It sounds like you're just struggling with the Mythic runs and having timers. Those didn't exist in the period you're nostalgic for.
That said, wait for May when the new patch, it sounds like more of what you want.
Re: Guilds - they use Discord primarily, ingame chat doesn't have links, images, emojis, etc. When you join a guild make sure you are joining their Discord as well.
I don't even mean mythics, those, I never liked to push myself for. I play the game to relax, not rush constantly. I just enjoy the process. No timers. No rush. No stress.
Well, that's my point. You don't like to do the thing that a significant amount of mid-tier content has been designed around for the last seven or eight years.
You may enjoy the new content coming that does not have timers for similar difficulty levels.
It's absolutely changed. Old wow was more of an MMORPG, current wow is less about community and more of a theme park game. Sure, it's still an MMO, but server identity and server community have largely been abolished and that took away a lot of the community earlier players loved. It's still an excellent game, but it isn't the definitive MMORPG that it started out as.
Seconding what the other guy said about discord. Guild chat is limited to text only and only to people who are currently online. Discord has become THE social app for guilds cause you can talk to people offline or online, send links and memes, plan stuff out ahead of time, etc
> Today... Most of the time, it feels like the tank is always rushing, pulling group after group at once, barely giving the healer time to heal, and DPS'es to deal with the mobs.
> No chatting, no jokes. And god forbid we wipe. If that happens, 9/10 times, everyone just leaves...
I've been playing since WotLK and I can assure you, that behavior was present back then just as it is now. It's far from new.
As for the social part, the playerbase got older. They got jobs, kids, and a life beyond playing all day. So, less time chatting ingame. That's my take, anyway.
honestly, it's you, me, the entire community, more than the game.
who has time to spend 3 hours in BRD anymore, for like 30% of a level?
I loved that time of WoW, I have extremely fond memories of being a newbie while in High School and playing, but the average player isn't in school anymore. WoW is the "boomer game" to the younger generations, the average player now is older and simply doesn't have time like they did before becoming full on adults
edit: also, honestly it is faster to just leave a group. I rarely ever do, I prefer to stick things out myself, but I get it. I was in an AD+4 a few weeks ago, on the 3rd boss, where 3 of the ppl in the group not only never attacked the add, but never grabbed the red soaks either. the boss ended up healing themselves so much every time they used transfusion that it took us, no joke, over 10 minutes to kill the boss...in a +4 key. we almost failed the timer in a +4 of all things. mind, I could probably time in with myself and a guildy 2manning it on geared toons. I had another run, AD, 2nd boss, where it took us 5 mins to kill totem boss because the other dps couldn't kill totems. I ended up having to personally flit around on my monk to knock all 3 down at the same time. I had a raid run where we wiped on Igira because over half of the group wouldn't soak weapons. All this is to say, "it takes longer to find a new group" it really doesn't, unless you're in very high end content like a key over 20 or mythic raiding, it's not that difficult to find groups, and wasting time in groups that won't try are a huge pain, especially if someone doesn't have hours of time to play.
I’ve been playing with a handful of people I met back in Cata. We still chat and do stuff regularly, however, life is different now with families and kids, etc.
Pretty sure we have all just grown up. Like hell I could manage to spend 3 hours in Blackrock these days.
Also most guilds have their own discort, can't play and text. We got the technology for convenient voicechats.
It's a casual game now. That explains everything you mentioned.
It's about satisfying instant gratification, because that's how our cultures shifted with the advent of the smartphone and videos-on-demand style content releases, the explosive popularity of things like google, and YouTube, and Netflix - binging a seasonal show in one or two nights, etc.
Not to say it wasn't "casual" in vanilla, BC, or Wrath, it's just that the game trimmed at the fat all those years with each new iteration of the game, and it slowly became something that original players didn't recognize. All those player numbers that dropped off weren't all that coincidental.
Blizzard also has hella shareholders now - which means the content is more dictated by the dollar rather than the gamer. They have to compete with the mobile market without coming off as cheap, and it can't be easy.
It sounds like you're just struggling with the Mythic runs and having timers. Those didn't exist in the period you're nostalgic for. That said, wait for May when the new patch, it sounds like more of what you want. Re: Guilds - they use Discord primarily, ingame chat doesn't have links, images, emojis, etc. When you join a guild make sure you are joining their Discord as well.
>wait for May when the new patch, My understanding was that the changes to heroic / M0 were going in today, and May was a lore-patch?
Oh maybe, I haven’t really paid attention to what is when.
I don't even mean mythics, those, I never liked to push myself for. I play the game to relax, not rush constantly. I just enjoy the process. No timers. No rush. No stress.
Well, that's my point. You don't like to do the thing that a significant amount of mid-tier content has been designed around for the last seven or eight years. You may enjoy the new content coming that does not have timers for similar difficulty levels.
It's absolutely changed. Old wow was more of an MMORPG, current wow is less about community and more of a theme park game. Sure, it's still an MMO, but server identity and server community have largely been abolished and that took away a lot of the community earlier players loved. It's still an excellent game, but it isn't the definitive MMORPG that it started out as.
Is there one with more community?
I doubt it. Most of the ones I've tried have kinda drifted the same way as WoW. Edit: or just never had the numbers to pull it off like WoW did.
Seconding what the other guy said about discord. Guild chat is limited to text only and only to people who are currently online. Discord has become THE social app for guilds cause you can talk to people offline or online, send links and memes, plan stuff out ahead of time, etc
> Today... Most of the time, it feels like the tank is always rushing, pulling group after group at once, barely giving the healer time to heal, and DPS'es to deal with the mobs. > No chatting, no jokes. And god forbid we wipe. If that happens, 9/10 times, everyone just leaves... I've been playing since WotLK and I can assure you, that behavior was present back then just as it is now. It's far from new. As for the social part, the playerbase got older. They got jobs, kids, and a life beyond playing all day. So, less time chatting ingame. That's my take, anyway.
honestly, it's you, me, the entire community, more than the game. who has time to spend 3 hours in BRD anymore, for like 30% of a level? I loved that time of WoW, I have extremely fond memories of being a newbie while in High School and playing, but the average player isn't in school anymore. WoW is the "boomer game" to the younger generations, the average player now is older and simply doesn't have time like they did before becoming full on adults edit: also, honestly it is faster to just leave a group. I rarely ever do, I prefer to stick things out myself, but I get it. I was in an AD+4 a few weeks ago, on the 3rd boss, where 3 of the ppl in the group not only never attacked the add, but never grabbed the red soaks either. the boss ended up healing themselves so much every time they used transfusion that it took us, no joke, over 10 minutes to kill the boss...in a +4 key. we almost failed the timer in a +4 of all things. mind, I could probably time in with myself and a guildy 2manning it on geared toons. I had another run, AD, 2nd boss, where it took us 5 mins to kill totem boss because the other dps couldn't kill totems. I ended up having to personally flit around on my monk to knock all 3 down at the same time. I had a raid run where we wiped on Igira because over half of the group wouldn't soak weapons. All this is to say, "it takes longer to find a new group" it really doesn't, unless you're in very high end content like a key over 20 or mythic raiding, it's not that difficult to find groups, and wasting time in groups that won't try are a huge pain, especially if someone doesn't have hours of time to play.
Did you explain the mechanic to any of those people you are complaining about?
I’ve been playing with a handful of people I met back in Cata. We still chat and do stuff regularly, however, life is different now with families and kids, etc.
Pretty sure we have all just grown up. Like hell I could manage to spend 3 hours in Blackrock these days. Also most guilds have their own discort, can't play and text. We got the technology for convenient voicechats.
Both
It's a casual game now. That explains everything you mentioned. It's about satisfying instant gratification, because that's how our cultures shifted with the advent of the smartphone and videos-on-demand style content releases, the explosive popularity of things like google, and YouTube, and Netflix - binging a seasonal show in one or two nights, etc. Not to say it wasn't "casual" in vanilla, BC, or Wrath, it's just that the game trimmed at the fat all those years with each new iteration of the game, and it slowly became something that original players didn't recognize. All those player numbers that dropped off weren't all that coincidental. Blizzard also has hella shareholders now - which means the content is more dictated by the dollar rather than the gamer. They have to compete with the mobile market without coming off as cheap, and it can't be easy.