What’s the “real” casual base though?
I’ve always disagreed with the idea that casual is defined as someone who just plays solo. It’s always been about time investment and I think WOW has never been in a better spot in that regard than it is right now.
I always thought the greatest body of “casuals” were players who weren’t at either extreme end (strictly solo casual or high end competitive) and sat in the middle.
That crowd has been thinning since Cataclysm but is now almost entirely hollowed out. The few former denizens of that subsection who are still playing have been pushed to either extreme end.
Things this video gets right:
Things this video gets wrong:
We do need to think about casual accessibility, legendary acquisition, UI improvements and more pillars to the endgame, but there is really no fixing that higher levels of play will require out of game research and optimization, and that isn’t a bad thing. There’s nothing wrong with a high ceiling as long as the floor as low.
I disagree.
M+ has given that group a way to progress without the need to be in a Raiding Guild with a set Raid schedule. I’d consider most of my friends and I to be casual at this point and our whole game is running a few keys and slowly working on AOTC before the season ends.
I would say that anybody doing +15’s regularly is at minimum leaning more towards high end than sitting directly in the middle.
Midrange players are more in the vein of what are now known as “dad guilds” in Classic where progression happens when it happens and there’s very little pressure (so little meta adherence, parse scrutinization, etc), but the content they’re doing hasn’t had padding added to it. Those are increasingly rare in retail WoW.
Thanks for putting it better than I did.
its because the the top end of players spend most the money the game gets. 
also most people want to be in the top in so they start trying to do such which has them spending more money and time in game. if they made it for casual 30 min - 1 hr joes the game would be easy and no one would play it. got to use the logic also game doesnt really hinder anyone its kinda easy to gear if you have the time.
Sadest part of this is the original devs were hardcore EQ raiders who said “Yeah EQ is hardcore, just imagine how successful it could be if we made it for casuals?”
And finally there was an EQ killer.
If a game like FFXIV was set in a non-week theme and maybe not quite so hardcore storyline I think it would easily be #1 - just like WoW became #1
I feel like the old guard had a better grip on what would keep a wider set of players around, though. At least, that’s the impression I get whenever I stumble across an old video of Kaplan talking about raid design.
Me either. I don’t chase the gear carrot.
But the point being made by the OP is correct, gear chasing or not.
so to start the OP’s video is a guy only does normal and heroic which is little to no entry. its easy. to get double lego at 261 is like 5k gold tops aka 2 callings. finding a entry level guild is easy and working your way to the top is easier then ever. there is a ton of catch up.
also the higher end players spend most the money. what the OP’s video he just seems to be complaining about not being actually hardcore and not getting handed free stuff.
basically how to fix the whole videos. go to google type it in end of the story. he acts like google doesnt exist, so 0/10 video
you must of not read anything on my post because i never once said a path to max ilvl i said a finish line as in a generic way to get gear in a time frame that aint sitting there pulling a lever in just the hopes like that aint progression its a waste of time.
And everyone knows it right down to doing a full raid with not a single drop.
like if thats the case dont have multiple mythic plus levels and expect it to be competitive i know many know what im talking about on this with the toxicity because this guy over here doesnt have the right piece so our parse calculator aint gonna make the run in time.
I can’t agree with the video. It has to do with the definition of “Casual Gamer” They have it wrong and that makes their argument wrong.
Wow is for Casual gamers and hard core ones too. There is lots of content for both ends of the spectrum and in between too.
I am a casual gamer, I think the game design includes me. Do I wish there was more content? Yes. Do I wish there was less time gated/hamster wheel content? Yes
Here we go again.
Casual wanting high ilevel loots on the easiest difficulty becoz he has no time for it. They want elite loots without rendering much effort. The average player would render hardship/big effort to get such elite loots and the Casuals wants it with no effort… In Short, Casuals want FREEBIES. They are very special. Blizz has to hand them freebies or else WoW would die. ROFL.
Blizz gave them Korthia and Zereth Mortis to have them get catchup gear. But this is not enough to them. They want higher ilevel loots. If possible, mail it to them straight upon speaking to the quest giver.
They said Wrath is a Casual benchmark. Becoz of Badges? Badges were mostly welfare epics and Korthia/Zereth Mortis is Shadowland’s equivalent. On Wrath, it’s the same, you wont get better gear if you dont do dungeons or raid.
I forgot to mention again:
WoW is an MMORPG… Massive Multiplayer… not a Single Player (Solo) RPG. It’s designed to make players to group up. WoW makes new expansion always with new Dungeons and Raids… Blizz is proud of these dungeons as these dungeons are envied by other games. Blizz didnt make awesome dungeons just to be skipped.
No, that was not any part of the video or the argument the guy was making.
Why do you always spell “becoz” like you have something in your mouth?
261? You mean 262, which on my high pop server go for ~25k-35 a pop and are no longer current, or 291, which go for 45-90k on the same server?
Casual players are either (A) not joining a guild, because that requires understanding that guild finder exists and knowing how to use it, or (B) are not “guild shopping” for a guild that fits their progression or playstyle.
There’s not a single complaint in the whole video about not getting handed stuff other than legendaries, because the cost of a casual player picking the wrong legendary is substantial.
Player base is getting older ( that includes those 14 yr old that started a while back too lol) do what can I say. People have lives, college, family, time constraints. It’s called the real world.
lol want easy loot no one said easy i grinded for a trinket for over 400 hours now and haven’t gotten it so dont even try to gaslight like i didn’t put the time into it i know exacly who your replying too
And i dont care about your so call elite gear too be honest you elite people shouldent be spoon fed gear vs anyone else in the playerbase just to feel more superior or dominate on your so called leadboards.
RNG is RNG. I made more than 50 weeks of raid when it was current and it didnt drop my stuff. You need to be compensated for facerolling the easy old content million times?
Good observation, now do some research and find out why.
Taking this out of context on purpose, because not only is this the case, but they’ve actually downgraded casuals into what they can get. Korthia was actually a good system where we could spend a large amount of time ranking up our gear to the high end of Normal. It felt good to accomplish and it was a good ilevel for all slots.
ZM killed that. Now we can’t get above 250 and we can’t even get decent trinkets or weapons. The stats are limited compared to what we used to be able to get and there’s no sense of progression.
Why casuals suddenly aren’t allowed to have a good slow progression gearing path is beyond me. But it doesn’t make me want to play for another year until the next expansion.