Is WoW out of touch with it's core audience?

[Satryn-area-52 (Satryn)]

@Astroworld-turalyon

I cringe everytime I see someone say this. We have killed the lich king, gods, a cataclysmic dragon, and a titan. I would not make any sense for us to still be random travelers.

funny thing is the moment someone doesn’t treat them like a hero, say, Nathanos, they write a post complaining about it

[Daark-cenarius]

@Alseint-stormrage

are what hardcores have been wanting for years.

We tried catering to “hardcores.” That expac was called WoD. Ever notice how raid loggers and afk pvpers always reminisce about WoD?. How easy it was to get alts raid/ pvp ready. No “forced content” or “chores.”

It failed miserably.

[Phlynch-sentinels (Phlynch)]

@Grymauch-zangarmarsh

Not to be that guy, because GD really doesn’t need that guy… but were I an exec over at Acti-Blizz I would be extremely concerned and asking very pointed questions as to why the modern game that gets all the resources is merging servers due to lack of population, and the classic game that hasn’t changed in 20 years is locking servers due to too much population.

I’m extremely concerned too. Classic leveling is hell and I genuinely can’t imagine why anyone would subject themselves to it.

[Chroesire-bleeding-hollow (Chroesire)]

@Pikkarg-bleeding-hollow

There is no core audience. The entire WoW audience is vast, diverse and comes for different reasons.

So the right build for retail is an offering of a multitude of core gameplay features which mutually share a core gameplay reward structure.

This means in practice that:

1. Dungeons
2. Raids
3. Battlegrounds
4. World Quests
5. Mission Tables
6. Pet Battles
7. Scenarios
8. Arena

Should offer gear, gold and rep.

With each core gameplay feature offering additional feature-specific rewards like cosmetics, mounts, gear, etc.

This design is fool-proof for maintaining a diverse playerbase that comes to the game for its sandboxed nature. A do whatever floats your boat approach. If you just want to arena all expansion you can. If you just want to world quest all expansion you can. Etc, etc.

No more forcing people into a feature they dislike. No more telling players they have degenerate playstyles. No more big brother developer input.

Build it and they’ll come. Mudwhimp and you lose.

Agree, it’s not productive to position any particular piece of content as the “flagship” content while the rest withers away from lack of attention.

This includes things like changing “megadungeons” (aka dungeons before TBC/WotLK loothallification) so that they don’t turn irrelevant 3 weeks after release.

[Héarthas-dalaran]

@Dantëu-sargeras

I don’t like feeling like “a champion” I’d much rather be a random traveler in a living world instead of a Saturday morning cartoon fighting that weeks villain.

I’m nobody in the real world. When I go to fantasy world I want to be a champion. I mean, if you find more fun in being third generic grunt on the right for RP reasons, that’s fine, but the whole point of fantasy is to indulge in fantasy. For most of us this in the form of being a champion in said fantasy world.

@Dantëu-sargeras

Cata was fine until they added LFR

Ahh, the real reason for the thread.

[Pinar-stormrage (Pinar)]

No one does really. Go log onto even the most busy servers at peak time and you’ll find maybe a few people in places like goldshire / westfall. Everyones paying mages / paladins to boost them while they are tabbed out whining about how boring wow is on the forums.

[Alseint-stormrage]

I didn’t play WoD, but it seems like trying to attribute the failure of an expansion to harcores seems like a convenient and fallacious way to dismiss the good principles that “hardcore” philosophy embodies. I mean, alt-friendliness and less forced content are universal good things.

It’s easy to blame a player base for the downfall of an expansion. I can do it too.
"We already tried catering to ‘casuals’. That expac was called BfA. Ever notice how Rpers and casuals praise the zone design? How easy it was to get geared through world questing?

It failed miserably."

It’s not about catering to a player base, it’s about building a game based on good principles and that knows what each audience wants.

[Hammerdan-proudmoore]

They just opened up AQ on Classic and C’thun was killed in 36 minutes. The farming of once “the like hardest raid ever guys” has already begun.

[Eretflex-area-52]

@Dantëu-sargeras

Every time they reward skilled players the game does extremely well but each time to cater to the masses of lazy drooling gamers an expansion suffers.

Holy sweeping generalization batman!

WoD had challenge modes. Also it had a very nerfed LFR. Spoilers: people quit instead of raiding.

[Draxxion-zuljin]

Classic does not have as many servers as live is one reason.

[Aiyako-moon-guard]

@Gatteka-area-52

First we need to establish who WoW’s core audience is. Then the question can be answered.

My cat.

[Hellasha-alleria (Hellasha)]

Considering the info from the Q2 report,(hint: According to the data on the quarterly report the games doing good) I think the op is the only out of touch with who the core audience actually is.

[Eretflex-area-52]

Then the important question is do you cater the game to short hairs or long hair cats?

[Dantëu-sargeras]

@Eretflex-area-52

Then the important question is do you cater the game to short hairs or long hair cats

Laughs in feral druid Clearly short haired cats are superior.

[Arastan-stormscale]

No. The majority of there core players don’t come to the forums. They just play the game and take it in stride. I enjoyed this last update. I liked the corruption gear. The only people they are out of touch with us the griefers.

[Atulzan-thrall]

Even with inflated sub numbers you can’t deny it was a cultural phenomenon for years.

[Daark-cenarius]

@Alseint-stormrage

I didn’t play WoD, but

You still feel empowered to speak on it. It catered to hardcores and ulta casuals. Raiding as the only high end content, meaningless pvp character progression, and free gear/ gold/ profession mats by afking in a garrison. Alts for days.

It was the best WoW version for players at the opposite ends of the bell curve. It was just trash for everyone in the middle.

@Alseint-stormrage

"We already tried catering to ‘casuals’. That expac was called BfA

Yup, spamming 15s, 5 masks, and 2200+ rating for quality gear, definitely what I think of when I think of casual gameplay.

@Alseint-stormrage

I mean, alt-friendliness and less forced content are universal good things.

Not really. I don’t judge the quality of a game by how little there is to do and how quickly I can log off. Nor do I judge a character progression based game off how quickly your alt can catch up to a character I’ve spent years on.

WoD players think 2-4 days is right. LoL.

I love when people say they are “forced.” Like Blizzard has a gun to your head. You aren’t forced to do keys or dailies. They just actually have worthwhile bonuses now, instead of xpacs like WoD, where they gave nothing of value and as a result, no one did them.

[Tematare-moon-guard (Tematare)]

@Daark-cenarius

We tried catering to “hardcores.” That expac was called WoD. Ever notice how raid loggers and afk pvpers always reminisce about WoD?. How easy it was to get alts raid/ pvp ready. No “forced content” or “chores.”

It failed miserably.

Link to your source.

Didn’t think so.

Who is the “we” you’re speaking for? Are you a dev now? Your account hasn’t been played in years except for a few dungeons during legion.

[Eretflex-area-52]

@Dantëu-sargeras

Or where you could get mythic ilvl rewards by doing a phone game? Yeah sure, okay buddy.

You had to get 15 heroic kills… Somthing many casuals wouldn’t have. EVERYONE was getting insane gold… Not just casuals.

[Daark-cenarius]

@Tematare-moon-guard

Link to your source.

Link to my source? where pvp only players cite WoD as the best gear system, specifically because it was easy for alts to gear in a weekend and that ultimately the gear didn’t matter with no pve items… There are more than 5 separate active threads that discuss it on these forums…

Notice how they never pick TBC or Wrath gear.

@Tematare-moon-guard

Your account hasn’t been played in years except for a few dungeons during legion.

LoL.