Any Chance of Blizzard fixing WoW

[Durandro]

Thats where your wrong though, the advent of "free gear for everyone" is a fairly new concept to WoW.

TBC would disagree with you. Where do you think the term 'Welfare Epic' came from? PvP Arena rewards. Which didn't even require you to have a good rating, just grinding out matches until you have enough to buy gear that was often better then anything you could get prior to Black Temple.

[The Penguin]

A million other threads of this nature. Go find them and post your biased, unprofessional, and narrow-scope opinions there.

Nope, Locked thread is incoming.

If you have nothing constructive or nice to say it's usually a good rule of thumb not to say a thing. Mods already posted here, and the thread is not locked; so lets keep this thread on topic since it seems to be something worth discussing again.

[Drusin]

I hope they "fix" the game, not for the game itself, but so THESE threads can stop, go post in the existing 49857457 posts about thing already

lol but then what will people post in general discussion

On topic. I think wow is fine, people just QQ about the game because it's not what they want.

[Thage]

Thats where your wrong though, the advent of "free gear for everyone" is a fairly new concept to WoW.

Merciless Glad for losing your way to honor gear isn't a very new thing at all. In fact, I remember it happening with, what, the Sunwell patch if not earlier? Sunwell itself let you get t6-quality gear for Heroic badges off a vendor on a boat near the quest hub.

Whereas in comparison, when the game was at its peak for years, the general consensus was that you should have to earn your gear. Even in wrath they had a nice balance, the difficult content was there, but the easy content wasnt totally faceroll (with exception to a certain few bosses.

Naxx10 and Trial of the Champion beg to differ, never mind the release 5-man heroics outside Occulus (which was more poorly-designed than hard per se).

[melodramocracy]

As of late, it would seem to be Blizzard's belief that the way to solve their declining sub crisis is to 'casualize' the game more and make it more 'accessible". Is there any chance in your mind that they could make a reversal?

Probably not until they drop a few more million subs.. no, I don't.

[Deleted]

As someone who's played WoW, pre-BC expansion, I can safely say that you (OP) don't know what you're talking about.

Molten Core = A million times easier than some of the newer end game raids. Then there's Heroics.

I would have agreed, if you'd have said that they've "Casualized" levelling. But you didn't. In any case and on that note, I think a more casual cruise to level 60 is not only a godsend for players who like to re-roll, but it's also better for newer players, as it keeps new players, who may be used to different levelling systems that are quick/etc, interested.

But has WoW got more casual? Nope.

[Vargas]

As of late, it would seem to be Blizzard's belief that the way to solve their declining sub crisis is to 'casualize' the game more and make it more 'accessible". Is there any chance in your mind that they could make a reversal?

They tried that with Cataclysm.

It failed spectacularly.

The people who want WoW to be a hardcore game make up probably like 5% or less of the overall playerbase; the problem is with them, not the game. They need to quit stamping their feet and threatening to quit unless Blizzard makes the game to their specifications and just go away already. If Blizzard made WoW for hardcore MMO players, the game probably would have shut down years ago.

[DeadmanWalking]

Maybe your opinion is the narrow and biased?

If these threads keep popping up as you say maybe there is something very wrong with the game and it's current direction that is pissing alot of people off.

These threads keep popping up because a tiny minority chooses to keep respinning the same argument over and over again. You can mew all you want because LFR is here to stay, the common denominator pays the bills and without the common denominator having common access to the content the uncommon denominator will not get any content.

And in case you are not sharp enough to follow that; No LFR=Far less Raid content Less Often. LFR=Lots of frequent great raid content.

I don't want people like OP deciding who gets to experience the content, I want Blizzard deciding who gets to experience the end game content. The entire reason there is an LFR is because of people like OP.

[MoanaLisa]

As soon as anyone can make a fact-based argument with at least a couple of supporting real life examples of how changing a product for mass consumption of any kind to something more exclusive and at the same time made the product grow and become more profitable we can talk.

Until then 'fixing the game' by making it more exclusive is an idea that betrays the person who advocates it as not having any common sense.

Go ahead. I'll wait.

[Wildberry]

The only thing that is infecting WoW is people like you who care about how other people play or have fun.

Actually the people infecting WoW are the LFR heroes.

Not because them doing dumbed down raids makes my accomplishments feel less valuable, absolutely not.

Before LFR, a new player would see someone in Orgrimmar, or Shattrath, or Dalaran with raid gear and want to have that. They would hear about Black Temple and want to go there, They would want to kill someone like Ragnaros, or Kael'thas. As old raiders quit the game, there were plenty of new raiders to fill in spots. There also used to be decent PuG communities (Especially in WotLK) but now that people can queue up for a raid, and get full gear and an end boss kill without saying a word to anyone, the community is all but gone. Actually the only PuGs I've seen are either for old content, or Raiders raiding with other Raiders on their alts.

People wonder things like Why most 25 mans have roster issues, or why recruiting can be so difficult, it's because the pool of raiders is dwindling and there just isn't that much new blood anymore.

Let's say I'm a new player, let's say I hit 90 when 5.4 drops, I kill Garrosh Hellscream on LFR, I've done it, I've killed the last boss of the expansion, what should I do now? I mean I can't possibly be asked to commit to a raiding schedule, I mean what reward is there for committing 2-3+ nights? Killing a boss I've already killed to have gear I already have? No thanks!

Now let me say, I am 100% for accessable content, I like the idea of getting people into raiding. What I don't like is LFR, whatever you may say, LFR is raiding in name only, it does not encourage people to get into real raiding, the "difficulty gap" from LFR to Normal actually discourages people from making that jump.

One of the main arguments I've seen for LFR, is that people don't want to commit to "Nazi strict", as I've seen one poster put it, Guild schedules, that's all fine and dandy, that's what PuGs are for, unfortunately LFR completely killed the sense of community most server used to have, so there are no longer PuGs going constantly in trade chat.

I'll leave everyone with that, my opinion, not my "List of indisputable facts that should be treated as if spoken from God himself", unlike Pebrocks:

The only thing that is infecting WoW is people like you who care about how other people play or have fun.

I am abandoning this thread though before I get called an elitist for not liking certain aspects of LFR, as is common on this forum.

[Tziva]

you shouldnt catering to the majority of the playerbase through bad game design...

You're begging the question, though.

I think designing your game around the whims and demands of players (majority or otherwise) is bad game design as players are fickle and shortsighted. However, making your top priority designing content that is accessible to the majority of players, especially when you make efforts to include content that is also relevant to the more "hardcore" is very good game design. Blizzard is obviously not perfect and they're never going to make everyone happy, but I think it's smart for them to keep their majority demographic in mind when designing the game.

I think the people pining for high learning curves and exclusive content would be better off moving on to a different game that fits their needs better. Those games certainly exist, and I think the odds of success are a lot higher if one finds a game that fits their needs rather than expecting a game that doesn't to change for them.

But hey that's me.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

-snip-

You assume what I said I meant as fact when in fact it is only my opinion, like how you state:

I'll leave everyone with that, my opinion

But why do you intimidated by what I say? I never said what I said was fact.

And if you're abandoning the thread then there is no point in arguing your points.

[ShimmerSwirl]

Incorrect, WoW caters to multiple demographics.

It caters to casuals with LFR, easier 5 mans, gear scaling in battlegrounds and plenty of dailies. Soon it'll also introduce Flex-raids which will probably boost the PUG scene too.

It caters to raiders with reasonably challenging normal raids and difficult heroic modes, while also having dailies and LFR if desired but by no means required (argument can be made for the Tillers, if you need feasts).

It caters to the extreme hardcore players with heroic modes that are brutally punishing in the first few weeks of a tier, essentially becoming a tournament between a dozen or so serious guilds that really want the fame of being the first to defeat the encounter (often while woefully underequiped for the task).

It caters to achievement hunters, having a huge number of achievements to gather (its mind boggling how some people have more then I do, I suspect I'm average on total achievements and I spent a long time on some of them!).

It caters to people who enjoy collecting pets and mounts, with hundreds of each spread out over the entire game world and inside nearly every dungeon.

Only way Blizzard could improve in any area is by neglecting another.

And yet the whole is clearly less than the sum of the parts as evidenced by the sub drops. Blizzard has stretched themselves too thin imo. They need to decide if they want WoW to be a hardcore or casual game, and definitely go in that direction. The, "jack of all trades master of none" approach isn't working.

[glo]

You're begging the question, though.

I think designing your game around the whims and demands of players (majority or otherwise) is bad game design as players are fickle and shortsighted. However, making your top priority designing content that is accessible to the majority of players, especially when you make efforts to include content that is also relevant to the more "hardcore" is very good game design. Blizzard is obviously not perfect and they're never going to make everyone happy, but I think it's smart for them to keep their majority demographic in mind when designing the game.

I think the people pining for high learning curves and exclusive content would be better off moving on to a different game that fits their needs better. Those games certainly exist, and I think the odds of success are a lot higher if one finds a game that fits their needs rather than expecting a game that doesn't to change for them.

But hey that's me.

People longing for high learning curves and exclusive content (encounters, gear, titles, mounts, etc) have it readily available. The issue is that the 1% of players doing said content want not only the previously stated items, but also want lesser experienced players completely barred from the raiding experience altogether.

It's unreasonable and childish.

[Thage]

And yet the whole is clearly less than the sum of the parts as evidenced by the sub drops. Blizzard has stretched themselves too thin imo. They need to decide if they want WoW to be a hardcore or casual game, and definitely go in that direction. The, "jack of all trades master of none" approach isn't working.

Most of the sub drops since 4.2 have been coming from Eastern markets, where free-play MMOs are prolific and WoW's sub model is such that more Eastern players are migrating toward freemium MMOs instead (games like Perfect World and TERA have a much stronger following over there than in the Western markets). It's mainly a matter of market shifts in the East and the pay-to-play model being an artifact of a previous era, on top of disgruntled players leaving for whatever reason.

[But I Hate You All]

Yet, in the so called "peak" the term "welfare epics" was created. So how is that a new concept to WoW?

Badge gear came with BC

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

Badge gear came with BC

I know, but the guy I replied to implied that TBC was the "peak".

[But I Hate You All]

I know, but the guy I replied to implied that TBC was the "peak".

Ah. funny I thought WOTLK was the peak for wow

[DeadmanWalking]

And yet the whole is clearly less than the sum of the parts as evidenced by the sub drops. Blizzard has stretched themselves too thin imo. They need to decide if they want WoW to be a hardcore or casual game, and definitely go in that direction. The, "jack of all trades master of none" approach isn't working.

Don't confuse 'Something I personally don't like' with '4 million sub drop' because you are way off base. The truth of the matter is that 4 million players left for 4 million reasons.

If you left because you are no longer special because everyone experiences the content then you never were special and good riddance.

[HatredAU]

I think we should all stop bitching and play the fucking game, Heroic raids are harder than they've ever been