Long-time World of Warcraft player, streamer, and content creator Asmongold recently let loose his very honest, raw, and unfiltered thoughts on the current state of the game. Because of the limited length that posts on Twitter can have, Asmongold decided to include a link to a TwitLonger post where he had more freedom to express each and every critique towards World of Warcraft's clogged systems and why Shadowlands is a disappointing expansion. The fact that Asmongold opened up so much, especially about what he feels the game's direction and the overall long-term plan is headed, is a big deal because World of Warcraft is one of those games that people usually defend with vehemence out of sheer passion.
Sheer passion is precisely what drove Asmongold to express just how infuriating the experience has become to him, saying that the reason behind his critiques is not negativity, but a deep love for the game and what it could possibly be if expansions were more inspired. World of Warcraft is arguably one of the longest-standing MMOs to ever launch, still continually churning out new content for its players and fans to this day, while also continuing its World of Warcraft Classic format with the upcoming Burning Crusade expansion. While the game is still surviving despite all the doomsayers, it is lacking a true sense of growth, which is what Asmongold wishes to see once more.
Asmongold's Constructive Criticism Towards World of Warcraft's Systems
One of Asmongold's most prominent points, and a fair one while at it, is that Blizzard constantly adds stale, encumbered systems to the already overflowing content in World of Warcraft. Not only that but they are often born out of bad design choices that players are very quick to point out, even during Alphas of each new expansion. Many feel, as a result, that fan feedback is not being taken into account.
Asmongold came up with a very fitting metaphor, saying that Blizzard wants to reinvent the wheel with each expansion, but it makes a hoverboard, instead. The whole time players have been asking for a better wheel, but Blizzard is preoccupied with everything related to the hoverboard, like how it will fly, what fuel it uses, and if it should have a seatbelt. What this means is, Blizzard introduces overly complicated systems that mostly result in removing the fun more than it adds to WoW, either due to excessive balancing acts required or because of how incomplete or rough the systems are.
Asmongold mentions Soul Ash and Conduit Energy, among the things he is most frustrated with while playing Shadowlands. He says that he believes these systems are intentionally bad because Blizzard wants to capitalize on future patches that make them better, but while the hoped-for outcome is that players are excited to try them when they are finally improved, they rather feel it was about time. It is possible that these currencies are there because Blizzard's vision is to have a currency for everything in the game, or it is possible that Asmongold is right on the money when he says that they are there to extend the game time required to achieve what World of Warcraft players want. It may work for a free-to-play game, but for a subscription-based title, it feels like an excuse to avoid making new content that matters.
For example, Conduit Energy is there to allow players to switch freely between Conduits, but because of its extremely long cooldown in between refreshes, it effectively locks gamers out of different activities if they want to differentiate between, say, raids and PvP. Asmongold's take on the whole thing is that Blizzard should produce more high-quality content akin to Legion, saying that if the game had kept the same innovation and boldness, then World of Warcraft would be very different today. It's not hard to see how this could be the case, and it is the wish of many to keep playing WoW for another 15 years.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is available on PC.