This year, World of Warcraft will be celebrating its 19th anniversary and it has, just like any other popular game on the market, evolved over the years, eliminating outdated systems and giving the world a fresh look. But, as the game’s changed, it’s become increasingly more about the destination than the journey, and some WoW players—myself included—miss how it used to feel.
In a post on WoW’s subreddit from Aug. 3, the community discussed their unpopular opinions about the game. Many players complained modern-day WoW has become too focused on Mythic+ dungeons and raiding, and a lot of them say they prefer game design that prioritises the journey over the destination. They prefer the adventures and the friends you make along the way instead of just rushing through levels to get to the end-game where you do one of three things—do Mythic+ dungeons, PvP, or raid.
Dragonflight has, undoubtedly, marked the beginning of new era for the game, as we left behind time-gated systems, borrowed power, and daily chores like we had during Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands. But WoW is far from its former glory we saw during the first three iterations of the game. Today, you want to rush through the leveling process by getting your Heirlooms and then spamming dungeons to reach maximum level, effectively ignoring the other 18 years of development for the sake of completing your seasonal goals.
Back in Vanilla, The Burning Crusade, and Wrath of the Lich King, WoW players took their sweet time while leveling because it was a part of the game where you conquered various challenges, met friends who you’d later join you in different dungeons, and simply enjoyed the ride. And honestly, this is a core difference between Classic and retail WoW—game philosophy. Blizzard Entertainment has neglected years and years of development where we fought the Legion, Old Gods, and the Scourge, just to make the current offerings more appealing to audiences.
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WoW is first of all an MMORPG, and it’s beginning to seem as if we’ve lost the RPG element in all of this to make the game more dynamic and oriented toward the rising trend of esports to compete with titans like League of Legends, Fortnite, and CS:GO.
Unfortunately, when you speed through all those past expansions and get to the max level, you don’t have much to do, unless you’re an avid PvPer or PvEr who wants to push challenging encounters. But, once you get your AOTC and KSM achievements and seasonal rewards that go with it, you don’t have much to do. You can always go for cosmetic and achievement runs and reputation farms, but, if we’re being honest, that’s just mindless farming.
So, what should Blizzard do?
I’d say that the first step would be giving some love to the old world, making it more relevant and not obsolete like it is today. Leveling is also in dire need of a rework. No one likes repeating the same old dungeons just because they are the fastest way to get experience so you can go hang with the big boys at level 70. Level 70 open-world activities could also use a touch-up—they are all too similar to one another. When you see one event, you’ve seen them all. For example, there aren’t many differences between Storm’s Fury events and Time Rifts, except for the theme.
Why can’t we have both—the journey and the destination? WoW is rich, versatile, and home to many different players, and there isn’t a single good reason why one side should get the teacher’s pet treatment and the other one should be left in a corner playing with leftovers.
