Even back when the level cap was still 80, Blizzard revealed that 70% of new players didn’t make it past level 10. So the number of levels if irrelevant. What they need to focus entirely on is making leveling fun and they won’t do that if they think they can get away with slapping a coat of paint on it and calling it good.
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It’s going to start looking pretty long if each level takes longer to go through. It will be harder to say “just one more level” if that level takes hours to get through. Especially if those hours are spent slogging through some of the older content in TBC/WotLK areas.
But if you introduced someone to WoW, they’d have a level boost that would put them 10 levels away from the cap.
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I think this is the wrong approach. Forcing old expansions on people in order to reach level cap. There should be a bit more freedom in it.
Classic 1-50, MoP 10-50, WoD 10-50, Wrath 10-50, Cata 10-50, BC 10-50, BfA 50-60.
Level 10 for newer expansions because our characters begin in the starting areas. I think they should make a new starting zone in the next expansion though and then at the end, you’d have a choice where you want to go next and portals would be open.
The future of WoW not good. Dont think Activision is going to allow Blizzard to keep pouring resources into this ancient game. The companies stock price is floundering . They need NEW games, NEW IPS to get wall street excited again. Blizzard does not have the talent there any more to create a quality game. Those people moved on . All They will pump out now will be Cheap mobile games. Blizzard rested on their laurels way too long and now its hurting.
They really should have made a Starcraft MMO years ago .
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Yes, or Diablo mmo
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It’s still a mental process. It is the same in theory, but it’s just how we perceive things.
All players have access to the boost for sure. But it is really not good for new players to use.
The game does a bad enough job teaching players as it is, can you imagine being a brand new player and being chucked in at level 110 with 2 dozen abilities, not sure where you are and what to do?
Unless you have someone literally holding your hand through the entire process you are going to find yourself lost.
I know returning players who were obviously familiar with the game still prefer to level from 1 to get acquainted with the game, and even they found the end game overwhelming when they got there, even with guidance.
To say “you can just use a boost” is to ignore the fact that the game has changed in many ways over the last 15 years, there are a lot of different things going on all over the place.
Hell if I remember correctly, the quest to unlock WQs isn’t even available until you have met it’s requirements which a new player can’t be expected to know.
WoW is the new Diablo mmo. Titanforging, loot pinatas, speed running, random emissary quests each day. WoW is now an “action RPG” rather than an “MMORPG”
Because what Blizzard doesn’t like has been clearly working for them…
The players are saying differently.
Maybe but it was just something else that made this game feel a bit more like an RPG.
Ultimately I believe Classic is going to over shadow the current game and is going to effect future game development. Just how much? We can only guess.
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Right, you’ll see level 60 as the cap, think that’s not too bad until you start actually trying to level.
I’m still unconvinced that new players care about the number of levels. Back when the level cap was still 80, 70% of new players didn’t make it past level 10. The major factor is that leveling just doesn’t really grab your attention. They need to drastically improve leveling, while focusing on the beginning levels, to really draw in new players. If the first 10 levels are amazing, then you’re going to think the next 110 levels must be awesome as well, and they’re going to want to stick around to at least see where everything ends up.
But that’s a much harder task than cranking down the number of levels and acting like everything is super-awesome now that the level cap is lower.
I mean, that’s still going to be possible with the squish. It’s pretty obvious Blizzard wants to keep selling level boosts, so they don’t care too much if new players are overwhelmed.
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Problem with Diablo as an mmorpg is simple. How do you do simple peaceful slice of life stuff in a world that is dying and falling apart. And that’s very much the vibe we get from Diablo. Sanctuary is in a position where its not healthy. It’s slowly dying. The war between Demons and Angels has taken its toll on the world and left it a battered broken place.
Path of Exile tried it, but that’s very much of an action rpg, where you don’t need much of a story.
Diablo as an mmorpg would need a solid story, and writing one in a crapsack world would be extremely daunting to do without feeling extremely depressing, dark, bleak and grim.
While that may work for some, it would at best be a niche game and not something that would draw a mainstream audience for long. They don’t want depressing. Life is depressing enough.
Oh I 100% agree as you may have seen from my other posts.
Introducing a level squish is literally just problem solving lite.
It’s a bandage fix that does…something…to alleviate the issues of the system whilst not actually addressing the real issues themselves.
For what it is intended to do, it will work. But unfortunately it’s just not intended to fix the actual problem.
I’m sure Blizzard is aware of the significance of changes that have to occur to the game to make it engaging again. But at the moment they (Activision) are unwilling to make those steps as they know just how much work (and money) that will be. It’s not something that can be changed in one Cataclysmic sweep as was done before, they just have to work inch by inch. Or, they can just ignore it and just bandage the worst cuts and hope that is enough.
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I guess that’s why the U.S. clings to miles instead of switching to K.M. ![:wink:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/wink.png?v=6" ":wink:")
Not that it makes getting there any faster.
But seriously though, if someone levels several times times in an evening, they’ll feel pretty good about how many more evenings it’ll take them to reach “120”.
If they feel like they only leveled once maybe twice in an evening … 60 is going to feel like a month or two away.
Progress isn’t generally measured in looking back to where we started or where we’re going to end up… it’s measured in “How far did I get in this sitting”. And earning half as many levels in the same night feels, to me, “slower”.
If blizzard wants to spice up more levels with carrots great… MAKE MORE CARROTS.
But what if each of those levels you also got an ability or a talent?
Tbh most of the time when I level in modern WoW I don’t know when I level up these days, it’s all a blur because each level is the same as the last with no difference.
Even notifications for new abilities are lack lustre and often go unnoticed. At least with a squish because you are expecting something (because things are condensed and you are receiving things more frequently) you are more likely to think “Oh I wonder what I got this level”
Personally I like the purchasing system better, even without ranks as it really makes you engage and think about your levelling. Just having things appear without much indication is honestly terrible.
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[quote=“Rankin-shandris, post:61, topic:200105”] Blizzard revealed that 70% of new players didn’t make it past level 10. So the number of levels if irrelevant. What they need to focus entirely on is making leveling fun
[/quote]
This, this, this, this, this!!!
The only times Blizzard invested any effort into the “Brand New Player Experience” it was with the introduction of the Pandaran starter zone.
Prior to that, Cataclysm revised some of the original Vanilla content.
The rest of the new player experience is a decade and a half stale.
Which, I guess they feel works if they’re so invested in launching Classic. Good luck to them… but it seems like kind of a defeatist approach to managing a living world.
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I kind of wonder if Classic will provide them with working originals of the zones to finally repair some of the Cataclysm damage.
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Heh, as I’ve said, I’m open to anything but the boring, jumbled mess we have. The level count doesn’t phase me, I just hope they improve the process. If they decide what they want to achieve as far as rewarding the process requires fewer, longer levels, I’m fine w it.
What I’m not going to do, is arbitrarily sit here and complain that dividing the levels by 2 does nothing. We all know that, that’s not news to anyone. So complaining about it, beforehand is pointless. There is no way they are doing a squish without changing up talents or leveling paths. Why would they bother, nothing gained wasting resources on it.
I made a thread about a potential permanent solution to the stat squish that I feel would also greatly improve the game overall, if anyone is interested:
Dear god i hope they do it.
We’d then have two versions of the game at the same max level. Giving them a great way to have similar pathways with very different system designs to observe.
My only hope is they:
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Keep 60 the max level
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New expansions should be content not levelling
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Redesign the levelling journey like cataclysm, making 1-60 quests stand alones like classic and give us world events in every corner of the game for current events (Scourge invasion, fel invasion etc).
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Give 2 levelling routes:
- Fresh new level 1-60 Azeroth.
- Keep BC-BFA areas accessible through caverns of time.
2a. Being able to go between each as you please (want to just do Azeroth with Wrath in the middle for some self roleplay? Its your choice!)
- Bringing back old or similar talent trees as ability enhancements (builds).
- Keep current talent trees for ability selection (executions).
You are right, good potential indeed!
We could then have a Journey & a destination!
No more character levels. Instead, your items level up. Every expansion has a main story quest you must compete to unlock a talent row. Each patch in an expansion adds to the main story and gives (upon completion) you a new class specific bonus that you never loose. A Legion type (artifact) gear for any slot can be introduced in non-filler expansions that your character can keep using for as long as they want to.
Boom. A reason to run every expansion’s content without level creep, moderate power creeping (and cool spell book additions) that can scale linearly until WoW 2 without ever hurting the brain of anyone who can’t think past 16 bit integers.
I actually really like Taliesin’s idea. I’ve never done Cata or Outland in any serious capacity, but if I could experience the entire expac during the leveling process, then I’d be much more inclined toncheck those zones out than I am now. When i do muster the intestinal fortitude to level a character, I usually doing enough zones in EK to get to Northrend, and then Jade Forest, Tresures in WoD, and so on.