Casualization is the biggest problem wow: True or false

[ls-]

Not sure if this requires mental power over 9K to understand...What is being compared here is Vanilla/TBC and contemporary WoW, not some other game and WoW...

Vanilla was casual af by 2004 standards. WoD is casual af by 2016 standards.

WoW always was and always will be a casual game w/ really broad audience.

[Ornerybear]

being a casual mmo has always been the core of wow, even when it was released it became popular because it was casual. it changed the genre for that reason. at the time, it wasn't considered grindy.

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No. WoW exists thanks to casualisation. WoW was ALWAYS more casual and less punishing than other MMOs, even back in 2004 WoW was a casual game.

i was big into eq in 2004, when wow came out it bored me because it was casual easy mode.

[Lilija]

False.

Casualization is the response to the market. WoW started as "the casual" mmo and it was the source of its success. Till that moment it just followed the will of the market. Given its still alive and well on the market that isn't most excited about mmos in general, means they are doing something good. Sure, there are mistakes but casualization isn't one of them.

[Alyxanna]

False, obviously.

World of Warcraft was a casual version of EQ and became the success it was in part because of this.

There are lots of perfectly obvious examples of problems with WoW and retention of its players. Catering to the masses is not one of them. The game was never the elite castle of difficulty that people pretend it was. That sort of talk is best explained by self-inflated egomaniacs letting off steam. If they didn't tell people how awesome they once were and how people came to genuflect in their presence I suppose they might explode or something.

Cataclysm was something of a tipping point and the match that lit that fire wasn't casualization at all.

The game needs things to do and a story to tell. That's all.

[ls-]

i was big into eq in 2004, when wow came out it bored me because it was casual easy mode.

IMHO, many people think that 2004 WoW was hardcore because A) It probably was their first MMO ever; B) Both gamers and games are much more casual these days, so many casual things from early 00s are considered to be hardcore by today's standards.

[Kazgrel]

False. Tone-deaf and/or incompetent developers would be the biggest problem, if you ask me, but who am I to say that, blah blah.

[Lochton]

Nah, not really. Think one of the biggest is listening to too many people at times.

[Ornerybear]

IMHO, many people think that 2004 WoW was hardcore because A) It probably was their first MMO ever; B) Both gamers and games are much more casual these days, so many casual things from early 00s are considered to be hardcore by today's standards.

yup exactly. just the nature of beast.

[ComputerNerd]

No, making the content for the worst skilled or worst geared players as the common denominator is what makes it trivial. Also catchup mechanics that invalidate earlier expansion patches.
When you make a level cap, people will always rush towards the level cap. So it's always about the endgame, even in vanilla.

You cant raise the bar every time, or it would mean an ever increasing journey for those starting late.
Some players have reached that bar, and so find the game less challenging.
There is no catering to the unskilled, only not catering to a dwindling minority at the top end.

[Deleted]

i dont understand how people think lfg or cross realm hurt. if people think there was a lose of community they just need to join a guild.

Community is not supostu be about your guild but about your entire realm.

[Elhana]

It is not really about being grind-casual (although Lineage2 or Ragnarok for example were way more grindy), it has more to do with being social-casual. Nowadays (actually last time I played was in cata), you can play wow as a single player game, not like MMO. You log in, grind few dailies, LFG-queue dungeons/raids and log out. You don't even have to say a word. Same with guilds - people just come for a raid, faceroll keyboard for 3-4 hours and log out.
You simply could not play it that way back in the 2004. If you wanted to run dungeons, you had to know a few healers, tank you can pm and ask to join. It was a commitment, you couldnt just leave mid dungeon unless your cat is on fire. If someone was shit, he simply would not get an invite. People knew each other, even other faction folks from IRC, people farmed together.
MMOs should create incentives to play together and not just like CS/BF or DOTA, but build some long term relationship. I knew lots of people that kept playing simply because they liked to have some fun together. AQ opening was kind of a disaster from technical perspective, but it was a nice realm-wide event.

[Lilija]

Community is not supostu be about your guild but about your entire realm.

Guilds are the only community many people really care for. Server is really irrelevant as long as it provides recruits. Guild is all you need.

[Chuckadoodle]

Not sure if this requires mental power over 9K to understand...What is being compared here is Vanilla/TBC and contemporary WoW, not some other game and WoW...

Wrong, Vanilla/TBC had explosive growth because it was accessible to the masses vice a niche which until WoW is what all MMO's were.

[Goondicker]

Voted true.

A lot falls under this. Dungeons/LFD, removal of (old) talents, ease of leveling, etc, etc.

Class homogenization is another big one to me.

[Kuntantee]

Wrong, Vanilla/TBC had explosive growth because it was accessible to the masses vice a niche which until WoW is what all MMO's were.

Wrong, <insert a random shit here>.

Hey look, I can quote random people and post random shit as well. Haha, easy!

[Deleted]

Entirely false, despite how hard some people wish it to be true.

^I agree. It's definitely not as bad as some people make it out to be.

[Bathory]

False. They adapted to their audience and stayed relevant. People just aren't playing MMOs like they used to. Casualization had to happen.

[emilylorange]

I've been told that the biggest problem with wow is me.

So. BEWARE.

[Stormspellz]

dumping down is not "casualization"

so false

[Vorkreist]

False. They adapted to their audience and stayed relevant. People just aren't playing MMOs like they used to. Casualization had to happen.

Stayed relevant? By dropping subs into the ground?
In what separate reality do you lfr hero pokemon farmers live that 2 mil subs > 12 mil , or that its great to have 2mil subs remaining from that pool of 100 mil people that tried the game. At what point could you admit that your utter shit design direction is a total cancer on the larger scale apart from your farmville wanking bubble ?