Way back in june 2005 I started playing a game called World of Warcraft, when there was no flight path to camp Taurajo and Dire Maul was all new and shiny. I was all young and innocent, had a troll warrior who I leveled up to 34 with a shield and a one-hander thinking a shield spike did good damage… I was a noob without any knowledge of how things truly worked. I had played UO before but skipped Everquest so it was all new to me. I did not read blogs, forums or anything and Thotbott was the best source of knowledge I knew of. Over time of course, I found myself seeking more information and found the forums and blogs, asked questions, gave comments and just like everyone else gave my opinion on what I tought was working and not working in the game.
If you follow blogs talking about WoW you know they intend to put a maximum number of attempts each week you can try to kill a boss. For example if you can’t kill boss X in 5 tries then your done for the week. Also, they are adding a buff that will increase over time to make the raid easier and more accessible. Both Larìsa and Spinks have written excellent posts on the matter.
Going back to my little story from the beginning I used to be a hardcore player who couldn’t commit to a hardcore raiding schedule. I wanted really bad to go down all those big raids but I just couldn’t commit 6 hours raiding 4 or 5 times a week wich was always happening too late it seemed. I was one of those back in 2005 that argued that raids should not take 6 hours, that 40 people for a raid was unreasonable and that I should not be penalized because I had a life. I eventually did the hardcore, 7 days a week raiding for a short while.
Well I wasn’t the only one saying Naxxramas being seen by 1% of the player base was ridiculous and Blizzard listened. When they released Burning Crusade they dropped the raids to 25 mans, made the raids and instances shorter and generally improved the game in ways the player wanted to. Fast forward to the current patch and I can’t help but see the recent changes as a way to answer player complaints.
Limited number of tries? Helps makes the hardcore feel more “elite” for a longer time since the less advanced guilds will take many more weeks to complete the content. Also, puts the emphasis on skill instead of bashing one’s head until success. For the more casual? It puts a limit on the torture of long raids where you keep wiping on a boss your raid as no chance of taking down. Helps limit the maximum time a raid can take.
Buff that makes the raid easier after a while? Gives a chance to every player to finish the content and protects the hardcore achievement of being able to do it without the buff. Not unlike current achievements where you get a mount for not dying.
In fact if you look at every single patch and expansion you can see Blizzard answering players complaints and concerns. Some patches are successes but others like the Argent tournament are disasters. The point here is that these changes are brought by “us”, the players. In many ways we dictate how the game will evolve and the current WoW is no less that the sum of everything we asked Blizzard to do.
That’s why I’m wondering if we’re not hypocrites with the complains. Sure it’s a given right for us to complain about a game, especially one we keep paying 15$ a month to play but at the same time we are complaining about what we asked them to do. Yes, the game is probably too casual now but we all asked for that. At least I know I wanted them to make it more accessible and more casual at one point. Wether or not the latest change will be for the better or worse for the game only time will tell. But I’ll try to stay quiet if it’s “too easy”.
From what I understand of the limited attempts mechanic, it isn’t quite an all or nothing deal. The attempts only count towards the last bosses of each wing. So if you were to run out of attempts, all the last bosses of each wing (arthas included, of course) will despawn.
The other bosses though? Still there.
Which is OK, I’n personally not too against this mechanic. Really, I’m personally fairly neutral on everything announced, save for the seemingly huge period of time they’re planning on gating the instance over.
‘Several Weeks’ between wings? Really? … Ok.. Not terrible, I mean, we can keep doing ToC when we’re done with IC Right? .. Bahahaha. *cough*
No, it goes further though. Want to try the hard modes? Uh.. You can’t.. Until you’ve killed Arthas.. Which.. You possibly won’t even get a chance to /try/ until months down the track- OH HAI2U MR CATACLYSM LAUNCH!
Nice post, I guess my biggest concern is that the vast player base between the extremes is being ignored.
How many guilds are stuck between ToC and ToGC? On my realm it was only a few weeks ago that more than 2 guilds had killed heroic beasts, yet seemingly there were endless pug full clears of normal.
ICC looks to have the same problem. If you are in a normal guild, that likes working on new bosses, your raid time is drastically limited and your raid selection becomes so much more important.
@naithin
My understanding is that Blizzard wants to bring back progressive raiding to a certain point. IE, they want the content to last but at the same time they want the more possible people to experience it. I guess they figured that stucking people in the raid for longer without being able to finish might be the answer. Time will tell how it will work out.
@silk82
You’re right. I was in one of those guilds “in the middle” in BC and what you said really struck a chord here. What Blizzard is doing will change the raid experience… I’m just not sure where the hammer will fall.
Nice thought out post
Im a casual and hey some of what they have planned will benefit me in the long run however this just reeks of an opportunity to stretch out the content for as long as possible till Cataclysm hits.
[...] Lonomonkey has a good post up here about [...]
All I can come up with is a tired old cliche:
1 – Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.
Hey Monkey Dude, check this out:
at job right now, will do later tonight on my Wii!! cause my computer is still down
Edit: managed to sneak a peak
Found a ton of those videos, this one good! thanks
I liked the Argent Tourney patch… though the ‘instance’ they added was weak as far as dungeon delving goes. The raid instance was okay, if not a little too simple.
I think Blizzard listening to the customer is a bit of a mistake. We think we know what we want, but we really don’t. We’d like for some things to be easier but when they are, we consume them and move on thinking, “Meh, this is all so easy.”
Of course it is easy! We asked for it!
I don’t think that makes us hypocrits, I think it makes us idiots.