You totallyt get it, lets filter any reward desing against a Reward Dev response:
He mentioned:
I’ve done the event a dozen times a day on my characters before in previous years and probably would be doing it again this year if I didn’t have other real-life stuff going on.
The same player base that started WoW now has kids and multiple responsabilities, the game changes a lot and the reward path should be adjusted accordingly.
Then Reward Dev provides the best optimal option:
Right now, if you want to maximize your chance of getting the mount, it’s in your best interest to repeat this event every day on as many characters as possible. That’s… mathematically correct, but not a great experience.
This doesn’t mean its going to be valid option next year, next expansion when the zone has less players, also the most important part, he mentioned “not a great experience”, players aren’t complaining about mounts in 10.2 as much compared to druid forms, because mounts have a clear path, bad luck protection in this patch and active gameplay compared to waiting a rare respawn for 2-3 hours.
A lot of people just like to turn our feedback into “players are complaining for free handouts” or “they’re complaining after 1 day, 1 week”, We’re complaining because there’s not a clear path to our goal that’s a cosmetic, it could be 99% drop rate that someone will miss it multiple times and that involves a lot of time that you’re just waiting the respawn.
Rewards have a lot of variants that should be considered:
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Its a fun experience, how do you achieve those rewards?
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Time between attempts, can you farm it multiple times per day, week…etc, Can you do your attempt after loggin? or do you need to wait for a random respawn in X spot
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Acquisition ratio, Its the drop % low, high
Devs should consider how these rewards will be grind today, next patch, next expansion, therefore; you’ll have a reward that won’t need changes in the future.
Like Mechadone was changed in the middle of SL, because the original values were bad for a reward path like this meta achivement.
Or how Devs responded to Holidays drops, World bosses drops…Is a good experience to roll a dice every 20-30 minutes for an item? When the fight only last few seconds?
Its important to consider those aspects because you’re thinking about returning, new players and an aging player base.
We can check other MMORPGs rewards and notice how there’s a better experience when a reward involve a path to your goal compared to a pure luck base option.
That’s why players complaining about things like:
I personally dislike this change to 100%, because Devs could address it by adding a vendor option or providing a mini scenario gameplay / achievement something more meaningful and they only took the easier route against the backlash…
I hope we don’t see the same issue with the next anniversary mount drop from the same boss:
I hope Devs keep doing more rewards like Mounts in 10.2 and avoid the long respawns + low drop % unless there’s a more active option for the same reward or a bad luck protection in place.
All these mounts sources are 10/10 as a reward path.