Again, if you want the journey to matter. You have to at least make the world it’s in threatening.
This idea that there will be this mass exodus because a threat of death is higher would be more of a boon than a detraction.
The thing is variety. You can still have your fodder mobs, but seed within them harder hitting or support mobs that they player could easily identify as a threat.
Same deal with Elite and Rare mobs.
Elite mobs should require a group. Rare mobs should test individual skill or be done with a group.
The more you force the player to react, the longer that player is going to take without needing to alter anything on the player’s end.
I just don’t think that many people care about the journey in such an old game. I expect people would just give up instead of step up, especially newer players.
Older players will either already have all the characters levelled they need or buy a boost if it got too annoying to level.
That may have worked in vanilla as the constant huge growth meant there were always players coming through, but what do you do when there’s no one around?
And why do you think so many players are going to step up to the challenge instead of just step away?
They still have to go on the journey. An increase in difficulty not only helps the end game, but the player’s understanding of the game in general.
When players do not feel endangered of their character dying, they lose interest.
Sharding is a thing, you know. No one is available, make a game mechanic where a player can summon in an AI companion to complete the quest with them (ala Dark Souls).
Because it’s a challenge. Even mouth-breathing, calculator jockeys can’t resist trying to kill something they shouldn’t.
Wow already is about a journey. A personal journey to achieve what you want in a game with so many more options than so many other rpgs (mmo or otherwise). A journey you can embark on solo, or share with dozens of companions if you so choose to. Leveling just happens to be the tiniest portion of the journey.
I just think you’re over estimating how many skilled players who want challenging world content there are versus how many unskilled players who would be completely turned off by the difficulty.
To make levelling challenging for players similar to me who might do heroic raids and keys up to 10, you’d be making it a slog for anyone below that.
Not really. You simply use the Beta to adjust the scales accordingly. When you make a game too easy, you lose more people than you would’ve gained if it showed some difficulty.
I think somewhere about the 4th or 5th alt I made the game wasnt a grand adventure anymore…because I ran thru most of the content, there was little ‘new’ to explore.
Getting to current content SHOULD be fast for alts. Once youve made that journey the long way on a character or two, alts should be MUCH faster.
However, I do think they should put an XP slider or something for players who want the long game…
10% XP
25% XP
50% XP
100% XP
That way players who want to take a long time to level without having to keep running back to that goofy NPC 30 times to turn XP off and on and off and on and off…ugh…can just set it once and level at their own pace.
I’m getting flashbacks to Wildstar, which had normalish difficulty levelling except many mobs had a “no seriously don’t stand in this” slow telegraphed attack that would do some hardcore damage.
People were raging in like, the starter zone chats on launch. Levelling will always be easy because you want the lowest common denominator to be able to do it even if there’s a ton of content they won’t be able to do in the endgame
It seems that some people here (not necessarily in this thread, but on the forum as a whole) like to diminish others’ opinions to (falsely) feel superior.
AS there is others that don’t quite understand the meaning of the word “opinion” and think we’re demanding something… rather than it being just a personal way of thinking, seeing, or judging something
Exactly. You just have to look at things like steam achievements or any company that tracks similar things. You’ll see like <50% of people who bought the game have some of the most basic achievements.
As to why they left? Who knows.
I just think there are more people who would struggle with an increase in difficulty than people realise. Even posting on the forums puts you ahead of a lot of players.
While I don’t particularly care for levelling myself, any increase in difficulty won’t impact me that much, but I’d still rush through it as I’ve never enjoyed that side of the game (even going back to tbc launch). I’ll be seeking out the challenge I want in endgame.
The jouney includes quests and updates after you reach max level. In fact there are more quests after reaching max these days. The journey does keep going. I prefer the way it is now, where the rep quests aren’t mandatory on every alt.
The platonic ideal is that the journey matters as much as the endgame.
However, in practice it is difficult. With a game like WoW that has been operational for so long and has 20 years worth of expansions, there comes a time where leveling becomes too protracted.
The theory goes that we should just make everyone level sequentially again. But there is simply too much questing, too many zones. Not only is that a massive roadblock to new players who are going to look at “Trust me it gets good 200 hours in” and say no thank you, it’s also just a headache for existing players who just want to level alts because they have the time and don’t want to spend extra money on a race/faction transfer instead. Nobody wants to spend even half that on an alt. There’s other games to play, other things to do.
I think Blizzard could maybe add a NG+ mode or something that allows people to level slower if they want to. I think they could also do more to make the new player experience flow better.
But I really do not care to have slower leveling because of a romantic feeling that it will be meaningful to do all the same old quests I’ve done hundreds of times before again just because I’d like an alt of a different flavor.
I think a lot of people don’t like to see things this way, but it is absolutely a journey at max level. Take a newly minted character, and build them up with better gear so you’re doing harder and harder content. That’s a journey in and of itself that is more meaningful and frankly difficult, than level ever has been in this game.
I would suggest anyone who wants that feeling of progression and journey back in the game, to just do this. Level a brand new character, and then build them up until you can’t anymore. Then do it with a new class, a new role you’ve never tried before.
Everyone cried they wanted faster leveling and here we are. Im glad its fast sucks leveling slow after you done did the same areas so many times. Yay for fast leveling.
CRZ exists, having people in the same zone is easy.
Is having a chance that an elite mob can kill a player really some massive “step up to the challenge” hurdle the masses can’t possibly consider overcoming? Have they never played…like any other video game before in their life?
I’m currently watching my wife being stuck in some event in ff14 that you play as a cat girl. She’s been there for hours trying to beat it. I went there and cleared it on my first try. The bar can be quite low for some players and some will still find it difficult
For me, the problem exists in the multiplayer aspect. The journey for multiplayer means the player has to actively decide how much to engage. What paths to take. And know that millions are running past you to completely different goals
then you take Skyrim. All the paths are yours. you are the supreme hero of this world. If you choose to be a cave bear specialist over a dragon shouting vampire brotherhood of Sheogorath is up to you.
The journey in WoW (even from a classic point of view) is a race to the finish line no matter how many gates they put up. Some people will just be plunderlord 40 in one day. Miss a day, miss a week. Miss a launch…now you’re wandering the barren wasteland of Durotar looking for Zhevras and chat be like “that’s so 5 minutes ago; we’re downing Ragnaros”
And then suddenly everyone leaves. Subs go down. Blizz has to find a new endgame.
Trust me I love the journey. But it is a lonely one.
