Wall of text crits you for 9000

[stgeorge78]

So here we are, about to embark on Cataclysm. Some thoughts on the path this game has taken and why Cataclysm is so important to Blizzard. This is the longest post on this site ever.

TL,DR - Blizzard hit a home run with Vanilla & BC, screwed up with Wrath, trying to patch it up with Cataclysm. They need Cataclysm to succeed or this is the beginning of the end.

Where are we now? WoW is undeniably a huge success and a big part of Activision's strategy, but Blizzard has been stagnant in growing that part of the business. The subscriber base has been churning heavily for the past 2 years since the launch of Wrath of the Lich King with a large number of players leaving and a large number of players coming in to replace those. So in the end, the net gain has been very stagnant. Since their last announcement of 11.5 million subscribers, they've repeated this same number in the past 2 Activision conference calls. So something is very wrong. How can this game not be retaining subscribers? They are obviously attracting new customers or the game's subscriber rate would be plummeting.

Where did we begin? Vanilla WoW met with tremendous success, exceeding any and all possible expectatons for a genre where half a million subscribers was considered outstanding (Ultima Online and Everquest at the time were approaching that lofty goal). WoW blew past that number and skyrocketed to 3 million subscribers in its first year of existence and 5 million by the time of its first expansion. The game compromised of two major groups of players. Casual players who enjoyed levelling, the lore, dungeons and socializing with friends and viewed WoW as a game. Hardcore players enjoyed min-maxxing their toons, theorycrafting, raiding and viewed WoW as an intense hobby.

Blizzard decided to not mess with success with their first expansion and provided more of everything... more questing, more dungeons, more complex raids and revamped the battleground experience. This expansion redefined what expansions meant to an MMO. Previously, they were ways to prop up a sagging/disinterested subscriber base and maintain revenue. With WoW, it surged the subscriber base from 5 million to 11.5 million by the end of the Burning Crusade's run. The sky was the limit for this game and investors and industry experts agreed that there was unlimited growth as the game had limitless potential internationally and in the US with over a hundred million PC users around the world to potentially turn into paying customers.

With Wrath, Blizzard felt it was time to tinker with the formula. They concluded that they spent 50% of their effort on casual content and 50% on hardcore content. Yet 90% of their customers were casual and 10% were hardcore. Why did casual players not venture into things like raiding? The answer was that it was too difficult, too competitive, too aggressive. But players for the first time in Burning Crusade got a taste of epic gear through the battleground system. Though this gear was ineffective for raiding, many players tried entering raids using this gear and found the experience thoroughly impossible. This was by design, but Blizzard's plan was to introduce these casual players into raiding.

Why introduce casual players into raiding? The idea was simple. Too much development time was being spent on raids, and too few players actually saw it. Less than 2% of the entire population even saw the Naxx-40 raid and less than 2% cleared the Sunwell-25 raid. This was a problem in Blizzard's eyes, why spend so much money for so few players? Why not get all the casual players into raids! This would encourage a large influx of casual players from other MMO's with the promise of "raid like the big boys".

What happened? Blizzard met their goal as intended, but the expected effect did not occur. While over 80% of the WoW subscribers were in raids, including a large number of Naxx clearings - something disturbing happened. The high-end raiders were absolutely demolishing the content, including the famous first clear of all Wrath raid content on 11-18, just 4 days into the expansion (by then so-called 25 November guild, later Ensidia).

11-18-2008: "We are proud to declare that all WOTLK PVE raid content has now been cleared. This is both a moment of triumph and a cause for concern. The question in all our minds right now is if we could do this, how soon until the rest of the top guilds in the world clear all the raid content that WOTLK has to offer? Did Blizzard miscalculate in the tuning of these encounters? Or is this Blizzard folding under the weight of a large casual player base that demands to be on equal footing with end-game raiders?"

Prophetic words, as it became evident to Blizzard that they did indeed miscalculate the high-end raiders in their efforts to make the raids accessible to all players. So was born the Heroic raid. This caused a large headache for Blizzard as the gear inflation required to itemize the heroics made players too powerful. The addition of Dungeon Finder and maintaining a policy that old raids were discarded in favor of the latest raid (giving previous tier gear out by grinding heroic dungeons) caused a large number of casual players to achieve gear beyond their wildest dreams, yet their performance remained stagnant. Blizzard now designed raids to have a very simple beginning and a very complex ending.

This encouraged the phenomenon of pugging where a group of random strangers all decked out in an outstanding amount of gear (exceeding the requirements of the entire raid) would bludgeon through 4 - 6 bosses and call it a night. Blizzard introduced a scaling buff system to try and prop up the casual players to achieve their stated goal of "everyone will kill the Lich King" starting at 5% and ending at 30%, but amazingly, only approximately 40% of the guilds in the game achieved their Kingslayer titles.

Blizzard decided that this churn was due to 2 reasons. First, a lack of a positive leveling experience. Second, a commitment to pushing casual players into raiding.

The leveling experience in Wrath moved the entire gaming population into Northrend. This also occurred in the Burning Crusade, but due to the lack of raiding by the casual population, many players had time to help others in the Old World or start alts and level up as well. This promoted a healthy leveling experience in the old world for new players. This did not happen in Wrath, as most players moved from levelling to heroics and directly into Naxx, where they remained for many months. The Old World became barren as the majority of casual players threw themselves into Naxx to great success. This success ended with Ulduar, came back briefly for TOC and was again crushed by ICC but in the end, the goal to push casual players into raiding prevented a healthy leveling experience from developing.

Casual raiding made the game less interesting for the hardcore raider. They left the game in droves, but their numbers were not significant enough to Blizzard to take notice. These players were the ones who brought in a large number of casual players. In Vanilla and BC the casual players were more helpful, more agreeable and less likely to disparage new players. The game was not easy and they appreciated any new player coming up through the ranks. These helpful casual players left in droves as well. They constituted a number large enough to concern Blizzard, but they were quickly replaced with a new type of player.

This new type of player was greedy, unhelpful, derogatory and disdainful of anyone they considered to be a "noob". They expected gear and they wanted it now. This was the console crowd who decided that World of Warcraft was going to be their new home. These type of players tended to be drowned out by the strong community, but they quickly overwhelmed the remaining players by their sheer numbers as Wrath progressed. Blizzard was able to maintain their 11.5 million subscriber base... but at what cost? Blizzard realized through their forums that the community had reached a new low. They tried their most drastic move to force the community to improve by introducing Real ID and forcing the community to reveal their real names. One of the largest most vocal outcries in gaming history finally changed their mind on this, but it was clear that the dismal state of their own community shamed Blizzard.

And now Cataclysm arrives. Blizzard immediately decided to fix these two issues. To fix the leveling issue, they have introduced the most radical redesign of the starting and mid-level content ever attempted by any MMO. They also introduced 2 new races designed to be started at level 1, redesigned all the introduction quests and starting zones, simplified major game mechanics and updated all the lore in the game to progress the story 5 years. This is unprecedented and really shows a commitment to making leveling a pleasure again.

They have also backtracked on making raiding easier. Blizzard has decided to take a more measured approach in developing content. This means less elaborate raids, but less development time as well. Gone are the days of 10+ boss mega raids with lavishly designed raiding environments (such as Ulduar, ICC and Black Temple). A return to the BC-style 5 or 6 boss raids with smaller environments. But also, raiding will be less favorable for casual players. More difficult tanking and healing, more complex rotations for DPS, more punishing mechanics. Heroics returned back to a BC flavor where wiping is to be expected. This is all designed to keep casual players leveling up and participating in regular dungeons & battlegrounds where the majority of other new casual players will be.

This in turn attracts the hardcore raider back to a game that fulfills their desires in a game and Blizzard can enjoy the influence these players bring by attracting more casual players to the game. In the end, Blizzard understands that a successful MMO must cater to the have-nots and the haves, and that players must see something more in the game that is just out of their reach to keep them in the game. Once a casual player achieves even a modicum of success, they tend to stop playing. It is the hardcore raiders who keep playing even after they have everything. This is called the banana-on-a-stick effect. The hardcore raiders play to maintain their superiority, while the casual players play to one day approach the hardcore player. But Blizzard now knows they can never give in.

They hope that this will begin a positive upward trend in subscriber rates. They run the risk of alienating even more of their audience. They still have the console gamer crowd to deal with. Many challenges lay ahead...

Looking forward to the Cataclysm.

*CRITICAL HIT - 9000 - YOU DIE*

[Tayla]

*has been struck dead*


So..what was the point of this post, again?
We knew all of this already.

[Zekul]

Yeah... I'm not going to read all that...

[Simca]

I came into the thread expecting a QQ post about walls of text, but I was pleasantly surprised.

An accurate summary of the history of WoW from Blizzard's perspective, as far as I can see.

I don't think things are nearly as DIRE with the game's subscriber numbers as you make them out to be, but it makes the story more interesting, for sure.

[Vladilena]

I'm glad you're one of those people who put TL;DRs at the top of the post rather than the bottom. But I still agree with:

We knew all of this already.

Still a good read, though.

[Grindfreak]

I'm personally looking forwards to seeing wow on the ps3 atleast (hopeful I am).

coding it over would be pain, it's possible already if you install linux on your system and then run a window emulator that ontop of that runs wow, but your fps is shite.

[Nightime]

*Ardent Defender Procs I live when everyone dies.*

Woot! Pally ftw.

Seriously though, while a bit overstated, not a bad read. Pretty good for a wall of text. Have to agree with ya, really looking forward to Cata.

[Grimora88]

So, Blizz failed with something new...

Yeah it was horrible. And are now going back to the best MMO formula they did in the first place.

I honestly give them a bravo for the guts to admit they didn't do so good with Wrath.

[milowen]

*CRITICAL HIT - 9000 - YOU DIE*

No impossible....
IT'S OVER NIIIINE THOUSAAAAAAAAAAAAND !!!!!!!

[Deleted]

I think that the only reason why WOTLK was some kind of failure compared to vanilla and tbc was that they rushed a bit to release i,t cause warhammer released about the same time..!
So they put little less effort to make it better!
I think that Cataclysm will reward our 2 years of waiting! ))

[Noomz]

*has been struck dead*


So..what was the point of this post, again?
We knew all of this already.

Yeah, feels like he's stating the obvious. But no-one is doubting that Cataclysm will be a success.

[Zekul]

I lied, I read it all and I have to say it was a big waste of time. :/
I was all like.. "I knew this already".

[Noomz]

I'm glad you're one of those people who put TL;DRs at the top of the post rather than the bottom. But I still agree with:

Still a good read, though.

Why are you doing another font!? Seriously, stop it, you look very pretentious.

[Simon_Moon]

Nothing new but still a good read. I know it is not in Blizzards's interest but a scheme to get rid of the so called console gamers would be healthy. Will it be enough to wipe in heroics and get blue gear from 5 mans on a rate dead slow compared to WotLK? I hope so!

[Deleted]

Nice summary. This post represents the true story behind the scenes.

Community is the key to success.

[Prosthetics]

Looking forward to Cata!!!

[Tyaldan]

I loved this post. It was a great read, and kind of hit me. I would like to think of myself not casual, but to be honest farthest I have seen is sindragosa, 10. I did like the sound of the direction of cataclysm, until I heard that everything was changing(31 pt talent trees). That got me worried alot, however I tried out the ptr(no beta represent!) and i found myself enjoying the changes, especially with my current main, the paladin. It is no walk in the park to tank, or heal. I had to make decisions, like do I wait for a third holy power and let dps draw aggro for a second, or let fly with a 60% shield in order to keep aggro now. I like having to think once more, beyond where do I stand. While leveling everything was a decision, due to lack of moves. I have a feeling cataclysmn will hit the spot perfectly between hard and easy. Some things need tweaking however, but thats what the PTR is for (turns out, either way i would loose aggro due to 5k not being a lot of damage for making threat.)

[Cowpunch]

tl;dr most of it.

wow will always have players.

[Toby John Kenobi]

Even though this has been stated plety of times, i liked it

Thank you

\o/

[Sackman]

Why are you doing another font!? Seriously, stop it, you look very pretentious.

I hate to be rude but I agree, it's really annoying, I skip over the posts because the font is annoying to read.