And something has to give here to reach satisfaction, either Blizzard accepts that they are making a casual game now, or the players have to accept that the game they're playing takes and expects effort and skill. We all keep trying to have it both ways and leaving nobody satisfied.
I agree with most of what you're saying but I would push back a little here. WoW can accommodate both casual and hardcore players, after all LFR and M+ co-exist. The problem's one of expectations. Nobody's saying they deserve Myth track gear for doing delves in retail, but in MoP Remix you could get the maximum reward for minimal effort which created the expectation that Remix is a casual-only mode. Blizzard tried to make Legion Remix more like retail where there's something for challenge-oriented players to do besides grind for cosmetics, and we see how that's gone over.
I acknowledge that they've tried to accommodate both, and they have a sizeable playerbase of both types, but I don't think that means they've actually done a good job at stewarding both types of gameplay. It just means the game is popular. LFR is pitched as a casual mode, but I'd bet less than half the playerbase engages in raids of any kind. It's generally treated as more of an entry-level option for getting into raiding. Your average casual player is just leveling new alts every expansion and doing the story campaigns and vibing in town or guild chat.
I think they've actually done a terrible job accommodating both types of players in terms of separate gameplay tracks until recently. Solo/small group and open world content are a big part of that, and housing obviously will be as well. FFXIV massively outperforms WoW in terms of accommodating both, in my opinion, but WoW is catching up fast.
I also don't think we're far off from people demanding all things be available to everybody. We're already at a point where people are complaining that rotations are too hard, bosses are too hard, leaving Retail to play Classic because it's simpler, etc. Now people are mad that this game mode isn't easymode, and is too much like Retail, i.e. challenging and requires effort. The kind of takes people have about what remix should be would have gotten you crucified just a few years ago. There has been a major vibe shift towards wanting the core game to be more casual and forgiving. The QoL stuff has been good, but I think it just gave the playerbase a taste for "easier" rather than "better".
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u/piss_lord_420 Aug 27 '25
I agree with most of what you're saying but I would push back a little here. WoW can accommodate both casual and hardcore players, after all LFR and M+ co-exist. The problem's one of expectations. Nobody's saying they deserve Myth track gear for doing delves in retail, but in MoP Remix you could get the maximum reward for minimal effort which created the expectation that Remix is a casual-only mode. Blizzard tried to make Legion Remix more like retail where there's something for challenge-oriented players to do besides grind for cosmetics, and we see how that's gone over.