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Bliz speaks on new direction of WoW
mangar
Member UncommonPosts: 296
No comment asside from HELL YEAH, from the patch notes: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/2053469
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Comments
Whats the new direction? All that blog is saying is learn to play.
LOL, in other words, their direction went from Everquest for idiots. To we are stretching for content, so this is what we're doing to try to keep you idiots paying.
A bit too late perhaps.
If you learn to be sloppy for so long, it's hard to change habits. We'll see how this attitude remains, when the subscriptions inevitably start to drop.
Not to be a hater or anything but I left WoW and I wasnt even paying for it. My friend was. Thats how repetitive and boring that game is now, even with the "increased difficulty" its still easy as hell.
I love it how he emphasizes gear as an important factor in doing Dungeons.
It is pretty clear that WOW became too big to be handled by Blizzard.
Especially the pitched battle at Tol Barad is incredible under developped (not talking about the zone's world mini dungeons). Compared to the epic scale of Wintergrasp (certainly with everything tuned like it was in early 2010), TB is patheticly under developped.
One of the crucial sentences in the thread: "We do understand that some healers are frustrated and giving up. That is sad and unfortunate. "
If you nerve the healers on their mana, you are undermining the most important supporting class of group play.
You know the guys who have to watch health bars and keeping everyone alive, it is already enough that they too have to jump, get out of fire, run, come back, MISS the hitting actions etc ... without the need of frustrating them further with excessive mana drains.
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What Wotlk showed though is that there is a HUGE market for very casual entertainment within an MMO envirnmont. I even think the so called "hardcore" (people playing LONG sessions not "hard" content") are the core of the MMO world and even reside on this site.
These guys tend to be in their 30's and have MUCH less eye hand coordination than they want to admit.
Blizzard made a very good GAME with Cataclsym, they forgot their player base consists of non typical video gamers without fast reflexes though and so Cata is simply too hard for the average age of MMORPG players. Arena was too hard, now rated BG's became too hard for the MMORPG crowd that simply want to HIDE in massive so called world Zerg fests. Heroics in Cata simply confirm this theory.
It doesn't detract though from the fact they recruited some people lately that didn't fulfill the Blizzard quality, for that I am sure.
They need to know that finding 350 highly talented people in this industry is near impossible these days (175 for WOW and 175 for their new MMO).
You mix "waste of time" and time consuming activity with "hard".
Cataclysm is GAME wise pretty much the most difficult MMO to play in its end game. And by game wise I mean that typical eye hand coordination along with fast relfexes and abilities.
If you are a Gladiator in Cata, chances are you are a champ in a lot of other video games. Problem is ... there aren't a lot of video champions around (well at least if you don't live in Korea).
While everyone thinks he is, only 0.5% really can deliver by getting this PvP title.
I have no clue why Blizzard did not learn their lesson from Arenas back in 2007. MMORPG veterans are too old to compete in pure video games, give them something where they feel they still can compete. So called "world PvP" is about the most ridiculous form of overhyped piece of trash (but many hide behind it because it blurs their mediocre abilities).
Wotlk was designed for the MMORPG crowd, a lot of Cata end game is designed for the video gamer. We will see where it hits the crowd. But it is no excuse of some very sloppy decisions in Tol Barad and healer specs.
A pity for those fantastic questing chains and perfected phased leveling though.
So attention: I am talking end game content in Cata here. Nothing else (as the article was about that).
there is a whole new generation of gamers waiting at the door with credit cards at the ready. They don't want to hear about how SWG was better before CU and don't care if UO was best. Someone is gonna cater for them
It is not that easy to have access to those credit cards because Blizzard spoiled them all and some MMO's even went free to PAY, which will make it even more difficult.
JLVDB - Jan 2011.
*Slow 80's clap* I have to take my hat off to blizz for that! Its about time that they realize the dungeons and raid need to be a challenge. I hope other MMO follow suit. Getting gear is fun but if there is nothing to test your valor or skills in a group what the point. Its good they are getting back to the point of people playing as a team and not just pug-fest where people have no loyatly to their guild. WOW may not be my MMO of choice but I'm gald even they know when to make changes for the better.
Question: are you actively playing WOW? Because if not, it is irrelevant. Blizzard has to address things to its players not to its "observers".
Which would result in a very short thread on this site.
Well, Bliz, this was inevitable - wasn't it.
You want to cater to the masses, and the masses are NOT about challenging gameplay. That's not because they're stupid or inept - not at all.
It's because they're CASUAL - meaning they're likely playing the game to relax after a hard day of work, or simply as a way to pass the time for an hour or two. They're not investing themselves like the enthusiast, and they're not using it for deep immersion like an enthusiast gamer.
So, you have to decide who you're going to please. You can't possibly be naive enough to believe you'll please everyone indefinitely. That's not going to happen with WoW - because your vision was different. Your vision was a traditional MMO shined up and polished to be more accessible. But you retained the traditional elements of end-game challenge and hard-to-get loot. If you go and change that around completely, as you did along the way - you're going to mess with the core vision, and you'll get a half-hearted game in return.
This is what WoW is now.
You have 12 million people playing (or however many), and they're invested. They're not going to dump their characters before it's clear what you're doing, and what the grind ultimately means in terms of time spent versus rewards given. So, you probably still have some time to adjust, before it's clear to everyone what WoW is.
Either you accept the game you've created, or you accept a huge loss of players.
You're never going to fully please the dedicated enthusiast gamer with WoW, it's too late for that. You kept ignoring them, by taking away the loot they earned through hard work and offering it to everyone with each reset or design change - and you kept dumbing down the challenge to get more players. You turned the already subpar lore into a gigantic popculture joke, and made fun of everything with self-referential humor. There's no way you can get back to a truly enthusiast experience.
So, the wise thing to do - in financial terms - is to forget all about challenging and meaningful gameplay - and just let the masses enjoy the popcorn. If you're not happy with making such a game, then maybe you should take a hint from what has happened with the game, and remember it for the next one. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
I like how the new heroics aren't faceroll anymore but that didn't stop me from cancelling... it's still the same game, and I'm pretty bored of it no matter what they do to it.
Tired of it's garbage community mostly. The decent human beings you come across in that game really seem like a minority, or the scumbags just stick out more.
Whatever, I'm just done with the game for now.
I wouldn't say what Blizzard has to do, but I'd be very upset as an investor (esp since ActiBlizz is a public company) if they only catered to the existing player base and not the 'potential' or 'Former' player base. Shares are about 'growing or 'potential growth'.
"Only 30% get to level 10 and beyond" - Blizzard CEO quote
This means Blizzard has 70% (or 24 million subs which is insane) that only saw the first 10 levels or less. Why do you think they made Cata and revamped the leveling? To see if they can get some of those people back (which they succeeded in large numbers if my friends are anything to go by) and retain some of that 70%.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
First: Why make an excuse for a game you played for 6 years ?
Second: You misread: Blizzaard made the end game too hard. MUCH too hard even for the champs.
Be honest: you didn't enter a Raid because you didn't have the time, you didn't enter the Raid because the game demanded much more reflexes and eye hand coordination.
Have you seen ANY Guild downing the last 3 Raid bosses yet ? Nope and we are talking not even Heroic modes...and world wide guilds. That's not a time problem , that is a video game problem and lacking skill....
I don't like it when people can't read what's the article about.
Also 6 year vet of wow ..and I have to say I LOVE CATA .Best xpack ever ! : )
I agree with most of what you said.
Only 2 remarks: please leave behind the concept that MMORPG.COM posters are the "real players" either.
The real MMORPG players are for the vast majority very BAD video game players in view of their age.
Secondly: I agree too on the difficulty part in general.
But perhaps they want their NEXT MMO to be more casual and easy going and they want to up the video game play in WOW. I don't know if that's a good decision.
It is either one of those 2 MMO's to address that market. Perhaps they think WOW needs more video game challenge and the next MMO is more like " Friends on the web and second life".
As a matter of fact they already alluded to that.
Hate to jump in but I have to say WOTLK lost a lot of subs from veteran players. Why? Cause the game was way too easy (esp the heroic 5mans) except a few bosses and they didn't offer enough variation in content.
Cata is a big 'we made a mistake for WOTLK' from Blizzard.
Harder heroic 5mans? check
Multiple raids per tier? Check. (none of this 12 months of ICC)
More strategic thinking rather than 'how quick can i press this 'heal' button'? check
CC are back? check
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
I don't recall saying MMORPG posters were real players?
I'm talking about casual versus enthusiast gamers. Neither group is more entitled than the other.
I'm an enthusiast gamer, but I don't feel I have a "right" to anything. Casual gamers simply have different priorities, and that's quite alright with me.
Since Blizzard have changed from a relatively small but extremely competent developer, to a GIGANTIC powerhouse backed with zillions of dollars - it seems they've also changed their approach to design.
I'm not sure exactly what goes on behind the scene, but it certainly seems to me that they've completely lost perspective with WoW - and they're simply changing the game "on-the-fly" to try and appease the masses they've lured to play.
I very much doubt there's much creative force left on the WoW team, and how could there be - really. No game lasts forever, and no true artist would want to work on a mass-appeal project for so many years.
I just think they're being unrealistic if they REALLY think they can keep both casual and enthusiast players interested by continuously adjusting basic stuff like overall challenge.
Personally, I played WoW for 3 years - and I had great fun. I also let it take over my life - but that's on me. I have no animosity towards the game itself, except that I don't like the direction they've taken it in. I don't think the vision is clear and that's a sad state of affairs, because the core design was strong.
I think the game is draining Blizzard and I think it's draining the MMO space - because all the greedy financial backers are trying to emulate a game that's already dead without knowing it. Let it die, and let's move on.
Not that it'll happen, but I look forward to the day when the majority accepts that enough is enough.
As for Blizzard's next project, who knows. If they're going to appeal to the masses from the beginning, I'll know it's not for me.
They're gonna have to choose who they want to please.
So they now decided they want to cater to the hardcores so they're gonna lose their casual players?
They need to make up their damn minds.
If I recall, original wow and BC were both catered to hardcores... I wonder what made them change their minds for wrath? Oh ya, they're chasing the fatter cash cow, but already seem to have the fattest they can get they just don't realize it.
Not sure how you define a 'casual' but to me a 'casual' isn't a bad player.
'Hardcore' raiders actually plays less than most 'casuals' (this was esp true in WOTLK) because the hardcore raiders will raid, get the boss down and log off. Ensidia even said some of their members only played 5 hours a week.
I know several hardcore players went back for Cata and I know some casuals who moved onto some social game (like facebook or angry birds).
As mentioned previously: 'only 30% go up to level 10 and beyond' -Blizzard CEO
Cata is Blizzard's response on growing that number. Financial market thinks Blizzard will succeed. If I trust any 'prediction' i'll trust someone that has some mega $$$ on the line if they get it wrong.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
BC was a lot more 'casual' friendly than vanilla.
Daily quests (quick selection of quest that can be done in 15mins or less), shrinking the raid numbers from 40 to 25/10, heroic 5mans, badge system, Arena system, a decay-less honor system, etc all came in BC.
The 'problem' Blizz tried to solve was that only 20% or less saw Illidan and 5% or less saw Sunwell. Will they find the middle ground? who knows? But I don't think offering two distinct playing styles is a bad thing.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
when it was hard, why so hard.
when it was easy, why so easy.
then it is hard again, why so hard.
then it will be easy again, why so easy.
people are so predictable.
That's the problem they're not offering two styles of gameplay at the same time... they go from one extreme to the other.
If they offered two styles of gameplay they'd have easier raids and then hard ones.
Thread has been better than I thought. Everyone comes up with excellent posts.
I still don't find an excuse for the terrible balance in that pitched battle of Tol Barad though and perhaps the core problem is not that some have been playing for 6 years or the game went "hard video game play" in its end game.
The problem ,- like I said - is that WOW became too big even for Blizzard. There is only so much limited talent out there and for the first time in 6 years I see much less developped content like TB combined with extreme good programming techniques (like phasing).
It is too big and the group of programmers is too diverse at the moment I think and yes the playing group has become too diverse too.