Oh boy, the very thing that made World of Warcraft and, indeed, World of Warcraft: Forever popular is now becoming the subject of intense debate.
World of Warcraft: Forever is Blizzard's take on the "Classic+" pitch, where fans asked the firm for years for an old-school alternative to World of Warcraft: Retail. Now, Retail has become a bit of a chore in recent times, with various systems on timers and deadlines making the game feel a bit more like work than an actual game. To compensate, Blizzard made a big effort to boost "convenience" in Retail, even at the cost of immersion and general quality.
World of Warcraft: Forever is supposed to be an alternative option that's closer to the original experience: meditative, more methodical, and crucially, slower-paced. The friction that exists in Classic-style WoW makes the victories and loot far more meaningful than in Retail-style WoW, which practically hands out the best gear for free these days. Retail has become about timers and racing to the finish line, and it's a fun race, admittedly; but the gameplay style has undoubtedly led to the game's decline in recent years.
World of Warcraft players have been flooding in to play WoW: Forever, which is mechanically more simplistic than Retail on the surface. Instead, it's designed to reward perseverance, planning, socializing, and methodical play over rapidity.
Indeed, much like other friction-heavy games like Elden Ring, World of Warcraft: Forever encourages player interaction and socializing, asking questions, and strategizing, something modern WoW's timer-oriented gameplay undermines. Ironically, it's suboptimal to chat in World of Warcraft these days, with dungeon runs operating in complete silence unless someone gets angry and yells at you for a mistake.
Yet still, some players aren't happy with the way WoW Forever asks players for patience.
Across WoW communities from Reddit to X, players are debating "convenience" in World of Warcraft: Forever, with Classic fans dubbing those who make calls for making WoW:F more convenient "Retail Andys."
Blizzard has already begun addressing feedback regarding WoW: Forever, buffing dungeon mob EXP gains by 50%, and some are calling for them to buff it even more.
It'll be interesting to see if Blizzard continues to cave to the loud calls for simplifying World of Warcraft: Forever, given that oversimplification and homogenization are what have essentially killed World of Warcraft's main retail arm.
Games need friction
A good example of a game that went hard on "quality of life" features to its detriment is Monster Hunter Wilds, and arguably even Monster Hunter World before it.
Monster Hunter is a franchise that revolves entirely around the hunt, which previously included gathering materials, crafting specific counter-armor sets, studying monster behaviors and weaknesses, and so on. In Wilds, Capcom dumbed down every aspect of the game to try and appeal to a so-called "wider" audience, and the game suffered for it. The convenience undermined the game's core gameplay loop, robbing hunts of a sense of challenge and accomplishment.
I think there's certainly something to be said for having "too much of a good thing." Humans are hard-wired to seek convenience and the path of least resistance, and the calls to dumb down World of Warcraft: Forever already emerge from that.
When something becomes too easy, it becomes trivial and arbitrary. I can't remember the last time I was excited for a drop in World of Warcraft's modern setting ... but I was excited to get a basic-ass green dagger on my level 10 rogue earlier today.
Gear and boss kills have become essentially meaningless in modern World of Warcraft, as free loot is handed out simply for logging in. Blizzard gave out the free loot because ultimately, players asked for it. But the decline of the game showcases why listening too much to calls for convenience and difficulty nerfs isn't always a good idea.
Either way, World of Warcraft: Forever has been a resounding success story for Blizzard so far. Let's see if they can avoid messing it up ...
