Uglesh

In the past week or so I can't say I've ever felt like leaving the game more. Not because I don't love the game or the people I'm playing with... No, it's because Blizzard has apparently decided to drop the first 2 letters from MMORPG.

Patch after patch we have seen the scale of end game content pushed smaller and smaller in what I can only imagine is an attempt to appeal to small groups of people. First it was raid instances cut from 40 to 25 people. Then came epics from basic 10 man instances. Next we saw PvP rewards that far outstripped average raid progression (and continue to).

Now we see the latest in this experiment whereby even 5 man groups will be able to receive rewards comparable to T5 through badge rewards. Even the 10 man rewards from ZA seem to trivialize 25 man content (SSC/TK) to the point that people will likely avoid them.


As a member of a guild that is still fighting to get people to attend SSC/TK, we're probably the people who Blizzard feels they are helping. What they have in fact done, is give all the "casual" raiders all the more reason not to bother learning 25 man content since they will have an easier time stockpiling badges and running ZA when the patch comes out.

I just get the feeling that Blizzard has decided to focus too much attention to PvP and small groups at the expense of their original MMO vision.

 

• Xaviera

I agree and disagree. I think it hurt the game's enjoyment for a lot of people to cut raid sizes from 40 to 25. However, they've been steadily producing a lot of 25 man raid content, the "big raids", for the massively multiplayer game you're playing. They're producing them more numerously than the smaller sized content, we had the same heroics for months, and months, and months, but we got a bunch of 25 mans. Infact, if they had spread out the release of the 25 mans a little more (so it wasn't always in pairs), you would probably be saying the opposite. "Why are we getting endless 25 man instances but we've only gotten one new 10 man after 9 months?"

The itemization issue is an odd one though and I think it's a problem with how WoW has evolved in general. The items in ZA and badge rewards are MOSTLY amazing because they learned how to itemize, or at least took advantage of, using all of an item's stats for stats we actually want, as opposed to things that are wasted. In nearly every instance of item creation history in WoW ever, new items, even if same (or lower) ilvl, are always the best.

 

Caligula

The previous patch put out a 25 man instance and the patch after this one will put out another. Meanwhile, smaller guilds in Karazhan haven't had new content since January. Most of this was covered in the "Pacing Revisited" thread.

I don't think the focus is lost at all. BT/Hyjal gear is still, in almost all cases, superior to any of the new rewards that have been introduced. In a few months, Sunwell gear (25 man gear) will again be the best in game.

If anything they are becoming more focused in that they are catering to every possible player type. From someone who logs in a couple times a week to people who play for 8+ hours a day.

 

xi0nic

Blizzard has always had a record of appealing to the masses with their game. With Vanilla WoW, they almost exclusively added raid content with new patches, but that was because their original game-plan had intended for all of those dungeons to be in place.

With BC, they were able to include all the raids they wanted right away. Now they get to add "casual" content to appease the majority of their playerbase. I'm sorry to say it mate, but Blizzard makes their money off of Joe Schmoe heroic/10-man raider. Not the BT/Hyjal raider. The days of 40-man elite raiding ruling the MMO universe are pretty much over.

I think you may just have gotten their original "vision" wrong.

edit: Oh another thing, MMO doesn't mean zerg raids, it just means that their are thousands of players on one realm at a time. If you want to be a true MMO elitist, you should be complaining about the instancing in WoW, not the shrinking raid size.

 

Wolven

As true as it is that these moves hurt many guilds, especially when guys stop coming to raids because they are getting equivalent gear from easier things. It does in a way help out. Those casual guys can now get good gear from badges and the new 10 man zone and then bring that gear to SSC/TKE, making those 25 man zones easier for them to deal with.

Eventually the small scale content will get boring and then people will want to see what the big content is like. Either that or everyone will quit playing WoW to find a game that brings "Massively Multiplayer" back to online gaming.

 

◊ Lord BEEF

Holy crap this got a lot of reports quickly

But really this doesn't need its own thread, sorry

 

• Xaviera

This really is true. The game is a lot more balanced and enjoyable now more than ever, oddly, I find a lot fewer people online just milling about, but I don't think it's the game's fault. The appeal of leveling an alt and actually getting some real progress and a strong character without having to raid stuff with it is great. PvP was modified enough now to give you rewards without spending 12 hours a day grinding honor for the honor system. Doing a couple heroics a week will give you badges to put your character a few notches above someone who just does regular 5 mans for the rest of their lfie.

And finally, yeah, they DIDN'T make all of the new ZA and badge gear better than T6 stuff. A few pieces are comparable, a few are indeed 'better', but overall T6 stuff is still the best.