End the war on solo gameplay in WoW (Part 1)

[Snozh-malganis]

Thank you.

[Pyromor-shandris (Pyromor)]

You don’t read do you nor understand the principles he just said to thank to.omg.

[Snozh-malganis]

He agrees the game shouldnt cater to solo players. Do you even read?

[Phibbus-farstriders (Phibbus)]

@Snozh-malganis

@Eleusia-myzrael

This definition of casual gamer gets the most hits on Google:

Because that makes it credible? No it doesnt. If 5 million people say 2+2 is 5 that doesnt make it true.

Yeah, but with words, people agreeing what they mean is pretty much what makes them mean what they mean.

[Debbyfrowner-thrall]

I think blizzard equates solo gameplay with reputation grinding lol

[Sabbia-moonrunner (Sabbia)]

I don’t get how anyone could play this game alone. The game is shallow as hell outside of raids and dungeons. There are a million single player RPGs better than this trash lol.

[Eleusia-myzrael]

@Aonax-magtheridon

I don’t really understand why WoW needs to cater to a single player audience when its foundation was built on the concepts of playing with other people online.

Even in Vanilla WoW, many people leveled up and quested alone, and that was the foundation of WoW as they knew it.

@Aonax-magtheridon

The idea was going on adventures and making new friends. Exploring a world and conquering a world that felt like it was more alive as a result of there being other people playing along side you. If your looking for a single player RPG there are literally dozens and dozens out there so again why dose this one NEED to cater to a player based who chose to withdraw themselves from the idea of a living world?

No one is saying to make WoW single-player only, just to give solo players back their options for gearing up and doing content. Shadowlands is trying to kill the idea of playing WoW solo, but instead is killing the game. The past year has proven that WoW does in fact need its solo as well as its group players if it wants to earn back its glory as the top MMO.

And by the way, even many solo players enjoy the idea of a living world filled with other players, they just don’t want to be forced to group up to do artificially difficult content.

@Aonax-magtheridon

The game also has hundreds of hours of single player content you can engage in across its many previous expansions. There are hundreds of achievements which and be earned solo and even more quests which you can go and experience without a group. You can do battle pets, collect mounts, or even collect rare pets as a hunter. Literally hundreds of thousands of hours of content that can be completed as a single player.

This is all great for the people who enjoy collecting, but I enjoy actual combat, gameplay, and gearing up.

@Aonax-magtheridon

The reality is if Blizzard were to decide “hey lets make all raids and dungeons scale from a single person to 30 people” This would mean a number of things would haft to go in to re designing how they create encounters and instances.

If WoW did something like this, I would try it, but I don’t expect WoW to alter their formula for dungeons and raids or spend any extra development time on them.

The thing is, WoW could have the type of systems that appeal to solo and queue players without spending much extra development time at all, because that is how WoW used to be. Devs could add gear to existing content like island expeditions and Torghast. They could reimplement the actual Valor system of the past to let us earn Valor in all PvE content to be used at a Valor vendor. They could continue the Korthia upgrading system in 9.2.

But no. Blizzard refuses to do any of this, because they insist that you form your own groups and do artificially challenging content together to have any semblance of gear progression. Is this to boost token sales? Or to shepherd all players into the same manufacturable content to reduce development expenses? Or because appeasing the elitist minority is somehow supposed to save the game?

@Aonax-magtheridon

You sector of the community is rather un reasonable asking Blizzard to compromise a big part of the game identity because you are board.

As I explained above, WoW grew and reached its peak when it provided avenues for solo and queue players in addition to the more hardcore raids, and the addition of gear drops to solo content or increase in power levels to solo rewards would barely incur additional development expenses at all. The elitist sector is the unreasonable one for asking Blizzard to bomb its own game for no practical benefits.

@Aonax-magtheridon

Don’t expect developers to change there game for a minority or individual.

The majority of the playerbase is solo or casual in some way. Like a pyramid, the greatest number of players are at the bottom doing quests and queued content, and the closer you get to the top of the pyramid, there are fewer players doing the most difficult and exclusive content.

The developers did change their game for the elitist minority, and that is how we got Shadowlands instead of a banger expansion again like MoP or Legion.

[Arlifrex-moon-guard (Arlifrex)]

@Høneypøt-moon-guard

Personally, I do not want mythic raid gear as a mostly solo player bc I know how much they would cry about it.

Why wouldn’t mythic raiders be upset that the best gear can be awarded through solo play?

@Høneypøt-moon-guard

However, I do wish I could do casual random bgs with other casually geared players. I do not think that is asking too much?

When has anyone said that they’re happy with how pvp gearing works? Most PvPers have had a miserable experience this expansion. Top and bottom.

What’s the highest ilvl a solo player can get, and what form of raiding is that equal to?

[Kwashiorkor-ravenholdt]

The thing is if they start adding “solo” content then it’ll probably be too hard for the majority of players soloing so they start buying carries for said content.

It’s very hard for blizzard to hit that perfect spot where it feels like a good challenge for everyone involved but not going way over the top. The next issue is that when you create solo content like blizzard has done in the past so many things ruin it. If someone geared does it they just blast through it no time, then you have fail things like the recent mage tower(which again shows that blizzard has no idea what they’re doing). In the end most people will just find ways to cheese the game.

[Pyromor-shandris (Pyromor)]

@Kwashiorkor-ravenholdt

The thing is if they start adding “solo” content then it’ll probably be too hard for the majority of players soloing so they start buying carries for said content.

Maybe that is the reason why ,the raiders are upset .If people get solo content for gear they wouldn’t get the gold for carries.This isn’t the first time we had this same argument over gear in wq and I’m sure in times of desperation it would continue.

[Høneypøt-moon-guard]

I’m not crying about wanting mythic gear. You cut out the part where I wrote that I do not need it.

[Kaitashi-earthen-ring]

Actually the term ‘Welfare Epics’, dates to the first great Casual(Solo) vs Hardcore War during Vanilla.

The Casual(Solo) folks won that war and typically continues to do so as can be seen by the relative power of Korthia gear.

You will always have malcontents no matter what you do. But right now I think the poorly implemented level squish is exacerbating things. Further the current development team seems poorly directed and is flailing about trying to stanch the bleed out of subscribers.

IMO, they need new management with a clear vision for the future of the game, based on its original foundation.

[Snozh-malganis]

@Eleusia-myzrael

As I explained above, WoW grew and reached its peak when it provided avenues for solo and queue players in addition to the more hardcore raids, and the addition of gear drops to solo content or increase in power levels to solo rewards would barely incur additional development expenses at all. The elitist sector is the unreasonable one for asking Blizzard to bomb its own game for no practical benefits.

You’re literally delusional. There has never been a route for solo players to get gear until shadowlands.

[Arlifrex-moon-guard (Arlifrex)]

I didn’t say that you were. I said why wouldn’t mythic raiders be upset if the best gear is awarded through solo play.

[Høneypøt-moon-guard]

Sorry. I’m so used to ppl twisting my words on the forums.

[Swghoulz-thrall]

@Eleusia-myzrael

What would happen if solo players got a higher iLvl (not max of course)?

Solo players can already get 233 ilvl from just doing wow chores, while normal raid gives out 226 ilvl…

@Eleusia-myzrael

None of the elitists on this thread have given a coherent reason why it would be so bad

None of you “solo” players have given a coherent reason why you need even better than 233, while normal raid is 226.

@Eleusia-myzrael

Even in Vanilla WoW, many people leveled up and quested alone, and that was the foundation of WoW as they knew it.

Still an option. Ive leveled multiple toons, to 233 ilvl gear, completely solo.

@Eleusia-myzrael

just to give solo players back their options for gearing up and doing content. Shadowlands is trying to kill the idea of playing WoW solo,

SL is the most solo friendly gearing xpac yet.
Covenant sets being better than heroic dungeon gear (after upgrades)
Korthia gearing being better than Normal raid gear. (after upgrades)

Name 1 xpac with better solo gearing, and tell me how.
I’m waiting lol.

[Snozh-malganis]

Yay Someone that actually gets it.

[Swghoulz-thrall]

I CANT PET BATTLE, OR DO DAILIES WITHOUT MYTHIC RAID QUALITY GEAR, PLS FIX BLIZZ! LUL!

Man…

[Snozh-malganis]

My favorite is the “I want hard solo content”

Then they complain about struggling in Korthia.

[Sentenzà-illidan]

@Swghoulz-thrall

Solo players can already get 233 ilvl from just doing wow chores, while normal raid gives out 226 ilvl…

Indeed. I know some beer league players who aren’t playing right now because it was too easy to gear up this patch and they completed the content way too quickly due to open world gear trivializing progression.

If AOTC is your final end-game, completely skipping Normal raids hugely reduces the amount of time you spend playing a patch. One might even go as far as saying 9.1 suffered large sub loss specifically because they hurt much of their core player-base (Normal and AOTC Raiders) for a group of players who will contiue to play regardless of what ilvl open world gear is.

Open world players will take what they’re given as long as there is a treadmill to run on. However, Normal and AOTC raiders have concrete end-points and making gear too easy to attain can kill the longevity of a patch.

Blizzard is reverting the ilvl of open-world gear back to the “correct” way after the experiment was a total failure.