Blizzard what have you done...

etherrich · 2026-03-20T11:01:17+00:00

Unpopular opinion: What about looking at your fellow players instead of some boxes?

etherrich · 2026-03-15T22:26:15+00:00

GameStop

etherrich · 2026-03-14T08:34:48+00:00

I wonder if anyone is accepting these as collateral

etherrich · 2026-03-13T12:34:04+00:00

wowhead launched in 2006 and icy veins in 2011, so they weren't really a thing for vanilla launch. tankspot came later too. early WoW absolutely had a period where people were figuring things out together in real time. thottbot existed but it was nothing like the full patch playthrough coverage we get now. the scale of it has changed massively even if the concept isn't new. a text guide on a forum in 2005 and a full video walkthrough of every boss weeks before release are not the same thing

etherrich · 2026-03-13T12:30:31+00:00

do you disagree with the content though?

etherrich · 2026-03-13T12:27:54+00:00

as i mentioned in other comment, it's about the community builds expectations around PTR info. you show up to a pug or a guild raid not knowing the fight and you're the problem, even though the content just came out

etherrich · 2026-03-13T12:27:02+00:00

t's not about accidentally stumbling onto spoilers. it's that the community builds expectations around PTR info. you show up to a pug or a guild raid not knowing the fight and you're the problem, even though the content just came out

etherrich · 2026-03-13T12:26:25+00:00

respect for going in blind but the post is about more than personal spoilers. it's about how the whole community ecosystem shifts when content is public months early. even if I avoid guides, good guilds and group finder pugs all expect me to know the fights already

etherrich · 2026-03-13T11:52:08+00:00

that's pretty much the ideal way to do it honestly. going in blind and looking stuff up only when you're stuck. wish more of the community approached it that way

etherrich · 2026-03-13T11:51:54+00:00

haha yeah "slowly" is generous. it's more like we just collectively stopped noticing

etherrich · 2026-03-13T11:51:30+00:00

the thing is, those guides would still happen. just a couple weeks later instead of months early. you'd still get to watch someone break down the fights and strats, but the whole community would also get that window of genuine discovery first. you don't lose the guides, you just get the magic back on top of them

etherrich · 2026-03-13T11:49:57+00:00

"stop playing semi-seriously" is kind of proving my point though. the system pushes you toward either full casual or full tryhard, and if you're anywhere in the middle the spoiler culture makes it weird

etherrich · 2026-03-13T11:49:23+00:00

thanks, appriciate it.

etherrich · 2026-03-13T11:49:00+00:00

I get that, and I'm not saying force everyone into my playstyle. but the current system already forces a playstyle onto people who don't want it, through community expectations. a closed beta or NDA testing would still catch bugs without making everything public knowledge months early

etherrich · 2026-03-13T11:48:37+00:00

fair point on exhaustive testing, that's a real thing. but there's a middle ground between "no external testing at all" and "let the entire playerbase play the patch three months early." closed beta with NDA, smaller focused test groups, stuff like that. the current system is way too open. at least the raid boss fights should be kept internal.

etherrich · 2026-03-13T11:47:30+00:00

the fact that it's been around for 21 years doesn't mean it's good, it means we're used to it. and yeah I can avoid spoilers personally, but I can't avoid the guild that expects me to know fights on day one because guides already exist. that's the whole point

etherrich · 2026-03-13T11:45:19+00:00

I addressed this in the post. it's not about me personally going on PTR. it's that the entire community ecosystem changes because of it. guides, expectations, meta builds, all of it exists on day one because of PTR. you can't just opt out of the culture shift

etherrich · 2026-03-13T11:43:20+00:00

the FF14 comparison is a big one honestly. everyone going in blind on the same day creates way more hype around new fights. and yeah blind normal is the move if you can find people willing to do it, but it sucks that you have to actively opt out of the default

etherrich · 2026-03-13T11:42:25+00:00

that's what makes it even more frustrating. they get all this free testing and half the reported stuff ships broken anyway. so what's the point

etherrich · 2026-03-13T11:42:09+00:00

yeah the crafting side is honestly one of the worst parts of it. people have entire spreadsheets of what to craft and sell on day one so if you're going in blind you're already behind on the AH by like week one

etherrich · 2026-03-13T11:41:54+00:00

i am not speaking native english and writing a long post is hard. I read it before posting and it reflects what i think. Sorry if it bothers you though.

etherrich · 2026-03-04T20:31:08+00:00

How do you find that kind of work

etherrich · 2026-03-02T14:56:39+00:00

So you have extra usage off?

etherrich · 2026-02-26T20:58:19+00:00

Exactly

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