Yes, folks, we reached it. It will have been obvious to anyone reading this blog recently that my patience with the direction of WoW has been wearing thin, and it's time to call it a day. The blog is entitled "The End" as a mark of respect to Veneretio, the finest warrior blogger I ever came across, and the theme is the same.
My subscription has been cancelled, and it's time to leave this game behind.
No doubt my comments will see the usual "kkthxbye" commentary that the asinine conjure and mistake for wit, but I'm comfortable with that. My small contribution to the game is meaningless compared to the contribution it made to me.
Friends for life.
My life partner.
Very happy memories.
But the game now is a shadow of what it was, in my opinion. Worse, the development team have shown that they simply can't handle the game properly and have yet to solve a single problem they caused by breaking promises left right and centre.
But those who know me, also known I'm a self-important jackass who will have his say. And it just so happens that I had my say and it received an overwhelming volume of positive feedback; practically a first for an "I quit" thread.
This is the original post, found on the EU General forums.
This is my follow up, based on the thread cap reached in two days.
This is the MMO-Champion thread, not started by me but has seen me participate.
Whether or not you agree with me is entirely up to you. I've said it countless times, and it's been ignored just as many; these opinions are mine and form the basis of why I need to leave World of Warcraft behind.
But I gave a lot to this game so, if you're going to "hilariously" troll me, you should read my commentary before doing so. If you can't be bothered doing so, yet choose to ignorantly comment anyway, you exemplify everything bad about the direction the best game I've ever played has gone.
Thank you SO much to everyone who've contributed to making me happy over the past four years. Both on this blog and in game, the passion some people have shared with me for our hobby is both amazing and inspiring. I can never thank all those people enough, so I'll just say that you've all contributed to my life in a special way.
My final point is a thank you to Blizzard. During my time in Outland and Northrend, you created a game that was incredible. It was fun, it was immersive, it was communal and it was rewarding.
It was wonderful.
Regardless of how I leave the game, my memories of it are almost entirely positive and I can't thank Blizzard enough for it.
Remember, guys:
Everything's for the best, in the best of all possible worlds.
Zell, out.
--------------
"Zell has left the building" (Posted on the WoW EU General forums, 15th November '11).
So, that’s it then. It had to happen eventually and, after the best part of four years, it’s time for me to knock it on the head, unsubscribe from World of Warcraft and take my money elsewhere. It’s been a heck of a ride and, despite the way I know this post will be viewed by the community, I’m going to comment on why I’ve fallen out of love with a game that used to utterly captivate me.
Don’t forget that I’ve written many long, thought-out posts that were designed to contribute; mindless QQ frankly isn’t my style, and those arguing otherwise need only check my post history. That said, nobody is forcing you to read this; if you’ve had enough of these posts, the invitation is offered for you to move along now.
Brass tacks, then – the game is currently nowhere near as good as it was in the past, and there’s no way I can get onboard with the new “direction” it’s planning to take. Some of you will remember my recent post about learning to play or going away (locked for absolutely no reason) and, therefore, will be familiar with some of my thoughts on where WoW has gone wrong.
When push comes to shove, the “World” of Warcraft is dead. The world has been emptied in favour of quick access to a succession of mini games, with all effort, commitment and difficulty erstwhile required having been shoehorned out. The world will continue to shrink so long as insidious queues exist and players have no legitimate reason to travel, while Blizzard have amply proven that enough forum crying will make them change their decisions.
Most of all, however, the current development team are mired in the production of mediocrity, and the unfortunate rut of trying to manage failure. Here are some “highlights” from Cataclysm:
- A “mind blowing” experience is promised for the pre-expansion event, hugely watered down due to complaints about auction house access.
- A broken world is promised, with the delivery being little more than a few upturned zones and most of the world left largely untouched.
- Blue post confirmation that raids will be the only way to get epics, proven scarily wrong by easy to access crafters, vendors and auction houses.
- A levelling experience and length similar to previous expansions is promised, but most players take no more than two days to hit the new cap.
- The most dangerous of villains to this point, Deathwing, is relegated to bit-part zone burning and plays next to no active part in any of the content.
- The “War” in Warcraft will be returned… Except no world PvP is brought back, only faction-specific mobs that are part of the 1-60 questing.
- A “new and improved” 1-60 questing experience is promised, but it’s a streamlined shortcut in which new players learn absolutely nothing.
- A significant portion of the playerbase reports there not being enough zones in the endgame (five); this five zone model is announced for MoP.
- Ghostcrawler releases a blog entitled “Wow, dungeons are hard!” extolling the virtues of trying to improve – then nerfs dungeons into the ground.
- The “PvP arms race” is vowed to be gotten rid of, but actually made worse. PvP balance is now so bad, MLG has removed WoW from the circuit.
- Mike Morhaime states that players are clearing content faster than ever before, then oversees the trivialisation of a large amount of current content.
- Blizzard force players into a currency grind that pits players of vastly differing desires and abilities into the same queue. Mayhem ensues.
- Blizzard try to address a tank shortage by offering extra rewards. The result is a flood of bad tanks that exasperate the original problem.
- A new talent system is introduced to remove cookie-cutter specs. This abjectly fails, to the extent the entire system will be redone in MoP.
- The Vengeance mechanic, heralded to solve a problem yet unseen, is made completely redundant thanks to a baseline tank threat buff.
- A promise that crowd control will be brought back, only for the realisation to land that you can’t force CC on a random group that has none.
You get the point.
The sad fact is that the current development team have failed to solve a single problem they’ve set their hand to, actually making problems worse in many cases. At BlizzCon, they spent their time during Q&A sessions talking down to nervous (yet committed) players, arrogantly telling them that what they find fun actually isn’t and that they know best.
Since BlizzCon, they’ve spent time answering questions that are either meaningless, or have already been answered elsewhere.
At the end of the day, they’re not up to the job and the game is in decline because of it. In any business where numbers were tumbling as they are now for WoW, questions would be asked of those making these decisions and, if required, people would be moved on. Time will tell.
Of course, it’s not all their fault. One thing, more than any other, has contributed to the lack of quality in recent times and we probably all know what that is.
The dungeon finder.
In one fell swoop, server communities took an absolute hammering, the world shrank to the size of the most convenient capital city, and personal responsibility went the way of the dodo. If you want further proof of just how degrading the queue is to the community, take a look at what happened when they implemented it in Rift.
Exactly the same thing.
We all know what I’m talking about. You queue up, you take a chance. If you’re very lucky, you’ll get a group largely housed of players that outgear the content and will help to trivialise it. If you’re unlucky, you’ll end up with players whose unspeakably bad skills are accompanied by an unspeakably bad attitude. Ostracism and instant ditching are commonplace. New players are treated with contempt by players looking for “fast run plz”. And because Blizzard tried to force difficulty onto players incapable (or unwilling) of accepting it, they’ve altered the very face of the game to accommodate them.
Don’t believe me? Here’s a small list:
1) The aforementioned tank “bribe”, no longer demanding quality for the most important role in the group.
2) Party buffs, depending on how many random people are in the group, indirectly nerfing current content.
3) Threat significantly buffed for tanks, destroying a long-time show of skill for the role and devaluing it further.
4) Crowd control broken apart and altered for “convenience”, removing another potential showing of skill.
In other words, the best part of World of Warcraft (endgame PvE, not just raids) has been altered beyond recognition in order to accommodate players with no patience, no desire to learn and no understanding of the “other people” concept. What’s even worse is the fact the developers themselves have chosen to blame this on “casuals”. It has NOTHING to do with those who play less time. It’s purely to do with poor, aggressive and impatient players that can’t grasp the fact that rewards are only worthwhile when you earn them.
Watch transmogrification fail after the one-month novelty has worn off. Players are less in love with the way things look than they are the memory of how they earned those items. For me, the Shield of Impenetrable Darkness conjures the exhilaration of killing Nightbane for the first time and seeing it. My Sun-Eater reminds me of the feeling I had when I saw it after a painful two-and-a-bit-month daily Mechanar run. Sure, some items “look” nice and will see use as a result – but maybe, just maybe I’ll be proven right.
Isn’t it amazing that more people now are reporting nothing to do, when there’s never been more things available? The fact the developers cannot see that players want more endgame PvE when they report nothing to do is absolutely staggering. No amount of archaeology (frustrating), arena (unbalanced), alt-levelling (mindless) or achievement hunting (boring) will appease those who want to raid more than seven meaningful bosses a week. Heck, there isn’t even that any more after savage and unjustifiable nerfs ripped the guts out of the Firelands, a wholly underwhelming raid instance in the first place.
Rounding out, I recall Bashiok asking a player what he used to be able to do but now cannot. Oh, I wish I’d have been able to post on US forums.
I can’t see a skilled hunter chain-trapping mobs, yet contribute strong DPS.
I can’t see a skilled warrior changing stances to show the extent of that skill.
I can’t raid 10 and 25 man content in the same week on my main character.
I can’t stockpile my dungeon currency for when I want to use it now.
I can’t engage in world PvP without getting a level 1 whisper insults at me.
I can’t run multiple endgame dungeons to farm gear for entry level raids.
I can’t spend a night in challenging five-man instances for epic rewards.
I can't build a hybrid talent spec that fits a unique, albeit potentially odd, niche.
I can’t build up a server reputation as a good player by tanking for groups.
I can’t choose which endgame zones to quest in as there aren’t enough.
I can’t specialize my professions for more expensive, yet exclusive, options.
I can't level my guild beyond a daily cap that decimates newly started guilds.
I can’t do attunements that provide the backdrop to the raids I’m running.
I can’t do epic group quests that complete zones, like the Cipher of Damnation.
And more than anything else, I can’t justify paying the same monthly subscription for half the content.
So, what do I have to look forward to? The loss of level cap dungeons, despite the tremendous success of them in the past. The loss of challenging heroic dungeons as they’re made easier again. The loss of yet more buffs and debuffs to make the game simpler. The loss of group quests, being replaced by easy to complete “scenarios”. The introduction of a blatant Pokemon rip off that nobody wanted. A repeat of the five-zone Cataclysm model that I hated. Another talent revamp, stolen from the Diablo developers and implemented badly. Undoubtedly yet more dailies to grind.
I’m almost done now. At the end of the day, I’m in love with a game that doesn’t exist anymore and the current team seeks to move ever further from. I can accept that many players like this new direction, but I simply can’t get onboard with the dissolving of what I loved most about this immersive, enjoyable, massive and social game. Most players will never even know what the Scepter of the Shifting Sands is, or how wonderful the quest line to achieve it was. Frankly, I’m pained that the game will never see its like again.
In closing, I’d just like to add that never before have I seen such cynicism when dealing with (in my case) long term and loyal subscribers. As the starstruck masses chose to cheer Mr. Morhaime as he announced the Diablo 3 giveaway, people such as myself were seeing it for what it was. Against the backdrop of plummeting subscribers, I resent being bribed into coughing up another year for the disassociated mess World of Warcraft has become, by giving me a mount and Diablo 3 as a sweetener. This ugly move to stem the flow away from Blizzard’s MMO jabberwocky, honestly, made me ill in the realisation that I’ve given so much of my money to a company that would treat me in such a reprehensible way. Customer loyalty obviously doesn’t occur to those grubby individuals choosing to milk a playerbase that has been very, VERY good to them.
I’m done.
As I move onto gaming life beyond World of Warcraft, I take with me a slew of great memories and some special friendships that I’ll retain for the rest of my life; not least the introduction of my life partner. I’ll never forget my first completion of the heroic Shattered Halls having been told warriors couldn’t tank it. I’ll never forget the conversation with Azuregos as I set my feet against C’thun’s minions. I’ll never forget those first few tentative steps into Karazhan with the effervescent Luxtiamat as my dutiful off tank. I’ll never forget FINALLY seeing The Sun-Eater drop from Pathaleon after killing him every day. I’ll never forget what I still consider my best raiding achievement, finally putting an end to the Lich King atop Icecrown Pinnacle.
For all who’ve played a part, I thank you and will ever thank your part in my time. For those about to contribute little more than dumb trolling below this thread, you have my congratulations.
It seems Blizzard will ruin their own game to keep you.
Peace.
Running wild through Azeroth from the perspective of a Protection warrior.
Search the Ramblings
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
To squish or not to squish?
I’m going to take a break from upsetting people today, and concentrate on a less emotive topic that came up recently. I’ve had in game chats with a friend of mine, Hiratha, about this topic many times and it’s one that’s puzzled me for a long time; namely, the ever increasing numbers that we see in World of Warcraft and exactly how they’re dealt with.
As if by magic, Ghostcrawler then pops up with his blog regarding the great item squish (or not) of Pandaria, and tries to address this very topic. I should add that I consider the ever-increasing numbers a problem in more than just DPS or gear, and some of you may recall my recent posting about the ability laundry list that needed culling, or even my attempt to address the “arms race” that the developers wanted to move away from (another Cataclysm failure).
Hell, we’re all about to hit level 90 and that’s a pretty big number looking from the ground up.
But when it comes down to it, trying to deal with the problem of stat inflation on gear is bizarre when it was a stated intention in Cataclysm. The reason things have jumped so alarmingly from Mount Hyjal to the Twilight Highland is because Blizzard chose to do it. I was reading Children of Wrath recently and, though the entry is interesting and correct to a point, the jump in Cataclysm didn’t happen by accident – it was a response to two things:
1) Bosses were having to hit harder than planned in order to threaten tanks with high levels of avoidance.
2) Players in PvP were being blown up far too easily.
This item level surge was specifically implemented to boost health pools to the point where these two problems could more readily be solved. The laughable part is that it was an ugly solution that didn’t work, and didn’t have to happen; there were far simpler and more sophisticated ways of dealing with those problems that didn’t involve a huge jump in gear power, accompanied by a truncated levelling experience that exaggerated the issue.
You want to know the most absurd part? Blizzard tried solving a problem caused by stat inflation by… /Drumroll… Inflating stats.
It’s a bit like implementing Vengeance to stack from stamina, then devaluing stamina itself. Seriously, you couldn’t make it up. This type of muddled thinking has dogged this expansion to the point where solutions are only compounding the problems they were implemented to solve. Take a look at the warrior and paladin block model in the Firelands. Full hits weren’t the only thing pushed off the table here, as death knight tanks also took a leap off the edge because they were the only tanks frequently suffering the full-in-the-face hits that their shield toting counterparts weren’t worrying about. So, for 4.3, we get the latest version of the Icewell Radiance debuff in the form of passive buffs for the tank falling behind.
Of course, let’s not forget the part reforging has had to play in all this. Yet another feature designed to do one thing, yet ended up doing another. Sure, it was a noble goal to create a way of opening up spec-specific gear to more widely acceptable use. What actually happened was that players found out what their strongest stat was and then stacked it into oblivion (with the exception of a few “caps”). What’s surprising isn’t the fact that this happened – what’s surprising is the fact the developers couldn’t predict it was going to happen.
I’m not ashamed to admit that the item level squish doesn’t worry me in principle. What worries me is that the solutions are going to come from, and be implemented by, a development team that has proven itself incapable of solving problems of their own design. They’ve proven they can identify a problem (assuming the community guides them by the hand), but I can’t think of a single example where they’ve successfully solved one.
As it turns out, I happen to think that the item squish is the simplest way to address the ludicrous gear inflation. Assuming the remainder of the content itself is adjusted accordingly, the actual effect on players should be negligible. The problem, as usual, is that the community simply doesn’t understand the intent and only read far enough along to mix it up. This is NOT a nerf in any way shape or form and, as such, anyone treating it as one is missing the point. Hell, Ghostcrawler’s post even pointed out that you should think of it as a graphical change and not much else. The percentage of damage you do to a player or mob isn’t going to change; if you’re killing Ragnaros in the Molten Core in about 90 seconds, you’re still going to kill him in roughly 90 seconds after the squish.
Naturally, we’re about to end up with exactly the same questions we had at the end of WotLK with regard to PvP – how are Blizzard intending to solve the problem of players being blown up quickly once they shrink all of the health pools again? It could be argued that the answer is obvious; after all, worse gear means far less damage. Fair enough. Maybe the idea of “base resilience” is part of the solution to this problem but, if so, why wasn’t this properly investigated prior to the launch of Cataclysm instead of exasperating the gear inflation problem in order to iron it out?
Who knows?
When push comes to shove, I think the item squish is a good idea because it will solve a multitude of problems. My concern is that it’s being done by a team that’s shown little other than ineptitude in the realms of both successfully identifying the cause (as opposed to the effect) of a problem, and then identifying an elegant solution to said problem.
Fingers crossed.
As if by magic, Ghostcrawler then pops up with his blog regarding the great item squish (or not) of Pandaria, and tries to address this very topic. I should add that I consider the ever-increasing numbers a problem in more than just DPS or gear, and some of you may recall my recent posting about the ability laundry list that needed culling, or even my attempt to address the “arms race” that the developers wanted to move away from (another Cataclysm failure).
Hell, we’re all about to hit level 90 and that’s a pretty big number looking from the ground up.
But when it comes down to it, trying to deal with the problem of stat inflation on gear is bizarre when it was a stated intention in Cataclysm. The reason things have jumped so alarmingly from Mount Hyjal to the Twilight Highland is because Blizzard chose to do it. I was reading Children of Wrath recently and, though the entry is interesting and correct to a point, the jump in Cataclysm didn’t happen by accident – it was a response to two things:
1) Bosses were having to hit harder than planned in order to threaten tanks with high levels of avoidance.
2) Players in PvP were being blown up far too easily.
This item level surge was specifically implemented to boost health pools to the point where these two problems could more readily be solved. The laughable part is that it was an ugly solution that didn’t work, and didn’t have to happen; there were far simpler and more sophisticated ways of dealing with those problems that didn’t involve a huge jump in gear power, accompanied by a truncated levelling experience that exaggerated the issue.
You want to know the most absurd part? Blizzard tried solving a problem caused by stat inflation by… /Drumroll… Inflating stats.
It’s a bit like implementing Vengeance to stack from stamina, then devaluing stamina itself. Seriously, you couldn’t make it up. This type of muddled thinking has dogged this expansion to the point where solutions are only compounding the problems they were implemented to solve. Take a look at the warrior and paladin block model in the Firelands. Full hits weren’t the only thing pushed off the table here, as death knight tanks also took a leap off the edge because they were the only tanks frequently suffering the full-in-the-face hits that their shield toting counterparts weren’t worrying about. So, for 4.3, we get the latest version of the Icewell Radiance debuff in the form of passive buffs for the tank falling behind.
Of course, let’s not forget the part reforging has had to play in all this. Yet another feature designed to do one thing, yet ended up doing another. Sure, it was a noble goal to create a way of opening up spec-specific gear to more widely acceptable use. What actually happened was that players found out what their strongest stat was and then stacked it into oblivion (with the exception of a few “caps”). What’s surprising isn’t the fact that this happened – what’s surprising is the fact the developers couldn’t predict it was going to happen.
I’m not ashamed to admit that the item level squish doesn’t worry me in principle. What worries me is that the solutions are going to come from, and be implemented by, a development team that has proven itself incapable of solving problems of their own design. They’ve proven they can identify a problem (assuming the community guides them by the hand), but I can’t think of a single example where they’ve successfully solved one.
As it turns out, I happen to think that the item squish is the simplest way to address the ludicrous gear inflation. Assuming the remainder of the content itself is adjusted accordingly, the actual effect on players should be negligible. The problem, as usual, is that the community simply doesn’t understand the intent and only read far enough along to mix it up. This is NOT a nerf in any way shape or form and, as such, anyone treating it as one is missing the point. Hell, Ghostcrawler’s post even pointed out that you should think of it as a graphical change and not much else. The percentage of damage you do to a player or mob isn’t going to change; if you’re killing Ragnaros in the Molten Core in about 90 seconds, you’re still going to kill him in roughly 90 seconds after the squish.
Naturally, we’re about to end up with exactly the same questions we had at the end of WotLK with regard to PvP – how are Blizzard intending to solve the problem of players being blown up quickly once they shrink all of the health pools again? It could be argued that the answer is obvious; after all, worse gear means far less damage. Fair enough. Maybe the idea of “base resilience” is part of the solution to this problem but, if so, why wasn’t this properly investigated prior to the launch of Cataclysm instead of exasperating the gear inflation problem in order to iron it out?
Who knows?
When push comes to shove, I think the item squish is a good idea because it will solve a multitude of problems. My concern is that it’s being done by a team that’s shown little other than ineptitude in the realms of both successfully identifying the cause (as opposed to the effect) of a problem, and then identifying an elegant solution to said problem.
Fingers crossed.
Wednesday, November 09, 2011
Responding to "Go and learn, or go away".
It doesn’t surprise me, at all, that my latest post “Go and learn, or go away” received the response it did. What did surprise me, however, was that the European WoW forum community understood my point far better than those reading my blog – the exact opposite of what I’d have expected.
It’s inherently unfortunate that the individuals chastising me failed to grip what I hoped were simple points (especially those who’ve known me for a long time), but that’s okay. I long ago gave up expecting reasonable discourse when disagreement arises.
All that said, I’ve chosen to create this entry in order to archive my responses on the WoW Europe forums seeing as a perfectly legitimate thread got locked. This will do two things:
1) Show I’m not making light of those disagreeing with me.
2) Those responding to my first blog get a better picture of where I’m coming from.
-------------------------------
What’s wrong with learning in game?
Trial and error is an absolutely valid way of learning, and one I completely support; I got involved in a server-wide tanking project for just this very reason. It didn’t make it into my list for the sake of brevity, but I completely agree with you.
:
You’re speaking to someone who spent just under three hours in the Deadmines because the bear tank told me he was new and trying to learn.
Key phrase:
Trying to learn.
If someone wants to improve and shows an interest in doing so, I would guess that all these “elitists” people hate would turn out to be some of the most helpful people you’ve ever come across in game.
Why should people have to put hours in the game to get YOUR seal of approval?
An extremely common complaint is travel time, even though it need never extend beyond ten minutes if you’re sensible. The point is that almost no matter what you want to do, you need only stand in your capital city and wait for a queue to pop.
How disassociating is queuing for a dungeon you have no clue about the location of?
:
Why should those who refuse to read the dungeon journal, or even their own tooltips, get rewarded with powerful items?
They shouldn’t. They are.
It’s wrong.
I’ve already said that in-game learning is perfectly valid, and there are a myriad of ways to do it. Please, can future posters not ask me this again?
It’s getting boring.
I’m not interested in lol RP.
I’m not confining “RP” to scripted events, I’m talking about immersion in the world-story (lore). I’ve read so many times that people have no real interest or care in Deathwing; how many said similar things about Arthas or Illidan?
I’m a casual player and object to your post.
My only objection is that "casual" is something of a misnomer; I know of many casuals with limited time, who still spend some of it trying to be better players. They also acutely understand that there is absolutely no reason whatsoever that they should be able to "see" everything just because they pay a subscription.
:
Absolutely. I’ve tried to allude to this already, but “casual” does NOT (no, not under any circumstances) mean “bad”.
Back during TBC, [name removed], I wasn’t a raider but had plenty of challenging content to play. Endgame dungeoneering was challenging, and heroic dungeons were a form of endgame for those without the time to raid. The brutal fact is that by making heroic dungeons absurdly easy, which they currently are, you are robbing casual players of viable endgame content.
You’re basically forcing them to try and raid because there’s nothing else for them to do if they want to challenge themselves. In short, because of dreadful players who resolutely refuse to improve, everyone is losing out. I don’t see what’s hard to grasp about this.
:
I’m entirely in support of your approach regarding in-game learning. By the sound of it, you were determined to learn how to play the content you had the time for and neither I, nor any sane person, would ever try and ostracise people like yourself.
You should be encouraged, and you make the game richer for your involvement.
Remember; casual does not mean bad.
:
For me, the definition of a casual player is someone who plays for less than 15 (pretty arbitrary, but “feels” right) hours a week.
This has absolutely nothing to do with their ability as a player.
Any argument to the contrary is flat-out wrong, and this has been pointed out by many people in this thread; multiple times by myself.
The dungeon finder wrecked the community.
The sad part is that the exact same thing happened to the community when the dungeon finder went live in Rift.
I preferred the TBC model with regard to linear progression and attunement that didn’t let people skip tiers.
The other positive aspect of this was that there was plenty of content for the vast majority of people - the fact you weren't at the latest tier didn't matter, because there was piles of content in front of you.
:
I unequivocally agree. Removing them [attunements], again, actually HURTS casual players who want to get involved in them. In a world of account and/or guild achievements, there is no reason for their omission.
Content is only easy because of that gear you’re so proud of.
Unfortunately, it has very little to do with gear.
It’s to do with simple tasks (such as watching your feet, not getting cleaved, interrupting spell casts or following the most basic typed instructions) being considered “too difficult/complicated/unforgiving”.
I’ve tested Morchok on the PTR and it’s the most embarrassingly easy boss this game has ever seen.
I cannot support this direction of free rewards.
Nobody with the games best interests at heart could support it.
Currency grinding should be removed entirely.
I could almost get on board with this, but the loot tables are currently awful and force dependence on other sources for gearing up (no spirit cloth in Firelands, anyone?).
Personally, I’d put currencies on normal level cap dungeons so that they’re quick and easy to farm, while leaving heroic dungeons at raid tier difficulty with epic rewards in tune with their difficulty.
So what DO you think would be acceptable?
The thing is, I can’t get on board with suggestions that “Blizzard don’t care” or “Blizzard only chase money”. It’s obvious they’ll have a business plan to make the game commercially successful, but anyone thinking that the developers don’t want to make the best game they can is deluding themselves.
That said, the current development team is making a worse game by diluting what was wonderful about WoW, in favour of fast-food, no-risk mini games. Here are things I would support (and in direct response to [name removed]):
- Extremely challenging heroic raids (those with the most time and the most skill).
- Challenging normal raids (those with the most time and high skill).
- Challenging heroic dungeons (those with little time, but high skill).
- Challenging level cap dungeons (those with little time, learning group play).
- Level cap questing and group questing (those with various amounts of time, learning own skills and introductory group play).
Hell, I haven’t even touched on the levelling curve, PvP or role play; I could get into website design, guild leadership, professions, fan fiction/art or UI modification as further ways to get involved in the WoW hobby.
Instead, what do we get?
The removal of level cap dungeons, heroic dungeons tuned to be farmed by anyone, PvE scenarios with no role requirement, “speed” runs to further promote mindlessly spamming your way through and the absurd introduction of pet battles that absolutely nobody wanted.
I have said many times, as have others, that the only (repeat ONLY) prerequisite to playing this game is the desire to improve at it and defeat the challenges that are set.
If you disagree with this notion and believe that people should have things handed to them by virtue of their subscription alone, you are the enemy of World of Warcraft and, indeed, gaming in general.
Put an egg in your shoe and beat it.
They need subscriptions to keep developing the game.
This is exactly my problem, Darkalleigh. Rather than taking the hit, Blizzard have proven that enough crying will see them revert any perceived difficulty in the pursuit of ever more subscriptions.
The problem with this is that it alienates players who want to improve, and doesn’t engender any loyalty from those that these “tuning adjustments” are supposedly aimed at.
:
My content, the seven Firelands raid bosses you are probably referring to, was nerfed into oblivion recently; including the heroic mode setting.
That essentially leaves me with a single raid boss to deal with, as everything else is easy for someone putting in my level of time and my level of effort.
One.
In no world, not even this one, can that be considered fair or reasonable.
:
You and I have discussed this at length already, [name removed]. You’ll recall my nonplussed response due to boredom with the content, but there was simply no reasonable justification for the nerfs to heroic mode.
It was perverse.
Have you forgotten PvP?
I’ve concentrated on PvE because that’s where the dumbing down is happening; PvP, on the other hand, is as easy or difficult as the players on the other team make it.
I do, however, concede that you’re absolutely right – PvP players should not be discounted, and I apologise if that’s the impression you’ve gotten from any of my posts. Personally, I feel the dissolution of world PvP keenly and would love to see some fresh thinking that reinvigorates it.
Alas, that is also likely to be blighted by a prolonged outburst of forum wailing.
Good job getting rid of players with disabilities.
Ah, the "heart string" argument - nice try.
I distinctly recall reading a post on the US forums, written by a father who was terminally ill with a multitude of problems. While other fathers were out playing baseball with their sons, or watching hockey matches, he was at a computer playing WoW with his. The game gave him the opportunity to spend time with his son, to pass on those anecdotes of fatherly advice, and to generally "be" a father to his son.
Personally, I found this story an inspiration. It's why I would put VP on normal dungeons, for example, or why I would make levelling challenging and fun or why I would make UI changes to help out players with mental or physical disabilities. Instead, UI resources are being wasted ripping off Pokemon.
It may interest you to learn that I took part in the 5x5 project started by Matt McCurley at WoW Insider, a project designed specifically to help out disabled players. I wrote a blog post about how GM's and RL's can notice players with autism spectrum disorders and how best they can help.
I don't need to remind you that players with disabilities or other difficulties deserve to have the same fun as anyone else. What I feel I MUST remind you, is that disabled players are people too; they do not want mollycoddled, they do not want patronised and they do not want made to feel that they are less than able bodied or minded people.
The next time you wish to play this card on anyone, bear in mind you don't have the slightest clue who I am or what real-life issues I may have direct or indirect experience of.
I took part in the 5x5 project for a reason.
----------------------------------------
With that archived, I now take the time to answer my detractors from below under the hope that they bothered to read and grasp where my standpoint is, and that they have the self-assurance to see past their own indignation.
I shan’t hold my breath.
Gunboat: I’ve not decided to quit yet – if I do, tell me what server you’re on and you can have it.
Kadomi: I hope the commentary referencing “casual” answers your questions. You’ve argued for many of the same things I have, so mind how you go.
Copra: You have gotten the point; this is NOT a crusade against casual players, it’s a crusade against those who resolutely refuse to be competent.
Ratshag: Trying to patronize someone, while simultaneously role playing an orc and completely missing the point, does you no favours.
Psynister: If winning the Internet requires indignation at a post you don’t understand, you’re welcome to continue handing out the medals.
Unknown: Absolutely. I hope my entries above highlight that I definitely think so, and I apologise for omitting them. I also included the reason why, but that’s no excuse.
Wilhelm Arcturus: Hopefully the above extracts will enlighten your misunderstanding, too. “Hell is a grasp of logic”, not the musings of mindless people.
Oxfxalorum: Once again, I hope the above answers your concerns. I would never ostracise those who casually do things different to me. That would be stupid and, worse, detrimental to the community I’ve long since felt homesick about the loss of.
Anonymous: Thank you for seeing the point; reward should equal risk and, at the moment, it’s cheapening the experience due to the fact it doesn’t.
Faeldray: See above comments to Oxfxalorum and Kadomi. I apologise for any misunderstanding.
Anonymous: You’re free to your opinion. Ironic, isn’t it, that I’m not allowed to suggest what you should do, but the same doesn’t apply in reverse. Nice.
Icy Wiz: Not yet, but Gunboat already has dibs on my gold.
And that concludes this secondary entry on one of my most cathartic posts ever. You are not inclined to agree with me, nor are you demanded to post “objectively” via my subjective preferences. But if you can’t be bothered to read my additions, or can’t be bothered to fully understand the points I’m trying to make, you are not entitled to your indignant assessment of my motives because you haven’t the slightest clue what they are.
Frankly, some of you should know better.
It’s inherently unfortunate that the individuals chastising me failed to grip what I hoped were simple points (especially those who’ve known me for a long time), but that’s okay. I long ago gave up expecting reasonable discourse when disagreement arises.
All that said, I’ve chosen to create this entry in order to archive my responses on the WoW Europe forums seeing as a perfectly legitimate thread got locked. This will do two things:
1) Show I’m not making light of those disagreeing with me.
2) Those responding to my first blog get a better picture of where I’m coming from.
-------------------------------
What’s wrong with learning in game?
Trial and error is an absolutely valid way of learning, and one I completely support; I got involved in a server-wide tanking project for just this very reason. It didn’t make it into my list for the sake of brevity, but I completely agree with you.
:
You’re speaking to someone who spent just under three hours in the Deadmines because the bear tank told me he was new and trying to learn.
Key phrase:
Trying to learn.
If someone wants to improve and shows an interest in doing so, I would guess that all these “elitists” people hate would turn out to be some of the most helpful people you’ve ever come across in game.
Why should people have to put hours in the game to get YOUR seal of approval?
An extremely common complaint is travel time, even though it need never extend beyond ten minutes if you’re sensible. The point is that almost no matter what you want to do, you need only stand in your capital city and wait for a queue to pop.
How disassociating is queuing for a dungeon you have no clue about the location of?
:
Why should those who refuse to read the dungeon journal, or even their own tooltips, get rewarded with powerful items?
They shouldn’t. They are.
It’s wrong.
I’ve already said that in-game learning is perfectly valid, and there are a myriad of ways to do it. Please, can future posters not ask me this again?
It’s getting boring.
I’m not interested in lol RP.
I’m not confining “RP” to scripted events, I’m talking about immersion in the world-story (lore). I’ve read so many times that people have no real interest or care in Deathwing; how many said similar things about Arthas or Illidan?
I’m a casual player and object to your post.
My only objection is that "casual" is something of a misnomer; I know of many casuals with limited time, who still spend some of it trying to be better players. They also acutely understand that there is absolutely no reason whatsoever that they should be able to "see" everything just because they pay a subscription.
:
Absolutely. I’ve tried to allude to this already, but “casual” does NOT (no, not under any circumstances) mean “bad”.
Back during TBC, [name removed], I wasn’t a raider but had plenty of challenging content to play. Endgame dungeoneering was challenging, and heroic dungeons were a form of endgame for those without the time to raid. The brutal fact is that by making heroic dungeons absurdly easy, which they currently are, you are robbing casual players of viable endgame content.
You’re basically forcing them to try and raid because there’s nothing else for them to do if they want to challenge themselves. In short, because of dreadful players who resolutely refuse to improve, everyone is losing out. I don’t see what’s hard to grasp about this.
:
I’m entirely in support of your approach regarding in-game learning. By the sound of it, you were determined to learn how to play the content you had the time for and neither I, nor any sane person, would ever try and ostracise people like yourself.
You should be encouraged, and you make the game richer for your involvement.
Remember; casual does not mean bad.
:
For me, the definition of a casual player is someone who plays for less than 15 (pretty arbitrary, but “feels” right) hours a week.
This has absolutely nothing to do with their ability as a player.
Any argument to the contrary is flat-out wrong, and this has been pointed out by many people in this thread; multiple times by myself.
The dungeon finder wrecked the community.
The sad part is that the exact same thing happened to the community when the dungeon finder went live in Rift.
I preferred the TBC model with regard to linear progression and attunement that didn’t let people skip tiers.
The other positive aspect of this was that there was plenty of content for the vast majority of people - the fact you weren't at the latest tier didn't matter, because there was piles of content in front of you.
:
I unequivocally agree. Removing them [attunements], again, actually HURTS casual players who want to get involved in them. In a world of account and/or guild achievements, there is no reason for their omission.
Content is only easy because of that gear you’re so proud of.
Unfortunately, it has very little to do with gear.
It’s to do with simple tasks (such as watching your feet, not getting cleaved, interrupting spell casts or following the most basic typed instructions) being considered “too difficult/complicated/unforgiving”.
I’ve tested Morchok on the PTR and it’s the most embarrassingly easy boss this game has ever seen.
I cannot support this direction of free rewards.
Nobody with the games best interests at heart could support it.
Currency grinding should be removed entirely.
I could almost get on board with this, but the loot tables are currently awful and force dependence on other sources for gearing up (no spirit cloth in Firelands, anyone?).
Personally, I’d put currencies on normal level cap dungeons so that they’re quick and easy to farm, while leaving heroic dungeons at raid tier difficulty with epic rewards in tune with their difficulty.
So what DO you think would be acceptable?
The thing is, I can’t get on board with suggestions that “Blizzard don’t care” or “Blizzard only chase money”. It’s obvious they’ll have a business plan to make the game commercially successful, but anyone thinking that the developers don’t want to make the best game they can is deluding themselves.
That said, the current development team is making a worse game by diluting what was wonderful about WoW, in favour of fast-food, no-risk mini games. Here are things I would support (and in direct response to [name removed]):
- Extremely challenging heroic raids (those with the most time and the most skill).
- Challenging normal raids (those with the most time and high skill).
- Challenging heroic dungeons (those with little time, but high skill).
- Challenging level cap dungeons (those with little time, learning group play).
- Level cap questing and group questing (those with various amounts of time, learning own skills and introductory group play).
Hell, I haven’t even touched on the levelling curve, PvP or role play; I could get into website design, guild leadership, professions, fan fiction/art or UI modification as further ways to get involved in the WoW hobby.
Instead, what do we get?
The removal of level cap dungeons, heroic dungeons tuned to be farmed by anyone, PvE scenarios with no role requirement, “speed” runs to further promote mindlessly spamming your way through and the absurd introduction of pet battles that absolutely nobody wanted.
I have said many times, as have others, that the only (repeat ONLY) prerequisite to playing this game is the desire to improve at it and defeat the challenges that are set.
If you disagree with this notion and believe that people should have things handed to them by virtue of their subscription alone, you are the enemy of World of Warcraft and, indeed, gaming in general.
Put an egg in your shoe and beat it.
They need subscriptions to keep developing the game.
This is exactly my problem, Darkalleigh. Rather than taking the hit, Blizzard have proven that enough crying will see them revert any perceived difficulty in the pursuit of ever more subscriptions.
The problem with this is that it alienates players who want to improve, and doesn’t engender any loyalty from those that these “tuning adjustments” are supposedly aimed at.
:
My content, the seven Firelands raid bosses you are probably referring to, was nerfed into oblivion recently; including the heroic mode setting.
That essentially leaves me with a single raid boss to deal with, as everything else is easy for someone putting in my level of time and my level of effort.
One.
In no world, not even this one, can that be considered fair or reasonable.
:
You and I have discussed this at length already, [name removed]. You’ll recall my nonplussed response due to boredom with the content, but there was simply no reasonable justification for the nerfs to heroic mode.
It was perverse.
Have you forgotten PvP?
I’ve concentrated on PvE because that’s where the dumbing down is happening; PvP, on the other hand, is as easy or difficult as the players on the other team make it.
I do, however, concede that you’re absolutely right – PvP players should not be discounted, and I apologise if that’s the impression you’ve gotten from any of my posts. Personally, I feel the dissolution of world PvP keenly and would love to see some fresh thinking that reinvigorates it.
Alas, that is also likely to be blighted by a prolonged outburst of forum wailing.
Good job getting rid of players with disabilities.
Ah, the "heart string" argument - nice try.
I distinctly recall reading a post on the US forums, written by a father who was terminally ill with a multitude of problems. While other fathers were out playing baseball with their sons, or watching hockey matches, he was at a computer playing WoW with his. The game gave him the opportunity to spend time with his son, to pass on those anecdotes of fatherly advice, and to generally "be" a father to his son.
Personally, I found this story an inspiration. It's why I would put VP on normal dungeons, for example, or why I would make levelling challenging and fun or why I would make UI changes to help out players with mental or physical disabilities. Instead, UI resources are being wasted ripping off Pokemon.
It may interest you to learn that I took part in the 5x5 project started by Matt McCurley at WoW Insider, a project designed specifically to help out disabled players. I wrote a blog post about how GM's and RL's can notice players with autism spectrum disorders and how best they can help.
I don't need to remind you that players with disabilities or other difficulties deserve to have the same fun as anyone else. What I feel I MUST remind you, is that disabled players are people too; they do not want mollycoddled, they do not want patronised and they do not want made to feel that they are less than able bodied or minded people.
The next time you wish to play this card on anyone, bear in mind you don't have the slightest clue who I am or what real-life issues I may have direct or indirect experience of.
I took part in the 5x5 project for a reason.
----------------------------------------
With that archived, I now take the time to answer my detractors from below under the hope that they bothered to read and grasp where my standpoint is, and that they have the self-assurance to see past their own indignation.
I shan’t hold my breath.
Gunboat: I’ve not decided to quit yet – if I do, tell me what server you’re on and you can have it.
Kadomi: I hope the commentary referencing “casual” answers your questions. You’ve argued for many of the same things I have, so mind how you go.
Copra: You have gotten the point; this is NOT a crusade against casual players, it’s a crusade against those who resolutely refuse to be competent.
Ratshag: Trying to patronize someone, while simultaneously role playing an orc and completely missing the point, does you no favours.
Psynister: If winning the Internet requires indignation at a post you don’t understand, you’re welcome to continue handing out the medals.
Unknown: Absolutely. I hope my entries above highlight that I definitely think so, and I apologise for omitting them. I also included the reason why, but that’s no excuse.
Wilhelm Arcturus: Hopefully the above extracts will enlighten your misunderstanding, too. “Hell is a grasp of logic”, not the musings of mindless people.
Oxfxalorum: Once again, I hope the above answers your concerns. I would never ostracise those who casually do things different to me. That would be stupid and, worse, detrimental to the community I’ve long since felt homesick about the loss of.
Anonymous: Thank you for seeing the point; reward should equal risk and, at the moment, it’s cheapening the experience due to the fact it doesn’t.
Faeldray: See above comments to Oxfxalorum and Kadomi. I apologise for any misunderstanding.
Anonymous: You’re free to your opinion. Ironic, isn’t it, that I’m not allowed to suggest what you should do, but the same doesn’t apply in reverse. Nice.
Icy Wiz: Not yet, but Gunboat already has dibs on my gold.
And that concludes this secondary entry on one of my most cathartic posts ever. You are not inclined to agree with me, nor are you demanded to post “objectively” via my subjective preferences. But if you can’t be bothered to read my additions, or can’t be bothered to fully understand the points I’m trying to make, you are not entitled to your indignant assessment of my motives because you haven’t the slightest clue what they are.
Frankly, some of you should know better.
Monday, November 07, 2011
Go and learn, or go away.
I’m going to break with my Cataclysm review plan for this entry and deal with a subject that’s going to be controversial. I’ve no idea how many people read this blog, but I can guarantee that some people are going to be in direct opposition to the conclusions drawn here; even to the point of deciding that I’m part of the problem when it comes to how WoW is now developed.
That said, I’m doing myself (and my readers) a disservice by NOT posting this. In the end, it’s a conclusion I’ve drawn over the weeks since BlizzCon and, of course, the release of Cataclysm. It’s to do with the accessibility of raid content and indeed the game itself. As everyone knows, Blizzard has managed to lose itself rather a lot of WoW subscribers, to the point where they’re shamelessly offering free games if you’re willing to subscribe for another year.
I won’t presume to know why this subscription loss is happening, but one of the biggest gripes I’ve come across (both on the Internet and in game) is to do with the difficulty of end game content – specifically, heroic dungeons and raids. As someone who spends most of his online time doing these activities, it’s hard to ignore the discussions revolving around it.
I was, until recently, of the opinion that end game content had been too highly tuned for the vast majority of the playerbase and that it needed to be toned down a bit. The levelling process was far too easy, however, and didn’t actually prepare anyone for these instances before they started slamming their heads against them.
Over the weekend, I was tanking Zandalari instances on my recently-dinged death knight when it hit me.
Heroic dungeons, including the Zandalari duo, are NOT hard. At all. They are really very easy, and only require a small amount of attention and ability to play your class, regardless of role.
Normal raids, particularly on their ten-man setting, also fall into this category; they require little more than a bit of gear which is easy to come by, and some patience to learn how the fights work. They are NOT hard by any stretch of the imagination and any claim to the contrary means the complainant simply isn’t putting in enough effort.
With this fact slamming into me with the force of a piano landing on Elmer Fudd, several other revelations hit me. The most damning of which, and the one that I’ll cop the most flak for, is this:
If you don’t have the time to devote to learning how to do heroic dungeons or normal mode raids, you have absolutely no business playing an MMO.
There.
I said it.
And because I’m going to be slammed as a horrible elitist who wants rid of everyone who’s not in a guild like his own, I may as well go the whole hog and say that Blizzard should be looking to get rid of every single subscriber who thinks otherwise. The people who need content nerfed into triviality before they can complete it should find other games that will appeal to their diminished attention spans or time allocation. In the end, they’re harming the game and are the cause of it pinging off in absurd directions like “pet battles” or a raid finder that will be tuned so ludicrous lowly that absolutely any idiot can join the queue and expect to kill raid bosses.
If you think I’m kidding here, I can assure you I’m not.
Any game that sets out a challenge should be expecting the players to rise to said challenge in order to overcome it. The onus is on YOU to increase your performance so that you can get over the wall in front of you. Now, the onus is on the Blizzard developers to make content easy enough for those who refuse to learn the game. It’s perverse. I haven’t populated the LFD very much until dinging my DK recently and it’s absolutely astonishing how many utterly abject players are out there.
The objection I have to content being dumbed down to that level is entirely justified.
I’m sorry, but World of Warcraft is an MMORPG. What that implies is an immersive role-playing world where you will have to commit time to learning how to play your class, how to play the content, and making sure you’re contributing as best as you can to your entire team.
Multiplayer isn’t just a buzzword. If you don’t want to expend any effort improving, you’re wasting the time of everyone you’re grouped with and have no business in an MMO.
Don’t have time to learn how a boss works? Don’t play MMO’s.
Don’t have time to travel to a dungeon? Don’t play MMO’s.
Don’t have time to run a dungeon? Don’t play MMO’s.
Don’t have time to farm for necessary items? Don’t play MMO’s.
See the point?
If you think travelling somewhere for ten minutes, watching a boss video, reading the dungeon journal, typing in simple instructions, using external sources, maximising your personal performance, or being part of a community is too much work then you have absolutely no business playing this game and you should return to the fast-food quickfire rubbish that populates Facebook.
World of Warcraft is becoming worse because of you.
It’s not a “world” at all, anymore – it’s a glorified chat room where people queue up for minigames that require absolutely no personal responsibility whatsoever. And if those minigames happen to be beyond you because you have no interest in actually becoming a decent player, there are a set of developers who will happily dumb it down so that you can be successful.
No risk, high reward. Perhaps there really is a universe that doesn’t spot the absurdly bad logic in claiming that players are getting through content faster than ever, then making your own content redundant by trivialising its difficulty. I can assure you, however, that it’s not this universe.
In any event, I’ve had enough. I fell in love with the immersive side of this game, the side that saw me moving across a living, breathing world and interacting with the other inhabitants of it. Nowadays, wanting to spend time doing something is “needless grinding” rather than showing commitment to your guild mates. Story-driven attunements are “barriers to entry” rather than immersive plot points that get you invested in the story. Resistance items or sets are now “fun taxes” rather than methods of building interdependence and getting people into the world to farm materials. Challenging content that tests people is now “blocking access” rather than encouraging improvement and proving exclusive content to those with the desire to unlock it. Any form of interesting utility from a class, spec or profession is now “unfair to those who don’t have it” rather than a fun and unique way of making yourself stand apart.
I simply cannot get onboard with this anymore. If it were up to me I’d be removing the dungeon finder, removing portals, separating specs completely from one another, giving love to professions, cutting the amount of experience you gain in half and generally adding back things that take time and promote the community. If you happen to whine at me that a hard days work is stopping you from taking no more than ten minutes every few nights to improve yourself, I’d tell you to stick to Facebook games and leave MMO’s alone.
At this point in time, I will be completing Cataclysm because I’m in a guild that has invested time and effort into me. I will repay the faith they’ve shown in me by being there when they need me. I’m happy to admit that I love raiding with them too, as I have the pleasure of playing with mature adults who are good players and enjoy a good laugh over ventrilo; my love for raiding is as yet undiminished.
The fact is, however, that I don’t know if I’ll be playing come the next expansion and it’s extremely likely that I won’t be. The fact is that the game is no longer aimed at me, and is looking to hold onto subscribers that demand rewards for absolutely zero effort, and the developers will systematically smash what made this game wonderful in order to appease them.
It’s not for me anymore. I want to be part of a game that involves me and makes me want to do the things I’m doing. Unfortunately, that entire line of thought has been poisoned by an exploded percentage of malcontents who cannot sit at their computer for longer than five minutes without expecting a reward to pop up, or who treat people with such contempt that would see their heads taken from their shoulders if they behaved that way in real life.
I’m done. Feel free to tell me how much you hate me. I’m honestly beyond the point of caring.
That said, I’m doing myself (and my readers) a disservice by NOT posting this. In the end, it’s a conclusion I’ve drawn over the weeks since BlizzCon and, of course, the release of Cataclysm. It’s to do with the accessibility of raid content and indeed the game itself. As everyone knows, Blizzard has managed to lose itself rather a lot of WoW subscribers, to the point where they’re shamelessly offering free games if you’re willing to subscribe for another year.
I won’t presume to know why this subscription loss is happening, but one of the biggest gripes I’ve come across (both on the Internet and in game) is to do with the difficulty of end game content – specifically, heroic dungeons and raids. As someone who spends most of his online time doing these activities, it’s hard to ignore the discussions revolving around it.
I was, until recently, of the opinion that end game content had been too highly tuned for the vast majority of the playerbase and that it needed to be toned down a bit. The levelling process was far too easy, however, and didn’t actually prepare anyone for these instances before they started slamming their heads against them.
Over the weekend, I was tanking Zandalari instances on my recently-dinged death knight when it hit me.
Heroic dungeons, including the Zandalari duo, are NOT hard. At all. They are really very easy, and only require a small amount of attention and ability to play your class, regardless of role.
Normal raids, particularly on their ten-man setting, also fall into this category; they require little more than a bit of gear which is easy to come by, and some patience to learn how the fights work. They are NOT hard by any stretch of the imagination and any claim to the contrary means the complainant simply isn’t putting in enough effort.
With this fact slamming into me with the force of a piano landing on Elmer Fudd, several other revelations hit me. The most damning of which, and the one that I’ll cop the most flak for, is this:
If you don’t have the time to devote to learning how to do heroic dungeons or normal mode raids, you have absolutely no business playing an MMO.
There.
I said it.
And because I’m going to be slammed as a horrible elitist who wants rid of everyone who’s not in a guild like his own, I may as well go the whole hog and say that Blizzard should be looking to get rid of every single subscriber who thinks otherwise. The people who need content nerfed into triviality before they can complete it should find other games that will appeal to their diminished attention spans or time allocation. In the end, they’re harming the game and are the cause of it pinging off in absurd directions like “pet battles” or a raid finder that will be tuned so ludicrous lowly that absolutely any idiot can join the queue and expect to kill raid bosses.
If you think I’m kidding here, I can assure you I’m not.
Any game that sets out a challenge should be expecting the players to rise to said challenge in order to overcome it. The onus is on YOU to increase your performance so that you can get over the wall in front of you. Now, the onus is on the Blizzard developers to make content easy enough for those who refuse to learn the game. It’s perverse. I haven’t populated the LFD very much until dinging my DK recently and it’s absolutely astonishing how many utterly abject players are out there.
The objection I have to content being dumbed down to that level is entirely justified.
I’m sorry, but World of Warcraft is an MMORPG. What that implies is an immersive role-playing world where you will have to commit time to learning how to play your class, how to play the content, and making sure you’re contributing as best as you can to your entire team.
Multiplayer isn’t just a buzzword. If you don’t want to expend any effort improving, you’re wasting the time of everyone you’re grouped with and have no business in an MMO.
Don’t have time to learn how a boss works? Don’t play MMO’s.
Don’t have time to travel to a dungeon? Don’t play MMO’s.
Don’t have time to run a dungeon? Don’t play MMO’s.
Don’t have time to farm for necessary items? Don’t play MMO’s.
See the point?
If you think travelling somewhere for ten minutes, watching a boss video, reading the dungeon journal, typing in simple instructions, using external sources, maximising your personal performance, or being part of a community is too much work then you have absolutely no business playing this game and you should return to the fast-food quickfire rubbish that populates Facebook.
World of Warcraft is becoming worse because of you.
It’s not a “world” at all, anymore – it’s a glorified chat room where people queue up for minigames that require absolutely no personal responsibility whatsoever. And if those minigames happen to be beyond you because you have no interest in actually becoming a decent player, there are a set of developers who will happily dumb it down so that you can be successful.
No risk, high reward. Perhaps there really is a universe that doesn’t spot the absurdly bad logic in claiming that players are getting through content faster than ever, then making your own content redundant by trivialising its difficulty. I can assure you, however, that it’s not this universe.
In any event, I’ve had enough. I fell in love with the immersive side of this game, the side that saw me moving across a living, breathing world and interacting with the other inhabitants of it. Nowadays, wanting to spend time doing something is “needless grinding” rather than showing commitment to your guild mates. Story-driven attunements are “barriers to entry” rather than immersive plot points that get you invested in the story. Resistance items or sets are now “fun taxes” rather than methods of building interdependence and getting people into the world to farm materials. Challenging content that tests people is now “blocking access” rather than encouraging improvement and proving exclusive content to those with the desire to unlock it. Any form of interesting utility from a class, spec or profession is now “unfair to those who don’t have it” rather than a fun and unique way of making yourself stand apart.
I simply cannot get onboard with this anymore. If it were up to me I’d be removing the dungeon finder, removing portals, separating specs completely from one another, giving love to professions, cutting the amount of experience you gain in half and generally adding back things that take time and promote the community. If you happen to whine at me that a hard days work is stopping you from taking no more than ten minutes every few nights to improve yourself, I’d tell you to stick to Facebook games and leave MMO’s alone.
At this point in time, I will be completing Cataclysm because I’m in a guild that has invested time and effort into me. I will repay the faith they’ve shown in me by being there when they need me. I’m happy to admit that I love raiding with them too, as I have the pleasure of playing with mature adults who are good players and enjoy a good laugh over ventrilo; my love for raiding is as yet undiminished.
The fact is, however, that I don’t know if I’ll be playing come the next expansion and it’s extremely likely that I won’t be. The fact is that the game is no longer aimed at me, and is looking to hold onto subscribers that demand rewards for absolutely zero effort, and the developers will systematically smash what made this game wonderful in order to appease them.
It’s not for me anymore. I want to be part of a game that involves me and makes me want to do the things I’m doing. Unfortunately, that entire line of thought has been poisoned by an exploded percentage of malcontents who cannot sit at their computer for longer than five minutes without expecting a reward to pop up, or who treat people with such contempt that would see their heads taken from their shoulders if they behaved that way in real life.
I’m done. Feel free to tell me how much you hate me. I’m honestly beyond the point of caring.
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