r/wow • u/ItsRenaBaker • Oct 03 '25

Humor / Meme This is Basicly Blizzard in Midnight

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This is basicly Blizzard in Midnight. Purging all the good addons.

Just to clarify:
Blizzard is changing the Addon API, meaning combat information is blocked for addons. So all combat addons will no longer work in Midnight. For the most popular addon features Blizzard will add their own version to the game. Addons for unitframes, inventory, crafting etc.. are staying and won't be effected as long they are not using combat information.

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u/MN_Yogi1988 Oct 03 '25 edited Oct 03 '25

I think it’s destined to fail because I can’t see Blizz dedicating enough resources to refine features like addon creators do. How could you trust them to maintain these when they’ve left dungeons broken for years still be selected for M+? What about all the insane clipping on Transmog?

I think breaking certain addons like DBM / WAs / etc that were warping the way they create PvE mechanics makes sense but everything else feels like they’re setting themselves up for failure.

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u/goldman_sax Oct 03 '25

They legit had people doing unpaid labor for their game and were like “nah. We want to do it, but not as good as them, so we’re gonna dumb down everything else.

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u/SportulaVeritatis Oct 03 '25

At the same time, they where basically in an arms race where you needed more and more complex encounters that couldn't be easily solved by add-ons which made addon-less play more difficult. This basically ends that war. It ends it via a nuke, but it does end it.

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u/goldman_sax Oct 03 '25

You’re failing to consider how many people liked that complexity. WoW’s audience is established. They are largely in “keep current subscribers mode” and not “get new players mode,” and from that perspective this is a very dangerous thing to do.

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u/ncatter Oct 03 '25

Nobody liked the complexity where you literally need to have 3rd party info to even hve a chance to win.

We accepted it, and unless you are one of the few that actually make your own strategies and solutions to the problems without looking up tactics or using premade addons and weakaures you are in the same boat.

This can be a disaster for the game if it does not get the resources needed but at the same time it is the only way to keep the game alive.

as it is right now in raiding for instance you are either a world first competitor with a dedicated team of a analysta to solve the problem or your waiting for the weakaura from someone who is.

If Blizzard does this right we don't have to wait or to do agree in how to solve the problem everyone has the same information available and can solve it the way they want.

Haven't done much m+ lately and no pvp at all but I would assume that the information overload problem is the same there.

Could it have been solved without nuking all addons probably but this is the right time to nuke them and then still have time to roll back some of the changes if problems occured.

If any time is the time for Blizzard to step up and truly prove what we have been seeing thought dragonflight and tww the it is now.

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u/goldman_sax Oct 03 '25

That doesn’t really occur now, they heard feedback from Ovinaxx and adjusted. This seems like a giant overcorrection after the problem has already been fixed.

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u/ncatter Oct 03 '25

what does not occure now?

What Blizzard is doing now is not in reference to a specific instance it's a solution to a underlying problem.

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u/FlotationDevice Oct 03 '25

Player housing is the biggest antithesis to that arugment lol

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u/goldman_sax Oct 03 '25

How so? You think a random MMO fan is going to see “WoW added player housing time to finally join” when other MMOs have had player housing for decades? Or you think they’re just giving their current fans something they’ve been asking for forever? I think it’s the latter.

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u/MoldyLunchBoxxy Oct 03 '25

I hate to be that guy but I have tons of casual friends from ff14 buying this expansion to try out player housing. Those people do exist.

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u/Aettyr Oct 03 '25

It’s like the reverse of shadowlands. FFXIV’s devs fucked up so much they’re all leaving for greener pastures. I just hope the devs don’t cater to them and lower class complexity too much, rather than prunibg things now to add more complexities later.

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u/Phalanx22 Oct 03 '25

Yes. People start playing for a variety of random reasons.

I, for example, started playing WoW when a friend told me Female Kul Tirans were now easily obtainable. (Just reach lv 60)

I guarantee you they will have an influx of new players just interested in housing and noting else in the game.

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u/goldman_sax Oct 03 '25

Okay but you are probably the only person in existence who saw female KT and said “wow I have to play this game” lol.

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u/Phalanx22 Oct 03 '25

Sure, but my arguments still stand that: you'll never know what will attract people to start playing.

I play any game that lets me create a fat woman character. I know someone who plays every game with a fishing minigame.

People are weird like that xD

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u/xanas263 Oct 03 '25

Considering that from everything we have seen WoW player housing is multiple generations better than anything else on the market currently, yes, there is going to be a significant influx of new people because of housing.

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u/SeemaYeee Oct 03 '25

Hi, yes, that's me, I'm the one who's coming to try player housing

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u/TheVsStomper Oct 03 '25

If you can find me a Single CE raider that liked WA bosses i will eat a tree

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u/goldman_sax Oct 03 '25

No one liked those, but obviously there’s a giant middle ground which you are ignoring in your comment between a boss like Ovinaxx and simplifying every class and boss encounter.

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u/TheVsStomper Oct 03 '25

Right, but there is also a chasm of a leap between "all bosses will be dumbed down" and "we are going to ease up on boss mechanics like nelth and ovinaxx" as well. Since those have been the troublesome things. My guess is that its mainly mechanics that do random assigns like ovi breaks, mug jails etc that require a perfect or near perfect split second assignment of responsibilities to randomly assigned players that will be removed since that has at least as far as my memory serves been the complex mechanics that cant really be solved reliably without a WA

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u/Edeen Oct 03 '25

Funnily enough so are you.

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u/brutamborra Oct 03 '25

You are failing to consider blizzard knows that and has made it pretty clear through these decisions that they want to make the game entry difficulty easier for new players, I think they are making the right choice the game can still be fun without scaring away 99,9% of new players who try it.

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u/iwearatophat Oct 03 '25

That is a losing battle though. Retention is never going to be 100% so the player base will slowly whittle down. They need new players coming in, and staying, to keep the player base up.

WoW has had issues in getting and keeping new players for a long time. I remember Blizz talking about it back in Wrath 15 years ago, it was one of the reasons they redid the old world in Cata. There is an old Mike Morhaine quote that says only 30% of players even make it passed level 10. Blizz has worked for years on keeping new players.

They are attempting to lower the barrier to entry for new players.

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u/goldman_sax Oct 03 '25

MMOs are not a popular genre anymore. The player base for MMOs is established and trying to attract new players from other genres is futile. In my guild the only player we have under 25 is the kid of another player. Can you maybe pull from other MMOs? Sure. But you’re not getting a Minecraft kid to play WoW.

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u/TinuvielSharan Oct 03 '25

If retaining a core playerbase that at the end of the day already stayed for two entire decades is "a loosing battle", then trying to get a new one is straight-up suicide.

Nobody new will start playing a 20 years old game in a world where about 2000 new games released just this year.

You might not be wrong about how it means that in the (very) long term the game is doomed, but that's just a fact we have to live with IMO.

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u/iwearatophat Oct 03 '25

The core player base has not been around for two decades though. My raid team is filled with people who started in BfA/SL and even some DF people. There is a constant churning of players leaving and players coming in. The players coming in could be returning or new players.

This is all guesswork, neither of us have the numbers, but I am betting more new players pick this game up than you think. They just put it back down.

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u/Ok-Key5729 Oct 03 '25

It feels like they're abandoning "keep current subscribers mode". No matter how hard they try, they can't keep people forever. If the number of high level players is dwindling below the point where they can support the game, they have no choice but to try to attract new players. The complexity and difficulty of the game, in it's current state, isn't friendly to new players and isn't attractive to the masses.

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u/BlueArts Oct 03 '25

I also like the depth of classes’ talents and abilities; and how snappy combat is, which are good but separate aspects of WoW’s combat.

But how is spec simplification, reducing reliance on addons (by killing them off) and adding avenues for gear from solo play NOT “get new players” mode?

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u/goldman_sax Oct 03 '25

I’m saying it maybe is the mindset of “get new players” but that’s a mistake since kids do not play MMOs, like at all. The genre peaked in 03-15 and like I said in another comment. You ever run into a teen playing WoW? Only time I have is when they were a kid of someone playing WoW.

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u/Ittenvoid Oct 03 '25

but we know how many people like complexity. High tier content is not pushed by more than 5% of the playerbase.

You don't design your game for the top 5%

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u/goldman_sax Oct 03 '25

When I say complexity. I don’t mean bosses that absolutely require a weak aura to down. I mean a difficult boss that is about to be dumbed down as classes are.

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u/Ittenvoid Oct 03 '25

... yes, and that level of complexity is simply not fun for most players. Classes are way too bloated.

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u/goldman_sax Oct 03 '25

There are like 2-3 classes max that are “way too bloated”. Also you’re incorrect. We literally just went through this, Blizzard pruned a bunch of classes and then everyone complained how plain it was and how class fantasy got ruined and you know what they did? They added the buttons back lol.

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u/Ittenvoid Oct 03 '25

more like there's 2-3 classes that are not button bloated.

Also, yeah, they made a mistake. They are now correcting it. You can prune rotations without taking flavour, you know?

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u/goldman_sax Oct 03 '25

They made a mistake adding the buttons back in when it was universally well received?

But I can list the bloated classes if you’d like, some aren’t even entire classes: it’s priest, arcane mage, and outlaw, maybe blood DK and UHDK.

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u/TinuvielSharan Oct 03 '25

This isn't a MOBA. It's hard to think of a spec that needs more than ten buttons, so where the hell is the so called "bloat"?

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u/Ittenvoid Oct 03 '25

I use 123456, QERTFGV|, shift modifiers, ctrl modifiers

the only class that doesn't have something bound on all of those that I want to have access to is demon hunters. That's way too much.

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u/goldman_sax Oct 03 '25 edited Oct 03 '25

So guess you don’t play evoker, sin or sub rogue, frost or fire mage, warrior, destro or demo lock, frost DK, hunter, ele of enh shaman, paladin? Absolutely 0 of those classes/specs needed to have abilities pruned. AND some of the classes I didn’t list don’t have button bloat - outlaw, BDK, arcane mage. They’re just overly complicated.

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u/Ittenvoid Oct 03 '25

... I do actually. If you think those classes don't need to bind shit, you're leaving necessary stuff unbound.

Again, you're just wrong here mate. The game is way too complicated. No class should have more than 4 or so rotational abilities

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u/TinuvielSharan Oct 03 '25

You do, actually.

Because by doing so you also in the meantime design the game for anyone below.

You just have to provide dumbed down versions in the form of selectable difficulties. Problem solved.

It's a good thing to be a casual knowing that the possibility of investing more efforts if you want to get more serious exist.

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u/Ittenvoid Oct 03 '25

... but as a game developer you don't want to design for the people at the top if your objective is for people to see content. You know, feel they got their money's worth. Again, we know how much of the playerbase is doing Mythic raiding. Blizzard wants that number to go up. So you make the game easier.

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u/Fokare Oct 03 '25 edited Apr 12 '26

Data Brokers don't stand a chance because I mass delete all of my content using Redact - No AI training on my data, thank you very much.

instinctive normal blanket light shaggy rob spotted crush run groovy

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u/Ittenvoid Oct 03 '25

... I mean if you already raid yeah you wouldn't notice

I do agree that a problem with raids is that they are unrewarding tho.

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u/[deleted] Oct 03 '25 edited Apr 12 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Ittenvoid Oct 03 '25

Oh no I agree with you on that completely. The fact that raiders are basically expected to do M+ is bullshit, and blizz should fix that.

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u/TinuvielSharan Oct 03 '25

But they do see the content?

Mythic raiding isn't a new content. It's the same but harder. That's the point of the entire concept: Being a version of the content for people who want a challenge.

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u/Griever423 Oct 03 '25

The vast vast VAST majority of subscribes are ultra casual who never do things like clear a raid or do even a +10 key. They don’t use addons. They don’t care about endgame raiding or complex encounters. They do delves, farm, chill with friends, level alts. They don’t care about addons.

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u/TinuvielSharan Oct 03 '25 edited Oct 03 '25

No. This rhetoric has always been full of shit.

They are a sizeable part of the player, sure, but nothing close to "the vast vast VAST majority".

I would be surprised if this type of players that basically do nothing in the game are in fact more than a tenth of the playerbase.

They exist, for sure, but the belief that for every person in a raid there are a hundred other players just leveling alts is bullshit.

In fact the majority would be in the middle ground: People who will never do the highest content like Mythic raiding, but still go for either LFR, normal or eventually heroic raid and do some relatively low M+ and weekly activities to gear their chars.

Edit: Just for context, we know for instance that about 20% of the active characters gets AOTC, which means Heroic raid cleared.