I absolutely agree. This game SHOULD cater to its audience. But i expect there are genuine realities at play like job losses, budget cuts and funding on the line. This expansion is a hail mary.
Hang on, let me explain.
Vanilla to TBC was guided by ‘the donut’.
The objective was to bring players from the casual base into the yummy jammy core where the interesting stuff happens. Id argue, this is exactly the predicament of modern wow and if it would just look to its past, it might save the game, but as you say, its a dead and dying game and perhaps it just needs 50K core players to keep it on life support.
Around wotlk, the design philosophy completely transitioned. It went from the donut to the 15 minute hero. I remember them at the time explicitly talking about it. You get home at lunch, you want to fire up some wow… maybe run a bg, maybe heal a dungeon… this was the experience. In and out, zero commitment. Do some dailies… run a heroic… play some arena.
The next big change was… around wod, wasnt it? E-sports.
The ladder. Progression, progression, progression. Youre not just raiding. Youre competing. The game is now stratifying you. Everyone can figure out their place. This game is now competitive.
And here we are. SLs is the end of the third era and moving into the next era. Its easy to slip into a kind of inevitability (all is for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds), but perhaps the game doesnt have to be in terminal decline. At its core, i think its a great game. I think the community kind of sucks. But i think the game is really good. Its in another transitional phase, so perhaps we shouldnt be accusing one another of [insert pejorative] and instead be looking at how we might make this game a titan of the genre again appealing to multiple play styles. All it needs is LITERALLY the tiniest of compromises.
Sorry, im thinking out loud The point is, this game is kind of awesome, but it has real issues (and we shouldnt pretend they dont exist). And they need to be addressed. Ralph believes gear is a big one (i also believe gear should overlap the various spheres if we’re going to get anywhere), but for me, the problem is… well, the playerbase. Theyre kind of demanding. Theyve played this game for a long time (the average age of the wow player follows the line of the age of the game to an alarming degree). So its understandable they have high expectations. But… are there ways around this perhaps to encourage new or returning players to stick around? Im kind of an optimist here. We dont need to shower them with gear to keep them invested. Instead we need to re-evaluate what the ‘core’ is. And look at ways we can widen access to this through the (already designed) current systems of the game.
As a pure hypothesis: Lets look at Mythic dungeons. At high keys OF COURSE you need to select your team. But at lower keys… what if you put it on the dungeon finder? What are the negatives? Some trolling? Afking? Sure, but most people would still do the thing properly. Theyd learn the mechanics, theyd learn the skips and shortcuts… and they’d learn the rhythm and expectation. Put 3 mythic dungeons on LFD and you have a turbo elevator from the casual game to the real end game. At that point, what is the difference (once youve spent a decent amount of time playing LFD) from running a 3 key on lfr and hosting your own key on LFG? NONE. NONE at all. Once you understand the dungeon and affixes, why wouldnt you make your own group for a level or two above? Youve spent time in that dungeon. You understand the fights, you grasp the pace, you have a series of techniques to beat the time. You also have some sense of the difficulty curve. Why not, then, list your own group and be responsible for it?
Or Flex. As it existed in panda. Keep it on LFG if you like. But breaking a raid into wings on normal give folks looking to progress a foothold on the weekend when people are literally looking for anyone to help them clear (i was a recipient of panda flex so i know theyll take anyone eventually). Again, you have a real taste of the ACTUAL mechanics (not just a hall and mirrors light show). Its a bridge between the casual game and the end game. Normal and flex should coexist. Normal = guild; flex = wings. Same level, just different mechanisms. Its a softening of the boundaries encouraging take-up. How can that not be a good thing? Those flex raiders might even find normal or heroic raiders looking for quality players to deal with the dearth of players given the collapse of subs to 50K.
These are avenues to move players from the casual game to the hardcore game and KEEP their subs because they see the value in progression (instead of a massive psychological wall). Perhaps then, the game can have its cake and eat it?
And look at that. I solved the three competing interests. Rewards stay as they are (with only minor modification - limited overlap). Casuals have a progression avenue free from judgement in the trial phase of group content, and blizzard recreate the donut which has been lost since TBC.
I still havent fixed absolute casuals mind you, so two words: Crafting/housing. Engage them with the economy. Make patterns mean something. The death of this game isnt remotely inevitable. But casual or hardcore alike it really feels like many of you want it dead. Perhaps you need to be a touch less nihilistic.
