I’m part of organized raiding as well (mythic for context). I don’t think anyone reasonable is asking Blizzard to ignore every other play style. Obviously these should be considered, but that also must include organized raiding, and since Legion I feel Blizzard is pretty deliberately ignoring the effects these systems have on organized raiding (and to your own detriment in my estimation, given the outrageous success of the World First race stream).
WF/TF is part of the loot system, as is the method of distribution/acquisition (Personal). These are not separate from each other, they are tied together and affect each other. Jeff Kaplan has said at some point when speaking about Overwatch that much of game design is all about trade-offs and interactions. Going off of that, perhaps it would be useful to discuss some of the trade-offs are here. Most if not all of us here in this thread (including me) are not game designers, but I don’t think that means we can’t try to approach the topic in a thoughtful manner.
First, some negative aspects of the current status quo:
-
Reduced, less defined structure of power progression. This blurs the lines between different types of content and different difficulties and makes them less distinct. I think this decreases the potential prestige of certain challenges because there are so many trivial ways outside of organizing that it trivializes organized-oriented challenges. This has the knock-on effect of making organized players feel obligated to do trivial (by comparison) content just to stay up-to-date.
-
Optimal gearing becomes much more complicated because there’s so many potential variables in gear to consider. A 425 forged piece of gear that is normally undesirable for a given spec can outclass the desirable piece at the base level. This is not always a pleasant experience.
-
This has the knock-on effect of making simming much more important than the pre-Legion days and I think makes careful thought and consideration of your gear options overwhelming for players not simming or otherwise very knowledgeable about a given spec.
-
Another knock-on effect here is that forged pieces oftentimes completely waste gear from bosses when progressing. It is so utterly frustrating to have someone get a repeat item that others could use but 5 item levels higher such that it is not trade-able while being a negligible upgrade for the one who got the item. Even worse is getting something else for the same slot that isn’t an upgrade but still isn’t trade-able due to arbitrary restrictions on weapon types and small item level intervals.
-
Yet another knock-on effect here is that I think the current systems and status quo severely limit the design space for both items and classes. Since there’s so many permutations and possibilities for gear, generic item level must be a decently effective method for choosing gear to use and as such specs cannot have too strong of a reliance on particular stats or effects, which I think makes gear and gear progression much more boring and less interesting.
-
-
Organizing into a group or guild becomes disincentivized especially outside of mythic raiding. The additional work and effort required to maintain a stable group or guild in a heroic or normal environment is pretty much not rewarded at all because there’s so many solo and trivial PuG options available that are either equivalent or beat normal and heroic rewards. There’s very little reason for players in these areas to not play and act as selfishly as possible, which I think damages social growth. There’s also very little to convince players to give a guild venture a real try when there’s so many other, much easier options available.
-
Current status quo systems can damage the feeling of player autonomy and volition. Titanforging can lead to situations where completion of the same task or challenge or activity of the same difficulty (such as say, Heroic Opulence) can beget drastically different rewards. I think this is probably where a lot of the “gear feels too random” complaints come from. You can do the same thing and get very different results from week to week. This leads to some players feeling like they have no control because the results feel very disconnected from the actions the player or group of players took. It’s the same boss on the same difficulty, but the item I got on the first kill is worse than the same one on the 5th kill, or the first item is equal to the power of the same item from a higher difficulty. It can feel like what the player chooses to do doesn’t matter because, as said above, the results can be very different.
- A knock-on effect in organized raiding guilds is that forged items under personal loot can actually end up feeling like a punishment, because it can prevent a player from helping another. It can feel like you stole an opportunity from someone else.
Now, onto some of the positives:
-
Forging and Personal Loot gives solo-oriented players more reasons to continue returning and doing whatever it is that they want to do. This lets them keep up more in less stressful activities, and is probably helpful to people that have anxiety over getting into groups (especially larger groups) to continue progressing.
-
The current status quo systems can give less invested/serious players a sense of excitement in their usual activities.
-
The current systems can keep some content feeling relevant for longer.
-
The current systems can help returning or new players catch up quickly and stay up-to-date more easily.
-
Personal Loot can help more solo-oriented players feel safe when entering groups. This was already true however during Legion.
This is obviously not all-inclusive on either side here, but I suppose my primary argument after going through all I have in this post is that I feel very, very strongly that the negative consequences of the status quo systems do not outweigh the benefits in an MMO built on organized group content.
I think solutions should be looked at that offer other entire avenues for progressing that are not inherently tied to gearing and character power, things that offer more customization and things that players can build over time that don’t disrupt the structure of organized group content and its reward just to try to fit all playstyles onto a singular path. The current method is always going to have some players be the odd ones out in the worst ways possible.