Too much has been changed based on what people feel obligated to do to keep up with the Joneses.
-People feel obligated to pick certain races due to racial abilities: Change racials.
-People feel obligated to pick certain professions for the perks: Eliminate profession perks.
-People feel obligated to run LFR to complete set bonuses or get other gear to help with progression: Nerf LFR into a snoozefest and remove all semblance of decent looking or interesting loot.
-People feel obligated to have optimal specs and most people follow cookie cutter builds: Remove talent trees.
-People feel obligated to bring certain specs to raid: Homogenize classes and specs.
I'm sure I've left things off the list but I think you get the point. Stop it. Stop catering to peoples' self imposed obligations. Design some choice back into the game. I don't care if that choice is suboptimal. The vast majority of us are suboptimal players. If you're not chasing and achieving world rankings you're probably subobtimal and not picking the talent, race, profession, etc. that the world first player of your spec picked isn't going to hamper your game play. Play for fun, not to obligations.
*Disclaimer* Because I've seen some confusion throughout the thread I want to clarify something. The examples I'm giving are things that have happened, not things that I want/wanted to happen. I do not support these changes. I think the removal of choice, even suboptimal choice has hurt the flavor of the game. *Disclaimer*
-People feel obligated to pick certain races due to racial abilities: Change racials.
-People feel obligated to pick certain professions for the perks: Eliminate profession perks.
-People feel obligated to run LFR to complete set bonuses or get other gear to help with progression: Nerf LFR into a snoozefest and remove all semblance of decent looking or interesting loot.
-People feel obligated to have optimal specs and most people follow cookie cutter builds: Remove talent trees.
-People feel obligated to bring certain specs to raid: Homogenize classes and specs.
I'm sure I've left things off the list but I think you get the point. Stop it. Stop catering to peoples' self imposed obligations. Design some choice back into the game. I don't care if that choice is suboptimal. The vast majority of us are suboptimal players. If you're not chasing and achieving world rankings you're probably subobtimal and not picking the talent, race, profession, etc. that the world first player of your spec picked isn't going to hamper your game play. Play for fun, not to obligations.
*Disclaimer* Because I've seen some confusion throughout the thread I want to clarify something. The examples I'm giving are things that have happened, not things that I want/wanted to happen. I do not support these changes. I think the removal of choice, even suboptimal choice has hurt the flavor of the game. *Disclaimer*