What if by “adding new content” will actually mean adding new content to the game on middle stage not only expanding endgame. What I mean is that patches and new releases for classic could be new content for the game on middle or beginning stage, like expanding the continents, adding more dungeons and raids, but it doesn’t mean to increase lvl to 70 or to increase value of items dropped from new dungeons or raids, new content should just add different possibilities, increase number of possibilities player can do during the game may be a great future for classic.
What i mean in short words maybe it is good idea to expand game not by adding new endgame content and then increasing levels but to expand number of possibilities that can be done in the game. For example again new raids can be added but the value of items of that raid wouldn’t be over better then classic raids they will be just different.
every next expansion make you fill that your past experience doesn’t make much sense as for example getting green item for first quest in BC could be better then raid item from classic.
What I mean by expanding the game is instead of adding new content that makes you as a hero more valuable ( like giving you better items from new raids, dungeons ) what if blizzard just add new content that is different ( not better items dropped from new raids but just different )
not really, by meaning “new content” it shouldn’t add better or more powerful gear, instead It could add just different gear so player will have way more possibilities to play the game without throwing the game to endless endgame best gear race.
But you can only have so many permutations of secondary stats on gear. If the gear isn’t better..then at some point you max out your gear and there is no reason to continue.
All that will happen is people will max their toon’s gear, then stop playing. Either make a new alt, or quit WoW all together. There is no incentive to stay playing.
There will be not such as “max gear” there will be tons of different possibilities that it will take years for players to discover the best combination of gears. New gear will come with expansion and it will not be just over better it will be different ( like new legendary weapon that is not better then Sulfuras for example but different)
It is not only about the story. It is about keeping players hooked by proposing them to get new gear. But that gear won’t be better it will be different, so players will have plenty of options to gear themselves.
It would not take years to discover the best combinations. The best combo would be known in about a single weekend.
New gear would be known if its ideal or not before it even hits live.
Because other media platforms that rely on good story (lets say single player games) have a finite ending. You play 60 hours, you beat the good story, you are done.
MMOs are designed to last longer.
I haven’t seen a game that keeps people playing nearly as long as an mmo because of the story.
They have the capacity to tell a good story IF and only if they are using original characters for it. I like to bring up the Suramar line, Mists of Pandaria, and the little zone specific questlines here. Because a lot of these have really well written dialogues because they were created and fostered by the current writing team. Anything to do with already existing characters or the faction war. However, is so horribly written that it makes the story cringe-inducing.
I think they could write better and more solid stories if they just focused on their own characters.
Thing is, fun is subjective. I have fun doing reputation grinds and I enjoy Pathfinder, two things universally hated. But everyone has an end hand goal in mind, and gear is a good way to define that. It’s part of why I dislike systems like Titanforging because it makes the grind faster and removes stuff to do in the end game.
New gear is what’s exciting about new content; when you’ve exhausted the gear acquisition from the previous content, you have nothing to look forward to. If you just kept adding new ways to get gear, but it’s not different, you would finish the content once and be done with it. And no developer can create as much content as a gamer can consume.
This sounds like a balancing nightmare, and also a huge issue. What if people want an end to their grind? I hate Titanforging because I feel like I should always be doing something to give me that chance at a proc. Your system sounds like you would never advance as a character, and once you have the BiS for yourself, it doesn’t matter what gets added into the game; you’ll do it once and forget about it. And again, developers can’t produce content as quickly as gamers can consume it.
Agree, what keeps players hooked is a chance to be better, to get better gear and improve your character infinitly. What I am saying is that it still can be done without actually losing the feeling of massive world and massive possibilities you can do as a player. Think about playing your character 60 lvl on a retail world where you have tons of raids and dungeons but they are all designed for 60 lvl.
In my opinion problem with new content is that it sucking off previous content so it is not important.
What if new content still can add better gear but not over better so new player still have to experience previous expansion.
Let me try to rephrase the problem I think is going to happen in my subjective opinion.
Every new expansion sold with an idea that it can be played independently. Like to play BC you don’t really need to care about classic content as it is become redundant it is way more efficient to prepare your character for BC raids by doing BC dungeons rather then classic raids, dungeons. There is a way to big gap in gear value. The content should add new gear, that gear should be different then previous expansion gears, but that gear shouldn’t be way too better so players can ignore previous expansion.
So what you’re saying is for people to play Battle for Azeroth, they have to play Classic, Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria, Warlords of Draenor, and Legion? That they have to gear up that way before getting gear in the current expansion?
This would be a horrific wall to any new player, to be barred entry from the current expansion without playing the previous ones.
You also bring up the idea that your character is level 60 and every raid and dungeon is open to you, but this is a balancing nightmare. Blizzard has a tough enough time balancing values between just a few items (Arcanocrystal says hello), and that’s just between what was added in the current expansion.
I think you’re going a little too overboard in the idea of keeping everything relevant.