World of Warcraft, a reflection

World of Warcraft is a great game, but…

My life has been tied to World of Warcraft for almost nineteen years. Throughout that time, it has been my life. In every sense.

It no longer is, and I feel I’ve finally lifted that weight off my shoulders. That lets me speak even more frankly, if that’s possible, about what WoW has meant to me and how Blizzard has managed the game over the years.

There’s no doubt that Blizzard has managed to keep the game alive for many years. And not just alive: World of Warcraft has been the undisputed king of MMOs, and I think it will remain so for a long time. Perhaps that owes less to today’s Blizzard than to the foundations the old Blizzard laid. Foundations that still support the game, even though I believe the new Blizzard has been tearing them apart. And, above all, to the lack of competition that can measure up.

From project to product

I’ve said it many times: for me, the problem with World of Warcraft is that it stopped being a project and became a product.

I get the feeling that barely any developers remain from the old guard that brought this game into the world, the people who felt it was theirs because it was. Over the years, it has passed through the hands of many programmers, executives and Blizzard managers who weren’t there at the beginning. And I think that shows in the end.

When you stop feeling that a project is yours and only see it as a product, it becomes easier to sell it out or neglect it. After all, it’s just work. Something that makes money.

And yes, of course there will have been people at Blizzard in recent years who love World of Warcraft. But how much real say do they have? Who makes the final decisions within the company? I doubt it’s the programmers. I suspect some of those decisions are made by people who don’t even play.

The game director has a say, yes. Enough of one? I doubt it.

For me, this is one of the problems plaguing video games today, and I think it has held World of Warcraft back.

Good ideas that deserved a longer life

Torghast is an example of what I mean. To me, it had the potential to become a third branch of PvE alongside dungeons and raids. It received improvements and new layers during Shadowlands, but I expected that idea to keep growing beyond a single expansion. That’s where I see the missed opportunity: in the continuity it could have had.

The Mage Tower also comes to mind. Its original challenges became unavailable when Legion ended, although Blizzard later brought them back with different rewards and eventually made access permanent. Bringing them back was a good call. It shows that some ideas deserve to keep their place in the game.

Mythic Plus is another example. It has changed over the years, but the evolution I see feels insufficient. I think its formula needs a more substantial refresh.

And here I also want to recognise something they got right: delves. From what I’ve followed of the game, their approach seems like a step in the right direction. They offer another progression path for people who want to play solo or in small groups, with the intention of developing it beyond a single expansion. Blizzard has also explained that it drew on lessons from Torghast when designing them.

That’s what I’d like to see more of: building on good ideas and giving them room to grow. When a system takes work, arrives as a major new feature and then loses its place, I’m left feeling that the game hasn’t made the most of what it could offer.

From the other side of the server

You all know what I’ve been doing for the past nineteen years. And although I’m working on another project now, I can tell you a little about what it felt like to have a say in the future of a private World of Warcraft server while watching Blizzard’s decisions.

Maybe a lot of my hate came from not understanding how the almighty Blizzard could make decisions that, in my eyes, weren’t right. Many of its decisions throughout World of Warcraft’s history have faced brutal criticism from the community. Was there really nobody on the team saying, “Hey, this isn’t going to end well”?

Sometimes it was frustrating to love the game so much and have to settle for running a private server, unable to contribute to World of Warcraft itself. And to think, perhaps with a little arrogance, that I could do better.

Could I have done better? I don’t know. I’d have had to be in that position. But it’s true that many of the decisions they made would never have crossed my mind. Maybe I’m claiming too much authority here, but that’s how I’ve always felt.

The community that’s still there

My reflection on World of Warcraft is that it’s a great game that, over the years, has fallen into hands that haven’t known how to make the most of its potential. In fact, I think some decisions have narrowed what it could become. And if it’s still standing today, to me that’s largely thanks to the community that has been behind it for so many years.

Some players have grown up with World of Warcraft. Some began their lives as gamers in Azeroth. Others were already playing games, but WoW ended up taking up an enormous part of that hobby. After so many years, memories, friendships and whole chapters of life build up there. I think that bond explains much of what still sustains the game.

I also think that, for a long time, private servers helped keep it alive. They acted as an incomplete demo for players who later made the jump to retail.

I’m not going to say much about private servers, for obvious reasons. But I think their success ultimately came from World of Warcraft always feeling, in a way, incomplete.

Looking ahead

I have no doubt that World of Warcraft has a long future ahead of it. BlizzCon is just around the corner, and expectations around a possible Classic Plus, what we’ll see in The Last Titan and whatever comes next are keeping players eager. Building anticipation is something Blizzard does very well.

I’ve always said this: Blizzard makes announcements that take your breath away, then takes away your enthusiasm with how it executes those ideas. Will it be different this time?

Whenever I’ve watched a BlizzCon, I’ve thought the same thing: will this be the one? Will the product live up to that spectacular video, or will we have to settle for poor execution again?

For me, that’s where Blizzard falls short: execution. It makes decisions I can’t make sense of, then changes course later.

Even so, I think the game has many years left in it. I hope the Warcraft franchise finally gets the treatment it deserves and that future expansions keep improving. I only played The War Within during the first patch and didn’t even get around to the raid. Something similar happened to me with Midnight. I don’t think it’s because they’re bad expansions, but because the game is no longer for me. And that’s hard to say.

I remember the first time I set foot in Durotar, the first time I saw Illidan, those long afternoons spent playing World of Warcraft year after year. It’s hard to look at the game now and not recognise it. To have to go back to Durotar or run a Timewalking dungeon or raid to remember a little of what it used to be.

That makes me understand Classic players much better. I understand what they miss and what they don’t want. They’ve opened my eyes, because I’ve always been a big defender of retail, but I have to admit that Classic has something retail doesn’t and, sadly, never will again.

And given what I’ve seen, I have my doubts about that possible Classic Plus. I might be wrong, but I’m afraid they’ll get it wrong again by not understanding what the essence of Classic really is.

World of Warcraft is a great game, but it’s not for me.

Not for someone who has been tied to it for more than twenty years. In the end, this disappointment comes from not knowing when to let go, from not leaving what I loved about the game in my memories, and poisoning it with everything I didn’t.

Today I finally understand that not all my disappointment comes from Blizzard’s decisions. I still think it got many things wrong, but I also kept expecting the game to give me what it gave me back then. And perhaps I should have known to let go sooner.

Thanks to private servers, I enjoyed it in a different way. But today, without them, it no longer makes sense for me.

It’s time to look towards new horizons. Horizons of my own.

KEEP EXPLORINGHi, I’m MelusDev. This is how it all began.