Nnoggie · @nnoggie
19th Jun 2021 from TwitLonger
Thoughts on high end players impacting how WoW is developed
WoW is definitely NOT designed around high end players - it is quite the opposite actually. Since Legion the game has become more and more awful to play competitively.
Blizzard seems to design the game to actively discourage min/max playstyles. Spec-specific Artifact Power, hardcapped (!) legiondaries, azerite armor which does not change along with your spec, island grinds, residuum trading (hope you're fired btw), covenants locking playstyles, conduit power who wants these things? High end Raiders certainly don't and I just don't see the value in these systems for ANY player. In my view these systems exist to try and discourage players from optimizing their characters and instead keeping them on artificial grinds. Furthermore I believe it's an attempt to close the gap between players - but this heavily backfires as players are willing to go to crazy lengths to overcome these hurdles. Other aspects of the game suffer because work is being focused on these useless systems, the game feels unrewarding to play and people quit. Blizzard throwing in all of these hurdles for players who "tryhard" does not equal to blizzard designing the game around them.
Dungeons are not designed to be run competitively / with MDI "in mind" - this is a line that a blue post/interview said before BFA after the success of Legion M+. This definitely did NOT happen as dungeons are much more influenced by the art direction or the story that is being told and are full of gimicks which just don't fit competitions like the MDI. Remember when Temple of Sethraliss was just straight up removed from the map pool of the MDI because of a gimick mechanic which kept bugging? I fully believe that the MDI is and always was an afterthought when it comes to designing dungeons.
A common argument is that Master Loot was removed because of High End Guilds using it to funnel gear. This is not true, gear is still being funneled even with personal loot (in some cases it's even worse than before) and Master Loot got removed to be able to fire a bunch of Game Masters to save cost on loot drama tickets.
The Highend PvE scene has shrunk considerably and gotten extremely top heavy - Limit and Echo are recruiting players from all over the globe because nobody wants to do all this crap to compete on the highest level. Do you really believe that this game is made for people like me who multiboxed the Maw with 3 DKs walking at snail speed? Who farms thousands of islands to get 1% DPS? I am not the target audience, the game is not designed around people like me.
Many players in guilds like Limit and Echo have played this game religiously for 10-15 years. Some of us are lore nerds, many are mount farmers, we love transmog.
We have enjoyed and still enjoy a lot of what WoW has to offer - just because we also enjoy competing as players on a high level should not discredit our view on the game as a whole. We just want the game to be better like everyone else.