However, WoW's bread and butter, the levelling game consisting currently of the original 'Vanilla-WoW', Outlands and Northrend seems to be trying to compete with single player games. The levelling game is so much tweaked to make the player over level the content as s/he plays, so that the dungeon instances are being neglected alltogether. I've recently noticed that it's next to impossible to get instance groups to the original lv60 end game instances, but now it seems that the Outlands instances are experiencing the same. As the Deathknight wave has passed the Outlands, the instances are void and empty of players. The content is full of quest mobs to kill and because of this the game is even 'faster' to level up... and the killing seems even more a chore or grind than ever.
My honest opinion is that Blizzard should have given the opportunity to the level capped players to express level their secondary toons after they had levelled their main to the cap, instead of speeding up the levelling process throughout the lower level content in the first place. Why? Because now the original content is overlevelled and the current newcomers are only seeing a fast forward version of the magnificient content in the Old Azeroth. Even I'm getting extremely frustrated over the fact that I'm overlevelling the Outlands content which I'm experiencing for the first time round, let alone my brother who's just entered the Outlands: instead of trying to level up his toon just entered to the Outlands he's started another one to experience the Old World content from another view instead!
Sure, WoW is made to be easily soloable, but it's not single player game. Currently it feels like it's one, though, and that is really a shame.
If the End Game is all that matters, why on Azeroth do we have to plunge through the levelling content in the first place?
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One thing I immeasureably hate about World of Warcraft is that the game is not episodic in the true sense of the word. Expansions come out that re-write the "real game", advancing the story to the next part of the game but diminishing all that has come before.
Azeroth only exists it seems because the "Gods" realised that all these players in one city would cause too much latency, therefore you have to travel back to your capital cities in the old, now defunct world to use the Auction House.
But more importantly, World of Warcraft is now transparently obvious as being a timesink. We know it, the developers know it. Everything that happens now in WoW is there to keep you paying them money.
Why level 1-60? Because to do that you need to invest around 10 full days. That's 10 days spread over time of you subscribing to WoW. 60-70? Another 10 days. 70-80? Another 10 days. That's a full months pay they've managed to secure - for not allowing you to speedily jump the hurdle.
Back to episodes: Are the denizens of the Old World destined to remain at lower levels simply because its "too much hard work" to advance them? Why can't the Scourge attack the outskirts of Azeroth, setting up phased outposts on their way to the heartlands of the Old World?
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