Which is worse to you? MAU mechanics vs Microtransactions

[Sagenod]

What even is "MAU"? Never heard of it, and neither have google it seems.

Monthly Active User[s]. It's actually a quite common acronym nowadays and is used as a general basis of measuring an MMOs success over time.

[Seranthor]

Curious if SL is worth abandoning the ideological stance I've taken.

Interesting... Is any form of entertainment worth violating your principles to participate in?

[Rendark]

It will always be microtransactions.

[WowIsDead64]

...

I'm not sure, what is worse. May be both are bad? You know. "Fair" (i.e. not P2W or pseudo-B2P) F2P games are usually about "MAUs vs shop". I.e. you either grind or pay to boost yourself to skip that grind. Don't you think, that P2P game shouldn't have such mechanics at all? What is the purpose of sub fee then? I pay for one month. Blizzard get profit, no matter if I play 24/7 or don't play at all. Why it's not enough for them? And if they can't keep players playing in such conditions, then may be they just can't provide fun enough content?

Overall, what I would agree with - is OPTIONAL MAU and shop mechanics. Something like if playing baseline game is enough for you - no extra grind or payments are required for you. But if you're from "not enough content" crowd - then there is special content for you, where you can grind something 24/7 or pay money to boost yourself. But again. They should be OPTIONAL. That means, that my baseline game won't send me to there to do some mandatory quests, like it happens with Maw for example.

But there is even better solution. Blizzard should make other F2P game(s), that will be used as backup source of money for them. And they they'll stop trying to milk money from Wow. Problem is - how executives think. I.e. if they can milk just a little bit more money from game - they will do it.

Major question is - what things I'm ready to pay for? I would pay for "easy mode" and flying. Because it's something, that makes my game much better. Would I pay for some "elite" cosmetics? I guess, no. I usually pay extra money, if I enjoy this game. I wouldn't buy cool mount, if game is unplayable and therefore I can't even use it properly. Would I pay for boosts? No. I play game or I don't play it. That's it.

[ablib]

MAU mechanics.

I couldn't believe, I think it was last week, I was excited to finally have Bolvar give me a new quest. Yes! How exciting! We get to rescue Thrall this week! I went into Torghast > talked to one of the midget Revendreth characters that saw a green guy pass through > I better tell Bolvar about this. Ok. Turn the quest back in, and that's it. Usually there's some lame BS about how the questgiver needs to "think" about whatever for a week. But nah. This is it.

Breaking up quest lines like this just feels disjointed, and terrible. If anything, I forget what the hell is happening in the quest line because it's dragged out now for a month.

[Mysterymask]

Monthly Active User[s]. It's actually a quite common acronym nowadays and is used as a general basis of measuring an MMOs success over time.

IE games are successful when people are actually playing

[Lei]

Both can be done elegantly and greedy.
I like how the covenant campaign is weekly. I love the weekly reset days. There's something new to wait for. Now the actual quality of the covenant campaigns is a whole different thing. Take 7.2. That was bullshit. This? Miles better. Perfect? Nope. It's fine. If we have to wait for something, it's better be at least somewhat juicy and good.
The swine mount and the rat mount is ok in the store, I can't imagine a scenario where it would make sense for them to come from within game. But then do we need a mouse or a swine mount in the game? Or goofy fairie costume? Hmmm. I guess if they don't overdo it it's fine? Please don't overdo it.

[dewd]

definitely metric stretching and enlarging mau tactics designed to impress the shareholders

[Biomega]

In theory, MAU should be better because you don't get the core gameplay corrupted by things intended to make you go to MTX.

In practice, I feel more and more like the trend in WoW specifically is towards having design decisions that operate the same way those corrupt ones do - serving no purpose other than to stretch out player engagement in order to retain MAUs.

By this I don't even mean things like time gating, which might be a sensible idea to moderate power growth. But things like obnoxious terrain designed to make travel take longer, or restricting travel options, or pointless cooldowns on quest items, etc. etc. Things that have no reason to exist other than that they make people spend more time, and not quality gameplay time but pointless filler time.

[Relapses]

From your perspective thus far, would you say you are within the general majority or minority of players in your satisfaction with the gameplay of Shadowlands? Are you or any of your fellows beginning to lose interest in the daily gameplay loop? I would be interested to know what exactly it is bout SL that has made the content "gripping." Do you feel that not burning out is related more to your personal experience or the game itself in its current state? Of course the expansion just started, so I don't expect you would have hard answers at this point.

I can only speak for my personal anecdotal experience so I think it's unfair for you to draw any kind of broad generalizations from that. That said, I've become a far more casual WoW player over the past few years so I'm not exactly looking to max everything out right away these days. I can log in, see a few things to do, get them done then go on with my day. Pretty much every session sees me getting a meaningful reward/upgrade in some sense and I feel like the reward structure is fair enough that even if I didn't get the exact item I wanted, there's incentive enough for me to keep logging in and trying to see what I can do. The amount of loot in the game does seem markedly lower than prior expansions but there's enough to keep me busy that I'm not focusing entirely on what I don't have. Since I like playing alts, I've just been leveling multiple characters to 60, gearing them slightly and moving onto the next one. I've all but given up on raiding because I don't particularly care to raid at the Heroic level and I simply cannot invest the amount of time needed to raid on Mythic so that might be one contributing factor. I pretty much only do 5-man content so my endgame is M+. It's not perfect but I'm having fun with it.

[Queen of Hamsters]

I play the game and do what I want in it. If I stop wanting to do it, I stop and no "MAU mechanics" will stop that.

As for microtransactions, I can ignore those in this game. I am far more concerned with FOMO.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

MAU mechanics actually choke fun and ruin gameplay, makes the game boring to play.
There is no MAU mechanic that actually positively affects gameplay because its designed to stretch you (the player) like a chewing gum.
Some people might like that but i have never met such a person.
You can't even pay to get out of them - its the tar pit mire of death where fun dies.

Micro-transactions, as vile as they are, as long as they are cosmetic they can be... endured.
Heck if all they design is some dumb winged cats and horses and leave the actual gameplay mechanics to favor gamers i would not mind it too much.

MAU mechanics are conceived by business people... people who have never played a game except candy crush.
They are further implemented and given form by "game designers" who have absolutely lost their soul to the point that they make arthas look like a good boy.
If there is an evil in the world of game companies its those guys... they actually do (probably) have the skill/knowledge to create good games but they would rather be damned before parting with a single coin.

So how do you align wow with an opinion like this?

Was classic made by soulless game designers because they put in lock outs and limited loot drops from bosses or limited pvp rankings? because those are surly MAU mechanics.

- - - Updated - - -

In theory, MAU should be better because you don't get the core gameplay corrupted by things intended to make you go to MTX.

In practice, I feel more and more like the trend in WoW specifically is towards having design decisions that operate the same way those corrupt ones do - serving no purpose other than to stretch out player engagement in order to retain MAUs.

By this I don't even mean things like time gating, which might be a sensible idea to moderate power growth. But things like obnoxious terrain designed to make travel take longer, or restricting travel options, or pointless cooldowns on quest items, etc. etc. Things that have no reason to exist other than that they make people spend more time, and not quality gameplay time but pointless filler time.

How is the terrain or cooldowns on quest items stretching you into playing for multiple months?

Even with just a couple of hours of play a day you shouldn’t ever be stretched into next month by those things.

[Lei]

Even with just a couple of hours of play a day you shouldn’t ever be stretched into next month by those things.

But it does. take me: Daily activities minimum: kill mount dropping rares, pet dropping rares, toy dropping rares, up until yesterday farm Kyrian bell toy, and the acrobatic steward toy. Do dailies on main, maybe, maybe on alts for >100 anima. But then you get to actually do it and fly from zone to zone, and then you get to the rares and the treasures and now you gotta get out of there and with no whistle this time around either heart back to whatever the fuck your HS is or run back to the nearest FP which is usually 3-4 mins of travel, you're like "fuck it, will do this on alts maybe tomorrow". But the drop rates are so so so low that it stretches out your gameplay.
most of the time I don't even get to my second alt and I'm like hahahaha no thanks.

[Swnem]

They are both bad, but one makes me realise i am wasting my time playing the game. The other is something i can get or not at my discretion if it's cosmetic only.

[Super Kami Dende]

Odd that you think I'm complaining about anything in this thread.

Your thread is literally titled "which is worse."

- - - Updated - - -

But it does. take me: Daily activities minimum: kill mount dropping rares, pet dropping rares, toy dropping rares, up until yesterday farm Kyrian bell toy, and the acrobatic steward toy. Do dailies on main, maybe, maybe on alts for >100 anima. But then you get to actually do it and fly from zone to zone, and then you get to the rares and the treasures and now you gotta get out of there and with no whistle this time around either heart back to whatever the fuck your HS is or run back to the nearest FP which is usually 3-4 mins of travel, you're like "fuck it, will do this on alts maybe tomorrow". But the drop rates are so so so low that it stretches out your gameplay.
most of the time I don't even get to my second alt and I'm like hahahaha no thanks.

Sooo.. You log in and play the game for a few hours. Then get mad that you played the game for a few hours?

[Accendor]

I would like to bring up two issues that I often see discussed, both about profiteering:

- The unsatisfying gameplay loop resulting from arbitrary things such as loot drop restrictions and timegating, artificially extending playtime in order to keep the MAUs up.

- Microtransactions on the cash shop, where you spend money for additional items and features not included with your monthly subscription cost.

Both of these are frustrating. However, when you think of your priorities, which is worse? Many people including me believe the subscription cost along with existing microtransaction revenue should be more than enough for the continued support and development of the game. The truth of the Blizzard financial situation is unclear, though I have a good idea that greedy executives make things worse with easily accessible information available to all of us. Regardless, the shenanigans that may or may not be going on over there are a moot point if you're choosing to play World of Warcraft. As for the artificially extended playtime, people throughout recent years have attested to an overall worse experience as a result. From a statistical perspective, this truth is reflected in the then dwindling and now fluctuating playerbase over the years. I feel as though it is safe to say that the loss of players, on the part of Blizzard, has been due to the gameplay changes, not the microtransactions, which let's be real, are nowhere near as bad as many other games out there.

Artificially extended playtime mechanics and microtransactions are both in the game already and will continue to be in the game, however the intensity of their effect on the overall experience is on a spectrum. I stated my belief that the artificially-extended playtime mechanics are worse for the game. Now for a bit of optimistic speculation: I would argue that more microtransaction revenue would result in less requirement to artificially extend playtime. Optimistic because while the reality may be that the executives would certainly prefer to enjoy the best of both worlds, I believe they are smart enough to realize that going too far will kill the game. Unless I'm mistaken, World of Warcraft still appeals to primarily a western audience, and we gamers of the west don't want our video games rife with greedy institutions. But in this landscape we have to prioritize and I'm personally on the side of microtransactions. Which is worse to you? Inherently worse gameplay by design or potentially worse gameplay by increasing and perhaps eventually intrusive microtransactions.

Of course I acknowledge the two can go hand in hand. Runaway microtransactions can result in the same problem. We'll face the issue of either paying extra money or putting significantly more time to be equal to those who do pay. But it doesn't have to be like that and it won't necessarily. So consider the possibility that microtransactions may not grow to become as intrusive as they could. Tell me your opinion though!

Microtransactions are worse, by a lot and it's not even close.
I don't even agree that "NAUs" are a problem in the first place.

[FelPlague]

The amount of people saying stuff like

"All MAU stuff is horrible!"
and the claiming literally everything is a way to boost MAU
it is pretty fucking funny... come on people


I would like to point out to people that blizzard even adding patches is a way to boost MAU.
they could just release all the content at the launch of an expansion, then 2 years later release the next expansion, so legion woulda launch with all its raids, dungeons, etc, then bfa woulda launched with all its raids dungeons etc.

but while releasing patches instead of just one big expansion does build MAU, it also is good for us players, as it allows us to enjoy the content, it allows us to do 1 raid a fair few times instead of just "you kill it once, then you are done, you move onto the next raid"


imagine how hialriosuly bad wow would be if literally all of its content came out day 1, then 2 years later is when we got new content, imagine that.



log onto bfa, you gotta...
do M+
Do all 5 raids
do like hundreds to almost thousands of quests
get your 5 mask done
do all your island runs
do the invasions, do the incursions
do your mechagon, nazjatar, kultiras, zandalar, uldum, and pandaria dailies
and more. all from the very start, blizzard release content over weeks to years because it allows us players to better enjoy the content, not feeling rushed.

"Hey dude its M+ time!"
"Sorry i gotta do my raids, uldir, crucible of storms, battle of dazar alor, etenral palace, and nylotha...."


like in all other game generes, MMO's literally could just build an expansion every 2 years and release 0 content between each expansion, but for the good of the players, and the MAU metric they release new content every couple months.

[Lei]

Sooo.. You log in and play the game for a few hours. Then get mad that you played the game for a few hours?

The inefficiency is what annoys me compared to older expansions from before the "big change" with WoD. The not even subtle ways to cripple players to make their in game time a slog.
"Mad?" What is this? Twitch chat for teens?
Even the portal network is laughable at best. For night fae tier 1&2 for sure.

[Razion]

I'd rather see things like loot restrictions and time gating than things on the cash shop.

Cash shops seem gross and manipulative and greedy, and I don't like supporting it. I prefer a purchase model where you just buy the game outright and that's that and it's simple and clean and you don't have to worry any more about it. Subscription is something I've never liked about the WoW model, and I've considered it something I stomach rather than enjoy but I still prefer it to a cash shop model as the subscription still feels closer to b2p than f2p. I don't like being nickle-and-dimed. I don't like being feeling like I'm being harassed to buy each and every little thing - it's annoying. Games already compete for attention between each other and games that try to pull for more seem desperate, like their base game isn't good enough to sell alone by itself. And frankly, it just seems less friendly to the consumer to not bundle the whole game together as one product. Games are what I want to play, so a game is what I want to buy. Cash shops also are frankly not immersive and not an enjoyable part of the experience and especially in a lot of titles end up being so glaringly directed to that it is gaudy and an ugly kind of attention-grabbing. I feel like when I go to cash shops it's usually reflective of when I'm losing interest in the base product and considering moving on to something else because the game itself is no longer appealing enough.

[Kumorii]

It kinda depends heavily on what "mau" mechanics and what sort of mtx there are...

Then again MAU is just a misused buzzword by anyone who don't like something in a game... So overall I go with mtx if it boils over from cosmetics to more impactful gains.