No realm firsts for WoD? What is Blizzard thinking?

[cachemaster]

I was totally stunned when I saw that Blizz is removing realm first leveling achievements. Why would they do this? I can understand how adding/removing other features might require a lot of thought as it may negatively impact some players, but a lot of people don't even know realm first leveling achieves exist. It's not even as if there is a huge incentive to do it anymore. Back in WotLK you would get a title and a feat of strength, all you get now is a feat of strength and they are taking even that away... As someone who loves and looks forward to the challenge and fulfillment of completing a realm first level cap achievement, I will most likely not be returning to WoW for WoD.

Here are Blizzards “official reasons” for removing the realm first achievements:

Actively encourages exploitative behavior:
Some guilds look for ways to exploit to get a realm first boss kill, does that mean we should remove those too? Heck, people can look for ways to exploit any achievement in the game, to use this as an excuse is a cop out. Not only that but I think this is a much smaller issue than made out to be. The amount of people exploiting to get server firsts is a very small fraction of the already very small fraction of people attempting the realm first achievements. Furthermore, regardless of getting an achievement, exploiters will always be searching for ways to level up quickly.


Content gone after day one.
After I got realm first 85 and realm first 90 I still had tons of content left, there were entire zones I hadn't even touched (such as Krasarang in MoP) so to imply we finish all the content after “day one” is completely false. Also, nearly every single person who competes for a server first achievement does extensive testing of quests, dungeons, and all other content on the beta before release. The one day we spend leveling when the expansion comes out is not the only time we see the content. Not to mention, most if not all of us will level one or more alts during the expansion which will give us a chance to see the content again.

Other reasoning behind removing realm first achievements:

Encourages an unhealthy lifestyle
What? How is this even a thing? How are you going to try to judge let alone control someones lifestyle choices? What might be “too much gaming” for one person to handle may be perfectly acceptable for someone else. I was a full time student and had a full time job when I got realm first 90. I took my time to prepare everything that would be needed, made sure I got enough sleep, took breaks during cut scenes/flight paths, etc. You could argue that anything could “encourage an unhealthy lifestyle”

How would it be tracked with connected realms.
As someone who isn't currently playing the game, I can't speak too much to this concern, although I'm sure the great employees at Blizzard could find a solution. Even if it meant competing against the entire connected realm, that would still be better than not having anything at all.


Thanks for taking the time to read the wall of text. I'm curious to see what the rest of you think, although I'm sure most of you don't really care either way.

[stumpy]

Because neckbeards as a class need to be dragged out into the street and given an atomic wedgie before being beaten to death with a 2x4, for the good of the human race. This is only the beginning.

Mod edit: this post is 7 months old, past the ability to infract it. We agree it's terrible, sorry for the issue.

[Deleted]

I totally agree with you. Pretty stupid to remove something that don't affect 90% of the player base.

Let's just say Blizzard like to change their game into a casual non fun game.

[Duravian]

All realm firsts did was make me rush through the content in a vain attempt to be famous for 5 minutes. I never even got to a realm first because I simply can't try that hard. All those achievements end up doing is making me slightly jealous. At first I was upset because I truly hoped to push for realm first 100, but now I feel quite relieved that I can finally slow down and take my time the first run through.

[Deadmedic]

you act like they are removing the ability to be the first person to hit lvl 100, you can still achieve that, just now theres nothing in the game to show off your epeen, oh you poor thing. /sarcasm

[Seezer]

Because neckbeards as a class need to be dragged out into the street and given an atomic wedgie before being beaten to death with a 2x4, for the good of the human race. This is only the beginning.

So do passive/aggressive drama queens.

[Arrowstormen]

While it was cool that you got an achievement to show that you were quick to level, Blizzard came with some valid points about why it wasn't that good an idea, and in reality, it really was just an exercise in whoever could find the most exploitable source of XP in the beta.

[ATZenith]

THank god realm firsts are gone. I can enjoy the content.

[Chrysia]

I was totally stunned when I saw that Blizz is removing realm first leveling achievements. Why would they do this? I can understand how adding/removing other features might require a lot of thought as it may negatively impact some players, but a lot of people don't even know realm first leveling achieves exist. It's not even as if there is a huge incentive to do it anymore. Back in WotLK you would get a title and a feat of strength, all you get now is a feat of strength and they are taking even that away... As someone who loves and looks forward to the challenge and fulfillment of completing a realm first level cap achievement, I will most likely not be returning to WoW for WoD.

Here are Blizzards “official reasons” for removing the realm first achievements:

Actively encourages exploitative behavior:
Some guilds look for ways to exploit to get a realm first boss kill, does that mean we should remove those too? Heck, people can look for ways to exploit any achievement in the game, to use this as an excuse is a cop out. Not only that but I think this is a much smaller issue than made out to be. The amount of people exploiting to get server firsts is a very small fraction of the already very small fraction of people attempting the realm first achievements. Furthermore, regardless of getting an achievement, exploiters will always be searching for ways to level up quickly.


Content gone after day one.
After I got realm first 85 and realm first 90 I still had tons of content left, there were entire zones I hadn't even touched (such as Krasarang in MoP) so to imply we finish all the content after “day one” is completely false. Also, nearly every single person who competes for a server first achievement does extensive testing of quests, dungeons, and all other content on the beta before release. The one day we spend leveling when the expansion comes out is not the only time we see the content. Not to mention, most if not all of us will level one or more alts during the expansion which will give us a chance to see the content again.

Other reasoning behind removing realm first achievements:

Encourages an unhealthy lifestyle
What? How is this even a thing? How are you going to try to judge let alone control someones lifestyle choices? What might be “too much gaming” for one person to handle may be perfectly acceptable for someone else. I was a full time student and had a full time job when I got realm first 90. I took my time to prepare everything that would be needed, made sure I got enough sleep, took breaks during cut scenes/flight paths, etc. You could argue that anything could “encourage an unhealthy lifestyle”

How would it be tracked with connected realms.
As someone who isn't currently playing the game, I can't speak too much to this concern, although I'm sure the great employees at Blizzard could find a solution. Even if it meant competing against the entire connected realm, that would still be better than not having anything at all.


Thanks for taking the time to read the wall of text. I'm curious to see what the rest of you think, although I'm sure most of you don't really care either way.

The difference between exploiting for realm firsts and any other achievement in the game is that Realm Firsts are unique to only one player on any server. Exploiting the other achievements stops nobody else from obtaining them legitimately. Exploiting Realm Firsts can.

The content that goes away first after day one they are talking about is the achievement. Achievements are content.

Realm firsts do indeed encourage people to do stupid things like go without sleep. If you want that achievement, you have to push to crazy lengths.

The issue with the connected realms is that they aren't truly cohesive, but they are competition for resources. So while your server identity is unique, you've got players from those other servers competing for resources. It would artificially alter the outcome of the competitions on the unique servers that make the connected realm, and there's no real way to move those realm firsts to the connected realms as a whole, because it's really extraneous information that the server doesn't normally share.

You didn't really write a wall of text.

I don't understand not returning because of a single moment being removed from your experience, a moment that was ultimately of note to perhaps a couple dozen per class/profession/otherwise per server.

[Bathory]

Race to 100 then complain that there is no new content.

[Captainn]

Yeah it does suck, I guess. Having the chance was always nice. But whatever, it's their game, they'll do what they want...

[KCguy]

Perhaps the amount of work to keep them in when realms were connected was a breaking point. Not entirely sure what the case is, but if that is it, it's understandable.

[Chrysia]

Perhaps the amount of work to keep them in when realms were connected was a breaking point. Not entirely sure what the case is, but if that is it, it's understandable.

They actually did say something to this effect when they first announced Connected Realms. They said that realm firsts would have some technical hurdles, and they were strongly considering simply dropping them.

[MoanaLisa]

They're thinking that realm firsts don't make any sense at all with connected realms in existence.

[Azrile]

1. Blizzard makes valid points. So many of the ´firsts´ were simply about people who were in the beta and learned to exploit something and never reported it.

2. Realm firsts generate a ton of GM tickets as people constantly report other people for exploiting, or else harrassment. On many servers, guilds actively harass players who are trying to level in order to make their guildmate win. Not to mention people reporting other types of exploits

3. Special Snowflake. Your post was not intelligent or unique. No reason to start a new thread about something that has a main thread already. Yes, we get it, you want to make sure everyone reads your post, and everyone knows you got a realm first... blah blah.. ´i´m a special snowflake, everyone must see that I can repeat what has been said by 20 other people in other threads´..

[arcaneshot]

I was totally stunned when I saw that Blizz is removing realm first leveling achievements. Why would they do this? I can understand how adding/removing other features might require a lot of thought as it may negatively impact some players, but a lot of people don't even know realm first leveling achieves exist.

Why do you persist in believing that, really? Since the announcement for Realm First! is Realm-wide it's very hard to miss.

[Magpai]

I love when people ask "why" questions about things Blizzard gives an explicit explanation for.

[Aeriedk]

Well I have an opinion regarding this and I'll try to address most of the things you brought up.

Exploiting: Happens every expansion with realm first, every expansion. Usually it comes down to a player thinking that they are cleaver instead, but exploiting is exploiting.

Content being gone: I think they are trying to stop so many people from racing to the finishing and not enjoying the content. A lot of people race to the finish in regards of these achieves and even though you may think that there is a lot of content left a lot of other people don't leave the city unless they are raiding. Did they ever really see the content?

Healthy lifestyle: I'm not sure I buy your "student full-time job story". I know someone that earns these achieves each expansion and he and a friend split time playing the game just so they can earn them. You say you got enough sleep. That is defined as 7-9 hours for most adults which upon release of an expansion if you got you wouldn't have gotten realm first. They shouldn't encourage unhealthy play, I respect that. I hate spending hours on end leveling and everything becoming a blur do to lack of sleep etc.

Regarding connected realms: Honestly this may be one of the biggest issues. Sometimes major changes need to be made in order to track different things within the game. The game is old and sometimes the smallest changes can cause the biggest problems. They may have deemed that the amount of time spent to track this may have been a poor use of resources. I would much rather have better content then realm first achieves made for .0000328% of players.

In the end blizzard has their reasons for doing this. Sometimes we don't like them, but in the end I trust their judgement. If it were sometime that could be easily left in I'm sure that they would do it.

Just my opinion in the end. Sorry they are taking out something you like, but I have to believe if that was the straw that broke the camels back that you wouldn't be coming back to the game anyway.

Edit: I'm sure my post is riddled with errors. I just don't have the effort tonight to proofread it. Sorry

[cachemaster]

Why do you persist in believing that, really? Since the announcement for Realm First! is Realm-wide it's very hard to miss.

Not everyone is playing the during the first 12 hours of the expansion when nearly all realm achieves are announced. In fact, most people with school/work don't get to log on until after every realm first has been claimed.

I love when people ask "why" questions about things Blizzard gives an explicit explanation for.

To which I gave an explicit rebuttal...

[George Costanza]

They're thinking that realm firsts don't make any sense at all with connected realms in existence.

Not really just that tbh, Tom chilton the game director of World of warcraft since vanilla, said in an interview at blizzard that they don't want to have those because They want more people to have fun leveling, and well cross realm was a reason as well. BUt they also felt that players that hunt for said achievements, easily burn out, and they want the feeling of your first lvl 100 to be as satisfactory as possible.. Sort of like getting 3 orgasms at once, coming 5 times or both combined.