At the beginning of the next x-pack make all paths (raiding, pvp, M+, crafting, and solo scenarios) award the max level gear. Track the player base and see which path is most popular. Ignore the loudest voices, the content creators, the elites, just as well as the very vocal casuals. Instead, let the numbers speak for themselves.
If at the end of the experiment you find that an overwhelming majority of players prefer solo content, direct development in that direction. If you find that raiding or M+ is most popular, head in that direction. If PVP is the most popular, force PVP on everyone cause the numbers will justify it. If all of a sudden everyone picks up crafting and would rather craft their end level gear, make it happen!
Develop WOW according to what the players want to do, who cares where it started, take it in the direction of the majority rule, and add in caveats for players who like to do those other things.
I think this is inevitable, and my bet is that solo content will continue to grow and come to dominate WOW. The concept of guilds and raiding is so dated, the only thing that is keeping it alive are the races for world first. I suspect the crafting of legendries is just the beginning, and by next expansion there will be a lot more geared toward the solo player.
I have to disagree, think about this, covenants give you the ability to get some armor, true its not comparable to raid/M+ now, but the ability to upgrade is there, also, borghast, that is viable solo content, I believe that although you can group it, they are testing it as a path for end game solo content, and of course legendaries these are upgradable as well.
I feel your pain, as they have basically capped solo content for the time being, but I can see that, perhaps, even by the end of this expansion there will be a very high level of gear obtainable via solo content.
The older any MMO gets, the more prevalent solo players are. Its inevitable. Heck I would even go so far that Mboxers become more prevalent past a certain point. Look at EQ1, so many Mboxers there since its allowed as long as they werent using bot programs.
In a week a lot then the majority of the active player base would all being doing whatever activity rewards the fastest. That is what history shows in all MMORPGs.
At this point I would be so grateful for AI teammates just to get people who would be willing to play with me and still be nice to me even though I suck
This is the company that has a secret forum, the only one they care to listen to, full of players representing the smallest fraction of the playerbase.
But they’re still doing group content in a group. Even if that group is just you, you’re paying for multiple accounts for multiple toons to do multiple people things
you’re going to be eating those words, dollars to doughnuts - doesn’t matter where a game started, it matters who pays the bills, and truth is I’m willing to bet a lot more people who don’t care about min maxing or group content or elite level stuff are the majority, enjoy while you can cause the day is coming soon mark my words.
While true, there’s no WoW single player rpg. As a matter of fact there’s a bunch of IPs that dont have a single player version because the IP owners prefer having a monthly income. For people who want to play a specific IP, they have no choice. So its up to the devs to accomodate that slice of the consumer pie.
Gear is a means to an end. This isn’t 2004 anymore and we have limited time stuff now.
So long as there’s a difficulty curve for all forms of content, there’s nothing wrong with being able to gear through different ways.
If clearing Twisting Corridors 8 solo gave a singular piece of high end gear a week, I’d be all for that and would likely solo gear my alts that way - while keeping my main progression characters geared through raids and PvP like usual.
Really wish they’d just realize this and let us gear however we enjoy, and just put better and more cosmetics all over the place and let us earn them at our own pace.
Depends on the term “casual”. While I fully heartedly agree that casuals are the majority, in which I fall, I don’t want the game to become a single player game. Would be stupid to play for 7 hours and “beat” the game.
While still being a casual, I enjoy the MMO side of the game.
