---
title: 'Xaryu Reacts to WoW is too famous for its own good'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=ALudKabb25k'
video_id: 'ALudKabb25k'
date: 2026-10-22
duration_sec: 3470
channel: 'Xaryu'
---

# Xaryu Reacts to WoW is too famous for its own good

> Source: [Xaryu Reacts to WoW is too famous for its own good](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ALudKabb25k)

## Summary

This video is a reaction and commentary piece where a veteran WoW player and a new player discuss the current state of World of Warcraft, focusing on the strengths that make it special and the significant flaws in its new player experience. The discussion highlights the game's 'intentional friction,' immersive world, and deep lore, while criticizing Blizzard's marketing and onboarding failures that leave newcomers confused.

### Key Points

- **WoW's Success Creates a New Player Blind Spot** [00:15] — The video opens with the speaker noting that WoW is 'too famous,' leading to a blind spot about what new players actually see and experience.
- **The Sandboxy Charm of Classic WoW** [01:40] — The speaker praises WoW for its 'sandboxy' feel, where you just log in and do whatever you want, without heavy-handed direction.
- **Sponsor Shoutout** [03:16] — The sponsor segment for Patrick Adair Designs, a jewelry maker, with a Fourth of July sale.
- **24-Hour Day/Night Cycle and 'Intentional Friction'** [07:58] — The speaker highlights WoW's 24-hour day/night cycle and 'intentional friction' that makes the world feel alive, despite being less optimized.
- **WoW's Movement Feel** [12:12] — Target-based combat allows for fluid movement without inertia, making WoW feel snappy compared to aiming-based MMOs.
- **Why Rift Failed as a WoW Killer** [13:05] — Rift launched successfully but failed to retain players because it lacked the lore foundation of Warcraft.
- **Three Key Elements for MMO Success** [17:14] — The speaker argues that MMO success hinges on pre-existing online IP, funding, and a proven studio track record.
- **The Power of Warcraft's Lore** [15:14] — WoW's lore, created by Chris Metzen, is compared to JRR Tolkien's work, giving the world unmatched depth.
- **Different Starting Zones Create Variety** [25:33] — WoW's multiple starting zones offer six different game experiences, something unique in the MMO space.
- **Blizzard Assumes Everyone Knows Why to Play** [28:01] — The biggest issue: Blizzard never tells new players why they should care about WoW. Marketing focuses on content patches rather than core appeal.
- **Generic Homepage Marketing** [36:08] — The homepage copy is 'generic Chat GPT language' that fails to communicate any unique value to newcomers.
- **Lack of Guidance on Essential Systems** [39:58] — Tutorials fail to explain critical systems like PvP gear requirements, leading to frustrating experiences.
- **Too Many Versions of WoW** [44:22] — The overabundance of WoW versions (Retail, Classic, SoD, etc.) confuses new players on where to start.
- **Raid Logging Is Universal, But Classic Delays It** [50:35] — Raid logging is a common endgame state, but the long leveling journey in Classic makes it feel more rewarding.
- **Opportunity to Fix New Player Experience** [56:01] — With Classic Plus and the new trilogy of expansions, Blizzard has a chance to fix onboarding and marketing for new players.

## Transcript

You guys have been spamming me about this new GB. I have not seen it yet. this new GB. I have not seen it yet. Today is the day for the new GB. Um, okay. I guess we just play the video now. Uh,
Chet. Let's check it out. >> Warcraft has one of the most interesting problems I've ever seen in gaming, which is that this game is too famous. WoW has been around for so long and has been such a success for so long, it seems as
though most people have forgotten what the game looks like to new players, and I think this has created one of the strangest blind spots I've ever seen a my channel already know I've been documenting my experience playing
through WoW from the perspective of a new player in my first ever 1 to 60 leveling series. And I'm not just a new WoW fan, I am a new WoW super fan. I've spending money on merch. I am Bobby Cotic's Ultimate Fantasy. But for as
game and all the fascinating things I keep coming across, there is one big topic I haven't had the chance to discuss yet, which is that the new player experience in WoW is so unbelievably strange. For players like
me starting their WoW journey out in the current year, it is flatout weird to firstly see how good this game still is. how so many elements of what made WoW such a success back in the day are still the things you notice almost immediately
after making your first character. But for all the good that you'll find, playing WoW as a new player today is also incredibly strange because it like so for me what I like about classic WoW and like so I'm not the new player so
I'm I'm listening with open ears here. Um what I like is that it almost feels sandboxy. It doesn't say go in this direction and do that. It doesn't tell with hints, but the hints barely do anything. It's It's about like you just
log in and you're a person and go do whatever the heck you want to do. That's what made me fall in love with WoW as a 12-year-old. Like that. I was like, I love that when I when I was 12 and I played other games.
I hated how it told me to go in this direction and go, you know, go I had to go do this. I loved how in WoW I could just go to Goldshshire or I could go to the city. I could I could sit at level seven for a week and and just chat with
people or or like do whatever do whatever I wanted. That's the best. I love that. Right. I love that it doesn't tell you anything. It's just like here's a world go. Right. It's very sandboxy. Um it's not it's not an actual sandbox,
right? But it's on a spectrum. It's it's closer to that than a lot of other modern MMOs. might be the most confusing experience a person can subject themselves to in a large part because of how successful WoW became. It's a wild
thing to see firsthand, getting to experience both why this game became a massive sensation 20 years ago and also seeing exactly why it stopped appealing to new players after a certain period of time. The latter of which is especially
a tragedy because I think this game's biggest flaw is just a simple blind spot that would be so easy to fix. Anyway, fascinating discussion I've been dying break everything down today in a
get into all of that, this video is sponsored by Patrick Adair Designs. Okay, so if there's one thing that you guys have all noticed about me before anything else, it's probably the shirts, right? In every one of my videos, you've
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check out the sale since it will only be around for a limited time. A seriously big shout out to Patrick Adair Designs for sponsoring the channel. But now back didn't play World of Warcraft when I was younger, growing up in the 2000s, I
could not escape this title and the massive influence it had on the world. Honestly, I don't think any kid from my generation could. As the years went by and I kept reading headlines and articles about the successes of WoW's
>> bro, the OG internet, man. Holy crap. I got to take this in for a sec. Little got to take this in for a sec. Little Internet Explorer, Hotmail. Oh, MSN Messenger address pcign.com.
Look at this. Look at this like OG website design. Oh my goodness gracious. website design. Oh my goodness gracious. Search web search frugal search site. Wow. Junk mail at the bottom.
ready. >> Or how some new MMO was coming around to try to kill it. I felt like I had missed a significant part of the gaming cultural zeitgeist just because my computer was not good enough to run it
back then. Maybe I did miss a lot. The 2000s were a special time. But finally getting around to trying WoW today has been a shocking experience for me. Largely because this game is still insanely special. For all the MMOs that
have been released over the years, no game has ever managed to do all of the things that WoW does, which is why I can't stop freaking out over everything already heard how much I love the 24-hour dayight cycle and the fact that
hunter NPCs target prey they see nearby and everything else I can't stop gawking over. They may seem like small details, but the details add up to a point where you still notice them even if you're picking up WoW today because there isn't
all of this so well. It's actually interesting seeing how many other MMOs have tried to copy or improve some of the systems that WoW has, but they worse by improving them. Take the dayight cycle for example. World of
Warcraft has a 24-hour dayight cycle, as I mentioned, and depending on what time it is during the day. Different things in game will happen. NPCs may appear in a certain area only during certain hours, or different kinds of resources
or events may spawn. This isn't unique to WoW. Plenty of MMOs have a dayight cycle that show the passing of time, some of which might seem better on the outset. In Guild Wars 2, for instance, they have a dayight cycle, but one that
runs every 2 hours instead of 24. So, in other words, roughly 1 hour of gameplay is played in the daylight with the next hour taking place at night. Still with the same idea of having unique events happen in the world based on what time
it is in game. And on paper, this seems like an improvement to a 24-hour cycle, since, after all, a 2-hour dayight cycle means that every player, regardless of their PC and play, they can all experience all the content the game has
to offer. If someone wants to catch a special fish that only spawns at night, they don't need to literally wait around until it's actually night. So, it like this is like that the whole design philosophy of like intentional friction.
night. There would there's like something cool about having to then log in at night. Actually, I remember on my samurai playthrough, um I had some like there was a a rare NPC that spawned at night. Actually, I think it could have
maybe a terrible example, but it spawned at like 900 p.m. and I wasn't streaming, so I hit me up on Discord. So, I like ran started recording and like they summoned me over. We made a whole YouTube video
on it and like we killed it and it dropped. It was like so exciting. But now I got to log in early in the morning for this or that. Like I don't know. for this or that. Like I don't know. Keeps it very very cool. Intentional
friction. Word of the day. Words of the day. 2-hour dayight cycle seems superior, right? It's got all of the benefits of WoW's system with none of the drawbacks except for one little problem. Real life
doesn't have a 2-hour day night cycle. Cycling through days every two hours might be an optimized system that developers have crafted because they figured out that was the best length of time to give players access to all the
content. But that's the thing. It was a choice made by a developer. In World of Warcraft, it's a 24-hour dayight cycle because that's how human beings live. This is what I mean by unnecessary differences. In many ways, the gameplay
systems in WoW don't need to exist or exist in the way that they do. And some of them can even be a little inconvenient. But that inconvenience is life. SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO SCHEDULE your day around things. Sometimes events
do with you. And sometimes people or items exist not for your benefit, but because that's just how the world actually is. And this is literally one in WoW. Little details like this, which
I'm aware aren't all exclusive to WoW, like the dayight cycle was just copied from EverQuest. But all these little details added together in Azeroth, make this MMO feel more alive than any other world out there on the market. There
knowledge, that's taken the time to flush out the world in as much detail as WoW has, which is why you still feel how impressive all of this is. Even if like me, I certainly start. >> One of the things that he hasn't
mentioned that I feel like every WoW player would agree with is how darn good it feels to move around in WoW compared to any other MMO you play.
Like there's some there there maybe are some that come close, but like WoW's movement is just like so good. like the engine itself, like the the way your character moves. It's just like snappy and quick and fluid and
your character. There's none of this like inertia added in. Have you guys played other games where like you're running in one direction and then they add inertia so like you have to wait a second before swapping directions and
second before swapping directions and then it just feels like you're lagging. One of the reasons WoW can do this is because they have a targeting system, not an aiming system. If you have an aiming system and you have snappy
other people because you can just like move on a dime, right? Um, so one of the ways developers make it possible to shoot other people is to add in a little
movement, so if you swap directions, you're standing still for a second and opportunity then hit you. That's what New World did. Um, which is intentional design. The drawback is that it feels like you're walking through molasses
directions or walking forward and back. And WoW doesn't have this because they don't have aiming because they're using a target-based system. So, part of me thinks target based systems and focus based systems are sick for MMOs. It's
pure immersion. >> Wait to realize almost immediately why no other MMO was ever able to be the fabled Wow Killer. Except I do actually remember about a game many years ago that did succeed in killing World of
Warcraft supposedly because back in 2011 a new MMO came out that actually launched surprisingly well. Unlike every other WoW killer that came before it, this one made it to launch. Gameplay was great, bugs were minimal, and after
garnering a million active subscribers, that was enough for most gaming media to declare that Rift was the MMO that was killing World of Warcraft. Perhaps Rift succeeded because they actually copied WoW's 24-hour dayight cycle. Except if
PROBABLY HAVE NO IDEA what Rift is of Warcraft after all. In spite of its massively successful launch, as time dragged on, Rift saw most of its player base Wayne until it became all but dead.
mystery to the gaming media. How did Rift manage to nail the part of MMOs that everyone else struggles with, actually getting off the ground and finding a subscriber base, but then go on to fail in doing what seemed like the
easier part of everything, just retaining those players and like, okay, okay, this is this has nothing to do with what he's talking about, but how does this come out in 2011?
WoW comes out in 2004 and just looks like way better. Am I maybe I'm biased here, but like the portrait, the the UI, the frames, the map, all of this looks like like so much more dated and it came out almost a decade later.
I you know, they over attempted realism. I agree with that. I agree with that. When you over attempt realism, it it just ages very poorly. Whereas when you just ages very poorly. Whereas when you have intentional like um
I don't Yeah. Intentional gamer graphics I suppose it like ages. It can age really really well. Minecraft classic WoW, right? Um but when you Yeah. O [sighs] just doesn't age the same. O doesn't age
>> Keeping them happy with new content. Well, I can tell you now that I've played WoW myself. I think the answer is simply Rift failed because it wasn't built off the lore from Warcraft. >> Stylized art ages better. Yeah, well
>> Three. That's the next thing that you notice in WoW when you pick up the game. Even as a new player, you can feel how this franchise has more lore than any other game you've ever seen. And so much of it is phenomenal. I'm not joking when
I say that WoW's universe is one of the greatest fantasy worlds ever created. Chris Metson is the JRR Tolken of our era. If he was born in 1892, we would be studying The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King as a great trilogy of
novels. And >> one of the things I I I think I think I >> one of the things I I I think I think I can say this. One of the things that I can say this. One of the things that I learned when I visited Blizzard
learned when I visited Blizzard is how much Chris Metson carried World of Warcraft historically. This game is his brainchild. I didn't
fully realize how much of it was Chris Metson just sitting in a room, saying things and writing on whiteboards and like just everything just like he and like just everything just like he like he carried. I didn't realize that
to like I I I knew that to some degree, but I didn't realize the extent of which like like this is all Chris Metson like not not all, but like there's so much ridiculous when it comes to like the lore. Um, I didn't I didn't fully
[clears throat] >> Lit class. That's the kind of quality world WoW was built on. Azeroth is a land that's not just a typical fantasy world. You have dozens of compelling and charismatic heroes and villains with
backstories that are so deep they're worthy of their own spin-off games. You have so many original races and monsters, each and everyone having their own history and purpose. It's genuinely insane how much depth World of Warcraft
has to it. And I honestly think that's a pretty underrated reason for why this MMO was the one that blew up to stratospheric heights. If you So, for me, I' I've talked about this a lot and I actually get some push back on this,
that I've noticed have made WoW good or any other MMO successful are one, you want uh pre-existing video game IP. So, what this means is like Warcraft 3 um right you had a video game actually
pre-existing online video game IP is even better very specific you had Warcraft 3 other players invested in an online universe that wasn't built out online universe that wasn't built out yet but it was already loved by fans
everywhere right so you had like a Warcraft 3 um I feel like this was so critical to this success of WoW the second thing is you need lots of money if you don't have the money to fund the project, it just like probably won't
work. And it was Blizzard. Um, and then the third thing is like do you have the track record of like do you have the actual studio that can handle making good games? Um, and you know, Blizzard in the early 2000s had a flawless track
record. They had the money to back it and they had the pre-existing online video game IP. Like these are the three things to me that really like good luck have it be successful. And when you start looking at other MMOs um that are
successful, right, or kind of successful, they they have like maybe good. If you have all three, it's like it's probably going to be a home run. The only other MMO with all three,
the the first one is very specific, pre-existing online video MP. The only other one is the League MO. And that's why I'm so excited. Right. They have League literally League of Legends Riots's track record and then they have
money, right? And I know you guys are swour, you know, no, very different. Very different online pre-existing video game IP, but anyway, um this is why I believe WoW was successful. I mean, there's
there's a ton more reasons each of the big three. I also think like um something else that comes to mind that's pretty important is I I feel like MMOs almost need to be fantasy MMOs. I feel like every MMO
that's not a fantasy one like just ends up flopping too. But I don't know if that's because of the generation that I grew up in, we watched Lord of the Rings growing up and like living in that kind of like Lord of the
Rings style universe is like really cool. Um, so I I think I think it probably has to be like a fantasy one to be honest. I I can't think of like a like a Star War like a Starcraft. Yeah, probably not. Probably should be
that one out. But yeah, definitely these three. Like those are the big ones. Yeah, cool. >> You play any other MMO like Rift that >> hold on, hold on. Let me let me answer some of the chat. So people say FF14 and
some of the chat. So people say FF14 and ESO. So FF14 good track record and they had money. They didn't really have pre-existing
pre-existing video game IP. And that's why in my opinion they had like two and a half of these. Yeah. So that backs up the claim. And then a lot of other the claim. And then a lot of other people are saying ESO ESO is also one of
the larger MMOs. So backs up the claim as well. um they had a good track record and money. They didn't really have pre-existing online video game IP, but they had pre-existing video game IP just like FF. And once again, they're pretty
the claim in my opinion. They had like two and a half or even like two and 3/4 of these three and that's why they're successful. If they had full three for three, they'd probably be even more. But yeah, yeah, those are two examples that
yeah, yeah, those are two examples that back it up. Um look up F F11. Okay, so argument, right? F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F F11 didn't have [snorts] Um like an MMO before an MMO.
Okay. Um just back it up. point. It backs up the point, right? It's like
uh these these are the more successful ones anyway. Once again, take it or leave it, but that's how I see things. Okay, if you have these three, it's a home run. And the only one that has full three for
three is the League MMO. It's one of the reasons I'm so darn excited. There we go. >> Maybe a simple or somewhat contrived >> Oh, so okay. People don't understand what I just said. FF11
predated FF. It's like it's like if if WoW had a WoW zero before WoW 1 as its That's not really what I'm talking about. I'm talking about like a another
online game like a Warcraft 3, a Starcraft 2, a League, a Dota, like a predecessor that was online, not the same genre, not the same exact thing. Not a not a predecessor of another MMO, another game. Does that make sense? I
clearly >> for the world and why it is the way it Wars 2. Exactly. It would be like Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. Like that doesn't It's like the same. Yeah. Exactly. >> Self bouncing off that game pretty
quickly anytime the gameplay starts to grow stale. By comparison, the fact that I, as a new player in Azeroth, constantly find myself running into new characters and areas asking questions about why the world is the way it is.
But unlike other games, every question I have has an answer. And normally that answer is go play one of the greatest games of all time or read genuinely quality fantasy novels and I will find all the answers I'm looking for and so
much more. I don't know. That has to be part of why WoW took off in a way that no other MMO did. I actually think that's the reason the only other MMOs from back in the day that came close to touching WoW's success were the licensed
titles from some of the more famous existing fantasy worlds ever made. games Lord of the Rings Online because World of Warcraft is a fantasy world on the level of those franchises. And not only that, WoW even has a leg up on them in
the MMO space. After all, those games have the baggage of being built off incredibly successful movies where fans will come in with preconceived notions of what the universe is supposed to look like. So, if a kid that loves Lord of
they find anything other than movie quality visuals and a faithful recreation of the Battle of Helm's Deep, that will leave him terribly WoW is in this really nice sweet spot where it has lore that's been fleshed
out with the same quality and richness of those other fantasy worlds. But this IP isn't bound by having a massively successful movie that predates it. Meaning players can venture around in the world not knowing what they'll find.
Yes, GB. He gets it. So like that's why I'm so specific with my point number one here. It's pre-existing online video game IP. This is what trips people up. This is what people don't understand. It could be a movie. It could be a book. It
could be offline video game IP. But the best one for an MMO to launch is pre-existing online. It has a world. It has lore that's fleshed out. People are
already playing online and they want to explore it more. Warcraft 3 League, explore it more. Warcraft 3 League, right? Like Yes. Exactly. It's not like something like a Swurro could maybe take off. the pre-existing non online video
off. the pre-existing non online video game game IP is good but the best one is the pre-existing online like I that that's what I believe man like yeah you can have decent IP or good IP the movie one or
the book one or offline single player RPG IP like that's good but this is homerun good you see the difference am I explaining it better now eagerly accepting whatever Calumor or Northrand or Lorderon looks like but it's not just
all the lore and world building. Some of the gameplay options you're given in WoW are unmatched in a way that I don't know if WoW players realize how lucky they notice almost immediately when you first pick the game up that WoW isn't just one
wrapped into one because of how different all the race and faction starting zones are. As someone who's primarily played Runescape, Guild Wars 2, some Blade and Soul, and the French king of them all, Dophus across my
personal MMO history, I'm used to games that either don't have class options when creating a character, or games where even if you do choose a unique race and class, everyone mostly gets funneled down the same main story of the
world when questing and going across their gameplay. World of Warcraft is the only MMO I've ever seen where this isn't the case. In WoW, if you start up a new race on an alt, you aren't just getting new spells to use for whatever gameplay,
you're getting an entirely new starting zone with new quests, new narratives, and a whole races worth of history that you can then go read up on in the lore books. As a new player, this was one of the most mind-blowing things to me. To
my knowledge, there's something like six separate starting zones in vanilla, right? which means that vanilla is basically six separate games, at least when it comes to the first 20 to 40 hours of gameplay. But if you play later
versions, there's even more. Every expansion seemingly added new races with new starting zones, new quests and stories. So if six games isn't enough, This is actually one of the reasons I
would love to see how many zones and stories have been added to the game over the years, fleshing out the world as much as they have. Exiles Reach kind of ruined that experience of seeing a starting zone. I'm realizing, and again,
this is all insane to me, partly because no other game has nailed all of these elements. There have been some MMOs over the years that have mimicked parts of WoW, but I've never seen a game that faithfully captures all of it at once,
which is why you can't help but notice how special WoW is, even today, 22 years after its release. But of course, if you are a new player picking up WoW for the first time, I have to be honest. It's not all sunshine and rainbows. All
channel, so let me preface this with a disclaimer. Any complaints I'm about to make come from a place of love and also good news. It's all fixable. All of these problems are so easy to fix. And with all that being said, the new player
experience in WoW can just be baffling sometimes. Like first and foremost, the biggest problem Blizzard needs to fix yesterday is that World of Warcraft never tells new players why they should care about this game. This is one of the
most shocking things I've ever seen a AAA title do and almost the entire reason I wanted to make this video. For all the good WoW has in it, you never are told why this game is fun as a new player. Like, if you're a WoW veteran
watching this video, let's do a little experiment here. Take a second. I want you to think about what is your favorite part of this game. What is it that this game does so well that's kept you playing all these years? Is it the lore?
Is it the challenging group raids or the PVP? Take a second to think about it. Pause the video if you need. >> Okay. Well, for retail, I was addicted of the PvP. I'll just be honest. Like that's that's what we're doing. But for
classic WoW, to me, I think it's the world. It's the players and the world and like like running through the world and seeing other players like it's the way you interact with the world, right? Um
I think what's so good about classic is how much um space you have and how much time like pacing like the the slow pacing of Classic WoW is there's such a journey in the leveling experience. It's a you're
you're you're out and there's a journey in the world. I think that probably expresses it the best I can. Feels very sandboxy. Obviously, not quite like a true sandbox like a Minecraft, but it feels very sandboxy for an MMO. It's
journey and man is it fun. And it gives you enough time to to to soak it all in because the leveling experience is so long and then it's not a big surprise up quitting within a few weeks or whatever, right? like a lot, you know,
people raid too, but like the big experience for most WoW players is that that's that's what I love about it so much. >> Me, too. Okay, got it in your head. All right. Now, can you point me to anything
Blizzard has made in the past 5 to 10 years, communicating that's what makes WoW special to new players? Have you ever seen a trailer or a TV ad or even just a web page telling someone like me, "I should come play WoW because it has
don't think I've ever seen an official bit of marketing from Blizzard that explains what makes WoW special, worth playing as a game compared to any other. They've made trailers teasing new content that's coming, stuff like
systems the game has or new raids about to be released, but I've never seen anything explaining why it's worth participating in this content, which is insane to me. From the outside looking in, it kind of feels like Blizzard have
just started to assume everyone knows why they should play WoW. So, their only job in marketing should be to try to lure old players back with trailers for expansions or content patches, trying to call people back to their home of
Azeroth, not realizing kids that don't know what Azeroth is might be watching, too. No other game does this. Nobody assumes everyone knows why they should there's no reason to sell their title to
has always had marketing that says, "Hey, we're a competitive PvP game where you get to express creativity in the role and character you play, often tying ads or trailers to the massive esports scene that shows how competitive the PvP
can get." Runescape has run ads for years now, saying, "Hey, this is an MMO with no seasonal resets, so the gear you grind for is always useful." Even I will grind for is always useful." Even I will say those Runescape ads are really good.
I I don't know about you guys, but I got I got a bunch of them um the like the I got a bunch of them um the like the last year and it basically says like want your progress to matter? Play old school Runescape where we never reset
school Runescape where we never reset anything. And it's like oh huh that's anything. And it's like oh huh that's appealing. A very good ad. Um does Blizzard run classic WoW ads? I don't know if I've ever seen one.
Has I don't know. I don't know if I've ever actually seen one. Here's the thing. Not [sighs and gasps] I if it feels like not many young people are playing MMOs as a genre. And my
theory and take on this um which maybe I'm wrong. Um but my theory on this for for the last like decade has been that game genres are generational, right? Just like names, just like fashion, just like music. Why why wouldn't they be,
right? So you have certain generations for whatever reasons gravitating towards certain styles of games, different genres of games and they enjoy them for whatever reason that they do, right? Um and the current generation that is kids
or maybe old enough to play WoW like 12, 14, 15, really wants like information fast. They're growing up in the time of YouTube shorts. They're growing up in the time of like Tik Tok and scrolling and quick quick. So, it's no wonder
they're going to gravitate towards something like that you can just hop in and play instantly in dopamine, dopamine, dopamine. Makes sense, right? But my theory is that maybe 10 years from now, you know, maybe our kids kids
are some whatever, maybe 15 years from now, um you'll see this like cyclical thing start to happen where people are maybe tired of like short form content going to get back to how things were and like just play a game for a long time
and progress slowly in one world. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this will never happen. and we'll never see it again. But I would hope that would be the case. But I'm saying all this because I think Blizzard knows this. I think Blizzard
knows their biggest marketing angle is to call players back to play because kids are playing other genres of games altogether. They're not even playing MMOs. Um, and I think since they know that they're taking retail and
merging it into not quite an MMO anymore. It's more of a lobby game. If it's much more of a lobby game. You sit in a city, you quue for solo shuffle, you quue for your dungeon, your your raid, I guess you kind of have to fly
there. Um, if you're doing mythic plus, you have to fly there, but there's basically like a lobby game. So, they're they're trying to make retail into Okay, maybe this isn't really an MMO. Maybe it's more of like a lobby game slash uh
numbers coming up. It's quicker paced. So they're like intentionally kind of building it into maybe what the consumer of today might enjoy more. But at the
end of the day, I don't know if that consumer is even there yet. It might be down the road. If I'm right, maybe 10, 15 years from now or something. What what what cycles does fashion go in? It's like 20 year cycles, I think. What
about names? What about all these other things? Music, right? It's like 20 year cycles, right? So maybe maybe we'll see a resurgence sooner than we think of MMOs just taking over the the gaming landscape again.
been my theory. Thought of this like 10 years ago. >> Dark Souls names it special editions Prepare to Die, telling you exactly what makes this game different from all the others you've seen. I've never seen
Blizzard do this for World of Warcraft once. Every trailer is made up of some kind of dramatic scene or a cinematic showcasing bits of the lore, which kind of hints at the great story it has, but that's as close as they get to selling
me on their game. There's nothing telling me the PVE content is the most challenging and rewarding group experience I'll ever have with raids that are more difficult and take longer to complete than whole indie games.
play this game because it has a great PvP scene with a dynamic esports League player. They don't even market it as a persistent world where I can just hang out with millions of other people anymore. That should always be the base
selling point of an MMO. If I'm a new player curious about trying WoW today, the only thing I will see on the homepage for World of Warcraft tells me that this game is free for 20 levels. It's a world filled with magic and
limitless adventure and that it's an everexpanding fantasy. That is >> I mean to be fair, the things that I said about WoW that make it great is the journey in the world. It says start your journey. Welcome to Azeroth. To be fair,
that's what I said when I paused the video. It's the world. It's your journey. It's an adventure. And they have all of those things. In Blizzard's defense, >> the most generic chat GPT language I've
ever heard before in my life. Even here, the thing that's really highlighted is already played WoW, forsaking all the new players. Once again, I know Blizzard has tried in recent years to make the game more new player friendly with all
sorts of updated guides telling people what certain things are and where to find them. Like there's a whole guide on their website telling me how if I make a new account, I'll go do Exiles Reach and then I'll do the Dragonfly expansion and
then I can do the story mode to catch up on the upcoming expansions narrative, which just goes to show that they still want new players to try their game out and give it a shot. But there is still nothing on these pages telling me why I
should play World of Warcraft in the first place, which just blows my mind. And this sort of feeds into my second criticism, which is that WoW gives new players so much direction where it's not needed while never giving direction
where we actually want some. Okay. Like my first experience trying out WoW was when I played a bit of retail and when I first logged on and got to Exiles Reach, WoW gave me a tutorial for how to place my hands on the keyboard and mouse. Like
this is the literal first PC game I've ever played. The tutorial was filled >> You know what's kind of funny about this? Unironically, when I played WoW, it was my first PC game. Well, I played Runescape. It was my first Runescape was
click to move. So, it was my first PC game where I had to move my character. I didn't know how to move my character. It was my first PC game to move my character. So, what did I do? I put my hands on the arrow keys.
I didn't know WD would move. I put I moved with the arrow keys for my first moved with the arrow keys for my first year or two. I had no idea I could move with WD until year like a year or two three later. Same. Oh, there's other
three later. Same. Oh, there's other people. So, I mean for a brand new it actually like that would have been helpful for me funny enough cuz I'm ne it was my first one. I would how would I have known
you know stuff like this. It told me how to combo my abilities together, which was kind of nice as class direction, but I would probably have more fun figuring that out myself. Eventually, it told me I can even play this game without really
needing to play it. But when it came to things I actually needed help with, the game never mentioned them whatsoever. Like, for example, coming from League of Legends, one of the things I was curious about was trying out the PvP in World of
great PvP scene and seeing all the abilities each class has as well as the dynamic highlights of what the top level players can do, that got me super excited to give it a shot myself, especially because this is supposed to
things everyone says that the game is shortly after I made my first impressions of retail video on my warrior a while back, I started to handle level a new character, a night
elf rogue, all the way up to 80 so I could try out the PvP. 80 was max at the midnight came out. But all along the way, I was getting excited. I kept trying to figure out how to best combo my abilities as I was leveling so I
could be prepared to hopefully not be the worst player on my team for whenever I played my first battleground in arena. And when I finally dinged 80 and queued up for my introduction to PvP, I was indeed the worst player in my first
battleground in arena. Okay, it wasn't just that I was terrible and got my ass handed to me. There was a real issue here, which is THAT I HAD NO IDEA WHY I for a battleground, I thought I knew what I was doing, running in and trying
to play for an objective or battle enemy players. But every single time I would either die, I would do no damage, or I would do no damage and THEN DIE. WHAT'S GOING ON? Was I using my abilities wrong? Was I mispositioning? Should I be
something? It doesn't look like I'm doing anything wrong to my untrained eye. I queued up for a few battlegrounds that all went terribly and then tried one arena. But eventually, I realized something must be off. So, I paused and
did like half an hour of research to try to figure out how to engage with PvP just to find out. I need specialized PvP gear to take part in PvP. I was just using THE GEAR I GOT FROM LEVELING my character naturally through regular
gameplay, which I just, how was I supposed TO KNOW THAT? I WAS NEVER once prompted with a tutorial or a warning that I wasn't prepared to do the content I was about to engage with. A simple guide telling me how to get a base set
of PvP gear would have done so much for my experience. If I was not already hooked on the great story and other elements of WoW, and this was my first time experiencing the endgame content everyone raves so much about in this
game, I would have quit immediately. Honestly, to me, it just feels like Blizzard assumed everyone already knew about the gearing system BECAUSE EVERYBODY ALREADY PLAYS WELL. LIKE, it never crossed their mind a League player
might want to try out their game and see what its PvP is like. So they what its PvP is like. So they >> it's tough when you have a game that you know at at its base level is about the world and about the the raids and
and this and that and then you try to make it into this competitive PvP game. So League on the other hand is a PvP game. And that's one of the things that like shocked me so much when I tried League last year is like, oh, this is a
League last year is like, oh, this is a PvP game meant for PvP, which means you can make it great for PvP. It's not a mini game within a game. It's literally
mini game within a game. It's literally a PvP game. So the problem WoW faces is like even back in classic vanilla, there was still PvP gear, right? So, you queue of PvE gear, you have no stamina, you kind of you kind of just get one shot.
know, like you're just going to get owned by someone with way more stamina than you. TBC, same exact thing. Still has PvP gear. This is like way back, right? Resilience came into play. Same thing in Wrath. Like, if you don't have
that's like part of the MMO experience, but it doesn't really tell you to be honest. Could maybe be more clear. should maybe add a little tutorial. Which is why it's so crazy to me that Blizzard are updating so many tutorials
and systems trying to explain their game to new players, but they seem to be failing to explain some pretty big fundamentals. And speaking of that, this is basically the last criticism I have about WoW's new player experience, which
is that this lack of communication from Blizzard makes it way too easy for me to unknowingly waste my time. Or at least that's a big fear I always have as a new
player. Like the one reason a person would play an MMO in today's day and age is because MMOs are the one genre of video game that does not have an end. An MMO isn't even supposed to be a video game after all. Not nearly as much as
it's supposed to be a persistent world. And I've already gone over how well WoW does in making new players believe this is a persistent world that lasts forever with no end of things to do. But as I started playing WoW and dove into all
getting the sense that not all the versions of WoW actually do last forever. Like when I tried retail, I kept hearing retail players say that there's no point playing the game until midnight comes out. But then also, there
was no point playing the game the first week because that wasn't until the new content patch dropped and it was only pre-season. But then also past a certain because everyone will have done all the content and so we'll just have to wait
for the next expansion which [laughter] okay I guess you know it's a seasonal MMO or something which I kind of hate that but that's fine at least that In classic though there are so many different options for players to choose
with no direction from Blizzard warning me I might be about to start a journey not going to receive support much longer. What is the difference between the season of discovery and classic era and anniversary and mist of panderia?
and anniversary and mist of panderia? >> This is one of the problems WoW has like just transparent. I'm sure Blizzard knows it. We all know it. There's too many versions of WoW. When you're a newcomer, what the heck do I do? I had
someone in my Discord type the other day and they're like, "Hey, I'm new to WoW. I started playing a month ago. Um, I'm level 30. I'm playing on Mistandaria and other people to play with. What's going on?
Brand new player starts playing classic mop. No idea how he got there. Do we tell him? I don't even I didn't even know what to say. I was like, "Oh, man. Where do I start?" Well, there's 15 versions of WoW and you
Well, there's 15 versions of WoW and you picked the wrong one. Like, right, that it's a problem. It's a, let's be honest, it's a problem the way Runescape does it. Um, and not to say Runescape's done it perfect, but I think
it's somewhat simple. You have modern Runescape, RS3, and you have old school Runescape, which is either one you pick. They're continuous. They're not really
seasonal, right? Like you can play them for years. Like there's no wrong choice really, but either one they're continuous and they're there. Uh, will be like a temporary thing that's marketed as a temporary league that
comes and goes where you can earn stuff for your old school account, right? Um, if I'm WoW, I I probably follow that model, which kind of sucks. It's a
band-aid you have to rip off. It really sucks. But like, if you have that, you would have retail and classic plus. That's it. Pick what you want to play. Right. In
classic plus, you can make a hardcore character, but that that's it. Now, that comes with a lot of downsides. The band-aid sucks to rip off. It does, right? That means getting rid of mop. That means getting rid of um maybe wad
means getting rid of sod. That means getting rid of uh like like like it it's TBC, right? Getting rid of TBC. Like it's brutal. But then what it means is okay, I'm going to play classic plus or I'm going to play retail. Those are my
options. And it's like it it streamlines this really nice thing. It's like, okay, cool. I can I can do I want classic or I want modern, right? So, it sucks, but I I I think that's probably the solution to this
problem. It sucks, but I think it's the only way. updates and support? Are any of them abandoned? Do players still play actively on each one? And if so, what's the most populated version I should go
play? I can find answers like these if I go to WoW streamers or content creators, of course, who actually explain things a bit. But there is nothing warning me from Blizzard's official homepages explaining what their plans are for each
server. And that's so terrifying to realize because I keep hearing classic players say that they finished this version of the game and that they're only raid logging now, whatever that means. And because they all have their
best in slot items, there's not even a reason for them to play this version sin. You should never run out of things to do in an MMO. You know, maybe I'm wrong about all this. It's totally possible. it. Weirdly enough, if you
possible. it. Weirdly enough, if you really think about it, any MMO or sorry, any version of WoW becomes raid logging at some point. Hear me out. Retail, you
know, you hit your raid every week. Um, what retail does have is mythic plus, right? And they have um arenas. Those are like endless grinds. But for a lot of people, it's raid logging and retail. You back up to something like mob
classic. It's raid logging in mob classic. You back up to TBC. Ra logging in TBC. You back up to classic. It's raid logging in classic. What's the difference here? The difference in classic is it takes most people like 1
to 6 months to hit max level. So it takes so darn long to get to the raid log status. So your journey is longer and that's why people seem to love it so much. It's a world that matters. It's not too big and it's a long time until
you're ever getting the raid log. So, you can have a journey and go have fun and enjoy it because it's going to be great, right? With retail, you hit max like the next and it's like, okay. Um, with TBC, leveling is much quicker. It's
still kind of slow, but then you're at raid logging the next, right? Um, TBC is pretty good though because to get to raid log phase in TBC is pretty fun and it'll take you probably it'll it'll still take you a while. Um, but that's
interesting to think about because it's one of the common denominators with WoW. Keep in mind, WoW is the most successful MMO, Western MMO, I guess, of all time, maybe MMO ever of all time. And they've had this model the whole time
of of raid logging. The one of the differences in 2026 is The one of the differences in 2026 is players have hyper optimized how to get to raid log status quicker. leveling quicker, gearing quicker,
skipping dungeons they don't need. So the difference today is you can get to the difference today is you can get to raid log in a week or a month and just stay there and then it's like, "Oh, I have nothing to do." Whereas in 2004, we
didn't know how to get to raid log status. You never got there. In 2006 when TBC came out, you never got to raid log status. You weren't good enough. You level on one character. you never even got all the drops you needed before the
next patch. You never beat the game. But nowadays, people hyper optimize. They get the raid log and the they're logged out. It's like nothing to do. It's like, well, that's just not how it used to be, right? So, part of that is like the the
result of 2026 gaming culture as well. >> I'm misunderstanding everything I'm talking about for this point because I am a new player who largely does not understand most of the terminology I'm hearing from other endgame players. But
the fact that I'm getting these weird fears and impressions that I'm going to run out of content if I choose the wrong version of the game before I even reach the ENDGAME MYSELF, THAT'S A PROBLEM. I shouldn't be hearing why WoW isn't worth
hearing why it is worth playing from Blizzard, which is a super simple. What's funny about this is most other games that I've played uh variety here on the channel, people have told me
to check like check it out. You're going to love it. Dark and Dark or Elden Ring. Oh, bro, so good. Check it out. Check it out. The one game that I played on the out. The one game that I played on the channel that people told me to not play
and to run the other direction, League of Legends. I downloaded League for the first time last year and my whole chat said, "Zar, no. Don't do it. Don't do Go play any other game. Other run away. Don't play
run away. Don't do this. Don't Don't play League. Do Don't Don't Don't even download. Don't Don't Don't quue. Don't play. This is all It's going to ruin your life. Like the one game. And I feel like it's it's it's one of
those things like I think WoW might be somewhat similar of like jaded veterans. When you play a game long enough, you know what's like wrong with it, right? When you have the eyes of a newbie, it's like, "Oh man, this is great." But as a
jaded veteran, it is like, "Yeah, well, it has some problems." One of the problems WoW has always had is that, let's be honest, you hit max level, you clear the raid, and you wait till the next patch for the new raid, right? The
only difference is back then we didn't do it as quick cuz we were all noobs. Effects. All they need to do is just throw me a bone, tell me that I'm safe in picking whatever version of classic I'm playing, or assure me that even if
it is the off season in retail or something, that there's always fun stuff to do. It's just shocking to me how little direction exists for new players like me. We are expected to know everything about this game before we
of this video, I really think this problem just came about because World of Warcraft got too famous. This game was such a success for such a large generation of gamers that Blizzard never realized new generations might come
around who would be interested in trying it out or that old heads like me might computer wasn't good enough to run it in 2004. So, they never thought they needed to explain why their game was worth playing or how its systems worked. They
just assumed that everyone already knew everything, not realizing that they needed to sell their title compared to all the other online PC games that we have at our disposal today. I feel like this is so sad because I can only
imagine how many new players over the years picked up WoW, gave it a try, and they were about to become lifelong fans of the franchise like me until they got lost or frustrated or too aggravated at some system that wasn't explained
properly. The good news, though, is that all of this is fixable. a proper bit of marketing and maybe some small tweaks to the onboarding experience with a few tutorials here and there that would be good enough I think to guide players to
them and then turn them into lifelong fans because >> the the thing that's hard with retail with this with this is there's just so much to explain
like look at this pause [clears throat] frame on eBay like imagine you you have let me just explain real quick like in PvP P, you need PvP gear cuz if you up. So, you're not going to have the HP pool and the damage to actually compete
where do you get that gear? It's like, well, okay. Well, to get the PVP gear, uh, the starter gear, you can queue up for for for battlegrounds and spend your and like get honor that way and then spend the honor on like basic honor
can queue up harder content like an arena or a rated battleground and or battleground blitz and then get like the better gear and upgrade it. But you want get started. So, you need to find an enchanter and like uh and you can get
different crafting table and like then you can enchant the boots, but like you enchant's better than that one. And it's like you could just talk for like hours.
like you could just talk for like hours. Like it's it's so much to explain. One of the things I love about classic is its beautiful simplicity, right? A lot of that is kind of true in classic. Like there's a lot to explain in classic 2,
but it's kind of just like there's so much pacing and so much time between like you almost have the time to just sit there and think like, okay, I'm Battleground, you know? It's like it's just it comes very slow and there's not
many as many systems, right? There's not blitz, solo shuffle, u pet battles, achievements, all these mythic plus, different difficulties of all the raids. Like, it's just it's not bloated, right? It's just simple. So, yeah, I'm a big
Classic Plus believer. You know, I I think it could be a good game. You know, if if Blizzard decides to do Classic Plus, you know, I think it would be a really good idea. I I would play I don't know about you guys. Sounds like it' be
>> This game really is still unlike anything else out there. If my experience playing through it has taught me anything, it's taught me that I just hope Blizzard are aware of these problems that exist since, as is my
understanding, they have a really great opportunity to fix all of this in both classic and retail. Classic because it has that whole classic plus project that everyone is convinced is about to be announced at Blizzcon. And even retail
trilogy of expansions that are trying to reset the world a bit so it can have a fresh start for the next 20 years. This is the perfect chance for Blizzard, the perfect time to just explain things a little bit more about what makes this
game so great and guide new players to the parts of the game that are so great. Just trust me, Blizzard, your game is still so good. You just need to show me where it is. I honestly hope Blizzard can fix this though because if any MMO
world deserves to last another 20 plus years, it is this one. But on that note, video. I hope you all enjoyed. I'm certainly enjoying making more World of Warcraft content, and I hope to keep more frequent videos coming out. Stay
playthrough that's right around the corner. Shout out to all the channel members for supporting the content, and shout out to you for watching all the way to the very end. I seriously appreciate it, and I hope to see you in
you next, thank you very much for watching this video. Good luck in solo Q and have a wonderful day. >> I like how he still has the same outro. Bro, that was fire, man. That was absolutely fire. Um I I just love
hearing the perspectives, man. Um that's not really what I thought he was going like >> he thinks there's a massive gap in marketing of like why should you actually play WoW and like how do you
actually do it? Right. Um, fair point.