with far away friends from college. What a blessing that was! Many of us had already seen each other at low points, so their comfort was especially vital for my mental health. One of these friends was Marina. She is on Spacehey with me, and she is one of the coolest people here. No I am not biased; that's just a fact. Look it up. We started having zoom calls to check in, do card readings and write. I, of course, would tell her all about what happened during my last D&D session. Since she did not have experience with D&D when the calls started, she would fairly compare it to World of Warcraft. The game had never interested me before. I was strictly anti-mmo. The idea of gaming online around a lot of strangers did not appeal to me in the slightest. However, the more she talked about it, the more fun it sounded. After some consideration, and much coaxing, I decided to give it a try. Marina assured me we would not have to play with any strangers, so we wouldn't have to deal with any “capital G gamer” nonsense. She just warned me to not pay attention to the general chat in the major cities. I'm too dyslexic to keep up with that chat anyway, so it all worked out. Overall, I am glad I made the leap. It is a nice addition of fantasy in my life, and one I get to experience weekly with a dear friend. I really enjoy the character customization. Right now I am only playing on a free account, so we will play up to level 20 and then create new characters together. It's a lot of fun to discuss our options and then enter the world for the big reveal. I think my favorite race so far has been the Draeni, but I also love the Worgen. I am so amazed by the landscapes in this game. The world is beautiful! Marina and I often say "I would like to live here please" as we explore new terrain. I don't know what I am doing living on Main Street in a small town. I clearly belong in a vast magic forest. Now, as fun as it is, World of Warcraft is far from perfect.* In my opinion, the story is not that great, and if I was not playing with a friend I would get bored with how much of the game is just killing things. Most of the quests and NPCs are great, but some do not make any sense. I wish the quests on the side were always a contrasting color to the scenery. There are times Marina and I will be playing, then I will suddenly wander off in a random direction and stop for no reason. Why would I do this? I am looking for a spot that my quests don't blend into so I can read them. In a similar vein, it would be great if there was an audio option for quests. Even a little robot reader to click on would be better than the nothing I have right now. If there is a way I am missing, please let me know! None of this even touches on my biggest problem with the game. Arguably, the greatest flaw in the whole thing. Your character can dance, bow, lay down to sleep and pet dogs, but they CAN'T hug their friends! It's a travesty! I should be able to hug my friend in a virtual magic forest! It could even use the same format as duels (another thing you can do here) to avoid weirdness. First, make it impossible to hug NPCs. You just can't trust "Gamers" with that. Then, create a system where a player can request to hug their friend. Their friend could accept or reject the request. If they reject it, that's it. Nothing happens. If they accept it, a brief hug! And make sure to catch a cute screenshot with your friend. Doesn't that sound nice? We should also be able to pet the griffons, but one thing at a time. *For now I am going to focus on the game itself, but rest assured I firmly believe that Blizzard employees (particularly women, people of color and LGBTQ people) deserve better pay and working conditions. My First character, followed by both of our Pandaren and Worgen characters:
My Problem With 'World of Warcraft'
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Patrick
From a person who has played since 2008. The game has many issues. The story as a whole is good but most of the recent story lines from like the past 2 expansions require you to read the books that come out as well to fully understand anything which most people who love the lore hate doing. The story should be in the game. All of it.
Another reason it is going in the crapper is because they are more worried about short term profits which means the game suffers more and more over time. For example; they launched shadowlands over a year ago. Many things were broken in the game ranging from covenant abilities and class balance. They left the game how it was for over a year... with no updates, content, or fixes. That is really bad for a WoW game. Content usually comes every few months.. not a year after launch. After that 1 year drought of content, you know what they did once they released to "new" patch that was 7 months late? They released a 6 month subscription store mount to lock people in for a guaranteed 6 months worth of game time. Wanna know what else happened after they got peoples money from that? They didnt release any new content for another long period of time. So they essentially got a guarantee 6 months worth of game time from many many people. What a nice way to release content after a year of the games initial release.
Microtransactions are a plague in WoW. Many people hate people like me because they really enjoy them and they think they do no harm to the game. But they refuse to listen to the reasoning because "the pet is so cute". For 1, you PAY for the game which is 60+ dollars, you PAY 15 a month to play the game, and you PAY for expansions when they release. Anything they put into WoW should be obtained IN GAME with no extra cost. Here is why microtransactions effect the game:
Mounts: There are many mounts you can obtain in the game already. BUT in recent expansions, there have been many many reskins of mounts that have already been in the game. None are unique what so ever.. but guess which ones are? The store mounts.. the ones you can pay for. They make the mounts in the store stand out from everything else in the game to motivate people to pay for them. So that makes the ones we get for free in game lack in creativity.
Pets: There are also many pets in the game that you can acquire. Buy the ones they put the most time into are the ones in the store.
Transmog: This is the one most people hate the most right next to the mounts. They have been releasing transmog sets in the store. The most recent one is boiling a lot of peoples blood. Want to know why? Its unique and has visual effects to it. The gear you get from the most recent raid tier are boring and bland BECAUSE they are reskins from older raids in the game.
Hopefully you understand what im talking about. The more effort they put into the store items, the less pleasing and appealing the items you get in game are going to be. They do this on purpose for money.
The end game is garbage. The people who say "there is plenty to do".. no, not really. Yes, there are many things you can go around and do to have fun for yourself, but im talking about end game. You get max level and run Mythic pluses and raid.. thats about it. PVP is dead in WoW now until they bring in pvp vendors with pvp stats. But they said that they arent doing that because it will "effect the players".. no it wont. It will benefit the players who pvp, and not benefit the ones who dont. Thats how it is supposed to work.
Systems: They implement so many crappy systems into the game now that is just isnt fun to play. They make them mandatory when it shouldnt be. If you are caught up with everything and then you decide you want to take a break for a few weeks, you will be so far behind and then you will have to play religiously to catch back up. The systems are meant to keep you playing for as long as possible because they want you in the mindset of "i need to keep playing so i stay caught up with everyone". They do that so they can take there sweet time making content.
This expansion only has had like 2 content patches. The third is to release soon i believe and its going to be the last one for the expansion. That is really bad because most expansions have way more than that.
Sorry if this is a lot. Me, alike many others who have played for a long time are just tired of this company shitting on the game that we all grew up playing just so they can get quick and easy money.
There are some good people in the game, but the majority is toxic as hell and is very annoying.
Thanks for taking the time to share this! Since I haven't been playing all that long, I can't speak to previous launches, but I completely agree with you about microtransactions! It always bums me out when Marina and I see a really cool mount and then realize it's only there because it was bought. There are so many creative creatures there and I would love to interact with them as part of the game too, but I'm not paying for them...Hell right now I'm not even paying for WoW. XD
What were the PVP vendors? How did they work?
by Goblin Teatime; ; Report
PvP vendors were the merchants you go to with your pvp currencies to get pvp gear so you can be better when pvping. If you are fully equipping pvp gear and fighting someone with no pvp gear, you are going to win because you have pvp stats on your gear. But blizzard refuses to bring it back.
by Patrick; ; Report
That's weird. What was their reason for taking them away?
by Goblin Teatime; ; Report
"they dont want players to get stomped on" so essentially, they dont want people getting their feelings hurt.
by Patrick; ; Report
But you can't be forced to do pvp anyway? I wouldn't play otherwise XD
by Goblin Teatime; ; Report
No pvp is optional lol. but it used to be fun when the people who pvp'd the most got rewarded.
by Patrick; ; Report
Sounds neat for the people who liked it! It's a shame it got so altered.
by Goblin Teatime; ; Report
Marina
Yes on all counts! I would also put in a vote for an exasperated but fond face palm whenever your adventuring companion gets stuck under a dock and can't get out of the water. That story to come later, I'm told, so stay tuned!! Love you, my favourite goblin!
Shhhh! That's going to be a later episode! XD I love you too, and agree, there should be a facepalm action. Hugs first though.
by Goblin Teatime; ; Report