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The Changing Face of World of Warcraft
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?
I'm in a somewhat interesting position of being able to see both sides. My wife-to-be is a fairly hardcore raider with a couple or three 70s (her group has taken down Vashj a few times, and making progress on Kael'thas in BT) while I'm a much more casual player. I've mostly enjoyed the changes because I can experience more content on different character types without nearly as much grinding away on each one. On the other hand, she's gotten a little frustrated because people are getting to 70 and wanting spots in raids well before being sufficiently geared or skilled with their characters. She's now having to deal with people who stormed to 70 in quest reward greens who want into SSC or BT with blue and green gear.
Ironically, the issue with Death and Taxes disbanding was the huge lag in time between the major updates. From what I've heard, a large number of their higher-ups were disillusioned by the fact that they were having so much trouble beating Sunwell. "But... But... We're uber! Forget it. I quit!" kind of mentality.
Essentially the surge of WoW players is one of the reasons I think that EQ2 was dumbed down. It's one of the reasons that my interest in EQ2 didn't last long after some changes were made and ultimately the reason that Sony lost a subscriber.
At this point I'm kind of set off by MMORPGs. Just like Hollywood, the gaming industry has a way of creating cookie cutter results. What fun is it going to be for a real gamer if they start to dumb down in order to draw in the casual player? Not that I play 60 hours a week or something but I certainly don't mind a challenge. How many more MMORPGs will be dumbed down to follow WoW's lead?
Also, as a side note; Age of Conan came out today. I took some interest until I found out that it was 50 USD without ever stepping foot in the game and the games website seemed to have little content (not that I spent much time there). Why is it that a gaming company still thinks that we should shell out bucks to buy a game that we need to subscribe to? I'd be much happier and more likely to try it if I could download the content and play for 15 USD a month. I'm a hell of a lot more willing to pay 15 to see if I like a game instead of 50 for a game that I can't play without shelling out another 15 if my interest in it wanes for a few months.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
"The day they announced that fact people I knew started leaving in droves"
Yes, and what people did you know? Perhaps just the very small percentage of folks who just discovered that their obsession with raiding actually marginalized their value as customers to Blizzard. So those folks left "in droves"? Big Whoop. WoW isn't EQ and Blizz eventually recognized that being held hostage to the demands of "serious raiders" was not a good way to serve the vast majority (90%+) of their customer base.
Be brutally honest and you will recognize that there are probably more Chinese gold farmers in the game than "Serious raiders".
You either believe in rational thought or you don't
That's the reason I stopped playing. The only "challenges" I really found were, finding a group, having the patience to eternally grind, the will to ignore my ass falling asleep, etc.
Take it as a flame if you want, but the game felt mindless to me. My mage pretty much used the same 3 or 4 spells over and over and over. I signed up for a world of adventure, not something more boring than my cubicle.
"Have you ever done a bleeding edge encounter? No? "
Strawman
"Then your opinion is completely invalidated. "
I suggest yopu loom up the word 'Opinion'
". If you played WoW, then I bet, even if you were handed top of the line gear when Naxx came out, you wouldn't have even downed Anub'Arak"
Irrelevant to the point.
"Encounters when they first come out are HARD."
And this ties into some sort of point?
"They're hard and imbalanced."
Imbalanced isn't exactly a glowing statment. It is a poor reason for something to be 'Hard'
"Stop being jealous, and l2p. "
Who is Jealous? The poster doesn't even indicate an jealousy.
Stop putting your frustration out on others. l2a( Learn to Argue).
The poster is correct, high-end players do the same thing over and over again. Thinking otherwise means you've never done it, or have deluded yourself into thinking it has value to you.
Yes I play, yes I ahve done high end raids, no not very often and I do it behind the curve. My value in the game isn't doing the same thing over and over again.
I suggest you don't actually know what hard is.
Nothing in th game is 'hard' Difficult at times, but not hard. Getting a group that plays well together is hard.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on