Former WoW team lead Mark Kern - MMO's have become too easy

[Cloesd]

Focus on the journey etc etc, It just sounds exactly like SWTOR and how the leveling experience will never be the same with another class it will make the game the best the world have seen, heard it before as they say. Leveling is boredom and it is in no way shape or form something i consider vital to a mmo game.

Well then why not remove the leveling process completely?

OH right then it'd be COD. (Which it by the way is slowly turning into.)

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Casualising a game, and making it easier is basically the same thing as merging servers. It's a sign a game is reaching it's end and is cannibalizing it's own longevity to try to squeeze a few more ounces of juice out for the next few months, and the next few months. (Which is what we see with MoP).

The problem is the investors don't see it as that just yet. Soon they'll catch onto the pattern though.

Game got casualized with cata, Subs spiked and then sharply fell. That's been the case with every expansion since.
EXCEPT BC/ORIGINAL and wotlk

[Ronduwil]

Casualising a game, and making it easier is basically the same thing as merging servers. It's a sign a game is reaching it's end and is cannibalizing it's own longevity to try to squeeze a few more ounces of juice out for the next few months, and the next few months. (Which is what we see with MoP).

The game was not "casualized" in Cataclysm. Rather, the emphasis shifted to end game raiding. To that end they did the following at release:

• Drastically increased the levelling rate to get players to the end of the game faster so that they could raid
• Reduced the quality of rewards for max level heroic dungeons to entice players to raid
• Ratched up the difficulty of heroic dungeon bosses to prepare players for raiding

On subsequent patches they:

• Increased the acquisition rate of gear from previous tiers in order to get more players to raid the current tier
• Added LFR to give players a taste of the current tier's raid and to justify their new-found emphasis on raids

If you honestly think this game has been "casualized" you haven't been paying attention.

[Cloesd]

The game was not "casualized" in Cataclysm. Rather, the emphasis shifted to end game raiding. To that end they did the following at release:

• Drastically increased the levelling rate to get players to the end of the game faster so that they could raid
• Reduced the quality of rewards for max level heroic dungeons to entice players to raid
• Ratched up the difficulty of heroic dungeon bosses to prepare players for raiding

On subsequent patches they:

• Increased the acquisition rate of gear from previous tiers in order to get more players to raid the current tier
• Added LFR to give players a taste of the current tier's raid and to justify their new-found emphasis on raids

If you honestly think this game has been "casualized" you haven't been paying attention.

I admit the 'end game raiding' thing has been expanded on severely, but they have made it a lot more 'inclusive' and 'casualized' from the days of 40 man raids. That's not my point though, nor the real point of the OP.

The problem with this huge focus on 'end-game' is that most of the world of warcraft is now rushed through. So fast and so carelessly in fact that at some point they simply started giving away level 80s. This started with WOTLK and DKs starting at level 50. Almost as if to say "yeah forget about all that other stuff, this new stuff we made is the most important thing".

I get it that you're really excited about the new dungeon you've been working on for the last few months of development. Wel'l see it when we get to it. There's no need to butcher every dungeon before that since the beginning of the game to rush the player in to see the newest content, we know that once you release some other new content... the current tier that you're so proud of will be equally butchered/nerfed and rushed.

and THAT'S what most people see. Most players, aren't hard-core world firstsers. Most players only get to see butchered and rushed dungeons a while after their release.


If we wanted that type of game we'd play some non-RPG game. Like Coutner strike, where if a new map was released wel'l just load it up and play. WoW isn't like that, it's about clawing your way to things, and enjoying the process.

[Ronduwil]

The problem with this huge focus on 'end-game' is that most of the world of warcraft is now rushed through. So fast and so carelessly in fact that at some point they simply started giving away level 80s. This started with WOTLK and DKs starting at level 50. Almost as if to say "yeah forget about all that other stuff, this new stuff we made is the most important thing".

I agree with you. Blizzard has put all their eggs in the hard core raiding basket to everyone else's detriment. New players no longer enjoy the experience of exploring the story and learning their characters. Instead they're rushed through the game at breakneck speed, handed some epics, and told to raid. Instead of spending 6 months working up to level 90 they spend one month to level to 85, a week to level to 90, two weeks gearing for LFR, and then it's off to raid. As a result no one's happy.

Even hardcore raiders feel like the raids are coming out too quickly for them to keep up. That seems to have been why Exodus broke up: Killars explains why Exodus broke up Non-hardcore raiders feel like their efforts are devalued because their hard-earned gear is obsolete almost as quickly as they farm it. Casual players are left out in the cold because there's no middle ground between 3-man healer-optional scenarios and 10-man content.