I certainly can’t define it (I’m not smart enough), but this guy probably comes real close.
If you don’t have 30 minutes (or 20 if you watch at 1.5x speed like I did), read what he wrote at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XfTt_Q795XvZa2t2gAahfF5G3zp56n04oTALPvNAsFM/edit
And a (sorta) TL;DR take from me:
Coherency is vital to a world feeling like a world because it makes other players’ existence matter. Coherency is based on whether we all experience the same thing or have our own separate experiences. If it’s separate, why have it be an MMO at all? If other players are inconsequential, even when it’s just running around questing as a lowbie, we lose a key part of the game. 1 to 119 shouldn’t be a solo exercise, regardless of whether you group up or not.
Modern WoW has sacrificed the “MMO” part of “MMORPG” on the altar of convenience. Even level-scaling, which seems convenient for exploring and experiencing zones at your own pace, is a detriment to this because progression halts. There is no tangible increase with level-equivalent gear. Fighting something at 50 will be just as challenging as 20 in the same 20-60 questing zone. And if someone mines a node, you can get that node too. That ore has not changed- it waits for you (within a reasonable time span).
This applies to story as well. In Classic WoW, we could all be nobody adventures because hey, there’s definitely more than 1 of those. We don’t feel disconnected when someone else shows up wielding the same weapon because they may have been cool/powerful, but never unique. What we can’t all be, however, are the commanders of our faction’s lone garrison in Draenor or the class hall leaders in Legion. We can’t all be wielding the Ashbringer or the Windrunners’ bow or the Doomhammer. So it just takes us out of things a bit more.
There’s plenty more that could be talked about with why WoW has gone downhill, but this hits on some really important points and you should give it a watch if you got the time.
I’m 9 minutes in and so far he’s making perfect sense in what determines meaningfulness. The scenario where there is world coherency, some would say it’s needlessly inconvenient. After all, if a reward can be given to both players, logically they’d be both having more fun right? Unfortunately, that’s not true since now the reward loses meaning, it becomes a number and the other player becomes a figure. Player A and Player B are essentially playing in two worlds with their own stories where they just so happen to be able to see each other, but their worlds are no longer coherent with each other. Their impact on the world becomes less meaningful.
With enough of these occurences happening, players will start to realize they’re just doing meaningless tasks.
Nobody in the history of wow has ever had an impact on Azeroth. So I guess the issue predates its existence.
You know what happened after killing ragnaros in molten core? That’s right nothing, he respawned in the instance a week later and became a problem again.
The treasure in the gurubashi arena is the most memorable example of world coherency. I remember not even knowing what was in it, but I sure dang wanted it.
Yeah the problem is a huge number of people feel this way
In case you haven’t noticed lot of different people share this statement that it’s not incorrect on the eyes of many and has a hugely negative effect on people that can’t enjoy the game because it feels like nothing is happening
I just finished the video. His point on level scaling may have changed how I feel about it. I have a mag’har orc shaman and he’s totally right that leveling up is actually meaningless with scaling. Compared to classic, leveling in retail feels like just a number. My shaman is no stronger or weaker than before, since the world continues to behave for me the exact same as before, and it’ll behave like that for someone far above or below my level.
Overall what’s happening is that it seems Blizzard has created conveniences that make the world behave like a single player game.
I haven’t watched the vid yet, but while I’m inclined to agree with the general premise, I VEHEMENTLY disagree with the idea that unique herb/mineral nodes is BETTER for the game. That idea is absurd.
And this example highlights that fact. I remember when Vanilla launched and I was having SOOOO much fun!!! And about 3 weeks later, I found out one of my best friends was playing! We started talking/catching up, and then comes the dreaded “WoW question”: What server do you play on?
I was despondent to find out he didn’t play on my server… but then even worse, it boggled my mind he was playing on a PvP server. He wasn’t a PvP kind of guy. I asked him why and he said:
“I was playing PvE at first, but then I noticed all these Alliance guys were always taking the mineral nodes I was trying to get and it annoyed me SO MUCH!!! Then I realized, if I was on a PvP server, I could DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!”
I said, “uhmmm ok, I guess that’s true. But you realize Horde players could take those nodes just as easily… and then you’re right back to the fact you can’t do anything about it. You’re not really gaining anything by that logic.”
His stunned silence on the other end of the phone brings me back when I read this thread.
I might agree there are things worth fighting over in WoW. Copper nodes ain’t freaking one of them. Multi-mining nodes is one of the best things WoW copied from GW2. Resource nodes are INHERENTLY rare. Having to further fight over them with fellow players brings NOTHING to the game.
He’s very persuasive, but he really only argues for side and doesn’t consider the positives of others. There is a definite limit to meaningfulness in a video game. By his own portrait of what would be more meaningful, raid bosses should only be able to be fought by one group at a time, and instanced content should not exist.
Let us imagine a world where all raid bosses are essentially world bosses with unique tags that only one raid can have at a time. Either the boss spawns infrequently, in which case the vast majority of the world is SoL and never get to see rewards. Or the boss spawns frequently, in which case the meaningfulness goes out the window.
The problem is the more you go for a meaningful world, the less rewarding the experience is for the average player. Game makers have to balance the meaningfulness of the world with reward to average players.
People wanted leveling to be easier, to allow alts and new players to catch up more easily. You get that in spades with scaling.
I think they could modify the system a bit so that mobs don’t scale as evenly within a zone or capability, but overall, if you went back to the old way, you’d have people complaining about how they out-leveled a zone while they still had quests.
This is a great thread and pretty much everybody here on this forum board should give some consideration to watching the video. The further WoW has gotten away from a “shared world / shared experience” the worse off it has become.
They might as well be NPCs. Yeah you might join a warfront with a bunch of other people but are you actually interacting or is each person doing their own thing while simultaneously being in the same instance?
WoW has become a single player game, even though it has the ‘MMO’ tag. I’d go as far as saying even the ‘RPG’ has been stripped as well. WoW is just a complete mess right now.
Personally, scaling makes sense.
How is it even reasonable that a boar from BFA does enough DPS to slaughter and old world god?
It doesnt.
THAT is the joke of a world you get when you dont have scaling.
ESO scales everything. I was able to take a lowbie right over into the latest content months ago. Sure, tons of big crap there to murder me, but the birds and snakes and other world trash didnt vaporize me with a hard stare.
I dont like feeling like Im playing levels in Doom or Duke Nukem in what is supposed to be a game WORLD like WORLD of warcraft. Thats exactly what it felt like before scaling.
I like level scaling. I used to play GW2 though where a lot of people hated the scaling, but I liked it there, too. I don’t like outleveling a zone while I’m questing in it.