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The Changing Face of World of Warcraft

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the lowest-common-denominator dept.

Back in March Blizzard released patch 2.4 and significantly altered a good portion of the overall gameplay and provided a much more casual experience. Since then Blizzard has continued to make the game more approachable through new dungeons and removing attunements and other restrictions throughout the game. While this may open up a lot of new content to the masses and help the game's overall appeal, does this continuing trend promise to alienate the high-end players who thrive on new challenges? Should Blizzard care?

4 of 328 comments (clear)

  1. iIt has done so already. by SYSS+Mouse · · Score: 5, Informative

    one of the oldest guild Death and Taxes disbanded today, citing such change as one of the reason. (http://www.worldofwar.net/n/413578/death-and-taxes-disband)

    1. Re:iIt has done so already. by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Informative

      I suspect the real reason was just member burn-out and disinterest, not any recent changes. No MMO lasts forever, and most guilds are even more short-lived.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    2. Re:iIt has done so already. by mrbooze · · Score: 4, Informative

      Blizzard has over 10 million subscribers world-wide, their population has been increasing steadily since release.

      There is no evidence that Blizzard is suffering from an exodus of casual players. The opposite appears to be true.

  2. This is just part of a longer cycle in the game by icyslush · · Score: 4, Informative

    We saw this with the last expansion, this is just a refinement. At end-game level before the release of first expansion, you had tons of people at level 60 but with wildly different gear levels. Maybe you were still trying to down the first MC boss or maybe you were uber and were clearing Naxx. You were not equal. Then TBC hit, we went to outland and within 3 levels we had all been equalized by green quest rewards that were better than the best we could get in the old world. It was a great big reset button and everyone got to start over. People complained about working so hard to get their Tier 3 stuff only to DE it at level 63. This time, their giving raiders, casuals and PvPers ways to get roughly equal gear in advance of the new expansion, to cushion the shock, I'd guess. It's the reset button again. We'll race to level 80 from roughly equal footing, the 25 man content will be hard, there'll be new raiding guilds and casuals will be locked out of the best gear again. Until the NEXT expansion, at which point they'll nerf things and hand out epics to equalize everyone once more. It's a reset button. Just consider it the start of Season Three. :)