Let’s Talk About Brawler’s Guild

November 14 Update!

• Entry into the brawler’s guild is by invitation only. Invitations can be found on the black market auction house, by invitation from somebody within the guild, and occasionally as drops from certain Horde and Alliance NPCs.

Yes, we’re breaking the first rule of Brawler’s Guild.

For those of you that haven’t been following along, the Brawler’s Guild is a new feature being introduced to World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria in patch 5.1. This new part of the World of Warcraft has generated a lot of excitement--not to mention a few questions--so we’re going to try to provide a clearer picture of what we’re hoping to accomplish with the Brawler’s Guild in this thread.

First, a little bit about what it is, and what it isn’t:

What Brawler’s Guild Is

• A fun, but small diversion that could grow in time
• A venue for a realm’s community to come together
• A unique way to earn some solo PvE bragging rights
• A cool place to hang out

What Brawler’s Guild Isn’t

• A means of solo progression
• A major patch feature accessible to everyone (at first)
• A way to earn lots of in-game rewards
• Proving Grounds where you can develop class skills (that’s a different feature arriving later on)

So, to sum up, we’re trying to give the Brawler’s Guild a tight knit, underground kind of feel, and we expect the Guild on each realm to slowly grow to encompass more and more of the population over time. Because invites will be so limited, it’s likely that a lot of the players that join the Brawler’s Guild will have had some kind of interaction with one or more existing members before they ever step into the ring. Finally, a smaller population will help keep the queues low for quite a while – since a big part of the Brawler’s Guild is watching other players fight their own battles, right now instancing arenas or using phasing isn’t an attractive option.

About Those Invites
Invites to the Guild will (at least initially) only be available for purchase on the Black Market Auction House. We’ve taken this approach both to control queue times, and also because the Brawler’s Guild is meant to be kind of a small, underground thing, and a way for players on a realm to come together. At first, that will happen because invites will go out from one player to another based on who buys those initial Black Market invites. After reaching a certain rank in the Brawler’s Guild, each of the new members can eventually earn one new invitation of their own to pass out to someone else on the same realm, so the Brawler’s Guilds on each realm should get progressively larger and larger over time. We may also investigate alternate methods of acquiring invitations or making them more plentiful.

World First?
We’ve also decided that attaching a realm first style achievement to the Brawler’s Guild isn’t necessarily the right move. Rest assured that there will be other achievements to earn in the ring though.

We know you’ve got questions, so ask away, and we’ll try to clarify where things are hazy.

11/08/2012 10:56 AMPosted by Lupello

Please make them more than 1 per person. BrG'll be monopolized, and I think that might be the solution to it.

While that's something we're going to be keeping an eye on, it will be quite difficult to monopolize the invitations. The current plan is to furnish 10 new Bind on Pickup invites on the Black Market Auction House each day, so anyone trying to control all the invitations on a realm would have to have quite a fortune, and be willing to spend it all on nothing more than simply delaying, not stopping, other players from joining the Guild. Also, after players earn an invitation of their own to give out (these earned invites aren't bound, they're consumables that can be freely handed out, sold on the Auction House, etc.), they can do with that earned invite as they please.

11/08/2012 11:00 AMPosted by Amorisse

What will the required rank be for inviting a player? Revered, Exalted, or will the guild work differently than a faction reputation?

Right now, a member can invite someone else to the Brawler's Guild after earning Rank 7. We expect achieving that rank to be reasonably challenging for most players.

11/08/2012 11:18 AMPosted by Stardaze

That's an outright lie, and you know it.

A lie? No. In fact, if you'd read past that first sentence, I provided the rationale regarding why I believe this to be the case. Perhaps I'll be proven wrong - we'll see.

Regardless, I understand that this subject has raised some strong feelings. Nonetheless, I encourage everyone to discuss the issue in a fashion that is tactful and in accordance with the posting guidelines and code of conduct.

Finally, I'd appreciate if you expanded on what you mean by this, when you say that the Brawler's Guild: "A means of solo progression", yet simultaneously also say that it is: "A unique way to earn some solo PvE bragging rights"?
Isn't there a bit of a contradiction here?

Sure!

When we talk about progression, we're usually talking about increasing levels of player power. If you spend a decent amount of time raiding, doing organized PvP, etc. then you'll likely either earn items or some means of purchasing items that increase your character's ability to face tougher challenges over time.

Bragging rights are just that. While they can be very satisfying, they don't increase your character's effectiveness. So, the Brawler's Guild isn't a means of progression in the same way that dungeons, Raids, battlegrounds, arenas, scenarios etc., are.

11/08/2012 11:44 AMPosted by Lufia

But aside from some warlock-only stuff, a new Wrathion quest, and some more lore quests, this IS the patch.

Respectfully, I disagree. The Pandaren Campaign is much more than 'some lore quests', and, in combination with a slew of changes and improvements to everything from classes to Pet Battles, is quite possibly the biggest thing coming in Patch 5.1.

As I stated in the original post, the Brawler's Guild was never intended to be the big patch feature of 5.1, despite the excitement surrounding it. It really is a small feature that we've decided to try out. Since the announcement, it's become something much larger in players' minds since then, which is part of what I'm trying to address now.

11/08/2012 12:02 PMPosted by Hurarao

As I stated in the original post, the Brawler's Guild was never intended to be the big patch feature of 5.1, despite the excitement surrounding it. It really is a small feature that we've decided to try out. Since the announcement, it's become something much larger in players' minds since then, which is part of what I'm trying to address now.

Are you really that surprised? People have been asking for more solo-content for YEARS. Like for as long as I can remember. So here you are, finally delivering what purports to be challenging solo-content, and you've decided to limit access to wealth.

And you're wondering why people are both excited for this feature and at the same time frustrated with the design choices you've made?

No, we're not surprised, but World of Warcraft hasn't traditionally been about solo content, either. Really, it still isn't - while you fight alone at the Brawler's Guild, you're surrounded by your peers. It's, at least in spirit, still social.

The whole thing is very much an experiment.

I think it's also worth mentioning that the feedback we're receiving on this isn't being ignored, and that we're still considering alternate methods of distributing the invitations.

Daxxari,

I hardly ever post, and never about topics like this, but this one has really annoyed me. I've been playing, quietly and loyally, since launch, and have maintained acceptance and a positive attitude throughout that time. In this case, though, Blizzard is, in my opinion, making a huge mistake that is upsetting many, many players. The isolation of solo content, even for a short time, to only the super-rich, feels like an insult (even if it's not intended as such).

This goes beyond buying vanity items and single-tier upgrades at the BMAH, or buying giant yak or rocket mounts. This isn't limited-interest content, like a new raid or battleground. Everybody loves the concept, everyone wants to participate, and 99.9% of us are being told that we can't because we're simply not wealthy enough.

You want to gate the content, that's clear. But my question is, why? If you want the small-club feel, why not delay the feature until you have the tech to enable multiple instances that small numbers of people can be permanently assigned to? If you want to only have one instance, then why not equalize the passes by giving most of them out randomly, or making it an inexpensive, single-purchase-only raffle (with maybe only one or two passes per server also available on BMAH)?

You may not have intended this to be something big, but it's obviously extremely popular and anticipated content, and your unwillingness to budge from your wealth-centered content delivery mechanism is both disappointing and wholly unfair to the vast majority of your paying customers.

Thanks for expressing your thoughts clearly and constructively, Nessaja. Just to reiterate: we're still considering the possibility of using alternate methods of distributing invitations.

Update!

• Entry into the brawler’s guild is by invitation only. Invitations can be found on the black market auction house, by invitation from somebody within the guild, and occasionally as drops from certain Horde and Alliance NPCs.

Will gear levels be throttled for the fights so that progression raiders and/or PvPers have no preexisting advantage, and the bragging rights are solely based on player skill?

Stat scaling isn't currently planned for the Guild, no. Skill will absolutely factor in, especially at high Ranks, but bragging rights in this context can certainly also include raw character power. The fights aren't tuned for stat scaling, and beyond that, gear is an important part of World of Warcraft. We don't want to go too crazy with eliminating its value by over-using stat scaling.

Naturally, and as with all things, we might revise that perspective in the future, but it's not on the table at the moment.