So little content in this game now.

03/04/2013 11:22 AMPosted by Durns

Remember a time in this game when you had someone to look forward to instead of hitting caps and leveling alts? Man, those were the days.

Your posts are tending toward the hostile, dismissive, and lacking specificity end of the scale, so I suspect that you just like making people mad.

Still, if you're sincerely not trolling, I'm curious about what you felt was different in the past. From a completely objective standpoint there has never been more to do in World of Warcraft (which other players have already been kind enough to point out), so I'd like to understand where your stance originates from. Is there not enough to do in the types of content you like the most? How so?

there is less to do if you strictly enjoy raiding, why? bc less people are doing pugs, and more people are doing LFR. LFR isnt a raid, its more like a scenario

There's still plenty of normal and Heroic mode raiding in an organized group. If you're having trouble finding a guild (a visit to the Guild Recruitment forum might help), there's also Challenge Modes to test your skills against... Not to mention a massive new raid arriving in 5.2.

03/04/2013 12:10 PMPosted by Layuth

The quality of content is at its lowest point ever even though there is more.

Not to be argumentative (I'm totally being argumentative), but that's an incredibly subjective statement, and you're also painting with an extremely broad brush. There's new, gorgeous art. The story is receiving more attention than ever before, and the writing (my opinion), has never been better. Encounter design is as strong as ever, and arguably more creative. There are myriad small things to discover as you roam around on Pandaria. We're re-working PvP to make it more accessible and competitive, and there's more work on that front coming in the future. We've introduced entirely new systems for players to experience the game in a new way (Brawler's Guild and Pet Battles), and there's work being done on other features too.

So, what constitutes quality, in your opinion? In what ways would you say that quality has diminished?

So what do you do if you can't raid, and there aren't enough people on your server to do anything at the times you are on?

Is even the Raid Finder not an option for you? Have you tried PvP? And, even if Pet Battles don't seem to be your cup of tea right now, they still might be worth a shot. You might end up having more fun that you imagined you would. I certainly did.

03/04/2013 12:31 PMPosted by Ginxer

The only thing I can agree with here is the whole discussion of gating things like valor and conq. I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate it. If I want to spend 48 hours straight grinding points to buy things, that damn well should be my prerogative to do.

The caps were added due to the way that items interact with the upgrade system for PvE, and with the seasonal currency requirements in PvP. They're systemic requirements to help prevent cheating the system, essentially. That's in reference to overall caps and not allowing the stockpiling of points.

The problem with allowing players to earn as many points as they want over the course of a week is that there are external pressures which, unfortunately, cause players to feel 'forced' to do the content that way. Caps can help provide some needed structure. Still, this is something we struggle with a lot, where a player with a particular play style wants the game to be structured towards what's convenient for them, which is a reasonable request. But when we change the rules, what was merely convenient for them then becomes the way everyone has to play.

Capping Valor isn't something we actually expect many players to do, but because there is a cap at all, some will always feel like they must do it every week. If the cap was higher, there would be those who felt like they were being corralled into doing that much more.

03/04/2013 12:41 PMPosted by Durns

There is more to do in the sense of more *Old* and *Obsolete* content, but that given in any MMO with a few years into it. Pet Battles? Turn-based RPGs and micromanaging isn't very fun imo -- I never liked Pokemon. Achievements? Totally subjective goals -- "Player-based content" was a hot phrase John Smedley use to throw around and look now at the state of SOE.

Some of the changes actually made content that was obsolete relevant again (transmogrification and Pet Battles). You don't have to like Pet Battles, but you can't pretend that they don't exist. They're quite popular, and have a broad and active fan-base of their own. I'm sorry you don't enjoy it. Have you tried Brawler's Guild or Challenge Modes? What kind of content do you enjoy the most?

Achievements have always been their own thing. Some people love them and really do consider them content. I'm not an achievement hound, and never have been. It's undeniable that they are considered a fun pursuit by a large swathe of players, for whom they very much matter.

03/04/2013 12:41 PMPosted by Durns

There is very little in this game that is objective. Everything is subjective. There are no more carrots at the end of the stick to keep playing beyond the weekly hard caps. No factions to grind at the player's pace. No unique rewards. All gear is based on spreadsheets (I guess for the reason to make balancing easier for the devs. How did that work out?) You hit the wall and thats it, you have to wait a week for the red light to turn green so you can start advancing again. (as if the instance locks wernt enough)

I'm not sure what you mean by objective vs. subjective. The potential rewards for invested effort are certainly more varied than they used to be (at one point in the past, rewards essentially only ever took the form of gear. We've added other potential rewards over time, and now they encompass everything from titles, to vanity gear, pets, mounts, and more). Still, there are clearly desirable items that offer a power increase. When you say unique rewards, what are you referring to? Something like the Wintersaber mount? Would obtaining skyshards so you can get the Reins of the Thundering Ruby Cloud Serpent appeal to you?

Gear has always been balanced according to hard numbers and spreadsheets. I covered in a previous post in this thread why we wrestle with the currency caps, but there's still more to do overall. Simply because you aren't interested in trying those things doesn't make those things go away.

03/04/2013 12:41 PMPosted by Durns

There seems to be nothing that sets aside mains from alts anymore. I want my character to be apart of the story, not my characters to each be reading their very own choose your own adventure book, and every "turn to" page leads to quests where I go pick up dog poop.

What set mains apart from alts in the past? Better gear? What's changed in your view? The storytelling in the questing content has, in my experience, been pretty rich and even emotionally affecting. Reducing it to poop quests is pretty disingenuous, I think.

03/04/2013 12:41 PMPosted by Durns

As for trolling, haha. It seems if you post anything the regulars don't agree with is trolling. What made this game's playerbase so paranoid? It's funny you can have posts by adults complaining how 13-year-olds not being politically correct and how being killed on a pvp sever it is a form of [TRIGGER WARNING] BULLYING, all that stuff is ok, but if you make a post saying there isn't enough content.....

It wasn't your original post, it was the way you responded to those who replied to you:

"Just sitting here polishing my warglaives and thunderfury"

"All these angry posts from alts. Hrmmmmm"

"Achievements are nothing but pablum for useful idiots, comrade."

Your responses didn't appear substantive, generally didn't address the information other posters were trying to relate, and they seemed calculated only to frustrate. I appreciate that you took the time to write out a more thoughtful and lengthy reply though.

I think thats totally bogus. I believe caps were implemented solely to make the product last longer. No philosophy involved.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Sometimes those opinions are wrong though.

03/04/2013 01:52 PMPosted by Coldandnasty

The problem with saying this is you have given us no facts to back this up, its just to opinions. neither has been proven wrong or right to the other person.

Actually, in that specific case I had explained our stance and the design challenge we were facing. The reply I was quoting implied that I wasn't being forthright. Hence my response.