For almost two decades, the claim has persisted that World of Warcraft is dying. In this special, we shed light on certain moments in the history of the Blizzard MMORPG when a particularly large portion of the community had already begun digging a cozy spot in the graveyard of failed online role-playing games.
Over the past almost 20 years, we have read the claim that WoW is dead so regularly and often that MeinMMO demon Cortyn even wrote a column titled World of Warcraft is dead! For 20 years, and it’s not getting any truer.
Partly, this saying came from people who over the years lost their enjoyment of World of Warcraft and hadn’t set foot in Azeroth in ages. Time and again, however, updates, expansions, or decisions by the developers fueled the dissatisfaction of the doom-sayers.
In this special, we would like to highlight some of the moments when World of Warcraft was declared dead by particularly many players.
LFR as the final nail in the coffin for WoW
Let’s start with one of the darkest days in the history of World of Warcraft, according to the opinion of various players. On November 29, 2011, Patch 4.3 was released, which not only introduced the finale of the Cataclysm expansion but also introduced the new feature of the raid browser (also called Raid Finder or LFR – “Looking for Raid”).
This raid browser was an evolution of the group search from Wrath of the Lich King and allows players to find a raid group for specific raid content without much effort and fully automated.
Some players appreciated the additional convenience, the ability to see raid content without a guild or much free time, or they came from small servers and finally had the chance to find enough teammates for raids without hours of searching.
Back then, everything was better, right? Here is the original cinematic trailer of WoW:
Others criticized and still criticize the further anonymization of the community reinforced by the tool and the dilution of the difficulty level. WoW was being dumbed down to an MMORPG Light without challenge, so the accusation went.
And since Cataclysm had already received a relatively poor reception from parts of the community for various reasons after the celebrated expansions Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, some viewed LFR as the final nail in the coffin for World of Warcraft.
Pandas and Pokémon? Not with me!
While some players turned their backs on World of Warcraft after the disappointing Cataclysm, others hoped that a somewhat mediocre expansion could lead to a much more enjoyable adventure.
However, the announcement of Mists of Pandaria immediately caused the next uproar in the community. Asian setting, cuddly pandas as a new playable race and pet battles. A kind of Pokémon for Azeroth? What is Blizzard thinking?! Is WoW turning into an MMORPG for little kids?! That’s it for World of Warcraft, it’s over now.
The irony of the story: Those who stayed away from Pandaria missed one of the best expansions in WoW history, regarding content for all player types, update cycles, accessibility, balancing, raids, and story.
The worst content patch of all time
With the large, jam-packed content updates of Final Fantasy XIV, we still feel that the responsible parties at Square Enix want to make up for the disastrous initial launch of the MMORPG. There has never really been a major patch for FFXIV where we wondered: Is that all there is?
At Blizzard and WoW, it’s different. A particularly disappointing example of an update landed on the live servers during the era of Warlords of Draenor. The highlights of Patch 6.1 read as follows:
- New character model for Blood Elves
- Twitter integration
- Selfie camera
- New collections tab for heirlooms
- Expansions for the garrison
That was all the developers had on February 24, 2015. The next full-fledged patch (and the last content patch for WoD overall) would not follow until June 22, 2015. There has been no other WoW expansion that received such little content. Accordingly, the calls of some players that World of Warcraft – once again – is dying were quite loud.
WoW has no chance against EverQuest 2
The doom-sayers did not only emerge with Cataclysm and the subsequent expansions, but much earlier – even before the US launch on November 23, 2004. The reason: EverQuest 2 launched two weeks earlier.
The first EverQuest was a defining milestone for the MMORPG genre. The direct successor built on this foundation, improved many areas, and already enjoyed an enthusiastic fan base. What chance could Blizzard have with WoW? It would be a guaranteed accident, for sure! Now…
Blood Elves undermine the identity of the Horde
A particularly absurd example of the certain downfall of World of Warcraft comes from the time when the Blizzard executives presented the features of the first expansion, Burning Crusade. Both the Blood Elves and the Draenei sparked some outrage.
At that time, the community debated in a multi-page forum thread that as a player of the Horde, you must play ugly and outcast races. The Blood Elves would destroy any semblance of identity for the faction. And then the Horde gets access to Paladins? Scandal!
Fun fact: Since their introduction, the humanoid pointy ears have been among the most played races of the Horde.
The Draenei, on the other hand, were ridiculed as space cows, who with their sci-fi style would not fit into the fantastic Azeroth at all. Even worse, some thought, was that the Blizzard writers suddenly connected the Draenei to the Eredar and that they were allowed to become shamans. There was quite a stir among the lore purists.
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