Why do casuals need gear?

[Deleted]

Quests
Storylines
achievements
mounts
pets
transmogs
Role-playing
play the AH

There is so much more to this game than raiding and arenas. It's the casuals who enjoy everything else who stay subbed and their constant flow of cash (unlike those who unsub each tier until the next one) is what pays for the new content, including the stuff less than 5% of the playerbase actually sees.

You're welcome.

Let me start by saying that you absolutely have the right to play wow as you please, specially because you seem to be quite a considerate player to begin with.
But i have to ask, if you are not interested in the IMO real endgame content wow provides: Raiding, Rated PVP and Mythic+, would it not be a far superior game for you something like for ex Skyrim or the Witcher 3 ?, because i honestly think that in terms of role playing, questing and storylines, they are far better, and also because in the case of Skyrim the content at your disposal is literally endless, because of the fan mod making that never stops.

- - - Updated - - -

why do casuals play the game?
Because they have fun.

That is obvious, but the thing is, and only if we identify casuals as people not taking part in end game content, would they not get more fun playing another games?

[Jessicka]

That is obvious, but the thing is, and only if we identify casuals as people not taking part in end game content, would they not get more fun playing another games?

Investment, community. Not all casuals have always been casuals. Not all casuals will remain casuals. I really hate that attempt to distinguish populations, particularly when it's usually used derogatorily.

[Panta]

Let me start by saying that you absolutely have the right to play wow as you please, specially because you seem to be quite a considerate player to begin with.
But i have to ask, if you are not interested in the IMO real endgame content wow provides: Raiding, Rated PVP and Mythic+, would it not be a far superior game for you something like for ex Skyrim or the Witcher 3 ?, because i honestly think that in terms of role playing, questing and storylines, they are far better, and also because in the case of Skyrim the content at your disposal is literally endless, because of the fan mod making that never stops.

I know the question was not for me, but I guess that I can at least give you an example of a possible answer to that question (which applies to my situation, at least).

I live in certain city (it doesn't matter which one). My sister lives in a city 1200 kms away from where I am. She likes to play the game on her free time, and I like to play the "single player" side of the game. So, we do not raid, we do not PvP (she does sometimes, as a healer), and we do not Mythic+... we use WoW as a single (or mostly a two players) player game, and as a communication platform at the same time.

[Deleted]

Why do casuals need gear?
To have something to aim for.

Why do they need current mythic gear?
So future patches can include harder content.

But is that fair to the mythic raiders?
Is it fair that players just now beating mythic Nightmare are getting the same gear as the players who actually competed for world first?

Why don't they do group content?
They do, if they didn't the que times would be measured in hours rather then minutes.

why do casuals play the game?
Because they have fun.

This just translates into "wah wah I want this piece of gear with no effort in LFR"

This whole thread has derailed into LFR, lazy players wanting easy good loot without even speaking to anyone.

If you play solo you DONT NEED GEAR. You want rewards and goals? Thats funny I though that achievements, pet battles rewarding new pets, quests achievements, looting rare mounts and transmogs was already a form of reward? But noooo it has to be mythic gear, what a coincidence.

sigh

[Deleted]

Investment, community. Not all casuals have always been casuals. Not all casuals will remain casuals. I really hate that attempt to distinguish populations, particularly when it's usually used derogatorily.

Yeah i do not like the way hardcore and casual terms are used, they are too limiting and the spectrum of ways to play this game is too broad for that.
The community part though it is a reason i do understand, without my friends i would not be playing this game, endgame content or not.

[Traveler Voltin]

Can the elitist one shut up?

[vep]

I think you already know that what you said is bullshit, but I guess I'll bite anyways.

WoW is a RPG at its core, so you got to have some sort of character progression.
So saying you don't need gear is simply wrong.
You need to be able to raise your power, progress you character.

I still can't wrap my head around why people care about other peoples gear or are jealous because of it.
Everyone playing should be alowed to have fun, to fucking PLAY.
I don't give two shits if someone who can't play more than 2 hours a day or whatever has more a higher ilvl through whatever means, gear doesn't mean that much after all.

Did you just say "gear matters a lot" and "gear doesn't matter that much, after all"? All in one post? Wow.

Besides, someone who invests more time into a game (or anything in life) is not, by any means, supposed to be equal to someone who invests less time.

[Deleted]

We need gear to make the self-entitled hardcore players (as someone above mentioned, real hardcore players don't give a shit about what other people do) upset about what we do with the high level gear we have. There are very few things in the game better or funnier than make other people upset about what we do with our free time, or what we do for having fun.

You sure the whiny self entitlement is not on both sides? Because seems to me that you just cannot play the game without having the best gear just for the sake of it.

Once again, gear is not the only carrot in the game. You have plenty of carrots in solo content such as rare mounts, transmogs, pets, achievements. Why is it gear? Because you people are part of the general mindless mindset that plagues this game community. Its like you people equate your penis size with the amount of gear you have otherwise you don't feel good.

[Panta]

You sure the whiny self entitlement is not on both sides? Because seems to me that you just cannot play the game without having the best gear just for the sake of it.

Once again, gear is not the only carrot in the game. You have plenty of carrots in solo content such as rare mounts, transmogs, pets, achievements. Why is it gear? Because you people are part of the general mindless mindset that plagues this game community. Its like you people equate your penis size with the amount of gear you have otherwise you don't feel good.

If you are directing that comment to me, let me tell you that right now my "main" is sitting at a comfortably 819 (mostly due to the 3 hall set uped to the max ilvl via order resources) with Artifact traits of no idea, but next trait is about 8k power, and I haven't used her in about three weeks now, cause I have been leveling my alt during that time (I had it at lvl 92), which dinged 110 last Sunday, and now I'm ilvl 785 with 12 traits unlocked.

BTW, I never said the self entitlement is in only one said. I don't care at all about being consider casual (although I do consider myself casual) or, to be honest, I don't care at all about anything on the game that is not my own entertainment and fun... and very little of it is related to other players.

[Deleted]

D&D is fundamentally a group going on an adventure and working together to take down an objective. While the medium of a computer changes elements and automates a lot, it's not actually that different.

It is fundamentally different as soon as the MMO element comes into play. Usually, you play D&D with the same people over a long time, with either only one people as Dungeon Master or everybody taking turns in DM-ing. There is the Pathfinder Society system which allows you to play in random groups, but this is rather an exception in tabletop RPGs. In WoW, you only have this fixed group if you have a guild with a stable roster, and stable groups in it. Every time you pug, you do something else than playing D&D. I have 2 such groups, which are also of a higher priority to me than WoW, and one of the reasons beside my job why I don't raid anymore. I am very disappointed by the social aspect of WoW and will not get burned another time.

Also, I have experienced much less selfishness in tabletop RPGs regarding loot distribution in comparison to WoW. The reason is simple - in D&D with a stable group, you gimp the whole group if an item goes to the player where it has the least benefit. In WoW, every man is for himself, literally, no matter what. Yes, people sometimes trade items to others - if they are not an upgrade and they can trade - but this is not to be expected. For every player who gives up an item to another, there is one who cheats on rolls if he has the chance to do so. (In this regard, PL was a godsend.)

[Sansnom]

Let me start by saying that you absolutely have the right to play wow as you please, specially because you seem to be quite a considerate player to begin with.
But i have to ask, if you are not interested in the IMO real endgame content wow provides: Raiding, Rated PVP and Mythic+, would it not be a far superior game for you something like for ex Skyrim or the Witcher 3 ?, because i honestly think that in terms of role playing, questing and storylines, they are far better, and also because in the case of Skyrim the content at your disposal is literally endless, because of the fan mod making that never stops.

Interesting proposition. Maybe one day someone will make a Skyrim like in an MMO setting that does not focus on pre-made fix groups. But a flexible questing systems that allows people informal and formal grouping. No tank-DD-healer style etc.

Who knows if a game exist, maybe, these players that you question their decision for playing WOW will leave for this new game. And if that happens to be the vast majority of the WoW populations. Well, gratz. You have your game with and they have theirs with their like minded friends.

[melodramocracy]

Why is this thread still not locked??

Why are you insisting that other people not be able to debate a topic you have no interest in?

[kary]

Why are you insisting that other people not be able to debate a topic you have no interest in?

It's honestly a dead argument and the cycle never ends.
But, eh.

[lolpve]

Most of the best players in WoW's history were "casuals" only logging in to do a few arena games per week and quitting for long periods of time. Gear should be tied to skill, not time investment just so a load of talentless fat NEETs can feel better about themselves after wiping 500 times to a scripted fight.

[voidillusion]

Most of the best players in WoW's history were "casuals" only logging in to do a few arena games per week and quitting for long periods of time. Gear should be tied to skill, not time investment just so a load of talentless fat NEETs can feel better about themselves after wiping 500 times to a scripted fight.

How does one measure skill if one refuses to do anything that's not a WQ? Wasnt this the entire point from the OP?

[Shaderas]

I'll state it again, casuals need gear, because Blizzard has conditioned them through the many years of WoW into "needing" it. Thus when they do not get it, or have at least a path to acquiring it they unsubscribe. So while they don't have to have access to the best gear available (and they shouldn't) if they do not have a path to improve their character, they get bored, unsubscribe and Blizzard loses money.

Blizzard created this culture. They are perpetuating it.

[DeadmanWalking]

The reason casuals can have gear is so that if they decide they want to run with a more hardcore crew they can just go do it without being a detriment to that party and so they can't be refused an opportunity to up their game because they don't have the gear to be a big dog. For hardcore players, you don't need to drag former casuals to the loot for a couple weeks as they can hit the ground running.

Now show me on the dolly where the bad casual touched you.

[Jaylock]

The reason casuals can have gear is so that if they decide they want to run with a more hardcore crew they can just go do it without being a detriment to that party and so they can't be refused an opportunity to up their game because they don't have the gear to be a big dog. For hardcore players, you don't need to drag former casuals to the loot for a couple weeks as they can hit the ground running.

Now show me on the dolly where the bad casual touched you.

But in the very definition of casual it implies that they don't do higher forms of content. So its a valid question, why DO casuals need gear?

It really only comes down to one underlying issue: entitlement.

You can try to justify and explain it away in any way you want, but the core of it is they see other people with better gear, they are jealous, yet they don't want to put the effort into getting that gear, so they ask blizzard for more ways to give them free gear. And to highlight this, the large cry about the "rng" in this expansion is coming from people who only do world quests and are pissed off that the gear didnt titanforge up to 880 and they arent getting any more upgrades.

Why do casuals need gear when they won't be participating in content that requires the increased power from higher ilvl gear?

[Snuffleupagus]

Individuals demanding something are petulant.

Large swaths of the player population acting in response to something, on the other hand, are a boundary condition developers cannot ignore.

It's like voting. An individual voter demanding candidate X be president is just adorably dense. The population of voters as a whole, on the other hand, determine the outcome of the election.

It's also stupid to criticize someone who is making a demographic argument for wanting something personally.

Voter analogy doesn't really work when there is a recent example of a country narrowing their choice of leader to a person who should be in jail and an instigator who uses marketing tactics to gain votes. Majorities can be pretty fucking stupid.

And yes, petulant.

"I'm anti-social and therefore the game should reward me for not participating in group content!"

Or you could play something else.

[Snuffleupagus]

It is fundamentally different as soon as the MMO element comes into play. Usually, you play D&D with the same people over a long time, with either only one people as Dungeon Master or everybody taking turns in DM-ing. There is the Pathfinder Society system which allows you to play in random groups, but this is rather an exception in tabletop RPGs. In WoW, you only have this fixed group if you have a guild with a stable roster, and stable groups in it. Every time you pug, you do something else than playing D&D. I have 2 such groups, which are also of a higher priority to me than WoW, and one of the reasons beside my job why I don't raid anymore. I am very disappointed by the social aspect of WoW and will not get burned another time.

Also, I have experienced much less selfishness in tabletop RPGs regarding loot distribution in comparison to WoW. The reason is simple - in D&D with a stable group, you gimp the whole group if an item goes to the player where it has the least benefit. In WoW, every man is for himself, literally, no matter what. Yes, people sometimes trade items to others - if they are not an upgrade and they can trade - but this is not to be expected. For every player who gives up an item to another, there is one who cheats on rolls if he has the chance to do so. (In this regard, PL was a godsend.)

Jesus christ people.

D&D with computer framework. No, it's not the bloody same as D&D, it takes the core and automates the DM role.

All you've done is make a case for why matchmaking is incompatible with the game (it's not).

And yeah, the experience is pretty dependant on having some form of stable roster, guild or no guild. Your loot claims are kind of retarded, since most non-shit guilds distribute based on attendance or benefit for progression. Players are the problem, and asking Blizzard to fix that is all kinds of unreasonable.

You have the option to join a guild that suits you - early WoD I was in a very casual guild (1 night per week raiding) who constantly ran old raids, dungeons, and achievements. Instead of being so damn lazy, whiners need to actively look for a guild that suits them or make friends across WoW.