Leaving GotR Rewardless, Devs Out of Touch

#0 - March 11, 2009, 12:41 a.m.

I think the absense of any reward for Glory of the Raider and Heroic Glory of the Raider and the overwhelmingly negative response it has garnered shows that Blizzard is out of touch with the majority of their customers. Most of them are willing to accept a mount that isn't 310% speed or some alternative reward, they just want something to show their dedication to finishing a task. Even the people who run the Boston Marathon and finish get their kudos even if it's not the prize money. The achievement itself is ultimately lost in the fact that few people compare achievements. It has to be something visual, be it a mount, pet, tabard or title.

Blizzard Developers show they are actually quite out of touch with how most guilds progress in raid content. Yes, the current glory of the raiders I'm sure are just going to go full throddle into Ulduar, but I think most of their customers who raid are likely going to maintain split time between Ulduar and Naxxramas for a bit longer. Having a goal of appreciable value (IE, more than just points or requiring flipping through a bunch of subtabs) related to those achievements continue would still give people something to spice those trips up with. I mean, in BC I basically ran Kara for over a year even while we were doing a lot of other raids. I at least had Attumen's mount to test fate for, but Naxxramas doesn't even provide that now. Still it's very likely most guilds have an influx of people to gear up in the lower tier, or got a slightly later start and will wind up doing a boss or two in Ulduar while finishing getting people set with Naxx.

I think it's out of the habit of most guilds to just fully push through new dungeons, so expecting Ulduar to just fully replace Naxx for everyone is to deny the way most of the guilds and their players operate.

Bornakk

#27 - March 12, 2009, 7:11 p.m.

Q u o t e:
I think the absense of any reward for Glory of the Raider and Heroic Glory of the Raider and the overwhelmingly negative response it has garnered shows that Blizzard is out of touch with the majority of their customers. Most of them are willing to accept a mount that isn't 310% speed or some alternative reward, they just want something to show their dedication to finishing a task. Even the people who run the Boston Marathon and finish get their kudos even if it's not the prize money. The achievement itself is ultimately lost in the fact that few people compare achievements. It has to be something visual, be it a mount, pet, tabard or title.

Blizzard Developers show they are actually quite out of touch with how most guilds progress in raid content. Yes, the current glory of the raiders I'm sure are just going to go full throddle into Ulduar, but I think most of their customers who raid are likely going to maintain split time between Ulduar and Naxxramas for a bit longer. Having a goal of appreciable value (IE, more than just points or requiring flipping through a bunch of subtabs) related to those achievements continue would still give people something to spice those trips up with. I mean, in BC I basically ran Kara for over a year even while we were doing a lot of other raids. I at least had Attumen's mount to test fate for, but Naxxramas doesn't even provide that now. Still it's very likely most guilds have an influx of people to gear up in the lower tier, or got a slightly later start and will wind up doing a boss or two in Ulduar while finishing getting people set with Naxx.

I think it's out of the habit of most guilds to just fully push through new dungeons, so expecting Ulduar to just fully replace Naxx for everyone is to deny the way most of the guilds and their players operate.

Two things:

1) Some people are upset by the change, yes, but there are many others also supporting it.
2) Players will continue to run Naxx, we are aware of this. The multi-tiered badge system will encourage players to move into Ulduar though which Karazhan/Badges of Justice didn't do. We want some rewards to maintain their unique value, there doesn't need to be a replacement as there are other things out there to get that aren't going away.