Bring back mage tower

Community General Discussion
101

This is pretty simple to explain.

Do medals and trophies go away? No they don’t.
Maybe not the EXACT same reward, but the competition itself remains.

So what is the content here? Because it’s not the medal or the trophy.
The competition itself is the content.

The trophy may be the motivation, but the content itself remains; the exact same can be said for the Elite PvP rewards. But for something like the Mage Tower, there’s no reason to change (or remove) the reward.

Now, with that out of the way, just had to think a bit and I’ve figured out WHY I have such a strong dislike for time-sensitive and exclusive rewards.

It’s a Skinner Box reward structure.

Another, more formal name is “operant conditioning”… and it almost turns into a semi-willful form of mind control. Other terms are “seduced” and “indoctrinated”, and the sheer amount of resistance I’m encountering almost seems like I’m talking to the most fervent of zealots.

Here’s a quick education on it:

To give a breakdown of how this structure works…

  • Time-sensitive content is added. This fact is HEAVILY advertised.
  • Players rush to complete the content before it goes away, or else they can’t get it later.
  • Players complete content, are happy they have something “special”.
  • NEW time-sensitive content is added after the last one is done. This new content is HEAVILY advertised, just like the last one.
  • Repeat this cycle a few times, and players become not just used to this reward structure… but are EXPECTING it. They’ve been conditioned to not just do this time-sensitive content cycle, but like it.

I did a bit of research on the topic during my time at university, and it is VERY popular in modern game design… in fact, the whole micro-transaction basis for a lot of the industry right now is built around ABUSING this concept to its fullest.

Needless to say, I have a strong dislike for these reward structures whenever I encounter them… almost instinctively, I didn’t quite clue in that it applied to this particular case until I thought about it not that long ago.

In theory, the concept can also be used to encourage positive behaviour as well… but very rarely do you see that put into practice. More often than not, it’s only used to line someone’s pockets.

And with that, I’ve said my piece.
Take it or leave it.

1 Like
102

…So you’re telling me that because a large chunk that play the game will up and leave due to this. It doesn’t matter, who cares if they leave, let’s let the game die?

And this mentality is what would end up killing the game, the complete lack of caring if people will leave because they’d have lied. Just… wow. This response is the most telling here.

5 Likes
103

It’s impossible to do this. We don’t even have half the abilities or any of the Legendaries we used to in Legion. They’d have to remake the entire thing to base it around the new abilities and traits.

Challenge Modes have existed since Mists. Elite PvP appearances and Glad mounts have existed for even longer.

No one is being even more selfish or egotistical.

Challenge Mode PvE and Elite PvP appearances are fine to stay limited time. There’s no huge amounts of elitism of drama or selfishness from people concerning this.

I only have two MT appearances, no Elite appearances and no former CM appearances. I’m not entitled enough to ask Blizz to give me limited time stuff that I didn’t get back then.

3 Likes
104

Honestly people wouldnt leave the game if they brought it back. I’d honestly think it would do nothing more then give people something else to achieve.

105

I don’t even need to read further. Your answer is staring you in the face right in front of you. It’s literally right there. The competition remains. Hence why gladiator continues, and hence why people keep asking for more challenge modes, because you’re right. It’s still there. The rewards are different, just like with every single competition, yeah.

6 Likes
106

I mean, you can fool yourself by saying this all you want, go ahead. It simply is untrue. :woman_shrugging:

2 Likes
107

You would love it. Stop speaking for other people, start speaking for you. Your argument loses all merit when you do this.

8 Likes
108

Well, seemingly I’ve talked to quite a few players that want to go back and get the ones they didnt get. I’m pretty sure I’m not speaking for all but I know there are those who would like to see it come back.

109

So basically, you’re saying you don’t care about the health of the game. You just want to get your own way. Got it.

4 Likes
110

You kind of just put your hoof in your mouth with this one, mate. The reward not being the exact same is what we want: we want the completion, we want the challenge, and we don’t want the exact same reward. Literally what we’re advocating here.

4 Likes
111

They should just add the appearances to the vendor on the broken shore and let you buy them with nethershards.

Then you can easily solo farm them all for your collection. It’s a bit of a time investment, but easily doable for everyone that would want them.

112

Probably the most discouraging thing to me in wow is how frequently they diminish effort through handouts. That move (which they wont make) could be a final straw for many people

Well that sucks. Maybe they will be more active during the next challenge so as to avoid missing out again

3 Likes
113

Ok… so don’t go for them then.

Ok…so don’t go for it then, and to add, go for the thousands upon thousands of other rewards in the game.

Like I said in my previous response, you answered everything for me right there. Humanity has been doing competitions and rewards for them for almost all of history. There is your answer.

4 Likes
114

And here on the forums, you can see there is dissenting view. We can only speak for a few droplets of individuals, so arguments are far better when you speak for only yourself.

4 Likes
115

Irrelevant. You do not speak for them. Get them in this thread to support you and voice that they are. It’ll help your argument more. You are not their champion, nor are you their saving grace. Stop acting like it.

6 Likes
116

Cool, and then there’s the other side, which is clear in this very thread.

4 Likes
117

The health of the game isnt going to be effected by bringing back content. Why do you think there are private servers for prior expansions of wow people want the content back! They want to experience the game. Hence why blizzard is bringing back classic they want to bring back players… And in the end game its all a money game. If you want to talk statistics

118

You dont know that

119

You know that works the other way too, right?

3 Likes
120

I can see locking certain things like Hand of A’Dal or the Amani War Bear. However, it is unusual for Blizz to lock content.

The Mage Tower was really the only difficult solo content that they’ve ever made and a lot of people enjoyed it. They should bring it back, but make it scale to current level or make a Mage Tower 2.0 with different rewards.