It won't exactly be a list, but I'll try and formulate my reason as best as I can.
Let's not kid ourselves, first and foremost, Warcraft as it is on Live today, is, in many ways superior, the questing, for one, is a lot more engaging, the end-game content has some more advanced mechanics (This being better, I'll agree is arguable) but the reason I have a severe lack in interest in most MMO's of today, is because of the many quality of life changes. I would hate to sound bitter, but "back in my day" when Warcraft was released, I was happy, Everquest for example, was, for me a bit too hardcore. Warcraft, for me, absolutely hit the sweetspot.
The levelling system was difficult, hard, time consuming, and yes, at times even frustrating. But all these aspects made every level up, worth it, and quite a lot. To finally get that talent you were working towards, or that feeling when you hit an even number level and you get the next rank of your favourite spell. These things, they might sound trivial, but they all added, so much to the levelling experience. I mean, it took me well over eight months to finally reach max level on my first toon, and, even longer than that to get my epic mount. There was a proper time commitment, there was no crossrealm anything, so you come across the same people, both in battlegrounds, and in the open world itself. Which, by lack of flying mounts and what not, looked so, so much bigger.
Then there were professions, they were useful for more than just making gear, or potions. The game oozed passion, little places, no quests, hard to get to, but just lovely little settings, with paintings in a house, paintings of in-game things, like the thousand needles. Or a half naked human female. Places you do not find anymore, everything has a quest, or an important NPC, the fluff is gone, and with it, a lot of passion it looks like. Warcraft as it was before, was created by a group of nerds, and I mean that in the most loving way possible. They had love, ideas, and passion for the project, and it showed, in everything, Warcraft was absolutely a masterpiece in its day, despite some of the obvious flaws, and server instabilities. Never thought I'd actually miss Durotar's starting zone filled with level ones, complaining about how their own server was down, ans even running into buddies (yes I was Horde)
Balance and streamlining, these two things, they made my beloved game bland, boring. You have no idea how much I hated the Paladin class, with a passion, even the alliance. I hated them, not the players that play them, no, not at all. I hated the faction. Horde for life, for the Horde! These were things passionately "shouted" by players as they (sadly) all started to fight in the middle of Warsong Gulch, forgetting the objective almost entirely. But, balancing was a nightmare, Paladins came to the Horde, Shamans went to the Alliance, and all was fair, and balanced. As much as I adore The Burning Crusade, which, was an excellent expansion, Karazhan is my favourite raid of all time, despite it only being ten people. But with that balance, a little part of faction identity was lost, they would of course, also take the unique Priest talents away. (Fudging Dwarves and their fear ward ;_; ) Once more, going for balance. But it didn't stop there, oh no. Back in vanilla, certain classes would quite simply outperform other classes in PvP for example. A Rogue would absolutely murder a Warlock, in some cases Mages too. However, when that Rogue went up against a warrior, he'd die, simply, all he could do was try and get behind to build up combo points, keep up bleeds, and stay out of range. The game was not balanced around arena set-ups and e-sports. This, to me gave the classes flavour, and by doing so, the game itself.
Now, I mentioned flavour just now, another thing, another thing which they felt they had to streamline. Remember the amount of buttons and different kinds of skill you had at level sixty? They'd fill up all action bars, including the extra ones. A lot of which were not really used all that often. But they were still, a hell of a lot of fun to play around with. Sentry totems, for example. But just skill that were, relatively useless in a PvE or PvP setting, but they added fun, and flair to your class. The ritual of doom, anyone?
I briefly touched upon quality of life changers, but two or three depending on how you look at it, really destroyed it for me, it is such a huge shame, such a huge shame this is the norm now. I am of course talking about Dungeon/raid finder and flying mounts.
Dungeon finder, I'll openly admit, I was happy they introduced, at first, I was genuinely happy, how it would save me an hour of whispering randoms and advertising in Dalaran's (at the time of introduction of said mechanic) trade chat. I was delighted, what I did not foresee, and I doubt Blizzard foresaw it. Was that it would be a nail in the eventual coffin that was the social aspect of the MMO, which, I firmly believe is at the heart, the core of what an MMO is. No longer did I need to talk to people. You just queue up, clear the dungeon, leave, without ever saying a word. Unless of course you wipe, then you call the tank or healer a noob and leave. Without any consequence to your social status, which, was a huuuuuuge thing. Known for being a ninja, too bad, your character just committed social suicide. Which only got worse when that too became crossrealm.
The flying mounts, boy were they handy, not to mention rare, at the start of the burning crusade expansion. You just came from vanilla, you went through the portal, into Hellfire, you looked around in awe as you saw demons, big ones, attacking right there, you run to the flight path it takes you to the first village. You see a riding trainer, you talk to it, you see flying skill, which allows you to fly, at what was it? Fifty percent? Slower than your epic mount, but you could fly. Then you'd see the price, and get a heart attack, thought epic was expensive? Think again. Of course the acquisition of gold became easier and easier with each expansion.
I am sure there is more, and I might edit it in later. I'll stop my rambling here though, I just wanted to share, one final thought that jumped into my mind whilst writing this. I was wondering what it was that you guys think.
I've noticed that, design-wise, the developers have gotten somewhat lazy, I do not know if it is pressure from up the corporate ladder to pump out content to keep the players engaged, which, the whole levelling debacle I mentioned might actually help with, at least a little. Imagine, the first max level after an expansion be a month in, rather than a day. But I digress. The design has gotten lazy, I'll give the two most recent "features" as an example.
As I said, this came into my mind whilst writing this, so the ideas are of course not fleshed out, I am alone, and took me five minutes.
Warlords of Draenor: One of the main features was the Garrison, and, I'll admit, I was somewhat excited for this, I had hoped it would be a little bit akin to player housing like a Wildstar for example, albeit somewhat less extensive, but, they turned it into the most lazy, and frankly uninteresting thing I can imagine. The idea, it had so much potential, I cannot fathom why'd they make it the way they did. Let us consider Warcraft's roots. The RTS games. Rather than that "command table" make it a mini game, a wink to the RTS roots of the game, not a full fledged RTS, just, an homage. Actually sent your followers out on short/long real time missions, react to things happening. Instead, it's just, well what it is now. It seems so lazy to me, such a huge wasted opportunity.
Legion: Class halls, pretty much the same as Garrisons from what I can gather. So no need to beat that horse twice. But then there is, of course, the artifact weapons! Of course one of the big selling points, you get them via a class unique quest. Which, I am quite thankful for. But after the acquisition, I highly doubt there's a lot more questing for said class artifact. Now, let us look at the artifact in question. It gains power as you do things within the world, raid bosses, quest lines, they give you tokens, which, when you use them, your weapon grows in power. But, the weapon, it's never really yours. It would be much better, if you ask me. That during your exploits on the Broken Isles people will start to recognise you as that hero (that's the route they're taking) Why not get your own legendary weapon, name it yourself, feel the uniqueness. "NPC: Are--are those the <artifact name> ?!" "NPC2: Yes, yes, I think so, then that must be <player name>"
just a little thing, but the whole way of levelling the weapon it feels so lazy and underwhelming again.
Which, brings me to the conclusion of the thought, the game, it gets more and more casual, less buttons to press, it becomes lazier and lazier in many ways. Why make a lot of raids if we can make four different difficulties of the same raid? The game it caters and grows towards the laziness, but in my eyes,it's not just the game, it's the dev team itself too.
I would love to hear your thoughts on the matters
Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2016 5:52 pm