Just thought I'd voice my concern...

#0 - Dec. 9, 2009, 9:44 p.m.

Ghostcrawler,

UPDATE:

These are precisely the changes I was talking about.

Come Cataclysm:

Attack Power - Removed

Spell Power - Removed

MP5 - Removed

Armor Penetration - Removed

Defense - Removed

Block Value - Removed

Every patch/expansion over the past year has further simplified the game in one way or another. Quite frankly, much of the reason World of Warcraft is so successful is because of the intricacy and dedication it takes to reach endgame and perform adequately.

I by no means feel that all of these changes are negative, or without warrant. Many of them are great changes, and I understand it may be a fine line between an appropriate change and dumbing down the game.

As everyone knows, this is not a game that a person who has been playing for only a week can compete against someone who's been playing since Vanilla - this is attractive to players, even when you're on the short end of the stick. It makes you feel like you actually progress, learn, and can better your character (The game takes skill). I can pick up COD5 and in two hours top the server charts - this is fun for a weekend, but as well all know, WoW is more then just a weekend game.

For these same reasons, people who perform well in arena or are in the server's top guild, have a sense of accomplishment and bragging rights. No one cares if you end COD maps with the most kills etc. The more this game is simplified, the more we head in the direction of COD.

If this adds any additional insight - I am by all definitions a casual player. These changes that are being made are catering to the casual players, yet in my opinion it will cause many players to lose interest over time.

Feel free to disagree, if I am the only one that feels this way, great. But as of now, I appreciate the time it takes to level to 80, to gear your character and attempt to keep up with progression. The easier it gets to do these things, the less attractive the game gets.

Ghostcrawler

#14 - Dec. 10, 2009, 12:50 a.m.

Q u o t e:
I can come up with many examples, and ALL of them are positive changes from one perspective or another - my concern are these changes as a whole, as these changes are continually implemented the direction of the game is getting even easier then it already was.

You're welcome to your opinion of course. We don't think the game has gotten too easy. Very few players have been able to defeat say heroic Anub'arak or Yogg-Saron in his hardest mode before that. High level Arena remains as challenging as ever.

We made some changes to make the game more accessible, which I don't think is at all a bad idea. It's awesome that WoW has as much depth as it does, but we don't believe complexity, and particularly not confusing complexity, go hand in hand with depth. It's a social game, definitely, but social doesn't have to mean that it requires an experienced friend to teach you how some unintuitive mechanics work.

As a player I can understand how you might have a sense of accomplishment for being able to overcome a very hostile world or leveling environment. It's fun to be challenged and overcome those challenges. But you can also think about how it benefits you to have the audience for this game grow as large as it has. We are able to release relatively expensive content (3.3 was a gigantic patch by almost any measure) because WoW has been so successful. We are now talking about our third full expansion and beyond because it's clear that WoW has enough players to endure for awhile. So while it definitely benefits us to attract and retain new players, it ultimately benefits you too.

There are MMOs out there who cater to a much harder core audience and there are ways to make such a business model work. WoW just went in a different direction. We're big and ambitious and we want to keep the game going and growing for as long as we can.

Ghostcrawler

#67 - Dec. 10, 2009, 8:02 p.m.

Q u o t e:
Take, for example, the new Dungeon Finder. An unintended consequence of this tool is that it downplays the whole experience of an instance. I remember the first WC - the struggle to find the portal as I immersed myself in the cave. Now, I could level all the way to 80 without leaving a capital city. Something is lost there, but convenience is gained.

We knew the teleportation aspect in particular was going to be controversial. It was something we discussed over and over again. I think there is definitely a risk that the world feels somehow emptier when you are magically transported to a dungeon instead of having to walk through its entrance.

But then you have to take a step back and ask what is better for the player. Does a player get more out of the wonder and grandeur of stepping into a dungeon -- and some of the dungeons are quite epic even from the outside? Or does a player get more out of being able to fight through a dungeon over their lunch hour or after dinner?

We've talked about ideas like making you actually discover a dungeon entrance before you can be whisked there. That may be something we do for Cataclysm. I think the BGs definitely feel less like places in the world since transport to them is seamless. Then again, we've made a lot of steps to make the game easier and faster to play that can work against realism. Ulduar and Icecrown are full of teleporters while you had to hoof it in dungeons like Molten Core and Ahn'Qiraj. Would a lot of players want to go back to the old way though? (Sure you can take that to extremes and say players would have their epics mailed to them in Dalaran, were it up to them. But just because players want things efficient doesn't mean that it's our job as designers to throw up barriers to what they think is fun in any way we can.)

Dungeon Finder is a new feature for us and like all of our new features we'll have to iterate a bit before we're really happy with it. On the other hand, the response from players has been amazing. I don't think I've been involved with a feature since working here that received so much positive feedback, and you have to consider that in my position, 90% of what I hear from players is negative (which you should not take to mean that 90% of players are unhappy -- far from it). Everything we've heard so far makes me think we made the right call with teleporting. That doesn't mean we should neglect the sense of a gigantic world. It just means we need to work harder at keeping that sense alive without forcing players to do tedious things like slog to an instance portal. Pugs are hard enough. We don't want the logistics of organizing the group and travelling to overshadow the challenge of beating the boss.