How To Fix World of Warcraft And Make It The Most Profitable Game In The Market Today
By: Simplejakk
If you’re reading this then you’re likely either someone that plays WoW or you’re a developer at Blizzard. As a player in recent times, you’ve probably hit this point where the game is feeling stale with nothing to do while you’re waiting for a new content patch – as a developer, you’re genuinely curious as to how you can increase your profits with minimal effort. I am here to solve both problems while also providing Blizzard with a surplus of time to develop new and polished content.
It is no surprise that World of Warcraft is one of the most successful games of all time but the legacy has been on a steady decline since the end of WotLK. Blizzard has realized that recycled content can potentially be a massive honey pot and many players are beyond excited to relive that content due to a wild amount of nostalgia. But why were the earliest expansions so successful and what drove players to quit? Let’s first take a look at what World of Warcraft Classic has exposed as the most notable and memorable moments during its duration.
Without a doubt, the most incredible moments of World of Warcraft Classic were the beginning of Phase 2, the opening of AQ and tandem war effort, acquiring valuable worldly materials and items (Black Lotus, Tidal Charm, etc) and the frustration of the world buff meta.
When Phase 2 launched, the only way to acquire honor was to kill players in the open world. Out of nowhere, 40-man teams sprung up in every high level zone, constantly patrolling and seeking blood wherever players congregated. If you were one of those unfortunate players that was trying to farm resources, you were forced to become a social butterfly and build/join your own group for either protection or so you could farm your own honor. After a point, most players on the server knew the names of the most notorious and bloodthirsty killers. This was also the case during the AQ event; with massive 200 vs 200 battles all within a single zone for two straight weeks, the “War” in World of Warcraft made the time spent there feel impossible yet exciting and rewarding. Lastly, when it came to world buffs, you were scared to enter zones like Felwood or Dire Maul – every group or guild had a scout and every movement in or out of the zones had to be coordinated because the fear of death or dispels was something to be frightened of.
This leads me to my first suggestion: Force players out into the world for their PvP content .
But, how can this be done while also preserving battlegrounds and arenas? Using the current system, only allow players to rank up their conquest gear by meeting rating requirements in rated content (while also providing exclusive mounts, transmog, etc) but don’t reward honor or conquest for a win. In unrated battlegrounds or skirmishes, make this the only content where conquest can be earned as well as 10 honor per win. Next, award players 200 honor per player kill only in the open world. Finally, only allow players to gather materials or use a flying mount with ‘War Mode’ off and only allow players with ‘War Mode’ on to gather materials while restricting flight. Since players would flock to the wilderness to beef up their PvP gear, a huge gold sink will inherently be created as the entire WoW economy would no longer be run by herb bots or casual gold farmers. You would also force players to band together to farm valuable resources as well as create the excitement of a living and threatening world of war or have scouts or commissioned summoners.
My second suggestion: Create epic battles.
There was a time where players would try to invade capital cities. If you managed to kill the leader of each opposing capital city, you were even awarded with a special mount. But, once you’ve acquired this mount, you will likely never return since it was such an incredible and stressful feat in the first place. In order to persuade players back into enemy territory, create a rotation of world bosses where the leader of a capital city is considered a world boss that drops guaranteed mythic-level loot from the current raid. If defending, award a ½ currency for defending within a predetermined time for a guaranteed mythic-level piece of loot from the current raidas well since it’s easier to defend than to attack. While this wouldn’t be mandatory, it would certainly create appealing opportunity for any member of the opposing faction.
Third Suggestion: Recycle old content.
We currently have 9 eras of World of Warcraft while only utilizing 1/3 of the most current expansion this day in age… That is A LOT of old unused content! It has already been proven that players want to relive certain aspects from past expansions but how can we easily create that with minimal effort? Allow old raids to drop the same ilvl loot as the current raid but release the old raids on a schedule. Now, you’re probably thinking that this would be a bit broken or biased towards world first players. My response: “So what”? There is no prestige in clearing old content because it has already been done so world first players will ALWAYS prefer the newest raid. If they do decide to do old content for gear, they’re taking time away from learning the mechanics of the new raid thus punishing the investment of re-progressing through old raids. Also, the best items in any given expansion tend to come from the last raid in that expansion. If raids are released on a schedule, world first players really won’t gain an advantage by farming gear that was made available from the tier prior. You’re probably saying, “Molten Core is super easy to clear”! Yes, but Molten Core is only available in ‘Normal’ mode. All Blizzard has to do is copy the loot table a couple of times and increase health and damage by x-percent for their new ‘Heroic’ and ‘Mythic’ modes, they don’t even have to add new mechanics. This should be easily done since it’s how M+ works today.
Final Suggestion: Make all existing tier sets and legendary items relevant.
Some of you might say that certain combinations of tier armor or legendaries would be broken. The thing to remember is that you would still have to progress through this content and farm up these items. Imagine being a world first raider and wanting ‘Warglaives of Azzinoth’ or ‘Thunderfury’. Progressing through old content and hoping for a super rare drop isn’t practical for world first raiding. Additionally, legendary items can be easily gated by only allowing 1 at a time and eventually adding more. This would, however, be attempted to some degree by some guilds out there. Once a guild has cleared the current content, they probably have near BiS gear. They will only find very slight upgrades by trying to farm up tier sets or legendary items from older raids.
Just imagine if Blizzard made these changes. They would create so much content that anyone who has ever played can do whatever they want from any era and still feel as if they’re progressing. Even after clearing the first tier of the newest raid, you could then go to Molten Core or Gruul’s Lair or Highmaul for a very slight upgrade on some aspect of your gearing. All of this would require minimal resources on Blizzard’s end and would provide them with all of the time in the world to develop and polish the newest and most exciting content while attracting anyone who has ever enjoyed any expansion of World of Warcraft. And, don’t forget, the world would feel more alive and robust than ever - social groups would be made and player reputation would matter.
Blizzard, if you want to make more money than ever before, just open the flood gates. Let players feel the excitement of Ulduar once again, create real danger in the wild and just allow us to have an epic experience. Let players truly play the way they want and they’ll happily throw you every dime they have.
Regards,
Simplejakk-Deathwing
