Catering To Casual Playerbase

[Gadzooks]

Maybe you do not understand how the games work? the "casuals" are the ones that make up the majority of the player base (Blizz even stated this in a blue post recently) If it were not for these "casuals" paying $15 a month there is a good chance WoW would not even be going right now. It would be wise to remember that.

Post like these make me think of how the rich treat the middle/lower classes, Not stopping to think what would happen if they were all gone.

Posts like that would drive an amusement park out of business in a season. The rollercoasters are funded by the kiddy rides and snack bars and bumper cars. Even Disney knew that.

WoW is an MMO. It requires players of all kinds, to thrive, if only for the economy. If the game only offered raids, there would be no Wow - of it would be one server, in maintenance mode.

The irony is, the elitists, and those who copy them (the try hards), cockblock players from the higher level content, with their ridiculous demands, even for content designed for casual players, so the pool of experienced players shrinks, and then they complain about not having enough experienced players. They create a catch 22 within the game - you have to be experienced to get into the end game content, but they won't let anyone get experienced.

It's one of the aspects of the players I don't miss, and that I remind myself of, every time I think about giving WOW another shot.

I know a lot of the elitism is posturing by young kids with poor self esteem and poor social skills, i just prefer to not let them have any effect on the things I do for fun in my free time.

[Daffan]

Again, why is it important? If you enjoy the challenge, go for the challenge. Don't wait for the patch. As a casual, I don't even raid anymore. Infact, just last Saturday I completed the Seige of Org for the first time ever. Solo. As a Bear. The game is whatever you make it, and there is something for everyone.

If you want challenge you have to have a fixed raid size and time. I mean unless you want to include M+ bomb city. Probably why I like CM's so much. Couldn't overgear instantly, had to build a set around them (to help a little) etc

[Osmeric]

Post like these make me think of how the rich treat the middle/lower classes, Not stopping to think what would happen if they were all gone.

Atlas Shrugged 2: One Hour Later

[melodramocracy]

you are mistaking "causals" with complete "addicts" - hell im adiccted to wow to the point of playing it for 13 years and never visited wows reddedit -_- those who go there are real hardcore junkies

casuals dont give a single f... about sites liek redit or mmochamp - they play the game instead whining on forums

Trying to pin down what a casual exactly is or isn't does nothing to help discussions like this, and doesn't really matter anyhow. Entitlement is a much more specific word to use when discussing what may make the flawed or not, and likely much easier to pin down in a given players behavior.

In any case, the proverbial ship has sailed.. this game is well over a decade old, and has been built primarily to serve an entitlement gameplay mindset. This is a double edged sword, as we've seen countless times in the past, and leads to sub-par design elements such as forced gating rather than a more passive approach where the player determines his or her own progress.

Don't expect any sudden changes of direction now.

[Marrilaife]

The irony is, the elitists, and those who copy them (the try hards), cockblock players from the higher level content, with their ridiculous demands, even for content designed for casual players, so the pool of experienced players shrinks, and then they complain about not having enough experienced players. They create a catch 22 within the game - you have to be experienced to get into the end game content, but they won't let anyone get experienced.

The irony is mutual, I've seen so many players dismiss guilds suitable for them and expect to insta leap frog to best guilds on the server, and then complain they're being declined and cockblocked. Oh yeah, and players who instead of joining a hc raiding guild would rather try to only pug and then whine you need more ilvl than the place drops and "curve" before you even step in.

Last example I encountered was a guy who had 1/10 mythic few weeks before the 7.2 patch and claimed he had many offers from 3/10m guilds but they're too shit for him, even though they were 1) upgrade from what he had 2) more steady environment than the mythic scorp pug he got into once. People are averse of joining mediocre guilds and progressing with them, they want to insta jump into a guild that has everything on farm and will teach them the ropes and gear them up.

In real life, people know you don't get from burger flipper to regional manager of McDonalds overnight. I don't know why they think in game it's any different, since it's not related to game mechanics, but to social mechanics of groups of people. It's still easier in game, if someone wants to step into raiding and work their way from the bottom up, the opportunities are there.

Damn, even when we don't talk about raiding but about m+ it's easier to make a group with friends / guild than get into high m+ pug without already overgearing it. I remember even Preach on his video was telling people don't pug m+ join a casual guild and do it with them.

[Fyresparxx]

If you tell someone to define "casual" your'e going to get a lot of different answers. Same for if you tell someone to define "hardcore." If I'm a mythic raider I probably think Heroic raiders are casuals. But non-raiders probably think Heroic raiders are hardcore. If my guild is 10/10 mythic, I might think that anyone who isn't at least 3/10M is casual. If I'm a normal raider with an inconsistent raid team, I probably think that that 1/10 mythic guild is hardcore. And that's just using the raiding metric. Some people play many hours a day to collect appearances, mounts, and pets. Is that person really casual if they play the game 60 hours a week? What about the raider who only logs in for raids?

If you have a mythic raider who logs in for 10 hours a week and a collector who logs 60 hours a week, who is hardcore and who is casual?

[Tharkkun]

"Making" people do content is the best possible way to lose your casual playerbase.

Do you propose they return to the Everquest days where there are no quests? All you do is grind NPCS and pray for rare loot, patterns, etc. No one is forced to do anything in this game. But rewards take some risk. They could be social risks, skill based or a little of both.

[Sansnom]

While it's true they are minority. And they shouldn't cater for mythic raiders imo. They should at least try and make people do some content, instead of giving everything for free/trivial instantly and let them progress naturally.

True. But they need to provide that content. Not everyone is interested in raiding.

[-Joker-]

True. But they need to provide that content. Not everyone is interested in raiding.

I know I have not been interested in raiding since Ulduar and ICC were current.