Difficulty & Endgame... is it all uphill from here?

#1 - Feb. 3, 2011, 4:18 a.m.

First off, I know a lot of people don't take anything worth it's weight in salt, unless someone says a little something about their pedigree. Well, I've pretty much played WoW since the beginning - that's going on six years now. I have four accounts, and a whole 25 man raid of level 80+ characters. On this account, for the past 10 months, Altoholic reports I've played approximately 105 days. So yeah, I'm a major no-lifer. Literally. For the past six years WoW has been my salvation, as I've struggled with a life-threatening illness - alas all the time I've had to play - having not much better to do with my days.

I've drifted around WoW endlessly from guild to guild and have pretty much conquered all the content I care for. Despite this being an MMO I had made exactly zero lasting relationships in this game. Around summer of last year I joined a little social guild my wife found, and have made lasting bonds with a dozen or more people.

Now to my point: People complain the game is too difficult now. They are right. What's worse, people complain about people who complain the game is too difficult.

I'm sorry, isn't that what heroic raids are for?

I know Blizzard is always trying to reinvent themselves and don't want WoW to stagnate. But why so drastically alter design paradigms and philosophies between WOTLK & CATA?

What happened to the innumerable designer statements of "We want everyone to experience the content" ? "All paying customers deserve to see the endgame." ?

I love my guild to bits, but people here are fed up, and suspending their accounts, because they can no longer raid with the people they CHOOSE (friends, neighbors, spouses, family etc.), but rather are resigned to go on semi-PUG realm raids with gearscore / achievement / dps obsessed homophobic know-it-alls, while their significant others are left to rot in the same three normal dungeons over and over, or best case, to be boosted in a raid.

Damnit, Blizzard, get your act together and stop caving to the immature bullies who talk tough from behind computer screens and measure their self worth in gearlevel and achievements, and act like they are playing a solo-game.

Let the social guilds and others who don't suffer from inferiority complexes choose the PEOPLE we want to play with - not the characters, merely out of necessity.

Slorkuz

Community

#19 - Feb. 3, 2011, 3:03 p.m.

World of Warcraft is a game that houses a wide variety of different players and personalities. We realise this fact, and we also realise that no single design philosophy can please all of these different groups of players.

If we look at things through the rear view mirror, players who have a gripe with -- or disagree with -- the way certain parts of the game are designed are usually the ones to be the most vocal on the forums. Over the course of the game, this kind of posting has often been very one-sided; meaning that the amount of people complaining about a change far outnumbered the amount of people posting positive feedback about the very same change, however, this is not necessarily the case we are seeing now.

Players representing all the various views seem to be making valuable points, however it is important to point out that none of these perspectives have a monopoly on their point representing the be-all end-all truth, or even the "majority" of all WoW players. What is also important is that we are listening to everyone's point of view, and then combine that with other sources of feedback to get a broader and more wholesome view of the situation.

In the end, we make our design decisions based on what we feel is the best choice for the game as a whole, and everyone on this forum and in the game itself that are giving feedback are integral parts of that process.

03/02/2011 4:18 AMPosted by Dwizz
Damnit, Blizzard, get your act together and stop caving to the immature bullies who talk tough from behind computer screens and measure their self worth in gearlevel and achievements, and act like they are playing a solo-game.

03/02/2011 2:48 PMPosted by Elloa
I'm a casual and I'm in a casual guild. I mean a guild with some pretty good players who can't play every evening, and some less good players. And some roleplayers. Well, you got the point.
I think we are all happy for how the expansion is. We have started to raid (2 night/week) and we have killed 2 bosses. The first week we had only wiped though - as it's supposed to be. It was fun and rewarding. I think the Dev team has finaly find the right balance. It's not too easy (Like WOTLK), but it's not too hard either.