I think M+ only appeals to small segment of the player base

Community General Discussion
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I was looking over the stats over at Data for Azeroth, basically looking at the completion rates for the various keystone achievements.

Just looking at the data, it seems like a lot of the player base really doesn’t push M+.

I looked at the Keystone Explorer achievement which would is the easiest to get and the season with the most participation was DF season 1 with 43% of the accounts on Data for Azeroth had this achievement. The rest of the seasons for SL and in DF only averaged around 30% of accounts got this achievement. Which really shows that people aren’t really engaging with M+ as their end game.

I think the changes to M+ in season 4 and TWW is Blizzard trying to get more participation in the system, mainly due to the lack of people enaging with M+.

My point in making this post, it just feels so much of the end game is being designed around content that only about a third of the player base cares about. Raiding and rated PVP has suffered immensely when it comes to class design, because classes are being designed around M+.

The burn-out for casual raiding guilds is huge as well, so many guilds push their players to grind M+ to help them with progress in raid.

I know some of you will come at me on this topic. I’ve been an extremely vocal person when it comes to M+. I think the system has done more harm to WoW than good. I understand there is a segment of players that love it, I get it, small group content is way more accessible than raiding.

I think M+ was a cool idea in Legion, but what it has evolved into now just feels like it doesn’t belong in a casual MMO like WoW.

Edit: Here are the achievement rates for Keystone Explorer for the last 2 expansions

SL season 1: 35%
SL season 2: 32%
SL season 3: 30%
SL season 4: 26% <— fated season

DF season 1: 43%
DF season 2: 35%
DF season 3: 36%
DF season 4: 28% ← fated season

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43% is way higher than I would expect. How are those stats collected? Are users adding their profile themselves?

Do you have stats for similar level achievements in raiding and pvp?

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They scrape the armory.

43% was for only one season.

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M+ is bad, that’s why. It has a core userbase of extremely vocal players who insist they love it, but mostly it’s just annoying. Few rewards, annoying mechanics, and worst of all, extremely toxic people who regularly participate in it.

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M+ lacks cosmetics rewards. Just one boring mount is not enough.

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What’s bad is raiding and pvp. rbgs were really fun in the start of shadowlands. No one ever does them anymore. Raiding is a has been activity.

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Well that’s what everyone says that can’t hack it in m+.

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PvP is played by nearly nobody.

Raiding (if you don’t count lfr) is also played by nearly nobody

Seems like m+ is experienced more than any other type of end game.

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Eh, cosmetics don’t matter

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30-40% is a good participation rate IMO. I think a large chunk of players are casual and just stick to LFR/normal raids and heroic dungeons.

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So wait… a quarter of the players are doing a specific type of content, and you’re claiming that’s a failure? That sounds like pretty decent participation to me, but the numbers would be a lot more meaningful in the context of a comparison of how many people do heroic or mythic raiding, and how many do arena PvP. I’d be really shocked if arena participation is anywhere close to 25% of the playerbase.

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It’s the only thing that matters.

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It’s also used by several different camps of people who don’t mix well:

Group 1 are the people who don’t really do much in the game, but have looked at where they can upgrade their gear and M+ stands out because all the game’s welfare loot has convinced them that what they should be doing isn’t worth their time. “I’m here because this is the only place I can get upgrades,” even though the content is far too difficult for them.

Group 2 are the people who can handle it, but are only there for the welfare gear. They max out at Great Vault top gearing level, and generally stick to 8 dungeons a week, tops.

Group 3 are the people who actually enjoy M+ and will run it past the weekly cap.

Group 4 are the score chasers. This is by far the smallest group.

The most toxic folks seem to be Group 1, and the people who think they belong in Group 4 but really don’t.

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You’re exactly the type of player I’m talking about and the reason M+ will continue to decline in popularity.

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Probably as many people are doing M+ as are raiding. More people got S1 KSM than AOTC Raszageth.

Only 55% of profiles have cleared Vault of the Incarnates, so 43% of profiles having S1 KSE which is a feat of strength would seem favorable considering how many more resources need to be put into developing raids.

It’s really not accurate to say only a small part of the population plays it.

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It could have zero achievements, zero cosmetic items, zero titles to chase, and I’d still love it

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That’s because KSM is a participation trophy. KSM is comparable to finishing the raid on Normal, or maybe LFR.

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It really is, 5s/15s aren’t hard, m+ doesn’t really get hard until after the rewards end

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Nah, KSM is as much of a participation trophy as AOTC is.

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raiding is what the masses truly want. Big, epic raids.

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