It's Still "Raid Or Die" in World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft, being one of two MMORPGs that define the entire category, has outsized influence. (The other is EVE Online; WOW usurped Everquest over a decade ago.) In particular, the norms of the game impose themselves on every competitor that arises and players define others in terms of how they compare to WOW.

This is not a good thing, because WOW has a monkey on its back: raiding. Instanced dungeons requiring large teams of players, all of whom must gather to meet at a specific time to play for a specific duration- often multiple times a week. It's not unfair at all to say that raiding is a part-time job. It's "Schedule Your Fun" bullshit, and it's long been a thorn in the side of this entire category of videogames.

The dev team made a choice over a decade ago, after first the original version of Naxxramas and then The Sunwell had participation rates far below every other instance of any size in the game for their period of relevance. (Late Vanilla for Naxx, late Burning Crusade for Sunwell.) As they developed Wrath of the Lich King, they had a choice to make: to turn raiding into the focus of the game, or to de-emphasize its importance in favor of alternatives. The devs chose the former.

Raids take plenty of time and resources. To recoup that investment they must see supermajority participation rates. Since Wrath, more and more gimmicks got used to raise those rates. Gear that dropped being flat-out superior to what you could get otherwise was the first. Then exclusive utility items, especially mounts. Legendary items (having always been raid-exclusive) got reused twice (Val'nyr in Ulduar, Shadowmourn in Icecrown Citadel). Come Cataclysm, more such items appeared and also required raid participation to acquire them- lengthy participation at that. While the items changed since, their use as funnels for participation did not.

More and more of the game focused around the raids, such that "Endgame is the only game" really took off as a meme- confirmed when Blizzard began selling character boosts, tacitly admitting that everything outside the current expansion is utterly irrelevant and should be skipped. (This is even worse now, as the constant implementation of catch-up mechanisms shows that you don't even play the expansion- you play the patch!)

This is no good for the health of the game, and it shows when one looks through the older zones and instances. You're sold a role-playing game, when what you have is really an interactive lobby focused around a series of obstacle courses of varying sizes and difficulties. Add in live-streaming and videos by the players, and the comparison to Roman Collesium and Hippodrome antics is complete.

This isn't even a theme park anymore, really. It's a glorified arena, and all because the devs would not let go of raiding. If any would-be competitor wants to distinguish themselves, do this: don't follow Blizzard into the raid-focus trap. Hell, don't do Theme Park design at all. You can't win, you can't place- you can't even show. Don't bother; it's a fool's errand. Do something else.