What would you do to make WOW better?

[kandrathe]

1.) Realize that if it isn't fun, it shouldn't be in a game.

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Now, I understand, that the very definition of fun, is going to be a very.... broad thing. Different people, have different opinions about fun. But, when I look at things like. Fishing and Archaeology, and realize the number of iterations that they have gone through to try and make them appealing, my first question is:

"Why is it still in the game?"

Sure, there are fun things TO DO while fishing, and there are nifty things to get while working on archaeology (including lore), but the actual action has been changed and iterated to try and make it more enticing to people, and less grindy.

Personally, I think it's still grindy, and not fun. Personally, I think until you cahnge fishing so that you get a targeting reticule to use, it isn't fun. There is nothing fun about clicking a button randomly, hoping that you get it in the fishing pool. That's not fun. I put randomly placing beacons around an area that has no visible parameters (unless you are looking at a map, in which case, you aren't looking at the world) to also not be fun. I understand some people find it fun, but there are a lot of people who don't find it fun.

I've always thought it would be awesome for them to add a random event to fishing... Just when you start to nod off due to the tedium of casting, and clicking... **BAM** Out jumps a killer sea monster intent on making a meal out of you. Have the mob drop some fish...

I don't know how to make archeology fun, in the game, or in real life. You dig, you rarely find anything, and when you do you need to spend hours and hours carefully using dental equipment to gentle extract the fossil from the surrounding rock. I'm just glad they didn't choose accounting as a WOW profession.

3.) Stop putting other games inside WoW. I didn't play WoW because I wanted to play plants vs zombies.
I didn't play WoW because I wanted to play Farmville (coming soon to a MoP near you!)
I didn't play WoW because I wanted to play Pokemon

Look, I get it. These games are popular. People find it enjoying to play those games. I don't want to play them while I'm playing wow. I get that WoW is a huge exercise in Pop Culture homages. That's fine. But, I think that putting these extra "mini-games" in the game does two things.

1.) It weakens the content around it.
2.) It.... Well... I guess just one thing. It weakens the game.

One of the BIG "no" points for me on MoP was the amount of design time and resources they were allocating so that people could play Pokewow. I understand that the evolution of the Non Combat Pet has come a long way since I started in BC. That's fine. This? This is not interesting to me at all. I don't care about it. But I do care about the design resources being put to it, and it harkens me back to the Dead as ever, and not going to be released Dance Studio.

I don't know. It's like what Bolty said... It's social. They should just go all out and also add Pazzack from KOTOR, and Triple Triad from FF8. I'd be happy to not have some A-hoo challenge me to a duel whenever I Ride out of Stormwind, or through Goldshire. In fact, I was running my Rogue (at level 45) through Eastern Plaguelands one day when I was repeatedly harassed by some level 85 paladin wanting to duel. NO. NO, I don't want to duel a player 40 levels above me when I'm busy doing quests. I finally had to stealth, parachute off a tower and skulk off to shed this vermin. But hey, they'll let anyone into this game. Anyway, maybe these zealous dueling people will be setting their little kung fu panda companions against other peoples Plants vs Zombie flowers. I don't have to play that game either. If only... the deaths would be permanent.

8.) Get rid of Shared Loot Tables in Raids

Oh, I agree. Back in the day, before you just got generic armor tokens, I ran BRD/BRS too many times trying to get my dungeon set one. Then, the same with Molten Core for my Tier 1 set. It would be better if everyone in the raid just got a certain number of participation points for each boss, and maybe some fraction for each trash mob. I do much more like the current token system. Save them up, and cash them in for shiny prizes of your choosing. But, still... too many things are rare drops and getting it is a combination of tenacity and wild luck.

2.) Re-tune 1-85, or 1-90 The game is WAY to easy. You are no longer required to learn how to play the character properly on the way to max level.

and

6.) Stop nerfing content so fast, and so hard. Seriously. You made LFR, which is a hit. Great. I'm glad. I'm happy for you. I burnt out in there, because like I feared, it is a cesspool of players.

I somewhat agree. If they implemented my #1 idea, every dungeon would have 3 modes (easy, normal, hard) -- it would be centered on your groups average level, and would come in 5 person dungeon, 10 person raid, and 20 person raid flavors. There would be no need to ever nerf it. I wouldn't differentiate content or loot between LFR and non-LFR. LFR should merely be a way to find a group. As for players not knowing how to play their class -- I would have an easy mode, where it's forgiving and possibly teaches them something. Blizzard is trying to appeal to both the clueless newb and the hard core raider who wants a challenge so massive that only their 40 person raid group can solve it after months of trying. The sad part is that the elite 40 person raid group is only 40 people, and hardly sufficient to fund the game. So we really need the hundreds of thousands of clueless, juveniles running around to pay for the content that the select few get to even attempt.

What I don't like is when after a few months of releasing new content, the hard core have burned through all the new content and are bored -- then they nerf it just before the slower more causal players get through it. The casual player never gets to solve the puzzle as it was designed.

4.) Stop massively overhauling class designs. I'm talking about things like; The Paladin conversion to Holy Power. The Hunter conversion to Focus The Death Knight Rune change.

::nod:: There needs to be an overall class model that has consistency. If I were to design it... I'd make "The Generic Player" -- without class first. Figure out the base combat mechanics -- to hit, attack power, ranged attack power, block, parry, spell power, resists, damage reduction, etc. Then, figure out how the attributes (strength, intelligence, dexterity, spirit, etc) affect the generic players combat mechanics. Call me old school, but I'd give back to the players the ability to assign attribute points and skills at level up. It's how we work to differentiate our builds. Then, every class should just be a layer on top of the generic player that adds modifiers for that class. Prot warriors get bonuses for strength, and armor -- mages get bonuses for intelligence, and a little for spirit, priests get bonuses for spirit and a little intelligence, rogues get bonuses for dexterity, and dodge. Etc. Gear should be a modifier as well, but I would only make it up to 50% of the base generic (e.g. if the players intelligence is 200, then the bonus of int on gear diminishes rapidly after 100). You'd need to apply the same mechanics to all mobs as well. WOW has deviated so far from reality in this regard that it's nonsensical. With my gear on I'm a super hero, and without it I'm chopped liver. The emphasis is therefore on improving the gear, and not on improving the hero.

But... not just the classes, but crafting too. How frustrating for new players that 20% of the recipes are now unavailable -- because somehow the cataclysm made the Mithril order forget how to craft their armor. I like the discovery system in crafting, but I would extend it to all construction professions (blacksmith, engineer, leather-working, tailoring -- either like Alchemy for those types of accidental discoveries, and/or like inscriptions where you can devote some time and resource each day for "research")