Binkenstein · @Binkenstein
30th Dec 2016 from TwitLonger
Endless Farming: The Optional Stuff That Isn't
one of the bigger complaints about Legion is that there's "too much to do" or rather that there feels like there is a lot to do that is required. This feeling of requirement comes from the fact that players are competitive, and want to have as many advantages as possible in order to get that world first, server first, or even just a high ranking on WarcraftLogs. This results in many hours spent farming Mythic+ dungeons for Artifact Power, which is contributing to higher player fatigue and burnout.
In situations like split runs for the high end crowd there's not really much that can be done in a practical sense to prevent this without negatively impacting players elsewhere, but AP farming is something that could and should have an upper limit for a given time frame.
The analogy to sports is like having a cycle race like Tour de France without rules or limitations on what competitors can take or on what modifications they can make to their cycles. Without those rules there would be prolific steroid abuse and other things like electric motors hidden in cycle frames.
Artifact Power is roughly comparable to Valor Points for item upgrades. There was a per week limit on those, but had there not a similar situation to the one we see now would have occurred: players spending excessively unhealthy time farming points to get an edge in the world first race.
Is it ultimately up to individuals whether they put in this extra time or not? Yes, but when one person does it then they all feel required to do it to stay on the same level.