Which player base would you sacrifice?

Community General Discussion
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From a blizzard perspective, (if) you cannot satisfy everyone, which playerbase should you tailor to, and which playerbase do you just completely ignore and throw away?

Let’s split the player base into 4 categories.

Hardcore: your world first, mythic raiders, top rated pvpers, and m+15 and higher.

Semi hardcore: heroic raiders who may attempt mythic raid, raiders up to m+15, etc…

Semi causal: LFR/normal and maybe some heroic raid, some m+, around m+8, etc…

Casual: LFR and highest would be M0 and/or some pvp. Most care about cosmetics and etc.

Personally - and this is my take on this all.

I think the groups that are actually complaining about loot are the semi casual and semi hardcore, where progression is quite limited. Casuals here based on this prob don’t care. And hardcore will do whatever it takes.

I think it’s the casuals and semi-casuals who complain about difficulty of torghaust, maw, etc. (Difficulty, not time gate or how annoying/boring they are)

I think the hardcore and semi hardcore are the ones that complain about time gating everything.

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You can stop catering to a demographic without ostracizing it.

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i think blizzard looks at playerbase through a different division.

I think new/returning is a more meaningful division for them, hence all the catch-up tokens and gear and whatnot.

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Hardcore/semi hardcore whine the most

Casuals keep the lights on.

I would keep Casuals all the way if I had to choose since they have the numbers.

I do love when people try and avoid answering a forced choice question by saying “I would try and avoid it being a forced choice”

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Hardcore, they are less than 1% of the playerbase, it’s really an easy decision, and I would cater to semi casual because they are probably the biggest majority of the playerbase.

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You’re likely correct on this. But assume this is a sub division of… returning players… I guess

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None of them. What they need to do is not mess up the playstyle of one for the other and that is something they haven’t quite got right yet. Item level scaling is a good example, it’s only there because the well geared high end raiders found the open world too easy but the only ones it messes up are everyone else.

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You forgot a 5th category, the people who main rogues, and I’d sell them all to satan for 1 corn chip.

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Rude

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sorry, but this would be my choice.
but, Id make a separate game for them entirely so the rest of the game didnt have to account for their game as far as tuning, gear, etc.
Same with PvP.
Id drop pvp from WoW retail and give it its own separate game so PvP and PvE gear didnt have to be taken into account for tuning.
This game is off the rails trying to keep pvp and PvE content both balanced. it should just be different games.

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You can never satisfy any one person. Doesn’t matter what you are doing. That is why there is such a spectrum in this game.

So, any one person, if not happy with the product/experience they are playing, will simply leave. No need for Blizz to excise them.

Oh, and more divisive politics?

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Why isn’t PvP an option? They create the most problems with balancing in the game and the game would be much better off without it.

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I mean, the obvious answer is to do what they can to provide content for all of the above. No one will be happy with every single thing Blizzard does, but that doesn’t mean they’re UNHAPPY with every single thing either. Not everything they do has to be tailored to one group, and that’s fine.

But realistically, WoW eSports are not a profitable thing and make up a tiny percentage of the playerbase. If it came as some kind of arbitrary ultimatum thought experiment, I’d choose to delete the Hardcore top end. It would disrupt the game the least if development and balancing for Mythic Raiding and M+ above +15 was abandoned.

Casuals keep MMOs afloat. As much as I love the progression side of things, casuals are who need to be catered to to keep the genre alive. Wildstar is proof enough of that.

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Nah I’m a mythic raider and torghast was pretty freaking annoying. I wouldn’t have complained about it until I did layer 8 of one of the wings before the nerf and the floor 2 boss had 300k hp.

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No matter what group people fall in they think Limit is just waiting to call them up.

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Casuals, they whine about everything, even the smallest easiest things and they offer nothing to contribute to the game and the playerbase

But I’d say Semi-casuals like myself are alright, because at least there’s room for improvement if I’m willing to.

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I wouldn’t sacrifice any of them.

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These people are the face of the game, specially in this day and age.

These are your biggest spenders per capita, this is where your whales who are buying tokens, every special edition of the game, 6 months sub plans etc. are.

Vast majority of your playerbase.

Most fleeting playerbase, end up in the above category sooner or later or quit. Very little in-between save some niche community like RPers.

Doesn’t seem like there’s any you can “drop”.

People could start accepting the game isn’t designed for them personally and some decisions will be made to benefit other people sometimes though.

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I just disagree with the categories. Most of us probably fall inbetween and don’t fit nicely.

I do the following:

1.) Heroic raid w/normal to placate those in our raid who like gearing through normal as a warmup.

2.) Pet Battles. Every day. All the pets.

3.) M+, and I will spend most of my time in the mid-keys throughout the expansion because I don’t pug. We’ll probably get 10’s timed in all dungeons before the end of the launch patch, and by the end of 9.3, we’ll be doing 15’s. I will likely never push into 20-keys.

4.) I read logs and use them to improve after every raid night. I know what I’m looking at and compare myself to rdruids who parsed higher in similar fights, but I also use WoW Analyzer like most non-log readers do.

5.) I don’t sim.

6.) I don’t hunt transmog in general, but if I see a cosmetic I like, I will tunnel vision on collecting it.

7.) I spend a good portion of my day fishing and picking herbs. Every day. Because I like it.

8.) I like the idea of raiding mythic, but I value my guild and our family atmosphere over mythic content, so I likely won’t ever get to seriously pursue it.

9.) I do Torghast once per week to get my ash cap and then I don’t enter it again until next Tuesday. I find it fun.

10.) I like the timegates because they allow our people with babies and odd work hours to stay caught up with us, even with limited time to play.

11.) I enjoy spending time with our newbs…working on UI and suggesting add-ons or resources to improve. I enjoy walking beginners through M+ dungeons and explaining mechanics and wiping over and over with them.

Where do I fit on your chart?

So, I appreciate the conversation you’re trying to have, OP, but the problem is that you cannot categorize a player base this big. You just can’t.

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Easily Hardcore players.

They have a tendency to destroy games, all the while being thoroughly convinced they know what is best for the game because they live in it. Developers tend to listen to these players because they are so invested in the game and attend all the chats/events.

Basically if they had their way 10 million people would be paying the exact same sub as them, but they get all the content.

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