Big raids made more sense back in the day because the vast majority of a smaller player base were dedicated hardcore players.
It still works, but for that same population only. Problem is with more games and a bigger demographic appealing to that population is not a smart decision.
Originally posted by Arthasm Originally posted by AxxarDesigning flexible raid content is too difficult, which is why Blizzard is dropping that for the new expansion.
False.^
Both Normal (Flex in MoP) and Heroic (Normal in MoP) are flexilbe raids in sizes from 10 to 25 man for new expansion.
I stand corrected. I must have thought of the removal of multiple versions of the heroic (now mythic) raids. The reasoning is the same, though. Scaling encounters is difficult, but they are choosing to not mind some imbalance on the easier, "less important" raid modes.
I stand corrected. I must have thought of the removal of multiple versions of the heroic (now mythic) raids. The reasoning is the same, though. Scaling encounters is difficult, but they are choosing to not mind some imbalance on the easier, "less important" raid modes.
They aren't less important in the eyes of Blizzard. Blizzard, since WotLK, has been about accessibility. They worked hard to design raids that an extreme few people actually got to see. Blizzard wisely saw that treating the non hardcore players as second class citizens was stupid, as the non hardcore base is what makes up the brunt of the paying population.
The amount of guilds who have cleared the Hardmode content within any expansion is extremely small. However, the amount of people who get to see the content that Blizzard designed has grown significantly since they decided to add in multiple types of raiding environments.
It's no coincidence that when Blizzard stupidly tried to make the content that is used for gearing up "hardcore" again (5 man heroics at the launch of Cataclysm), is also when they started to bleed sub numbers at an alarming rate. They peaked at like 12 million players at the launch of Cataclysm, and dropped to around 8 million by the end of the xpack (iirc).
There's a fine line between challenging (good) and tedious (bad). Blizzard has found a pretty good balance at delivering both challenging content for the masses, and creating challenging content for those who are more hardcore.
Which is also the reason why no one has beaten Blizzard at their own game is 10 years.
Comments
It still works, but for that same population only. Problem is with more games and a bigger demographic appealing to that population is not a smart decision.
Both Normal (Flex in MoP) and Heroic (Normal in MoP) are flexilbe raids in sizes from 10 to 25 man for new expansion.
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/13942448/dev-watercooler-raiding-azeroth-part-3-warlords-of-draenor-4-30-2014
I stand corrected. I must have thought of the removal of multiple versions of the heroic (now mythic) raids. The reasoning is the same, though. Scaling encounters is difficult, but they are choosing to not mind some imbalance on the easier, "less important" raid modes.
They aren't less important in the eyes of Blizzard. Blizzard, since WotLK, has been about accessibility. They worked hard to design raids that an extreme few people actually got to see. Blizzard wisely saw that treating the non hardcore players as second class citizens was stupid, as the non hardcore base is what makes up the brunt of the paying population.
The amount of guilds who have cleared the Hardmode content within any expansion is extremely small. However, the amount of people who get to see the content that Blizzard designed has grown significantly since they decided to add in multiple types of raiding environments.
It's no coincidence that when Blizzard stupidly tried to make the content that is used for gearing up "hardcore" again (5 man heroics at the launch of Cataclysm), is also when they started to bleed sub numbers at an alarming rate. They peaked at like 12 million players at the launch of Cataclysm, and dropped to around 8 million by the end of the xpack (iirc).
There's a fine line between challenging (good) and tedious (bad). Blizzard has found a pretty good balance at delivering both challenging content for the masses, and creating challenging content for those who are more hardcore.
Which is also the reason why no one has beaten Blizzard at their own game is 10 years.