Wait, really, going back through where you started is a pain in the ass to you? I never played WoW, never cared enough to spend more than a day on it before I got so damn bored because there was nothing to do but have your hand held through it. You say you played for eight years, this guy played since launch and loved the inventory management because he loves RPGs with more than just leveling on the brain.Shanicus said:I always find the 'dumbing down' argument to be a crock of shit 'cause... well, I've played the bloody game for 8 years. I like all the 'dumbing down' they've done, since there was far, far, far too much piss-taking in the old days. Like riding across a continent through level 50 zones to do a level 20 quest to get a basic class ability, or having multiple redundant abilities for niche situations that only ever arose once (Vanilla Balance druids, anyone?). Ammo was expensive, unnecessary and irritating busy work to keep track of at all moments, with quests for better ammo or bigger bags incredibly time-consuming and difficult for only the bare minimum of an upgrade. Removal of faction gates for shit isn't that big a deal either, since it was always done at the end of an expansion (and even then, only rarely - BC and LK factions are still a thing), when that content is no longer relevant; the most recent one was removing the reputation lock on some mounts, which was pretty beneficial since those locks included some mounts that dropped in the world and weren't just earned by rep-grinding.
Now, I'm not one to argue that Blizzard is the greatest company in the world, but hating it for changing things from how they used to be always feels like arguments from rose-tinted glasses. Blizzard games haven't exactly been the... shall we say, 'best put together' games in the world, so the general tweaking and removal of piss-taking hasn't been something I've looked down on negatively. External business practices like the trading cards have been pretty shady (though as the unique cosmetics are now rarely available via the in-game Black Market for trade with Gold, they at the very least gave people the chance to get 'em again) and they do have a nasty habit of doing things and then going to their community 'Lol Problem?'. Shit, I stopped playing Diablo 3 for most of it's early life, since it was borderline unplayable with it's hyper-reliance on the Auction House and Blizzard's handling of complaints surrounding class balance consisted mostly of a 'Fuck you got mine'.
And as unfortunate as it is to hear for any Warcraft RTS fans... well, the Warcraft RTS isn't a thing anymore and the story is being continued in WoW. Unless WoW shits the bed anytime soon (which given it still rakes in billions a year isn't happening) those RTS fans will have to look elsewhere for their RTS fix. Alas, the sad fate of genre shifts in a series.
(as a side note, it seems companies involved with Trading Card games always do weird shady shit for some reason...)
He loved that it was alot like other RPGs and was the greatest MMO since pre-Planes of Power EQ1. Ammo is what kept Rangers from being broken as shit with their equipment and abilities, Warriors having to repair their armor every once in a while, spellcasters having to use up components that dropped from specific creatures for spells and keep their research up to date to keep their spells from being too low level. And the dumbing down took that part of the flavor of the game away from him. You say it was a waste of time and had little impact, according to him that faction grinding and concentrating on ammo made his Hunter really damn strong in raids and PvP since he could dish out an extra 20% while others that hadn't spent all that time weren't able to do as much.
The game rewarded the piss-taking with pretty substantial gains if you bothered to do them. And I'm very much inclined to believe him, since my family were big fans of the original EQ and WoW was originally built on what EQ fans wanted to see. The guy played since launch, he's seen it all, and the only thing he has to say that's positive about the dumbing down is that the skill trees were made alot clearer for everyone.
And here's another thing about dumbing down a game that people don't like. It makes every build the same, why play a Troll with a badly designed starting zone when you can play a Dwarf who has better faction, better equipment, better merchants, and just an easier time doing literally anything in the game? Stats mean nothing in that game. And when the numbers you build your character on can just be completely made up by twink gear, what is the point of picking anything other than cosmetics? Why even have different races?
Dwarf Fortress would not be half the game it is if they dumbed it down, I can tell you that for a fact, because alot of games on steam have tried to emulate it by dumbing it down, and I don't think a single one of them has been anywhere near as successful as a free game that's been in continuous development for like ten years that is known for being incredibly punishing and obtuse in what anything does. Skyrim is continuously criticized for removing stats and dumbing it down so that most characters end up being the same because when you get 200 in one of the three stats, you have no reason to put anymore into them since you don't need anymore. Total War made it more complex with how you had to decide which provinces built what with Empire, and it's been praised for that change-up since. Hitman was turned from a semi-puzzle game with multiple choices to a semi-action, semi-stealth, semi-dressup game, semi-whatsiwhosits with Absolution, and people still complain about that when they aren't throwing fits about an underground crime universe being full of underground crime stereotypes and tropes. DA2 and Inquisition dumbed down HEAVILY from Origins and it hasn't been the same franchise since. Bioware's become a dating simulator company with RPG elements essentially, when they used to be known for more, great characters with (relatively) mediocre stories in a fun world with solid mechanics.
That "crock-o-shit" argument you're talking about is honestly very much justified in gaming, because dumbing things down leads to boring mechanics and uninspired innovation as we've seen the last few years with alot of stagnation in not just the AAA market, but alot of indies as well. Making it easier doesn't mean making it better. I love that Rome's sequels fixed the revolt mechanic, because it was a pain in the ass building up an army and having to take back your city every two turns from slaves, even when you worked them literally to death so that they shouldn't be able to in the context of the game. But I don't like that you had multiple ways of fighting in Origins(except for archery, god you were so useless with a bow unless you Leliana, and even then it was mostly because she had such bad stats to be in melee) and then Dragon Age was turned into a wannabe single-player WoW clone. Witcher 2 added storage, made it alot easier to actually keep the ingredients that you needed. Witcher 3 gave you back the ability to use potions for something other than a giant sign in big bold Comic Sans letters that you needed a Cat potion for the next part. Absolution becoming more about linear cover and guns instead of free-form puzzles didn't help long-time fans.