Before I start I suggest you read this post by Kaozz which was in turn inspired by this post from Encrazed Craft. And one particular bit that really got my attention was this quote:
I think Blizzard needs to think things over before doing such dramatic changes on such a constant basis. Heroics are hard…. Heroics are not hard! Over complicating stats, combining stats…. It gets to a point where it feels like we’re dealing with one of those plastic surgery addicts… We never know what things are going to look like after going under the knife so many times. With each patch and expansion I feel like I recognize my characters less and less.
In a lot of ways, this quote sums up the feeling I’ve been having about WoW since Wrath of the Lich King. It’s not that change is bad in itself but when you keep changing something over and over and over again at some point you change the game so much it becomes unrecognizable from what it originally was.
Case in point, when I started playing WoW back in Vanilla I do so with quite a few friends. There were 11 of us to be exact. Out of those 11 people, only I still play WoW. With one exception for drama, the 9 other people all left for the same reason. Something changed about the game that they really didn’t enjoy and that caused them to leave. For example, a close friend of mine had a hunter and a Paladin and at some point he just got tired of having his classes experimented upon and gave up.
Creating an abomination
In a lot of ways, I feel like Blizzard has been playing mad scientist with WoW for quite a while. Just take the raid size and lockouts for example. They moved from 40 to BC model of 10 for some raids and 25 for the others. Then, they did both 10/25 versions of all the raids but with separate lockouts and gear and now they share the same lockout and gear. Another good example would be the constant changes to the Paladin class since launch.
I know that this kind of design is called Iterative design. In short, you improve slowly upon a concept until you reach the best result. However there’s a trap to Iterative design which is that you can reach a point where your final product is entirely different from the original need. For example, if you design a car and you end up with an airplane, chances are you lost your way somewhere and even if you think a plane is way cooler than a car, if the client wanted a car he won’t like the airplane much.
What I’m trying to say here is that it’s not about whether the idea is a great one or a bad one. I’m not saying either Blizzard shouldn’t try to improve the game. I’m saying that there’s a trap in all of this and I think Blizzard may have fallen for it. By keeping experimenting with WoW, they are turning it into some sort of Frankenstein monster and every time they add a new arm or leg, a few more player get disgusted by the creature and leave.
And very much like the mad scientists of B movie, Blizzard is exulting in their new “perfect” creation without realizing that outside the castle, more and more peasants are picking up torches and pitchforks.
Calming down a bit
I’ll admit, I used exaggeration a bit in the above post to make it a more enjoyable read but I’d like to take the time to make sure everyone understand what I’m saying. I’m not saying that changes to WoW are bad in themselves. For all I know, the upcoming changes in patch 5.0 could very well be excellent decisions from a mechanics standpoint. Stat squishing or Mega damage might not sound like a ton of fun but you get that it’s becoming necessary to change some things about that.
What I’m saying is that the constant changes and experimentation done with WoW are changing the very nature of the game and that is one of the reasons why people are quitting or complaining loudly. To give an example I’m going to talk about Star Wars NGE. Star Wars NGE (New game experience) was an attempt to make the old Star Wars MMO more appealing to a larger audience and get more profit out of a game that wasn’t doing that great. NGE literally turned the game upside down and turned out to be a disaster.
I know from someone who took classes to become a video game designer that the NGE is taught to student as the perfect example of what not to do with a MMO. While the changes in NGE were on paper good ideas, it alienated the remaining players who loved things the way they were and it failed to draw in new players, leaving the game in a very sorry state.
This is what I’m getting at here. It’s not about whether the changes are good on paper or not. It’s about how they change the way you play the game. The more you change the player experience, the more you risk turning away players who loved to thinker with talents tree, who loved to carry arrows arround because it felt more like a living game to them and you risk turning away players who loved their WoW with a darker tone.
My guess is that one reason Blizzard acts the way they act is that they fear not enough change to be even worse. This is consistent with the strong desire for control the devs have shown lately .
“[..] This is particularly relevant when we’re talking about a new expansion. We don’t want level-85 players to have a reasonable shot at level-90 dungeons and raids (or PvP opponents) just because that content is balanced for gear that isn’t much better than what the level-85 players have. [..] “
The more often you change and the drastic your changes are the more you feel in control.
The car into an airplane bit *did* cause me to giggle quite loudly XD
I agree the Stat Squash is problematic, but the rest of the 5.0 changes are pure dynamite. Again, the stat squash itself does not really affect me too much personally, but I can see why others could feel upset. Namely the future of old raids. Literally just last night I was randomly asked to make a raid for a guy to do AQ 40 on his pally. I was just mining at the time and it didn’t bother me, but it proves people do it. Either because he wanted to or felt he needed to before 5.0 arrives… I should have asked before logging XD
My opinion of this is, I agree that if you change a game too much, people can’t play it because it is NOT the game they were playing and they enjoyed. But, I think that idea can better be applied to Cataclysm as a whole, and not so much MoP. All old content redesigned, streamlined, linear-ized questing, etc. That is why I so quickly stopped playing Cata (only recently got back in with 4.3 on the horizon adding enough to get my attention, and 5.0 blowing me away entirely). All the content I was used to, even just knowing how to get from A to B changed and I still have not played the game enough to know. I used to know exactly where to go, what tree the rare would spawn, what tent the tome was in, and how to take a short cut from x to y. Now I load up the game and if I do not play it on a high level with a flying mount, I’m completely lost. (Barrens-es and 1,000 needles, for example.) Skills given the player at odd levels, talents no longer so frequently placed, some skills getting removed entirely. (Anyone even remember Divine Intervention?) That was a LOT to deal with at once.
Cata was, and till 4.3 hits, still is the lowest point in WoW’s history to date, to me. My heart still aches when I hear ‘Arthas, My Son’ and ‘Invincible’ as I truly feel WoW died the moment Arthas did for a whole lot of reasons. I am playing the game now because I still enjoy it with 4.3 on the horizon, and only because it is on the horizon. 5.0 convinced me that the game isn’t quite dead yet and they are making strides to improve where the colossally dropped the ball in Cata, but till it arrives we are literally left with a broken world.
[...] not even playing the game and I’m already feeling weary of all the potential upcoming changes. Syl at Screaming Monkeys wonders if Blizzard is heading to it’s very own NGE (a reference to huge changes that Sony made [...]
Please forgive the very, very long post to follow – I need to get this off my chest somehow, I don’t expect many people to read it, but for anyone who bothers, thanks for your patience.
It’s great to read a blog post from someone who is so able to neatly crystalise, and condense all the thoughts that going through my head in regard to WoW. I was moved to make a comment, which turned into a long essay…
I am one of those ‘alienated’ players, who, last month cancelled his account. Since then, playing on a private server, running patch 3.3.5a, and as a result, am once more playing a game I love, as opposed to one that leaves me utterly cold. The only spoiling factors are the fact that the server mechanics are a bit buggy in places, which can lead to frustration. If Blizzard ever released a ‘Pre-Cataclysm’ legacy server, I’d re-sub in a heartbeat.
The really sad thing is, that up until Cataclysm, I was an absolute WoW fanatic! One of those players who was utterly happy with the game, had very little cause for complaint, and looking forward to many more years as a loyal Blizzard customer. I’d honestly look forward to getting home from work each evening, and log in for my few hours of relaxing escapism in a virtual world of seemingly limitless possibility. I felt that way in Vanilla, I felt that way in TBC, and, for the most part, felt that way in WotLK.
A few changes happened toward the end of WotLK that got me worried. Hunter pet loyalty removed, the new pet talent system seemed a bit simplistic when compared to the rather cool original system that made you research different beasts, and then go out exploring, it removed a level of immersion from the game. I was a bit miffed that I could now learn all profession recipes from a single NPC, as I’d enjoyed going out into the wild lands in order to get the tome/recipe/skill/quest etc. All these things, while perhaps seeming like a chore to others.. for me, helped cement the feel of a ‘complex living, breathing virtual world’. Simplifying these things (I felt) took something away from that experience, creating something that yielded the same result, but ultimately felt more shallow.
Still I could live with these changes, as there was so much other cool stuff in Azeroth to keep me occupied. I was never a big raider – my joy came mostly from exploration, levelling alts, doing the quests, and travelling around the world, using my own custom-made levelling/questing path that was designed to take in as much content as possible, while leaving all the quests at a reasonable level of challenge. This was the cornerstone of my gaming experience, and the foundation of my love for the game.
Then came the news about Cataclysm, and I admit that while many of my friends were enthusing about the ‘old world revamp. I was extremely worried. I loved Azeroth exactly as it was. They could make as much new content, and expanded content as they like… in fact the more the better… but actually removing existing content, or distorting it so as to only superficially resemble it’s former self was deeply disturbing for someone like me.
Still I tried to be optimistic about the changes. I rationalised, telling myself that they’d still be the same old zones.. just with some updated quests, perhaps it would be ok? Maybe the changes would be largely superficial?
…But as the screenshots appeared, I noticed the destruction of cherished places like Darkshore, where I’d spent so many happy times. now trashed, the zone split open, and a huge whirlwind in the middle, and I despaired. I saw Ashenvale on fire, and was mortified.. how could they do this to a game I loved, and wanted to keep on playing and re-playing? Still I rationalised… perhaps it would be ok? Perhaps I would just be able to ‘write off’ my two favourite zones, accept they were ruined, and not visit them anymore?… It would be like revising a cherished location from your childhood, where you’d spent so many happy years.. only to discover it had been dug over, and a huge, ugly shopping mall erected in it’s place. Sometimes it was better not to know, and just have the original memories.
More terrible news filtered down from the Devs. Hunter ammo removed! Even worse.,.. weapons skills and training removed entirely! Pets at L1 for Gods’ sake! Class core mechanics given out for free at level 10, no more slow build up, no more class quests! What the hell were these people thinking? It was as if anything that added a layer of complexity to the game.. every little RP touch that brought life to the game was being crushed, and replaced with banal convenience, and instant access, designed almost exclusively for those who had short attention spans, and wanted everything to be instant, It was as if the WoW devs were no longer interested in their core MMORPG audience, and were trying to cater to Facebook gamers instead.
I came to a great revelation about msyelf. I want to be ‘crap’ when starting a game at low level. I want to be very, very limited, and suck at stuff.. and then have the opportunity to build myself up.. work hard… slowly improve over time, gradually accumulate more skills, better items.. having the cool stuff given to me more-or-less straight away ruined my fun.
The Cataclysm release date loomed ominously on the horizon, each day hastening the complete destruction of the game I loved. There was nothing I could do,
Cataclysm came, and I tried. I really tried hard to play the game.
My first new alt managed to get as far as L30, before I simply lost interest. After seeing so many zones in Kalimdor turned into ‘theme park’ areas, in which endless scripted battles between NPCs, utterly trashed my immersion, breaking the fourth wall, and jarring me out of the ‘world’ so that I constantly felt I was a piece within a game, rather than a character in an environment. I began to think that most of Kalimdor would need to be ‘written off’, and never revisited.
My main character struggled bravely through the 80-85 stuff. It was ok for the most part, the visual appearance of Vash’jir was nicely done, lots of attention to detail.. but after attempting the same zones again on another L80, and losing interest I realised that the very linearity of the questing and zone mechanics effectively killed most of the replayability.
Tried again on another alt, and managed to get up to around L28, choosing almost all Eastern Kingdoms, which was slightly better, as it was less ‘theme parky’. But the insane speed of levelling, and fact that the game now seemed to be on a rail, that constantly prevented me from doing things in the order of my choosing, and actively punished me if I decided to try and do things differently (fly to the next zone – don’t want to, I want to walk.. tough!.. if you do, you can’t pick up the quests!.. what if I want to do a different zone entirely? – tough!.. you must do this one first!) completely wrecked any remaining semblance of enjoyment.
Most of the fun I was getting from WoW was derived from the game’s open-endedness.. the fact that I was now effectively forced to do everything in a manner dictated by the game, rather than make my own decisions was crushing. Even when quests were semi-decent, and not gimmicky, or childish (as so many were), it was still no good as there was absolutely no challenge. Mobs typically died in two shots, there was absolutely no need to use any more than two spells from my inventory. The world was completely free of threat, or challenge. Denied the possibility of failure, there was nothing to involve me, no need to think.. all I needed to do was follow the blobs on the map without thinking.. without feeling…
Finally… on yet a third attempt to do the new quests, on a Priest, who I had deliberately gimped in every way possible (such as only wearing low level gear throughout the entire 1-60 game) I managed to hit 60, and it was one of the most miserable, depressing gaming experiences I’ve ever had to endure. For all that so many of the new quests seemed very ‘silly’ and childish.. played mostly for cheap laughs, or schoolboy humour, it was strangely depressing.
For the first time, since early Vanilla, I was utterly fed up with levelling, sick of it.. bored to the back teeth! Prior to Cataclysm I had effortlessly levelled fifteen characters from one to eighty, each had a story to tell, each had a unique experience and journey. Now the journey itself had been ripped apart, replaced with bland convenience and dull linearity. My days of levelling alts were over.
So what was left? Daily quests… doing dungeons with my guild.. except after a few weeks, there was no guild, almost all had either quit, or simply didn’t log in anymore. The LFG tool? A few trials with that soon convinced me never to endure that particular horror again.
… With nothing left for me, and nothing to do, there was no real choice but to cancel my account. It was surprisingly easy to do.
Fortunately, there are still private servers out there, that give me the WoW experience I still enjoy, but they are not the same as playing on a ‘real’ Blizzard server. My PS can often seem like playing a ‘fake game’, running around in an almost empty world, populated by ghosts and NPCs. I’ll never be able to ‘recapture’ the enthralling experience I enjoyed prior to Cataclysm. This makes me very sad.
Long comment indeed but worth the read. Thanks a lot. I wish more people would do this, write from their personal experience just to show the devs that there’s some “normal” players out there who are not always thrilled at having everything changed.
Indeed. Would be nice to think that a dev would actually read this, or posts like it, though, I suppose even if they did they’d dismiss it as an extremist, minority viewpoint.
Certainly there seems to be no U turns planned within their current strategy of simplification and content-culling…. quite the reverse in fact as the coming patch promises to remove group quests in Outland and Northrend for ‘faster, easier levelling’… whereas the coming expansion has the hated ‘new talent system’ looming like a black cloud on the horizon, along with the very worrying ‘stat squishing’ system, that will effectively render old instance and raid content impossible to explore solo; further tightening the linear ‘this way or nothing.. don’t look around.. don’t slow down…. concentrate on the loot at L85′….. treadmill that players are forced to walk.
In any case, I ended up reposting my original ‘essay’ on the EU forums (minus the parts about classic servers). You never know….. some Blizz representative might glance at it, and briefly think ‘hmm.. not 100% of our customers are happy’, before shrugging and moving on to the next set of streamlining plans….
@ Boringoldfart,
Man. I could have written the entire, exact same post (well, my wife and I would have started in Eastern Kingdoms, and we were raiders as well as explorers). We just called it all quits yesterday. Where the heck did our game go?
A piece of friendly advice… EQ2 just went free to play. We gave it a spin, it feels like “Advanced Classic WoW” to us at the low level we are playing. We haven’t felt so much at home since Burning Crusade. The “New Halas” zone that they’ll start you in is a bit “on rails” but at the Wrath level, not the Cata level, and the older zones are much more old school (of course). Exploration… tradeskilling… house creation… very nice. The graphics are a bit jarring, I’ll admit.
Thanks Jonathon, I’ve always been intrigued by Everquest, and wondered about it. The only thing that put me off is the impression that the game requires an absolutely huge time investment, and cannot easily be played only for a couple of hours each evening (from what I have read about it).
Family and work commitments are something that have to be heavily factored-into the equation when it comes to any long-term commitments… still it won’t hurt to take a look at it.