I have been playing WOW since release, just as I entered high school. I was super excited for it and watched the trailer again and again.
Wow was incredible back then, before the first expansion pack, which, in my view, signalled the end of WOW as I knew it and as I loved it.
So, what killed it? In essence, the challenge and hence, sense of reward was done away with. With each subsequent expansion pack, the game became easier and easier and geared itself almost entirely towards the casual players who are seeking maximum reward for little time investment. The sense of community was also killed when cross-server play was enabled. Once upon a time you knew those on your server, you knew the top players, the top guilds, etc... now, everyone is a nameless face from a different server that you'll never see again (and whom barely utters a word during instances or any other group activity).
The first major blow, which came about with The Burning Crusade from memory, was the removal of the pvp system. Having spent many, many hours, grinding my dwarf paladin to rank 10, I was beyond irritated to see it stripped from me for no good reason; then hard-got epic items became worthless, became the new greens. How can something be epic if it's commonplace?
The instances became easier and easier. I remember in the day they had to be coordinated over VOIP software like Ventrillo (which was a novelty at the time). Now, you can just queue, not speak, stand there and your health barely seems to disappear even without heals.
Now, I have also thought about the fact that I have indeed aged with the game, so that may have somewhat affected my appraisal, but, I don't think so, at least not majorly. Come to think of it, the game has been a lot worse now than it's been good. I would say it was really only good for about 2 years tops, which is shocking considering that it is now 18 years old.
In short, the game has become far too easy and therefore less rewarding and enjoyable as a whole. There's almost no sense of achievement and everything feels meaningless.
What do you value? What you've had to work hard to get and what very few people have? Or what you didn't have to work hard for and what everyone has?
The game is basically now a queer mod free for all wherein Taurens can be paladins and you can fly everywhere at lightning speed, ruining the sense of mystery and exploration.
A sad, shambling corpse that was once amazing.
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