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Wednesday, June 22, 2005
World of Warcraft - Under Development
More news on the future of WoW can be found on the World of Warcraft Community Site -> Info -> Under Development page. Some things there are nice, for example the Battlemasters, which will allow you to enter a battleground without having to travel there. But I noticed that most of the new content to be added is specifically labeled as "High Level Raid Dungeons / Content", or is about PvP. It seems Blizzard hasn't understood where their strong points are, so let me spell it out for them:
World of Warcraft is a wonderful game from level 1 to 59, offering quests and content for solo players and small groups. It also offers mediocre PvP for levels 21-60. And then there is the level 60 high level raid dungeons content, which throws the game back right into the middle-ages, the bad old times of the first Everquest. However easy you make it for players to reach level 60, casual players will *never* participate in a 40-player raid to Blackwing Lair. It is simply too difficult to organize, and a 40-player "pickup" raid group would be doomed to failure. Thus this sort of content is reserved exclusively for a tiny part of the player base, the power gamer uber guilds.
THAT JUST ISN'T WORTH ALL THE DEVELOPMENT EFFORT! You can not put your whole development team to work on content which isn't accessible to the majority of your players, that is a waste of resources. It would be much better to make more dungeons, zones, and quests for level 1-59 players, than to add only high level raid dungeons. Not only are the power gamer uber guilds that are able to access the new raid dungeons a relatively small part of your population, they are also mentally totally unable to ever feel satisfied. You could give them 10 new dungeons tomorrow, and they would *still* bitch about lack of high level content on all message boards. Catering only to the power gamers was the reason that Everquest never had more than one fifth of the subscribers that WoW has. If WoW wants to keep on top of the pile, it has to satisfy the average gamers, not the extreme ones.
- posted by Tobold @ 6:30 PM Permanent Link
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I never made it past level 35 in EQ1 and already then I deeply resented the attitude of SOE of catering to high level players or the largest guilds only... I'm surprised and disapointed to see Blizzard heading down that path!
If the average player doesn't see something at least mildly interesting to him regularly in the patch notes, he'll eventually realize he's being ignored...
If the average player doesn't see something at least mildly interesting to him regularly in the patch notes, he'll eventually realize he's being ignored...
# posted by 
: 23/6/05 16:09
: 23/6/05 16:09
I'll mention a revolutionary idea: they could raise the level limit a bit, and add more content for those levels. Before everyone screams, I'd like to ask why not?
Add the kind of content that folks enjoyed from 1 to 59, not more raid content that it requires an EQ1 guild to do.
And how will raising the level limit affect PvP any? It's not like you don't already get ganked by guys 30 levels higher than you on a PvP server, and the Battlegrounds are all divided up by levels, so what's to hurt if guys 61-70 PvP? If someone doesn't want to have to level up to compete in PvP then fine, just stay at 60 and play in the 51-60 battleground.
Add the kind of content that folks enjoyed from 1 to 59, not more raid content that it requires an EQ1 guild to do.
And how will raising the level limit affect PvP any? It's not like you don't already get ganked by guys 30 levels higher than you on a PvP server, and the Battlegrounds are all divided up by levels, so what's to hurt if guys 61-70 PvP? If someone doesn't want to have to level up to compete in PvP then fine, just stay at 60 and play in the 51-60 battleground.
# posted by : 24/6/05 18:12
: 24/6/05 18:12
the high end stuff disappoints me because I have to group, which is something I won't do ever. I just don't like it.
I don't mind running into occasional players or pvp or helping someone fleeing from death, but when I do my quests, instances, I want to solo.
It is just a let-down all the high end loot takes groups, or the hunters quest, or a lot of pvp where because I will not join that big popular lame eq guild (H&E), I don't get healed on the field even though I do play better than their best players. Oh well. The devs have forsaken all but the powergamers, the grouping people/big guilds. The games useless past 60.
I don't mind running into occasional players or pvp or helping someone fleeing from death, but when I do my quests, instances, I want to solo.
It is just a let-down all the high end loot takes groups, or the hunters quest, or a lot of pvp where because I will not join that big popular lame eq guild (H&E), I don't get healed on the field even though I do play better than their best players. Oh well. The devs have forsaken all but the powergamers, the grouping people/big guilds. The games useless past 60.
# posted by : 26/6/05 10:03
: 26/6/05 10:03
That can't be correct, only 2 raid instances. What about Stratholme, Scholomance, BRD, LBRS, UBRS? Nobody goes there in single groups. I think everything from solo to 5-player groups is good, but 40-player groups are simply silly. No fun at all to play, because being far too chaotic.
I'd say that there are already quite good games targeting the hardcore raid players, starting with Everquest. But WoW is the first game which is great for playing solo. Instead of trying, and failing, to be everything for all the people, Blizzard should ditch all that raid nonsense, and make only content for solo and single group players. The raid players will *never* be happy, however many raid dungeons Blizzard adds, and it would be better to ditch them and send them to games that have been made for them, instead of letting them take over the only game which is good for other styles of play as well.
Telantaa, you of all people should have realized how different the level 60 play is than the level 1-59 play, you even changed guild because of it. And most people who like the level 1-59 part of the game, dislike the level 60 part. Just encourage people to restart with another character, instead of having them grind the same instances over and over ad nauseam.
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I'd say that there are already quite good games targeting the hardcore raid players, starting with Everquest. But WoW is the first game which is great for playing solo. Instead of trying, and failing, to be everything for all the people, Blizzard should ditch all that raid nonsense, and make only content for solo and single group players. The raid players will *never* be happy, however many raid dungeons Blizzard adds, and it would be better to ditch them and send them to games that have been made for them, instead of letting them take over the only game which is good for other styles of play as well.
Telantaa, you of all people should have realized how different the level 60 play is than the level 1-59 play, you even changed guild because of it. And most people who like the level 1-59 part of the game, dislike the level 60 part. Just encourage people to restart with another character, instead of having them grind the same instances over and over ad nauseam.
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