With the latest Hotflix September 14, Blizzard seems to be trying “new” strategy to grab players retention by buffing xp gains in WT3 and WT4. See Darth Microtransaction (DM) latest youtube video for deeper explanation. Here is my take on why this won’t work. (Note: this is from a casual player’s perspective).
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After completing the Campaign for the first time, all other characters can skip it. Other than the few sparsely scattered side quests (some side quests even require rng item drops to trigger lol), Helltide and ToW, there is little much to do after that.
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You could say go explore all the map areas, discover all AoL, conquer every Stronghold/Dungeon (let’s put NM Dungeon aside for now), etc but sooner or later you will complete all of them if you wanted to. For the game to be touted as “immersive Open World”, there is surprisingly little to do. No wonder the people of Sanctuary are worshiping Diablo and the Prime Evils.
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Trying to lengthen the parts where players feel good by delaying the gratification and shortening the parts where players hate, isn’t simply going give you players retention. In fact, this may backfire. The reason why players are feeling good and staying on the game is precisely that the time it takes to get there, doing the quests, exploration and runs is within a “sweet spot” time frame (maybe 8 to 10 hours on a new character or slightly more). Anything beyond that will slowly drain the enthusiasm of the player. And if they don’t see progress of their characters, it’ll dampen their enthusiasm even further.
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That said, even after doing the side quests, Strongholds and other runs beyond the first few times, it starts to get repetitive and boring. No amount of buffs for the players will help with the boredom that will slowly set in. Even NM Dungeons and Uber Bosses will start to feel more like a chore than being exciting to play. Even event encounters will have you rolling your eyes when you stumble upon them. Rescue you bunch of poor souls by killing sudden waves of enemies? No thanks.
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So for the final point, what then do I suggest for player retention? Simple, more content. New bosses, new quests, new enemies, new unique items/aspects, etc. And I don’t see why Blizzard can’t add in some of the Seasonal content to the Eternal Realm after that Season is done. A new Quest line similar to the Malignant Hearts (don’t softlock the quests with “Season Chapters”) would certainly give players more to do. I will share more suggestions on what sort of quests that are pretty fun for the casual player in another thread maybe later this weekend.
What do you think of the recent Hotfixes and do you think it will help with player retention?