Island sanctuary doesn't feel right.

[Jojoya]

I dunno. The killing blow wasn't Garrisons. It was the reputation grind to obtain flight and a "meh" storyline Horde-side. Oh, and the death of Garrosh being attributed to Someone Special (not me, the person who brought his health down to zero) because WoW characters are bit-players in the Grand Story.

Did you start WoD after patch 6.2 or something?

At the point the player base disappeared, there was no flying nor was there ever going to be any flying. The developers kept stringing along players with the promise of "flight will get added later" until that infamous Memorial Day weekend Polygon interview when Ion offhandedly mentions they decided the game didn't need flying. They had already lost a third of the player base by that point and the mass subscription cancellations after that interview is what forced them into putting Pathfinder together so players would get flight.

The storyline for Horde was fine. I actually enjoyed it more during beta testing than I enjoyed the Alliance story but then I mained Alliance so playing through Horde was a change of pace.

The other killer was the lack of anything for players to do at end game other than raid or sit AFK in their Garrison. Would you have stuck it out in the Garrison if the mission table rewards had remained the same as they were at WoD launch (or wait - you may not have been there at launch)? Players were angry that those tables lacked any interesting rewards. It wasn't until they beefed up and expanded the treasure missions in 6.1 that players started getting obsessed with their Garrisons, with those gold mines ripping apart the player economy.

Like Padudu, a bit confused that you're bringing Civ into this. It's got nothing in common with Island Sanctuary.

[Raven2014]

Did you start WoD after patch 6.2 or something?

At the point the player base disappeared, there was no flying nor was there ever going to be any flying. The developers kept stringing along players with the promis.

Wait, really? Why? Like if there is one thing you can ask "how can I piss everyone off?" then the top answer gotta be "No flying". Since that guarantee everyone from casual to hardcore, raider and non raider will not be please.

[Jojoya]

Wait, really? Why? Like if there is one thing you can ask "how can I piss everyone off?" then the top answer gotta be "No flying". Since that guarantee everyone from casual to hardcore, raider and non raider will not be please.

Oh talk about pissing everyone off.

https://www.polygon.com/2015/5/22/86...mo-pc-blizzard

section 4

At this point, we feel that outdoor gameplay in World of Warcraft is ultimately better without flying. We're not going to be reintroducing the ability to fly in Draenor, and that's kind of where we're at going forward."

(hard to reintroduce flying to Draenor when it had never been there in the first place)

Until this interview had been released, it had been a constant string of "don't worry, flying is going to be added, it's just going to be later". When WoD released without flying in Draenor, players who had pre-ordered were asking for refunds in droves because of the lack. CSR response was something along the lines of "we will not issue refunds for this reason as flying will be added later".

It was a mess. They lost some of the higher profile player community leaders over this, class theory crafters and content creators both. It wasn't even necessarily because they wanted flying. Often as not, it was because they were angry at Blizzard's dishonesty in stringing the players along about flying being added later just to make an offhand announcement about it via a 3rd party publication (that most of the player base didn't know existed let alone read) late on a Friday afternoon at the start of a major holiday weekend when most would generally be distracted by their holiday plans.

Were players angry? Yes, they were. The forums blew up for 10 days until they announced they would add flying after all.

What's really sad (or perhaps not)? They almost choose to stick by that no flying decision despite the uproar in the player community. That was information shared by Lore (one of the CMs ) in a podcast a couple of months later. You have to wonder where WoW would be right now if they had chosen to stick to no flying and lost 80% of the player base that expansion instead of 50%.

[Toutatis]

To me the Island just ends up feeling pointless. I maxed my Island out a while ago and got what I wanted over a month ago and I haven’t visited ever since. There is just nothing to do except sending out mammets for the sake of sending mammets out. On the other hand, I own a small house and it’s become my base as I have a retainer bell, an fc chest and a bunch of services and a MB just beside it. I can use in between activities such as dungeons and raids. The Island on the other hand, as pretty as it is, has no utility.

[DPZ2]

Did you start WoD after patch 6.2 or something?
...
Like Padudu, a bit confused that you're bringing Civ into this. It's got nothing in common with Island Sanctuary.

Question 1 - no. I started a week after the Cairne server was created back in BC and subscribed continuously from there until mid-BFA. The Memorial Day weekend interview was six months into the expansion. The population was around 7 million before release, leapt to 10 million at peak in 2014 and then lost that extra population again before Memorial day. My point was that Garrisons were not the reason for the population drop ... flight, or the lack thereof, had more to do with it than anything else.

Question 2 - The thoughts were about the Resource Management mini-game. Both game series I mentioned fall into that genre, as do similar games.

[Padudu]

Question 2 - The thoughts were about the Resource Management mini-game. Both game series I mentioned fall into that genre, as do similar games.

Lmao w h a t. The resource management you even do in Island Sanctuary is so minimal that's it's barely resource management at all. It's just more of "send your mammets out to get the granary items, wait a couple days, proceed to next stage". Once you hit rank 10 you stockpile SO much of all the mats that there's practically no resource management. Unless you barely do it there's nothing to really manage. It's just essentially crafting with extra steps. Comparing it to CIV or any actual resource management game is a disservice to the developers who actually put effort into CIV/Tycoons/whatever else.

[DPZ2]

Comparing it to CIV or any actual resource management game is a disservice to the developers who actually put effort into CIV/Tycoons/whatever else.

Crafting is also a resource management mini-game. The point was in reference to my original point "I think a lot of the people who are disappointed thought that Island Sanctuary could be housing, rather than another Resource Management mini-game. I've played most versions of the Sid Meier's Civilization games over the years (starting with 1.0), as well as the Microsoft "Age of ..." RTS games. That sort of thing is greatly familiar."

[Xaphire]

To me the Island just ends up feeling pointless. I maxed my Island out a while ago and got what I wanted over a month ago and I haven’t visited ever since. There is just nothing to do except sending out mammets for the sake of sending mammets out. On the other hand, I own a small house and it’s become my base as I have a retainer bell, an fc chest and a bunch of services and a MB just beside it. I can use in between activities such as dungeons and raids. The Island on the other hand, as pretty as it is, has no utility.

I maxed my island rank in the first week, but I still visit every couple of days. Stockpiling blue cowries for crafter materia for whenever the next set comes out. Hopefully be able to fully meld my own gear and have enough left over to make some money off people not stockpiling blue shells.

[Iscah]

Being aware that it was going to be a resource-collection game isn't some grand epiphany that divides the enjoyers from the haters. I was expecting it to be that sort of game at a broad scope, and my disappointment is in the details and the presentation and the story that is woven around our arbitrary clicking on sparkly lights.

[Padudu]

Crafting is also a resource management mini-game. The point was in reference to my original point "I think a lot of the people who are disappointed thought that Island Sanctuary could be housing, rather than another Resource Management mini-game. I've played most versions of the Sid Meier's Civilization games over the years (starting with 1.0), as well as the Microsoft "Age of ..." RTS games. That sort of thing is greatly familiar."

Its really not lmao.

I get that, I just think the comparison is incredibly, incredibly dumb lmao. RTS games=/=Island Sanctuary. Like at all.

Being aware that it was going to be a resource-collection game isn't some grand epiphany that divides the enjoyers from the haters. I was expecting it to be that sort of game at a broad scope, and my disappointment is in the details and the presentation and the story that is woven around our arbitrary clicking on sparkly lights.

Yes, this exactly. Moreover, I don't think many people were expecting housing, rather they were expecting a farming-sim lite.