>>725203107
>>725203884
wotlk was when they added matchmaking to dungeons which was a monkey paw wish, many people didnt see it at the time but it changed the social interaction of the game completely. until then you'd need to physically find people to party with, it felt like going to a fantasy town to go to the quest board to hire adventurers. maybe not that cool, it was really just going to chat to type "looking for 1 more for our group", but it opened up some human to human communication because it was required. your identity was tied to you, everyone on your realm knew you, for example there was this night elf retard named iambadnascar who EVERYBODY knew in stranglethorn vale on my server, he would be max level just ganking level 20-30s. it was cool to see familiar faces and the world felt more like a real interconnected world with real people in it
its not ONLY wow's fault that it died, i would say over the years the entire world has become more focused on optimizing games. things like e-sports and competitive games have become so common that it has permanently altered the way people view and approach games. back in the day NOBODY knew what they were doing, now you are expected to be optimal. its WAY more accessible and straightforward to get access to information now
