the account-wide essences paradox

[Rinnegan2]

UPDATE!!! THE ACCOUNTWIDE ESSENCES PARADOX JUST GOT SOLVED!!! ESSENCES ARE NOW ACCOUNTWIDE!!!



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Blizzard says that if they made essences account-wide, then players would play less.

Players say that if Blizzard made essences account-wide, then they would play more.

who is right? who is wrong?

I think it depends on the type of content. essences are a form of content.
the following framework can be used to decide what should and what shouldn't be account-wide in WoW:

1. is the content intended for everyone? [True/False]
2. has the content been completed on one character? [True/False]

if 1. and 2. are [True], then the reward of said content should be account-wide.
if 1. is [False], then the reward has to be character specific, because it is a status symbol. (status symbols are the essence of MMOs)

I would argue, that essences are a form of content that is intended for everyone, in which case they should be made account-wide.

what do you think?

update:

hardcore player = a player who completes difficult content, that isn't intended for everyone

1. the main of a hardcore player, who can overcome difficult content, should have access to the best gear and to unique, character-specific status symbols (cosmetics).
2. the alt of a hardcore player and the main of a casual player are usually at the same stage, where they try to complete difficult content together.
3. right now - because of essences not being account-wide - hardcore players don't have alts, which means casuals have way less people/groups to play with.

the main reason for WoW's success over the years:

the alts of hardcore players help make the gaming experience awesome for casuals and vice versa.

[spalernTJ]

The idea of grinding out essences on more than one character destroys my motivation. I've already grinded exalted with Rustbolt and Ankoan once, I've already killed a lot of bosses in Eternal palace, making me do a mindless regrind on other characters is not fun. I don't grind out all my faction reps on Alts, I don't max out blacksmithing or leatherworking on multiple character, I don't do mindless grinds on other than main characters.

[Flarelaine]

I don't grind out all my faction reps on Alts, I don't max out blacksmithing or leatherworking on multiple character, I don't do mindless grinds on other than main characters.

I can say the same.

And that's why all those alts are alts. I don't make the effort, I don't get the rewards and that's how it should be.

[Wilfire]

Blizzard is wrong by default. They are so out of touch with the playerbase that they can't please ANYONE. Not even the casuals.

[Rafalga]

I think this is no longer worth discussing over. 8.3 is out and Ion said there won't be a 8.3.5 so we are on cruise control from now on till Shadowlands. It will a badly remembered and forgotten system (along with azarite) in a year before we have another in Shadowlands to complain about (totally expect to happen again since Blizz rarely listens feedback).

[KaPe]

It's one of those old arguments about gatekeeping/grinding. If there's more grind in the game, players will have to play more to reach their goals, thus making more money for Blizzard. It was pretty commonly used for older Allied Races.

The issues is that it ignores the part where people are put off by the grind and quit the game entirely/take a long break until things are nerfed. It's especially true for alts, where keeping them up to par requires more and more effort. It started back in Legion, with AP grinding and peaked in 8.2, with essences - some of which take weeks of grinding without any way to speed it up. Adding the cloak on top of that... well, who knows where it will lead.

Myself, I lean toward the second option. Grinding can keep people interested for a while, but there are limits. After certain points, doing the same stuff on another character for several weeks becomes a horrible chore that destroy any will to play alts. It's especially silly when we have Korrak's Revenge, making levelling trivial, but then you have to spend a ton of time to get some essences and make your character useful. It was nerfed a tiny bit, but is still a major nuisance - especially PvP ones take a long time and getting tens of thousands of HK means *a lot* of BGs.

[Rinnegan2]

I don't make the effort, I don't get the rewards and that's how it should be.

this is correct.

but the issue this causes is that there won't be a Flarelaine fury warrior or a Flarelaine frost mage for people to play with. it will just be Flarelaine's main that people get to play with and once Flarelaine is tired of playing his/her main then he/she will log off and someone who would have liked to play with Flarelaine's fury warrior or with Flarelaine's frost mage gets the short end of the stick.

[Mozu]

Considering Blizzard has actual playtime data while players have nothing but their feelings that cannot possibly represent anybody but themselves, I'm gonna go with Blizzard being right on this one.

That is to say, more people spend more time on the game as a whole. That doesn't mean they have more fun, or prefer that way though.

[Rinnegan2]

in short: you can only force people to grind for things on their alts when EVERYONE'S main is taken care off. if I can't do raids/mythic+/arenas on my main because no one wants to grind for essences on their alts, then we run into a massive problem.

[Raven]

So on one side we have Blizzard actually having numbers to back them up and on the other side we have the "experts" with their opinion, sorry i have to go with Blizzard on this one, sadly even tho its internet, facts are more important then opinions.

[Seranthor]

.

Ignoring your clickbait title for a moment, there isn't any paradox here... The devs have one position, a group of players (not all of them) have a different position. The answer is pretty easy, if you dont want to play the game that the devs are building, then stop paying Blizzard and move on to something else to waste your time.

[Rinnegan2]

[...] neither Blizzard nor you will be able to shape the game to force everyone to do the same thing.

let's say (hypothetically) Blizzard made essences account-wide ... in what world is that "forcing everyone to do the same thing"?

[Nnyco]

Essences are so easy to gather, esspecially when they require even less 'grind' to get in 8.3. If you cant even bother playing your alt for 1-2weeks then they dont need essences to begin with.

[sunxsera]

I quit playing nearly all my alts because of essences - would i have played more without essences? Definetly.
I coulnt stand to run mechagon, pvp etc. on all 8 120 chars. This left me with my main and one alt.

[Calai]

I can say the same.

And that's why all those alts are alts. I don't make the effort, I don't get the rewards and that's how it should be.

For the longest time in wow, untill Legion, you only had to make an effort in one area to keep multiple characters at approximately the same power level, and that was gear. In Legion you also had to keep up in AP and now, since mid BFA, you also have to keep up in essences, which "forces" you to do rep grinds, pvp, wq's and island expeditions on all the chars you want to keep relevant.

I think you should make an effort on other chars you want to play, but not to the extend it's required right now. I think it's an issue that we have too many systems to keep up with, if we want to play multiple chars.

You could say that gear is easier to get a hold of now, so we need alternate avenues of power to preserve the longevity of each char, and there might be some truth to that, but for me personally I would love to go back to just focusing on gear for my secondary chars, while only having to grind rep and ap and so on, on my main.

[glowpipe]

I can speak for myself. I am playing FAR less because of the essences. I only play my main instead of gearing up my 3 "main" alts. So now instead of doing content on 4 characters, i raid log with one. As soon as i have got the achievement for the final boss on my main, instead of playing my alts, im unsubbing. Simple as that

[Revamp Man]

For me personally it is not a paradox I refuse to do the grind for all of the essences all over again on multiple characters that means that blizzard is not gaining any time from me for the grind aspect the fact that I have to grind some of these essences to make my character playable in certain cases means that I will not play that character which means I will not spend time on one of my six tap characters work however many I have at the time meaning I will either play on one of my other characters and get bored which means you no gain in play time or I will play Star Wars because the class quests are fun and you can pretty much hit level cap by doing just that

- - - Updated - - -

I can speak for myself. I am playing FAR less because of the essences. I only play my main instead of gearing up my 3 "main" alts. So now instead of doing content on 4 characters, i raid log with one. As soon as i have got the achievement for the final boss on my main, instead of playing my alts, im unsubbing. Simple as that

Like every change made in this expansion we will probably get a count wait essences after two months and blizzard will say how they listen to players and our feedback is needed in communication is great well not admitting that they’re just a bunch of little bitches that don’t like to admit when they are too stubborn for their own good

[Galathir]

At least remove the hint that not all slots are filled then. I cba to grind more than one essence on my alts and that goddamn warning keeps popping up whatever I do.

[Revamp Man]

Essences are so easy to gather, esspecially when they require even less 'grind' to get in 8.3. If you cant even bother playing your alt for 1-2weeks then they dont need essences to begin with.

If I have multiple else but decide to switch class I should not be punished for that because maybe I want to spend a majority of my time tearing up my main but then at some point during progression figure out that it would be better for me to switch classes or maybe my group now needs a healer so I need to switch to a healer where I need to switch to a tank or I need to switch to a different deep yes I am essentially being told instead of being able to make that switch relatively painless Lee I must now go into different avenues of the game that I might not like

If I have multiple alts but decide to switch class I should not be punished for that because maybe I want to spend a majority of my time tearing up my main but then at some point during progression figure out that it would be better for me to switch classes or maybe my group now needs a healer so I need to switch to a healer where I need to switch to a tank or I need to switch to a different DPS I am essentially being told instead of being able to make that switch relatively painless Lee I must now go into different avenues of the game that I might not like

Personally I hate PVP I play the game to read and do dungeons I do not play it to PVP so the fact that if I were to switch to a warrior for example or another class that gets an extremely beneficial change from a PVP essence and then I have to grind it out to level III so I can be the best I can for a red team that is bad design

Personally I hate PVP I play the game to read and do dungeons I do not play it to PVP so the fact that if I were to switch to a warrior for example or another class that gets an extremely beneficial change from a PVP essence and then I have to grind it out to level three so I can be the best I can for a red team that is bad design

So at what point should transmogrify taken out of the game for account wait at what point should pets be taken out of the game for account wide at what point should mounts be taken out of the game for account wide

I got the celestial cloud server on an old does that mean that my main shouldn’t be able to get it because I haven’t put in enough effort to do it

[Ange]

update: people's alts make the game more fun for someone's main. if someone can't do what they enjoy on their main, because there is no one to play with (because people don't have alts), then we run into a massive problem.

Nothing is more "fun" then getting into a full-alt runs for dungeons/raids/pvp. If someone choose a main and they cant do what they enjoy, guess what, thats a wrong class choosen.

MAIN > ALTS is the way since vanilla, just because WoD and other phases of the game forced casuals to full blown ALT-fleets does not mean it should be a core part of the game.

LEGION and BfA's main focus brought the game back to its tracks, where it matters if you spend time on your main and you have to choose what class you want to progress with in your limited time.

Blizzards position for the next year is clear and if you hope that shadowlands will change anything, you clearly did not play the last few years of WoW.