Not all achievements are created equal. On the 1 hand, we have a hunter who’s 8 or 9/10 M across 2 toons, on the other we have a druid who looks like they purchased AOTC.
1 Like
I raid mythic and I can say without a doubt that for the most part I’m very relaxed and unconcerned while I’m playing. Granted, I’m by no means in a world first or cutting edge guild, but we are still killing mythic bosses while they’re current. Does that not make me a casual mythic raider? Because that’s what I consider myself.
Casual is a state of mind when it comes to video games, it’s not necessarily tied to the content that you’re doing or how much time you’re putting into it. I think that’s why people can’t agree on what a “casual” gamer is. It’s highly subjective for each individual.
And to be fair, you seem to be implying that if someone isn’t using the textbook definition of casual that they’re wrong. Yet you’re also saying that “the meaning of words and how they are used is fluid and constantly changing. No word has an objective, permanent definition in all contexts–especially words and terms that have emerged relatively recently.”
3 Likes
That’s really rich coming from you two. You both come across as the “I don’t know enough about the game to realize that I’m dogsh!t at it” types. Either that or this is just plain old intentional stupidity for the sake of starting a war on christmas but with low effort world gear.
Definition of casual on Merriam-Webster:
- subject to, resulting from, or occurring by chance
- occurring without regularity
- feeling or showing little concern
- informal
So you two were debating casual mindset vs casual schedule.
1 Like
The simple answer is no–I don’t think think they can do anything to get to the same level of success they used to be at. The market is too filled with other competition, and the gearing progression system is a major turn off to far too many gamers today.
Back when WoW launched it had about 4-5 years (think 2007-2010) is when Social Media blew up in the US. WoW had 3 years before Social Media and it’s biggest competition was EQ which divided it’s base, and was considerably harder than WoW used to be. So naturally with the success of WC3 and Blizzard’s IP behind them the game took off like a rocket. They eliminated the need for group-based leveling. Added actual questing into the game, and the combat was more action oriented than it’s predecessors which made the game more fun for more people.
WoW then reigned supreme in MMOs from 2007-2017 I’d say. 10 solid years on top. Then around 2017 during Legion, cracks began showing up, despite that Legion was hailed as WoW’s comeback, what it led to was actually more stagnation of the game as we saw 2 expansions that followed Legion that were basically carbon copies, with a few systems changed here and there.
What we’re seeing now is WoW being old, and draconian in how it treats players and as a result the market reacted and in the last year we’ve seen Earnings reports that indicate a dwindling number of MAUs but and increased rate of the remaining MAUs using the in-store features to prop up profits.
WoW largely according to Fortune last night isn’t as big of a money maker that CoD is or CC is, but it does churn a profit, but just not the massive profit those two games generate. Now we have a new Director from MS who wants to increase players in WoW. Well they’ll do this by xplatform first, then if they’re serious about it, they’ll start examining the gearing progression and what’s “fun” in this game. Despite it’s reasonable profit Activision cancelled their earnings call because Vanguard isn’t selling as well as they anticpated. Which we can infer that if CoD or CC performs badly the company would cancel their investment call, which means that WoW isn’t holding the company up as well as many WoW players would lead you to believe.
I have a feeling a ton of white knights are in for a rough time ahead if MS is committed to adding people.
4 Likes
I agree, actually.
I’m not actually implying this at all. My post is a direct response to another person who keeps insisting that ONLY his definition is right, and everyone else is objectively wrong:
What I am actually saying is that if someone is using the textbook definition, they are NOT wrong, precisely because that definition is in the textbook. Saying they are “not wrong” does not mean they are the only ones who are right. “A person who does something irregularly” is also a dictionary definition for casual. So he is definitely not wrong to understand the term in this way, but neither is the person who is trying to define it in terms of being “relaxed and unconcerned.” Both are accurate.
If you consider yourself a casual Mythic raider, that’s fair. But I think it’s also fair to say that getting to the point where you can casually Mythic raid likely required a level of skill and dedication (even if it was slowly over the course of 17 years) that would be outside some other people’s idea of what it means to be casual.
Or maybe you’re just naturally good at video games. That’s okay, too. I’m not saying your opinion is wrong, and I’m not saying Snozh’s opinion is wrong. Both of you have valid opinions on what constitutes “casual.”
But I AM saying that it is wrong for him to tell everyone else his opinion is objectively right and they are complete morons for applying the literal definition of the word “casual” to their understanding of what “casual gamer” means.
I also invited him to share his source for his opinion, as I’m actually curious if there is an official definition somewhere that DOES explicitly exclude the commonplace dictionary definition of “casual” from being applied in this context.
1 Like
Kinda, these two things aren’t mutually exclusive. You can be solo but not casual, or casual but not solo, and you can be a solo casual.
1 Like
There is a huge difference in that they don’t have anything intrinsically shared. Nothing about playing casually makes you play solo and at least in a few people’s views people playing solo are not necessarily casual thus a “war on solo players” isn’t a war on casual players. It’s kind of like if you said you don’t care for spiders and then someone was like why do you hate pets?
3 Likes
I’m going to guess that number is vanishingly small. 30 alts through ICC? Yep. Through Sha of Anger? Yep. SoO? Yep. LFR? C’mon, that makes zero sense.
Ha! If only. I’m sure we’d all still be arguing over what a casual is regardless though, lol. Gotta love GD.
Yeah, I definitely agree with you on that. I’m not sure there is an exact definition for the term casual in regards to video games, and honestly, I’m not sure there ever will be. It’s a very fluid term. Defining things that are by nature subjective is like trying to herd cats into a swimming pool - frustrating for everyone involved and someone’s gonna get scratched.
4 Likes
Yes, the definitions you found for “casual” were pretty typical of any dictionary. I was saying that both were equally possible definitions.
Even when applied to “casual gamer”, casual can refer to intensity or regularity. Language is a complex, subjective phenomenon, and different people can use the same word to refer to different things.
Rather than a debate, it was more like he was trying to say that I was wrong for thinking there could be multiple meanings to the word. I was wrong for even accepting his definition…
What? I know nothing about the game and I am a bad player just because I am asking for the game to be better again for predominantly solo players?
1 Like
So b/c you play more, even tho its trivial content…
you expect better rewards than CE players?
Me, personally? I think rewards should be commensurate to the challenges involved; the harder the challenge, the better the rewards. That’s RPG design 101 since the 70’s.
6 Likes
I think the term “casual” shouldn’t be taken as a measure of time played, but effort put in.
I think that’s where the main confusion lies. No one is saying solo players don’t play a lot (I mostly play solo, quite a bit), its meant to mean that those players are basically playing on “story mode”. (not doing hard content)
Accept his ongoing nag about Player Housing…We can’t even get past the gear and casual issue and now were suppose to care about doing house hold chores…dribble
Just stop you are already getting your way in 10.0…I mean for the next couple years we are going to get “Remember the good old elitism days” on the forums…the Solo players won, nothing left to say.
Your nonsensical statement that ignores almost 20 years of being able to get gear outside of group activity, compounded by calling someone else delusional.
1 Like
But the group content available in WoW doesn’t apply to solo players, so we have challenges that can’t be met because the rewards aren’t available. That is very poor RPG design.
Solo content should be balanced around the solo power rewards available. Then we can talk about proper RPG design.
What game are you playing because it certainly wasn’t WoW.
WoW has been raid or die since beta.
1 Like
That’s true, because every time they’ve attempted to add challenging solo content to the game, the solo playerbase erupts in protest.
Every. Time.
4 Likes