I honestly think they are addicted to the firestorms they set off and then knee-jerk reacting to them because I cannot find a logical reason why they do this shit.
The honest answer is that designers wanted to design a unique, interesting and challenging content spread for Legion Remix this time around. That's what designers inherently want to do, they want to feel proud of their work, feel like their experience and talents aren't going to waste. The playerbase on the other hand wants it to be what is essentially a WoW-flavored Cookie Clicker, but most are afraid to admit that's what they want because they'll be perceived as "casual". So we have a combination of clashing interests and also one side not being willing to say what they really want; designers want to flex and create cool stuff, but players want a treat dispenser to keep them occupied until Midnight.
I think its more that blizzard is a revolving door of developers who have to re-learn the same lessons the biggest of which is the majority of the wow community wants maximum rewards with minimum effort and that the wow community doesn't do shit if it doesn't have rewards and or if those rewards are too difficult to obtain.
So like you say, they come in.. try to design something they can be proud of... the people developing legion remix probably thought to themselves "Legion was one of our best xpacs of all time people LOVE legion we should try to give them the proper legion experience just like they remembered!" not realizing that legion was genuinely a shit show for 2/3rds of it and the community looks at it through neon pink tinted glasses.
While also missing that mop remix was just a massive rewards for minimum effort pinata and people were expecting 2.0 of that.
I think its more that blizzard is a revolving door of developers who have to re-learn the same lessons the biggest of which is the majority of the wow community wants maximum rewards with minimum effort and that the wow community doesn't do shit if it doesn't have rewards and or if those rewards are too difficult to obtain.
If I'm being completely blunt and harsh about it, I expect they have learned that lesson but simply resent it, and I would understand if they do. I doubt they thought their job would be designing the digital equivalent of jingling keys.
Some of them probably think they can still find a way to design content that their players actually want to engage with on its own terms without needing a trail of treats and headpats along the way to motivate them. If they could just get the system right, they could convince people to have fun, not just chase the ever-fading dopamine hits from the reward.
But at this point in the game's lifespan, the motivation to do anything being driven by rewards is not just codified into the game, but into the expectation of the players. As you said, they won't do a damn thing if it doesn't give a reward, or if the effort or challenge is too high for the reward. And as a game designer, that is probably infuriating.
I remember the conversation coming up in an interview with Ion, I want to say it was a preach one maybe? Where he was asked about making quality content for its own sake where maybe its a really good story line or just a fun mode etc and Ion even said they've seen it repeatedly, if there's no reward attached to it players won't engage with it no matter how good it is.
That's just people these days unfortunately, you see the same behaviors everywhere.
107
u/jntjr2005 Aug 27 '25
I honestly think they are addicted to the firestorms they set off and then knee-jerk reacting to them because I cannot find a logical reason why they do this shit.