AsWorld of Warcraftcontinues to grow with new content, so too does its playerbase. WhileWoWmay have had a downward trend a couple of years ago, the Worldsoul Saga is seemingly righting the ship and once more cementingWorld of Warcraftas the king of the MMO genre. However, even with the massive improvements Blizzard has been steadily introducing, there is still one hurdle that faces new players: the game’s unfriendly and dated UI.
For years,World of Warcraftplayershave been complaining about the game’s UI. Oftentimes, players have found it to be unintuitive and ugly looking. Even with the improvements that came with Dragonflight, there still seems to be a need for UI add-ons to make the experience far more approachable. If Blizzard wants to continue to attract new players to its expansive world, then it needs to tackle this issue head-on.
World of Warcraft Has Relied on Add-Ons for Too Long
WoW’s Base UI Can Be Aggravating at Times
SinceWorld of Warcraft’s inceptionback in 2004, the game has mostly stuck with the same exact UI. Blizzard has changed a couple of things over the years, but instead of overhauling the experience, it has just made the entire thing more cluttered. Players have little control over its layout, things are buried in multiple menus, and it often takes players a decent amount of time to find what they are looking for. As a result, many veteran players have turned to UI add-ons to fix these issues.
With the release of Dragonflight, Blizzard finallyoverhauledWoW’s base UI. This was the first major overhaul in 18 years, finally giving the UI a more modern facelift. Players were given the ability to customize it more, everything was given a cleaner and more compact look, and it all works a lot better. During The War Within, the studio has updated it even more, with changes to the map, quest log, and the spellbook. However, even with these changes, some players have found that nothing beats those UI add-ons.
WoW Needs to Improve Things For New Players
If players wantthe bestWoWUI possible, then they often have to turn to UI add-ons to get that. While veteran players will likely have no problem finding those, new players may not have the same experience. Many just want to jump into the world of Azeroth and explore everything that it has to offer, and downloading all sorts of add-ons arguably wastes time better spent playing. There are countless options to sort through and many guides debating about which ones are actually worth the download, making the entire process a bit overwhelming. Plus, the more add-ons that players have, the longer it takes to log in.
Hopefully, Blizzard has more plans to improve the UI over the next couple of updates and expansion packs. The studio has already overhauled some of the worst aspects of the UI, so now it just has to take it a step further. While players should always have the option toshake things up withWorld of Warcraftadd-ons, they should not feel like they need to. The base UI should fill all the most important aspects, and the add-ons should simply be there for those that want to take it to the next level.
At the end of the day, the way the UI looks and feels does come down to personal preference.World of Warcraft’s base UI may be clunky and in need of some more upgrades, but it is still very much useable, and some new players may not even notice its issues. That being said, it does still lack some functionality and usability that add-ons have fixed, and Blizzard really needs to catch up with that.
World of Warcraft
WHERE TO PLAY
World of Warcraft is an incredibly successful MMORPG that has been going strong for almost two decades. It’s one of the highest-grossing franchises in history and is widely considered the most popular MMORPG ever made.
