I’m still uncertain how properly name Warlords of Draenor – fifth WoW expansion or WoW v.2. Game has changed so dramatically (compared to the original game and all of the expansions) that forces me to think of the game design/programming continuity (which is rather negative).

More than 10 years ago Blizzard declared their WoW motto – “game experience may change”. Game developers did it on permanent basis. Meaning for each and every expansion they made you should re-learn how to play your class at max efficiency. I should admit that is (besides new content in general) what keeps me playing every new expansion. New experience is the most fun for me. I’m often unhappy with the changes but, after some time, getting used to and enjoy them.

There is a trend I’m observing however – game becomes more and more oriented to commercial success rather than to satisfy experienced players. I’m not blaming Blizzard for that, after all it is private company and should generate good money flow and profit. The problem, from my perspective, is that simplification of the game (that is what Blizzard has been talking a lot during WoD development and what has been implemented in the live game) has reached the magnitude where the right word to describe it would be “primitiveness”.

The greatest fun of vanilla was in players’ diversity. The rotations you chose for your char, the talent tree you took, enchants you’ve applied etc. made them very different even within that class, sometimes inefficient but still very enjoyable. There were even the combinations developers never thought of, e.g. so called mage in plate. It was a paladin with mostly holy tree talents that did damage with holy shock. The key was to collect maximum plate gear with spell damage (it did exist at that time). The result was a paladin that was practically unkillable in PvP while doing some decent damage. Too bad this build was killed by development at the end on vanilla.

I’m skipping my favorite subject on how bad was TBC for Blizzard revenue because that expansion has been made for hardcore raiders only and that approach didn’t pay off. It seems like that was turning point for them. Most of the future expansions were good for me with exception of Cataclysm.

I remember an interview with one of the senior Blizzard managers at WotLK time who said something like “You will never fly in old Azeroth, only over my dead body”… And then Cata was released with flying over there…

Why I’m complaining so much about it? Mostly because I’ve spent so much time on old continents and so much of a good memory and fun was linked to it that I simply do not want (and probably can’t) accept all those changes. It is not the case for new players that joined after but for me(and for those who played since vanilla) it is disrespect from the developers. On top of that I can’t explain why they’ve destroyed a lot of exciting quest chains with a flavor of the original game… Rewriting a lot of graphics just to let us fly in there?! Seems like a lot of programming/designers resources/money went there. The result I still do not buy…

But let’s go back to the point – game experience may change…

Simplification is a world wide trend. In real life, not in the game industry. Human civilization becomes much more stupid and so Warcraft adopted to it. I almost hear how those dumb players were complaining how complicated WoW is and (see above) the wish to keep money flow led to removal of the original talent tree in MoP. Since then there are not much difference between classes – melee have white and yellow strikes, ranged have DoTs and several high DPS strikes with rather long CD, healers have HoTs and fast/slow heals. It seems like introduction of mini-game inside of WoW (made in Cata) was successful and so we’ve got pokemons in MoP.

Anyway, those evolutionary expansion over expansion simplification changes have reached their tops… and we’ve got WoD. That's why I think it is WoW vII rather than 6th expansion.

There is a huge difference between simplification and simplicity. Simplicity allows player to learn fast and have fun executing rotation/action fast and efficiently. Simplification is a process of removing complex game mechanics and replacing it with much more simple and straight gameplay, multiple options become a single one, e.g. no more multiple rotations, different enchants, deep gear customization etc. The trouble is that for newcomers, just joined WoW universe, WoD doesn’t look simple while for MC veterans, or even for those who played more than one expansion before, WoD simplification removed a lot of fun from gameplay.

It seems like WoD has been designed/programmed by the brand new team of developers. You might recall some references from senior management speeches that their plan on speeding up game development (WoD) didn’t go well as planned – hiring more programmers and graphic designers is relatively easy but managing more people is not. So those larger teams probably brought some kind of a chaos which is seen in WoD as of today. As I said before, I do not see much of succession in game development and, perhaps, that is the reason why. In other words, my guess is that WoD has been developed by the new team with a lot of people who never played WoW before. The major trouble lies in professions/gear itemization/customizing.

Bottom line (sad one). As a single player I’ve spent enough time in garrison and outside and got all I wanted in WoD. I deeply regret of the simplification WoW has undertaken in WoD and do believe that simplification leads to stupidity of the players’ base. Unfortunately that is what I see in game now. I see some roll back in Legion, at least how I understand it – talent tree reincarnates in artifact weapon traits, world quests and garrison no more.

Anyway, see you in Legion!

As a Molten Core veteran who played all expansions my opinions are built on my own game experience. Those are, indeed, subjective but are based on facts and my own observations. You may disagree with them but should at least read them carefully and think over what I wrote here.