I hate that business because you are continually having to waste time when doing things like the holiday events going back and forth to npcs.
Pretty sure Nidormi only works for people whoâve gone through the storyquest that transformed the zone. (theramore, UC, blasted lands, silithus, I forget which others, if any)
Below the level of those events, youâre stuck in the âbeforeâ mode. Other zones donât have Nidormi, like vale of eternal blossoms, which is kind of sad.
I could care less whether they do a level squish or not except when it comes to what is now older content. How is it going to interfere with people doing mount and transmog runs? If it becomes something akin to ESO then your power will come from talent pool/champion pool build ups, but that would take not only a squish but a total redesign of classes.
I wanted to read it. It is just too early for me to think clearly though.
That said, my opinion, and solely my opinion, is a level squish will not work.
Let make up some numbers shall we. Let us say they squish to 70 from 120. So 50 levels.
I log in on Monday and I am level 120. Tuesday the squish comes. I am level 70 now. In the process of the squish I instantly do 3x the dps I was doing before. In other words I am 3x as powerful, with no changes to talents buffs etc, than I was yesterday.
All I see is a loss of 50 levels. Thatâs it. That positive is not enough to overpower the negative of losing 50 levels.
It is my opinion a level squish will be akin to flying in WoD. You will see a mass revolt of customers. You will see cancelations. It will be hard to recover.
Now I kept saying I, but i am not talking about myself. It was a collective I.
All of that said, I will reread once I am awake and see if my conclusion is close to yours. Do appreciate your input though. Interesting tk see what a behavioral specialist thinks on the matter. But first I need to get off autopilot at work and wake up.
You may find the âSteaveâ; not fitting your postâŚ
Set goal _50 x time ~ $
Mr Jobs displayed future visionsâŚ
Thanks and hope this helps you.
Wow players that I have met are just passing the time tryin to play for free with out getting baned for cheating.
EditâŚ
Another Steve was rewarded for good behavor by alowing him to have a broom in a group setting , just to have the ability to be in the room was the most human happyness i have ever witnessed.
Up to that point in my life.
He walked areound with it just inches from the floor. He looked at me in the face for the first time in weeks. With that grinâŚ
Am I doing it right?
OK, so I am a little more focused now. Went back and reread your post. Very well written. To the quote. My fear is with the constant we should have done better in the QAs etc, talk of improved communication and subsequent releasing of one of the best communicating CMs, et al, I greatly fear this will be done sans input. This will be done sans transperancy. Sadly, we have not seen any communication other than we need to be better.
Back to your reward ratios? I think that is what you called it. JUST in terms of this, you made me think of Classic. A ding can be more impactful, even if the leveling time is the same, if we get spells, traits, talents along the way. Much like every 2 levels in Classic we went to a trainer, there was a tangible aha gotcha moment associated with dings. This made them meaningful. A talent point every level meant I got to progress.
Fear. Already said, and my fear is a level squish goes in. Assuming they pull it off, we are grand for that expansion. However, next expansion we are right back to where we were. Just as they could not sustain the talent tress etc via multiple expansions, how would they do that now?
All of this assumes, however, as I said in another post already, the players donât revolt and unsub. There is something psychologically strong and hard to overcome in"taking away" of levels.
I just found that process very tedious and I only played to lvl 10 on the beta classic test servers.
You forget we also got more powerful with each level in classic as well as getting more abilities so we didnât have to auto attack or club mobs with our staffs as a caster. Classic did not have zone scaling so what worked there isnât necessarily going to work here.
I mean to say, for leveling specifically, you can choose to level through pre-cata zones now that they essentially have access to WoW classic zones
I donât think I explained it well. I do not want to run to the trainer like then. That was indeed tedious. I suppose a hybrid of then and now. We get the more powerful version, but the way it pops now as we level. Would that be more acceptable? That is what I had in my head.
Absolutely this. You are spot on about progression and scaling.
There is a sweet spot that can be found, in my opinion. I am not smart enough to express this clearly, so bear with me.
There has to be a sweet spot of having scaling(so we can level in the zones we want to or expansions we want to) but with our players also increasing in power within those zones.
I imagine this can be done. Though I am a simple cook, not a programmer. However, your point is spot on in validity to this conversation and I have to believe there is a way to keep scaling for leveling freedom sake, and allow us to feel more powerful as we level.
There has to be a way at level X I do this damage to mob A. Then I ding and now that same mob I do Y plus 2% letâs say. I see the same mob losing health faster, even if marginally, a level higher. And yet still maintain the ability to hop from zone to zone, expansion to expansion.
The above is a clutter of a thought. Hope it makes sense.
Iâm confused as well why people think less levels at the same /played will give the illusion that things are moving faster or that things are more meaningful. I think people are vastly underestimating the human psyche and even if we could be fooled by such a simple trick, itâs still important for us to ask for more than to be simply hoodwinked.
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While I know that a general psychology class doesnât exactly make me an expert, I feel that new players coming to the game seeing a max level of 60 instead of 120 will be a little bit less daunting to them, although probably not enough to make them a regular of WoW; I feel that the actual gameplay is what will get people to stay, not a level squish. That said, I do feel some more attention is needed on the leveling process:
- WoD dungeon mobs/bosses health is to high
- An option to skip leveling scenarios that we have done a million times like the WoD intro or class order hall quests.
- Flying granted to past expansions without the need to grind pathfinder would be nice.
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A lot of people have said similar. That there is a matter of perception.
âsixty levelsâ looks less daunting than âone hundred and twenty levelsâ
Even if the time to hit âmaxâ is the same, 60 is less daunting than 120.
To me, the biggest concern is âtime to reach maxâ as well as âoverall power levelâ
So long as those two stay about the same, Iâm not going to complain too much.
If mobs die just as fast as a âsquished 60â as they do as a âunsquished 120â, then its mostly a matter of perception.
However, and this is important, if the reason Blizzard is doing this isnât just a PR move and they believe it will âfixâ the levelling blues, theyâre sadly mistaken. As the speed of levelling and what you get from levelling is only part of the issue players have with levelling.
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Wow thatâs pretty impressive. I agree. Blizz definitely needs to come up with a plan for going forward. I would say they need to revamp the talent system as well to accommodate the âPlayer Aâs out there. I donât get why we even need to be talking about this in terms of leveling experience (slog or no slog). People complained that leveling took too long so Blizz introduced heirlooms for veteran players to speed things up. They also drastically reduced xp needed to level along the way. Then people complained that they were leveling too quick and arenât able to complete entire zones. Has anyone mentioned reverting the xp changes? There are always going to be complainers. I think itâs ridiculous to try to completely reinvent the wheel for so-called ânew playersâ. For someone playing the game for the first time, everything is new and should be somewhat interesting as they explore and progress. Yeah, the quests can become extremely mundane and monotonous, but there is other content to do as well. As far as alts go, after a few times of leveling chars to max, it is going to be a slog no matter what. The fact of the matter is that lower level content isnât and shouldnât be always relevant. Lower level players should not be able to contend with max levels.
One thing I would like to suggest too is rewards. Iâve said it before, as others have, that Blizz could incorporate more usage of spell levels to give players rewards for leveling. With that, would be not only power gain but also increased coolness of visual effects for the different tiers.
Basically, imo, level squishing and number crunching is the lazy way of dealing with the real issue and that is the inflation that is caused by adding 10 levels and increasing ilvls every xpac. They donât need to add levels at all (past max). They could go to a system where you simply need to start acquiring current gear that possesses a certain attribute like Demonslaying or whatever is relevant to the theme of the xpac. It could function like Artifact Power in that you could progress by doing current content but could be re-designed to a system similar to the new crafting system where you gain by doing content pertaining to the relative xpac and you learn traits (possibly from trainers) that only apply to said xpac.
Ok Iâm starting to lose my train of thought here but basically Iâm just trying to offer ideas for an actual solution.
Iâm pretty confident that some marketing/metrics guru at Blizzard figured out theyâd make more money by selling MORE boosts at 2/3rds the price.
To justify the discount, they have to create the illusion of selling a smaller service. Squish levels and instead of a 110 level boost, itâs a 55 level boost.
And, as a different product with a different price, people who paid more are less likely to throw a screaming hissy fit over having paid $60 instead of $40.
And blizzard avoids creating the impression that theyâre desperate enough to have a permanent fire sale on boosts.
It has nothing at all to do with improving the levelling experience. Itâs all about squeezing more money for pay2win services out of us.
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Iâm a player A. The squish will turn me into a player B and the other player Bâs lose nothing.
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While it is entirely likely youâre correct, I was TRYING to be impartial about my views of Blizzard. When you analyze it like that, the end result does come across as a money making scheme and not a game improvement plan.
Yes, they have to make money. Thatâs a given. But more and more they seem to make changes to the game with the sole intention of making money, regardless of whether it actually improves the game or not.
Which is sad. While people have tried to say Activision has no control over Blizzard, this does screams of Activision level tactics. You canât be in bed with dirtbags for long without their dirt rubbing off on you in one way or another.
Either this was pressure placed on them by Activision to increase profits, or theyâve been learning the wrong lessons on how to make a good game from Activision.
Either way, we the gamers, lose.
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Not only that but it pushes all the innovative and visionary people that care deeply about the service or product OUT. They can only compromise so far before giving up and moving on. Leaving behind only predatory sharks making decisions and their obedient drones.
Afterwards itâs just a downward slide into mediocrity.
Profit obsessed decision making
cost cutting, layoffs, less support, less communication
cancelling valuable competitive R&D investments because long term investments are less important than short-term cash grabs
creative decisions based on their ability to monetize, not how well they satisfy the customer base.
Iâve seen it over, and over and over. Both from within and without. Itâs not just Blizzard. Itâs one of the grossest parts of corporate maturation, and itâs as unstoppable as the tide.
So your spouse is the bread winner, or you have a second job?
Level Squish is another means for wow devs to waste more time fixing something that doesnât need fixing and then wasting more time fixing the bugs/unexpected results of the unneeded fix. As opposed to actually doing something new and interesting. or fixing real issues.
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Youâd be surprised at how well paid support staff are in a school district (except for school nurses⌠horrible pay). And I only work 195 days of the year and Iâm typically home before 3:00. Itâs a good life.
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