The content flood in World of Warcraft has been wished for years. Now it suddenly feels annoying and should go away.
If you look at the sheer number of content patches and the abundance of content in World of Warcraft Midnight, it seems that WoW fans currently live in a land of milk and honey. For several years now, there have been smaller patches every 8 weeks, providing various quests, systems, and innovations for amusement. However, while the major patches at the start of a season are usually praised, the smaller patches often come across as somewhat meager or receive a lot of criticism.
Content flood or content drought – both make unhappy
What is the problem with the small patches? The content of the small updates from World of Warcraft is often seen by many as “filler content”. This is understandable, as they are meant to only lighten a season and offer new goals and additional content without disturbing the ongoing season too much.
This, however, often leads to Blizzard seeming to seek “easy wins” – content that is relatively easy to produce, such as recycling old content, like the Island of Sirens or Naigtal and Val, which represented slightly expanded worlds from “Legion”.
Accompanying this are often events that seem somewhat loveless in their abundance because they have been seen too many times, such as the “Invasions” that take place in various areas. They come in various forms, and Patch 12.1.5 also brings a new variation of them with the Aqirinvasions.
This is how the community discusses it: In the WoW Subreddit, there is currently a thread that is attracting quite a bit of attention. In it, the player “zharkos” describes his problem with the current patch. He explains that he is annoyed by the constant rehashing of invasions and the filler content in the form of mini-areas offering little excitement. His post, although containing some strong language, receives a lot of support.
He concludes with the words:
So I have to ask, what is this? Why is more and more stuff being added that clearly involves no effort and hardly anyone actively plays it or gets anything from it? I would prefer waiting times of 12 to 16 weeks for “acceptable” content instead of yet another world event where I have to fill a bar that then gives a new recolor of a mount every 2 months.
In the comments, this is controversially discussed. Some are convinced that this content is primarily made for players who do not play any other games besides WoW – and they need content where they can indulge and collect new things, even if these are not as unique as much of the content from the major patches.
Cortyn says: I can certainly understand the criticism of the smaller patches, but I believe that it is a necessary evil that one has to live with.
I find the quality of the X.5 and X.7 patches quite inconsistent, but I now know: If I don’t like the content, I don’t have to play it, because it is mainly “filler content” until the next season and the upcoming big patch. Most of this content is interesting for a night or two, but after that, I turn to other things.
But in a world where WoW Forever is coming soon and we are getting a lot of other great releases outside of World of Warcraft, it might also be nice to occasionally have a bit more time for other games that don’t want to rot on the Pile of Shame.
And after all, the small content patches are significantly better gifts than the one player gifted all of Stormwind for Christmas…
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