You found friends because the group content required you to meet other people.
You joined a server that had its own identity and community and built a reputation for yourself within that community. It's a jarring experience when compared to the game of my childhood that allowed me to join other people I knew, jumping into a functioning world that allowed us to do anything we wanted with no expectation but a monthly subscription. I was unwittingly being coerced into playing a game and spending time in a world plagued with pop-up ads disguised as game content, time-gated quests that forced you into completing the minuscule content over weeks instead of at your own pace (slyly forcing you into more subscription time), and an increasingly disjointed and toxic community because all mechanics that fostered good community were abandoned. Now, that main character has been sufficiently bled dry for the sake of turning what was once art into a nonstop money printing machine.Īfter 13 years of playing the game, I was falling out of love with it and BlizzCon 2018 was confirmation I wasn't just getting bored with it after so long. You as a player were an extension of the main character, Azeroth, running around experiencing it and meeting other side characters you party up with along your travels. What made the game and the world it was centered upon so special in the first place, inspiring nearly 13 million concurrent players at one point to play the game, was that the world was the main character, and a compelling one with potential for improvement. Much like what can be seen across all Blizzard games as a whole, World of Warcraft has developed into a sad version of its former self, consumed by manufactured player engagement and immediate revenue to boost company performance in quarterly reviews.
Azeroth, the planet at the center of the World of Warcraft story, has potential to be a beautiful virtual world, but over its 17 year lifespan it has been tainted because of the business behind the game.
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