World of Warcraft (WoW) holds a special place in my heart. I have more than 10,000 hours played, and I've watched the aging MMO evolve from RPG powerhouse to shallow MAU harvester for Activision's quarterly shareholder reports. Like much of the community, I long for a return to better days for the game, and recently, there has been a ray of hope.To get more news about Buy WoW WLK Items, you can visit lootwowgold.com official website.

Microsoft is attempting to purchase Activision Blizzard, and thus World of Warcraft in the process. There's no guarantee the deal will actually go through, but I for one hope that it does, since Activision Blizzard desperately, desperately needs a change in leadership. Grossly overpaid Robert Kotick has overseen one of the biggest drops in user retention in Blizzard history, seeing World of Warcraft go from industry staple to limping joke, all in the space of a few years. A scandal at Blizzard, coupled with brain drain from a mass staff exodus, has certainly hit all of Activision Blizzard's games. Today, though, we're here to talk about WoW.

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said in a recent interview that he wants World of Warcraft to grow again, and obtain more players than ever in the process. Given the state of World of Warcraft in 2022, I'd argue that's a tall order.

If the stars align, and Blizzard does end up free of Activision's dire shareholder culture, here's how I think WoW needs to realign to not only survive but thrive.

My biggest issue with modern World of Warcraft is its recent and aggressive focus on time-gating mechanics. Blizzard has walked some of these back in the latest Shadowlands expansion, but it ignored literally all of the criticisms from of the mechanics from the previous expansion, and also ignored all criticisms from the Shadowlands beta. It was only after players started quitting over it en masse that they sat up and said, "We hear you." Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice ... you know the rest. After Battle for Azeroth and Shadowlands, Blizzard seems intent on making fools of its community repeatedly. Training players to expect to be ignored isn't a good look.

Activision's business model seems to hinge entirely on marketing, nostalgia, and hype, hoping that its more egregious gameplay designs slip through and perhaps get a few players addicted without alienating others in the process. Unfortunately, they've overstepped the mark in recent years, doubling down on these kinds of mechanics in the latest expansion.

Time gating generally refers to the practice of artificially blocking content from players until the following week. Every layer of the latest WoW expansion committed to this practice, with story elements gated, equipment upgrades gated, and character progression mechanics gated. Not behind skill or time spent actually playing, but by specific dates. This actually incentivized players to simply log off, rather than actually play, and ironically seek out other games that will actually, you know, let them play.

Blizzard also went way too far focusing on a weekly reward chest, rather than getting loot from, you know, killing bosses. What made me quit recently was the fact that I counted no fewer than 40 boss kills without getting a single item. Forty. That's dozens of hours of play, across irritating community interactions trying to get groups as a class role that isn't in as high demand as others. Blizzard instead wants me to wait until the following Wednesday to loot the Mythic chest, which gives you a random class reward based on your "engagement" with the game the prior week. This mechanic feels wholly designed around padding on-going engagement figures, with bosses relegated to a numbers game rather than a rewarding feedback loop. Blizzard's de-emphasis on boss kills has backfired, though. Instead of waiting for Wednesday to get rewards and unlock activities, I simply unsubscribed.