STM, I disagree with you on Ghostcrawler. His tenure began at the same time as did Bobby Kotick's as CEO over the merged Activision Blizzard. I don't think anyone with common sense can deny that Kotick's influence can be clearly seen as Blizzard today is a much different company then it was pre-merger.
It's also not GC's fault that so much time has been spent on PvP. I know this will anger PvP fans, but even Rob Pardo in his 2008 interview with Warcry admitted introducing high level PvP (arenas and such) was the single biggest mistake they made to the game. Not because the competive PvP is a bad idea, but because the game was not designed for it. And because the game was not designed for it, Pardo admitted it has been a headache that has taken up much more of their time than they ever dreamed it would.
I don't think it's any coincidence that the two expansions that have fully had arenas, Wrath and Cataclysm (arenas were introduced in BC after almost all the work on the content patches was done) have both had at least half, and in Cataclysm's case, more than half of the content discussed during the betas, fully cut out of the expansion. It's nothing but a non stop cycle of nerfs and buffs patch after patch. And it's also obvious that since Kotick took over, that the microtransactions have taken over full force.
It also seems as if the Looking For Raid has some mixed reviews. There are already pugs after one day who are on Deathwing for it. Will these Farmville style players keep their subs up for an entire year after they downed the last boss of the expansion? Doubtful. And non LFR players have noticed that normal mode raids are alsmost as insanely easy as the mechanics are the same, they mobs and bosses just do a bit more damage. Even a lot of those players who refer to themselves as casual are actually complaining how easy it is. Blizzard should never have tried to make a Farmville type easy game out of WoW. It's something that is suppose to be a different type of gamer entirely. And in their rush to try to please everyone, they have pleased no one.
People are also complaining about the Void Storage and the ridiculous gold sink it is and how you can't even put items in that a person would think should go in, like a number of the tabards and costumes. Why couldn't Blizz simply institute tabs on personal banks like they did with guild banks? If they wanted it to be a gold sink, make the tabs need to be purchased like the tabs for the guild banks but let it act like regular storage once bought.
And of course there is the ridiculous attempt at costuming with Transmogrification. Sorry, but this has to be more of a slap in the face to all the players who asked for costumer slots for years than a genuine attempt to fill the need. For one thing, holiday costumes can not even be used, so they are still essentially nothing more than bank filler. I just don't understand the need to make it a gold sink either or the need to go to an NPC to get the look one desires. Is it really so hard for Blizzard to do what other games have done for years much better and much easier?
I also don't believe MoP will have a positive impact on sub numbers. While I don't think pandas or pokemon will be as negative as some think, though I do think they will be a net negative, I think the more damning aspect of MoP is the fact that they are dropping the Warcraft story completely from the game. My personal opinion is that will only accelerate the decline, not stop it. The reason WoW broke EQ's subscription records on the first day was because of the Warcraft story. Since they have stopped showing it, subs have stagnated then declined. And there are still a LOT of lore firgures true Warcraft fans want to see.
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