If WoW wants to operate like a shooter, it need to release content like a shooter.

[Lithios]

This expansion, with the full introduction of LFR in to all raids. The easy dungeons and the world of que'able content they have made wow operate like your favorite FPS (CoD, Battlefield, etc). You can hop in a dungeon, match,raid and then hop out when you are done with little to no effort. This works well for shooters. For an MMO i think it can work great but the game needs more frequent content. My suggestion to make this game run like a shooter is to do monthly raid content.

Monthly Raid Content
Every end of the month. New content would drop. Im talkin small raids similar to ToES. We are looking at maybe 2-3 bosses per raid and heroic modes for them also. Keep the content fresh. Make the environments unique but they dont have to have a different theme. Try and make the fights different also. For instance if you have a fight that is a single boss DPS check, make the second fight with a lot of adds. Every couple months release a 3 boss raid and make the final boss have a special heroic mode.

Along with this every 3 months drop in some sort of new pvp content or new feature. I know shooters do this and release 3-4 maps every month along with sometimes new weapons and game modes. How much harder would it be for an MMO to do it? I know this doesnt allow the hardcores to zerg through the content in the month. This still gives them the benifit of capturing a world first everymonth with considerably less effort. This keeps other players from getting bored. This would allow them to release gear marginally better and add to a set bonus slowly. If 2-3 bosses launched every month then players could slowly transition from 2 piece bonus, to 4 piece, and then eventually add 6 piece.

No im not talking about making a large raid and then gating off pieces of it. I am talking about a large conflict and every raid is a small part of it. I know this might take away the epic feel of downing the final bosses but I believe the rewards of a slow drip method would outweigh the downsides. If the raids were spread out around pandaria with 2-3 boss raids in different places, it could be an extension of the quest arcs you did in that area. Sort of a completion of the final quest of that part of the zone. Similar to that giant bug you killed on the wall by pushing one button, or that worm you killed with seige weapons. This would be the culmination a portion of the zone.

[russelmiller]

I think you are underestimating or not understanding the effort/time it takes to create content.

"You can hop in a dungeon, match,raid and then hop out when you are done with little to no effort. "

What shooters are you playing?? I have never played and fps that queues me for something that requires me to work cooperatively with 24 other people to kill a computer controlled enemy.

I think a valid argument would be that bgs function like a multiplayer shooter, but in that regard I think working as intended.

[Lithios]

I think you are overestimating LFR and the requirement to "work cooperatively". The cooperation of LFR is very very small. The age of requiring any sort of in game communication in the que'able game modes is almost 100% gone. I agree it takes time to create content. But if they can make a 12 boss raid in 4-5 months time then I dont see how making 2-3 bosses a month is any different.

[babo7000]

This, out of all the suggestions to fix WoW, is arguably the most correct.

MoP has seen a sharp increase in content release, which is great. However, Blizzard clearly wants WoW to be something you can hop on for an hour, and still get your hours worth. As you said, it is essentially an MMO shooter;Wait for queue to pop,maybe do some solo play while you wait, log off when your done your dungeon/raid/map. And that means there needs to be a huge increase in whats released.

Now not maybe a small raid every month as you said, but there should be 1-3 scenarios released a month. Maybe a scenario every other Tuesday that advances story? I don't know, but something where there is a constant stream of content released, no 2-4 month waits. Something where we literally never run out of anything to do.

Yea, it sounds like a lot, but losing over 3m players in 2 years is a big deal. The age of the game is the obvious reason at the end of the day, but there are a number of small changes, like this, that need to be made to keep players busy.

[russelmiller]

But you still say this game is operating like a shooter when it isn't. Even if I concede that LFR does work that way (it doesn't), there is still cooperation in that mode even if it is minimal, you are not considering Normal/Heroic aspects of the raids. Blizzard has multiple teams that work on the different patches, ToT was probably being worked on when MoP launched back in september, the idea that it takes 4-5 months to create a 12 boss raid in LFR/Norm/Heroic forms is extremely uninformed. Creating tuning and releasing a 3 Boss Raid every month would just create rushed content that isn't very good.

"Now not maybe a small raid every month as you said, but there should be 1-3 scenarios released a month. Maybe a scenario every other Tuesday that advances story?"

You mean like the scenarios we were getting for each stage of the Isle of Thunder that unlocked?

[babo7000]

But you still say this game is operating like a shooter when it isn't. Even if I concede that LFR does work that way (it doesn't), there is still cooperation in that mode even if it is minimal, you are not considering Normal/Heroic aspects of the raids. Blizzard has multiple teams that work on the different patches, ToT was probably being worked on when MoP launched back in september, the idea that it takes 4-5 months to create a 12 boss raid in LFR/Norm/Heroic forms is extremely uninformed. Creating tuning and releasing a 3 Boss Raid every month would just create rushed content that isn't very good.

"Now not maybe a small raid every month as you said, but there should be 1-3 scenarios released a month. Maybe a scenario every other Tuesday that advances story?"

You mean like the scenarios we were getting for each stage of the Isle of Thunder that unlocked?

Yea. Those scenarios were the only reason 99% of the people were there, was to unlock a new stage and do a new scenario. Something like that, but with group scenarios, is ideal. it would keep people waiting to see what will come out next Tuesday, and actively advances the story. (Instead of us reading about what Vol'Jin is doing from 5.1-5.3, we could have scenarios or something to play alongside him and experience it).

It wouldn't be hard in the slightest either. Scenarios are essentially 5 stage quest lines. Im pretty sure a team of 3-4 professional game designers could think of, design of, and implement one in a few hours.

[Herecius]

A shift to releasing small raids at rapid fire pace would be pretty interesting.

That said, it would require a DRAMATIC shift in how gearing over the course of an expansion is done. For starters, tier would have to become a thing of the past, wouldn't it? Tier gear is almost entirely based around the idea of building up a big gear set over the course of a many-months long raid schedule.

But losing the legitimately interesting thing that is tier bonuses would be a significant drawback, in my opinion. Perhaps it could instead be changed to multiple 2-piece sets of all different sorts, scattered throughout the various raids?

It's an interesting idea, at any rate.

[MOEEEE]

World of warcraft ~~ Shooter? Bahhahahah! I don't think so..

[Herecius]

World of warcraft ~~ Shooter? Bahhahahah! I don't think so..

Not really what he's saying, should give it an actual read. OP is referencing to the way that FPS games tend to do their content release schedules these days.

[nulir]

But... Shooters don't release content aside mods really. You want WoW to bring out a raid tier then charge £15 for it? Sounds legit

[Darsithis]

When was the last shooter you played that allowed for 24-man co-op play against a single target with specific tactics?

Never.

WoW is not a shooter and doesn't operate like a shooter, and definitely shouldn't release content "like a shooter". WoW releases quality content, not maps that any old person can throw together in 5 minutes.

[Tehterokkar]

Shooters release new content(Expansions/DLC) every few months, at least Battlefield 3 did. However no more new content for BF3 and they are focusing on BF4.

Also Shooters don't get as boring as MMO PVE, it's always something different, you don't bash against the same players every week doing the exact same thing.

[Mad_Murdock]

WoW is not a shooter and doesn't operate like a shooter, and definitely shouldn't release content "like a shooter". WoW releases quality content, not maps that any old person can throw together in 5 minutes.

Hater ! Why you hating on the old for !?!!!?! Why did they ever to do you??!?!? In all seriousiness, I think Lithos is talking about the Company releasing the maps content, not ad-hocs from the community.

Lithos, if we used Battlefield 3 as an exmaple. Over the course of the past 2 years, they have released new maps, some guns and such as Xpacs, which normally cost a $15-20 or $50 if you bought them all ahead of time. They key is they were talking about Armored Kill shortly after release, which means they were already working on it (just like Blizz is already working on 5.4 and the new Xpac). I'm pretty sure Call of Duty and it's DLC works the same way.

Most of the big games aren't releasing that much new content any faster than Blizzard is. The difference between a BF3 and LFR is that there is little reason to run LFR more than once. Not to mention the fact that so many people don't even try, they aren't really interested in actually playing at all. How many times do you see 1/3 of the group just afk every match ? How many games do you see people just sit at their spawn location and do nothing, waiting for everyone else to get them a win? The fun in FPS shooters is normally the actual playing. Apparently there is little fun in LFR, seeing how so many make an effort to do nothing.

But... Shooters don't release content aside mods really. You want WoW to bring out a raid tier then charge £15 for it? Sounds legit

Shooters are free to play on-line and you pay for their Xpacs, you're paying $15 a month to play WoW. I'd call that fairly even.

[Deleted]

Shooters and MMOs don't mix.

[xxf2dxx]

Shooters and MMOs don't mix.

Wasn't Titan supposed to be a FPSMMO? Granted there's been a lot of shitty FPSMMOs, but there's always bad games in every genre. If someone could do it correctly it'd help.

[Mad_Murdock]

Shooters and MMOs don't mix.

Isn't Planetside 2 an attempt to get those two closer together. It's actually a very logical union that I'm surprised hasn't happen yet. Doesn't mean it has to be a FPS RPG and the MMO part is subjective.

[Anjerith]

There is something wrong with them not demanding a player spends 3 hrs a day farming for mats for resist gear?

Modular content is the wave of the future. People have a psychological tendency to believe they have less time in the day as our connection to the world increases. Long raids, while fun and neat, are not the thing that WoW needs. It needs to be something where you can log on, do your thing, log off. That is where it will succeed.


Do I want it to be like that? Not really. Do I recognize that portable gaming and small-session gameplay are what all games need? Yes.

Example; Take your favorite game (whatever title) and imagine it with no auto or quick save functions. How often would you be able to play a game that required you to put 3-4 solid hours into it per play session without getting up?

[Deleted]

Wasn't Titan supposed to be a FPSMMO? Granted there's been a lot of shitty FPSMMOs, but there's always bad games in every genre. If someone could do it correctly it'd help.

I could be on crack, but aren't they looking at Call of Duty "on-line" ? Isn't Planetside 2 an attempt to get those two closer together. It's actually a very logical union that I'm surprised hasn't happen yet. Doesn't mean it has to be a FPS RPG and the MMO part is subjective.

Ak! I meant MMORPGs, yes. THEM and shooters don't really go hand in hand.

[Tehterokkar]

Wasn't Titan supposed to be a FPSMMO? Granted there's been a lot of shitty FPSMMOs, but there's always bad games in every genre. If someone could do it correctly it'd help.

Planetside had a good idea, though the gameplay sucked and it was horribly optimized, it barely could use 2 cores of CPU and mix that with battles of +100 people near you = 10-15 FPS

[Itisamuh]

Here I was coming in the thread expecting to refute everything due to seeing WoW and FPS together, but I actually agree with the OP. There is nothing wrong with queues and the general direction, at all, but more content (specifically PvP content) would be nice.