Anduin is a baby, Slyvanus is bae. Change my mind.
Seriously though, World of Warcraft is the grand daddy MMO of this generation. If you disagree with this statement, you have a lot of homework to do. Or if you are a huge Neverwinter fan, that will also suffice. Although I am not a huge fan of what my World of Warcraft experiences have been thus far, it really has a lot to offer and sets the bar for a lot of MMO’s on the market to reach up to. From a vast world to explore, rich and interesting characters that create a prosperous reception and most importantly, lore. If there was one huge factor that keeps me coming back even after all my faulty experiences, it is the lore this series has adapted. Long nights having my friends tell me the story of how the Alliance and Horde has clashed, a giant dragon that has literally destroyed a continent in it’s wake and a time travelling gnome who is named Chromie. How cute is that? And this is not even a scratch or a speck of the astonishing amount of content that WoW has to offer. Unfortunately, I do not know if I will ever be able to enjoy it.
So first off before we get into details, I need to address the questions of what people confront me with most commonly so that everything is clear here for the discussion ahead:
Q&A
Horde or Alliance? - Horde. All day, everyday.
Have you even tried WoW? - Yes. Every year in fact for the past five years. I get a month’s subscription at least and play for either a month or two. My highest leveled character is a level 54 Blood Elf.
How many characters have you made? - At least 8. Some were test dummies for classes but others were characters I made to play with friends. Since some were Alliance players. I am now focused on just three at the moment, all Horde exclusive.
Have you tried boosting levels? - I will not boost levels. And I will not power level either. Both have been very horrible experiences for me. There was a character of mine who power leveled with the in game level boosters called, “heirlooms”, and it was frustrating as a new player on how much I missed out on. It is an option I will not consider while playing through my first interpretation of the content.
Do you not like any of the classes? - I am still not sure. The classes vastly change every-time I come back. I am still experimenting with classes to this day but I have played the Warrior, Paladin, Hunter and Warlock the most. Paladin is my favorite so far.
Is it because you love Elder Scrolls Online more? - Absolutely not. I would not consider bias when it comes down to this discussion. World of Warcraft has been out way longer than ESO and though I enjoy ESO much more, WoW deserves to be evaluated as it’s own entity before I compare it to other titles.
Is it because you are too cheap to pay for subscriptions? - Although I am stingy with how I approach WoW, the payment methods are something that do sway my opinion and commitment for the title. I will discuss this later.
How can you like the Horde if you have not even played through all the way? Because Slyvanus is wife material. Let us move on.
Why don't you stop making characters and just commit to one? - There is a vast amount of content in this game and investing 50 hours and more into one character does get exhausting. I want to explore more potential paths to enjoy WoW through and making new characters has enlightened my perspective on a few things doing it this way.
So with some of these basic questions out of the way, I am going to try and outline my article in the best way possible and get through it just as quick. There are a lot of topics to go over so let us start with interpretations and promotional advances with the series then transition into game-play and progression.
First Interpretations
World of Warcraft, as of today, is fourteen years old. I did not start playing until 2013 during my freshmen year of college. I dabbled in the free trial a few times in high-school but nothing too diligent. My first experiences were mostly the trials that allowed you to get to level 20 and that was it. No more progress for that character. So the option to continue and play other characters was always there if you wanted a small taste of what to expect. However, I feel like this method is too outdated for where WoW is now. When I get into game-play I will explain more in depth on this topic but the 1-20 trial will not hook new people into the game and I stand very solemnly on that statement. It will save that player the headache of having to grind early game content. Which is what I have done right now for four other characters. So that way, whenever I do come back and subscribe again, I will be able to jump into the game without the early game grind, which many WoW vets say is the worst. Yet it does not solve the glaring issue of making it an enjoyable personification of what Blizzard is intending to show.
Back to my college years first. I subscribed, like I mentioned prior, at least a month of time every year. The first year, me and around five of my friends were all grouping up for dungeons and leveling together. It was cool, quiet and I learned a small handful from my WoW veteran buddies. I got to learn how some classes work by their experiences, learn how dungeon roles prosper in WoW and what I could expect if I continued to play further. That lasted for a week or so and everyone dispersed. The vets went back to their own grind as Mists of Pandaria was the most recent expansion and some of them had catching up to do. Warlords of Draenor was coming up that next year so their excitement and anticipation was lingering for that time period. I however, did not get back into it until the Warlords of Draenor expansion dropped and it was the talk of the town. This time, I went in on my own accord to see what I could make of it. It did not go over well. An orc warrior of mine made it just pass level 28 and that was that. It was a sad month for that poor orc.
The next year rolls around and my friends are getting hyped as they are preparing for the Legion expansion of 2017. It was still a year off but there was hysteria in the air surrounding it. I went in once more but this time trying out an Undead Warlock. I actually had more fun this time around and got to level 40 this time. It was one of my better experience with WoW. Then we get into the Legion expansion release.
Friends of mine wanted me to jump back into it once more. And I did. However, I was leashed into this world but this time not of my own interest. I wanted to truly get these experiences that everyone talks so highly about. The story, the characters and the fleshed out combat system of higher level characters. This is where I started to use heirlooms. Heirlooms, when equipped as a full set, will give you a really big boost to how much experience you get as you level up. I have never level boosted before so this was new to me. As my new Monk character came to fruition, I was told, “Just equip these and you will be getting to where you want to be in no time”. After a week of the grind, I got absolutely sick of the game. It was the most boring experience I think I had with the game so far. Story was not a viable inclusion as I was rushed through all the dialogue in the dungeons we played, did not even explore and I had no idea where the story even began anymore. I was too discombobulated and I had to stop. Returning was not going to be option… until next year of course.
This is when I was gifted a sub from my friend and I pretty much invested every possible day I could into making his gift worth it. This is the best experience I have had with the game thus far. I got a Blood Elf Paladin to level 54 and actually got to see more of the story that was to come. This is nowhere near where everything get’s “good” per say but it was a step in the right direction for me. It gave me hope to want to try this game yet again. With all this said in done, that was about a time lapse of about five years of WoW events for me. Each one more different than the last. Hopefully that gives some perspective of where I have come from with this game. Both good and bad times have emerged but it has made me see more of the game in a new light than I ever have in the last few years. Which is why I cannot shake the feeling that there is something here for me in this game. No matter how many times I tell myself there is not. Which is where the next section comes into play.
Promotional Marketing
World of Warcraft has that free trial like I mentioned before. And to play the game you need to subscribe with 15$ and you will be able to play for thirty days until you need to renew again. Now, WoW literally just posted yesterday that all expansions are now free as long as you are subscribed. Before, if you were a new player, you would need to subscribe and once you got to certain expansions, you would need to purchase them. This is not the case anymore and you will only have to pay for the most recent expansion which is Battle for Azeroth. Whether this will change in the future is beyond me but it is a great gesture for all players.
This does not veer away from the fact that I am not a fan of how WoW handles their financial gestures. Now I know what you are thinking, “those subscriptions pay for the servers and the future content of the game”. Yes, I understand. I do not like it though. Like I promised as well, I will not throw WoW under the bus and compare it to other games. For the sake of argument however, things have come a long way for gaming in general and I feel this method is outdated keeps me from wanting to come back when I get the craving to play.
Why this is holding me back is because I have to commit a whole month of time to a game I spend 15$ on. Some argue that this is nothing compared to what games cost now but the way that I see this choice of marketing is that I do not own the game and that these harmless subscriptions become huge investments. I will never own the game and to play I will always have to spend 15$ and even then I may have to spend more depending on how much I delve into it.
Seriously, I have spent almost 100$ on this game as a casual player alone. I spent 100$ and I feel like a lot of it was not even worth the investment.This is nothing compared to what the WoW vets are paying for their subscriptions and expansions alone. With purchasable content in their stores too (which are so overpriced in my opinion), this game has to be swimming in money. If you tell me it is not, then there is a lot more too look into than just the surface of this economic choice. Not owning this game is what hurts me. It is my justification of how much I am willing to put down every month. I would gladly pay 40-60$ for the game, as expansions come out every few years and what not, to just own this game and be able to come back and play whenever I want. I cannot fathom the idea of continually paying into a subscription service for a game I will constantly be on the fence about. This is where I put that trial period back into check. It needs to change.
Grinding from level 1-20 is not fun and any WoW player will tell you it is not. So why are you making new players do it? In my opinion, if players are never going to be able to own this game, at least give the new players a taste of what everyone is talking about. Casually investing my five years into this game, I have not once actually seen anything spectacular to the level of what my friends are building up for me. Not once. How am I supposed to get excited if I have to grind my way up without a proper taste of what there is to expect? Even just a teaser in my own control? It is the same grind every player has gone into for the past decade and no one wants to talk about it. This is turning off new players however and I am one of them. It is turning me off and if it was not for the expansive content this game dearly enlightens, I do not think I would be here now spending my time on this matter. I say this because I care about the game in a way I cannot fully understand but rather appreciate. All this content, I want to explore it. Level through it, learn about it and so much more. Yet, the tedious repetitive grind is coming back. Level boosters and heirlooms are not the solutions either. WoW is trying to forget this horrible intro segment of their game so that players can get to the content they are hoping to showcase. It has been included in every expansion for the past few years with those level boosters. I refuse to boost and not to make a statement but because I know the game was not meant to be experienced that way. It is a convenient method to skip content, not play what came prior. WoW is in a new era and Blizzard is making it as convenient and as accessible as possible to get there. I should be able to start from the beginning of a game and work my way into something special and if WoW will not allow me that, then I do not think I can delve into the way I have been over and over. My progression is nothing but hardcore commitment at this point. Which is concerning for casual audiences and even me who will play a large assortment of titles in one week.
Game-play and Progression
Thankfully, I am willing to invest into a set of characters now instead of restarting like I have been. My point, however, is that new players need a welcoming introduction into this game. Maybe a pre-downloaded instance for just new players to explore? A scenario that introduces questing mechanics that have been implemented in the past few years? Anything to not give these outdated fractures of game-play which they are only graphically improving.
The combat has come a long way since I played just in my college years alone. However, the trial version only gives you a pitiful amount to play with for the few classes I have seen (Hunter, Warrior, Paladin, Warlock). The abilities I see my friends use are so diverse and intricate that it looks like you are actually playing a game and not mashing one button. I understand that this is the introductory phases for an MMO and teaching the player but like I mentioned, create a scenario or instance to showcase where the game is strongest. Where the player levels up in such a predetermined way that they can rattle around more than just three quick cast abilities that grow old in an hour. Or not grind these boring and brain dead enemies while collecting the same set of re-skinned rubbish just to get a handful of experience with no purpose behind it.
The level 54 character I have is making me enjoy my game-play more now that I actually have an assortment of abilities to use. This was after a whole month of daily grinding however. If even for just an hour. With all the time I sunk into this game, the best content is still so far ahead of me and I am just sitting here wondering when I will get to finally play it. Dungeons are pretty great as they test your new found abilities in unique ways you never thought before with a group of other people. Then there are the story quests that tie into the big plot of WoW overall. Not including area quests at all here. Personally, these area quests are so mind numbing that with the new level scaling update, I will be skipping out on the areas that pose the most minuet game-play progression possible. The story gets dry in a lot of spot and again, it is because I am doing all this starter content stuff.
"The Barren Level 1-60 Grind", as my friends call it. If that is something people need to say when they talk about a game-play system, then there are some serious issues to deal with here in terms of progression. It is not all lost though as Blizzard is tackling these issues but they are still missing out on the segments that I believe matter most. The introductory game-play establishment into the core of the game. Again, me not boosting my levels is a personal choice in the matter of how this game is designed. If you really believe that I should skip to content to enjoy the game right from the start, then I will not want to keep investing into that title. Even if the beginning is slow, it should never have to force me skip it to get the “good” content. Boosters are for the veteran players who want to save all that time and start a new character in certain expansions. Which I am okay with because those players at least got to play that game firsthand leading up to that expansion. It is a good incentive and saves a lot of time for them. Then there is the casual audience who just want to see the new content right off the bat but not do what I am doing and experience the game from the start. They would rather skip it and that is fine too. Just do not forget, I want to enjoy this game and I love seeing the inner workings of games from the ground up. The experience is important. This word has been brought up so much in this article and for good reason.
In conclusion, will I ever enjoy World of Warcraft? To be honest, I might and I am as close as ever to getting to that pinnacle moment of where it is starting to feel like it is worth it. With the worst tedious grind out of the way now, there is some hope of actually finding enjoyment out of this. No more level 20 grinds from this point forward as I have three characters ready to tackle the new upcoming changes that Blizzard has made. The exploration I have done in continents prior have also made it easier for me to focus my efforts on progression rather than finding out what to do for half of my time. Figuring out the tiny things like capital city travel, profession advancement, mounting, etc, are all in my know-how lists now. Now I just need to work on getting to all this content that has been built up for me. When I will jump back in? I cannot say when I will but when I do, I hope a new milestone is hit and that I can see some pretty intense breakthroughs in the future. WoW is in an amazing spot and it is awesome to continue see it evolve through the years. Just… Blizzard… please get rid of the grind at the start I am begging you. I need to know more about my girl Slyvanus and my Horde family.