Originally posted by Telondariel ...It could be a hardcore server, or maybe at character creation you have a choice of options to set your own difficulty, or..whatever they decide to throw at us.
No offense Telondriel, but self-imposed limitations would never work. If a hardcore server launches, I've no doubt many will flock to it. If, instead, players can opt whether or not to handicap their character at creation, you can be sure that no one will.
Functionally, of course, those two amount to exactly the same thing.
Not even close, as in one you will be sharing the world with people who will be able to kamikaze rush with no risk, while in the other you have people who share the same penalties as you.
Personally I am hoping even the softcore servers will have a noteable penalty, Its patethic that fps games have about the same if not more of penalty as mmos do these days.
Even EQ 1 (today) doesn't have a harsh death penalty, since everyone has that cleric merc handy for the 96% ress and you don't leave your gear on your corpse anymore. You can even pay an npc a little money to summon your corpse right to you to be ressed in the guild lobby.
I hope it has a "harsh" death penalty...but without XP and Levels the only thing I can see is each death you lose a "Skill Point". By "Skill Point" I mean the points you somehow acquire (the devs haven't elaborated yet) that you "spend" in your class or class abilities to make them more powerful. It depends how hard it is to gain a "skill point" on whether this is considered "harsh" or not.
The only other thing that I can see happening is some form of loss of equipment or corpse runs...though I don't think the game will in any way support corpse runs. However, perhaps each death an item of yours goes poof...
Other than those things I'm just not sure how they could do any sort of "harsh" death penalty, which games today desperately need.
Originally posted by ArdwulfFunctionally, of course, those two amount to exactly the same thing.
Not even close, as in one you will be sharing the world with people who will be able to kamikaze rush with no risk, while in the other you have people who share the same penalties as you.
That's a fair point, thought of that way.
Personally I am hoping even the softcore servers will have a noteable penalty, Its patethic that fps games have about the same if not more of penalty as mmos do these days.
There's no real hard information to support this, but I consider it unlikely. I think we may well see a hardcore server, but I expect the standard death penalty to be reasonably light. Probably as in equipment damage or the like, and maybe some delay involved. No worse than that. Hardcore could be anything up to and including permadeath... but I think that extreme is unlikely too. We'll have to wait and see.
Originally posted by ice-vortex There won't be corpse runs because the procedurally generated caverns close up and you would lose your corpse.
Even if that procedurally generated cavern did close up, what's to say that there won't be a system that checks for the presence of a player 's corpse within that area and triggers a timer that allows sufficient time for recovery? Or, upon the timer's expiration, that your corpse is "ported" to just outside that cavern or even somewhere that is indestructible (set by the devs) so you can recover it? To make a statement like, "There won't be corpse runs because...." and pass it off as fact, when this has yet to be officially announced, is quite premature. Especially when there are potential alternatives that would make it possible.
Originally posted by Telondariel ...It could be a hardcore server, or maybe at character creation you have a choice of options to set your own difficulty, or..whatever they decide to throw at us.
No offense Telondriel, but self-imposed limitations would never work. If a hardcore server launches, I've no doubt many will flock to it. If, instead, players can opt whether or not to handicap their character at creation, you can be sure that no one will.
None taken. I'm keeping an open mind and am not married to any preconception of what their death system will be.
Highly doubtful it will be harsh considering they have already commented that they don't consider it a hardcore mmo and are aiming to make it accessible to as many people as possible. Harsh death penalties don't add up with that statement, as much as I wish it had them.
Even EQ 1 (today) doesn't have a harsh death penalty, since everyone has that cleric merc handy for the 96% ress and you don't leave your gear on your corpse anymore. You can even pay an npc a little money to summon your corpse right to you to be ressed in the guild lobby.
It became a nuisance in EQ, we all have our alt cleric and way too many friends in the game to have to do a corpse run.
I'm not aware of another game with EQ's corpse runs, but if they did implement it in a game, they would need to prevent it from becoming a nuisance like in EQ, the larger your network of friends and guilds become, the more you can minimize the impact of corpse runs until it becomes meaningless.
Even in the early days of EQ, it was only in the beginning that everyone was doing corpse runs, later on when your friends network grew, you had people you could count on who where close by, or guildies that you could consent, the corpse run became more of a networking event than an actual punishment, we learned to mitigate the punishment.
Originally posted by ice-vortex There won't be corpse runs because the procedurally generated caverns close up and you would lose your corpse.
Even if that procedurally generated cavern did close up, what's to say that there won't be a system that checks for the presence of a player 's corpse within that area and triggers a timer that allows sufficient time for recovery? Or, upon the timer's expiration, that your corpse is "ported" to just outside that cavern or even somewhere that is indestructible (set by the devs) so you can recover it? To make a statement like, "There won't be corpse runs because...." and pass it off as fact, when this has yet to be officially announced, is quite premature. Especially when there are potential alternatives that would make it possible.
Better yet, if the players goes in and runs around like an ass doing damage underground he may in fact occasionally lose the body in a cave in and have to suffer the consequences xp/gold loss, high repair costs. If the player uses common sense for example "I am deep underground maybe I should keep the damage away from to those load bearing structures over there." then there wont be a cave in and the reward upon death is a simple corpse run.
I would at least like a penalty for repeat deaths, yea sometimes this is an MMO and you die for something stupid, devs don't like that because then someone does an ASSIST or whatever and blames the server, but something needs to stop death as a way to explore or to annoy.
A lot of progression in this game, from what they have said, is going to be item based I think a durability system on items would be a good way to go about things, not more for plate and less for cloth but a flat "you died twice in ten minutes all your items just took a 10% permanent durability hit. It would be good for crafters as well, some people don't like loosing stuff...well don't die twice in ten minutes if you care that much, if they want to really have a valid crafting system some form of item decay is needed and this seems to be a nice way to put one in.
This issue, along with travel and leveling implementation, will determine whether or not I even try EQN. I played EQ1 like many of you when there were corpse runs. I saw guildmates almost quit the game because their corpse retrieval was so difficult. I'm not saying that I want it to be that harsh, but I am saying that it better darn well have a meaningful impact. EQ1 was a "leave no toon behind" philosophy. You better not piss off the cleric with insults or Chuck Norris jokes. There was strategy and community.
I think the death issue has a lot to do with the kind of community that will exist. Easy mode will generally attract less committed players and thus a less appealing community for seasoned gamers. If you make it TOO hardcore, you will have less players and possibly not enough players to have sustainable community. Where does the balance lie? I dunno. Maybe the server selection can fix this. Each community gets the game/community they want.
Same with travel. In oldschool EQ you had to ride a boat or buy a teleport. "So what" you ask. WELL this tends to keep the same players in an area for a greater period of time. If I can't afford to jump all over the place, then I'm going to hang out around Qeynos and be a part of the area, not jump over to Freeport at level 3 (which should take some time, not 10 minutes).
EVE online does this well. Every time you undock, you are taking a risk.
It's time for EverQuest to get it right, and if they can't deliver on this, woe to them. If it is a true sandbox, and not "half themepark" then they might have something.
What's even worse is when a game starts out with meaningful penalties just to relax them later. Yeah, death is rough now but one year later the consequences get relaxed. Yeah, travel is long now, but with this next expansion we will introduce "instaport beacons". Yeah, leveling is slow, but with this expansion we are introducing "unlimited xp potions."
It's gotten old now. Do it different already.
Playing EVE online currently. Started MMO's with EQ Velious, played EQ2, DAoC, CoH, AO, SWG (pre NGE), Planetside, DCUO. Played briefly cause I didn't like: WAR, WoW, VG, etc. etc.
Same with travel. In oldschool EQ you had to ride a boat or buy a teleport. "So what" you ask. WELL this tends to keep the same players in an area for a greater period of time. If I can't afford to jump all over the place, then I'm going to hang out around Qeynos and be a part of the area, not jump over to Freeport at level 3 (which should take some time, not 10 minutes).
Yea Travel is one of those aspects often overlooked in building a community, a community is by definition people in one place, it has been expanded to include people who share an idea but the root of the word is still the most relevant.
In GW2, travel is so easy, that not only are you never in one place for any amount of time, but when you get to the destination it is already full for that champion fight and then as soon as it is over boooom everyone is out
I think this has as much to do with the zerging in GW2 as anything, it probably explains why in Rifts, even though the same concept is applied I at least fill a bit more like "we" did something and less like "who the hell are these people?". Extreme fast travel pretty much moves the zerg from place to place as someone on global chat yells "Oak is up!".
Of course this means there has to be something to do "here" instead of always having it over there, the themepark is by definition a constant quest for going elsewhere and it fails when there is no elsewhere to go to.
Originally posted by Badaboom Has this subject been talked about yet? If you die, is the death punishing in terms of harsh death penalties or corpse retrieval? I'm interested in this game but fear that the devs will candy coat the death system like every other current MMO to date.
Of course there won't be a harsh death penalty. You think the same people that obliterated class roles and other players distinctions, as well as end game raiding, is really going to include a harsh death penalty. It runs completely contrary to their next gen WoWified paradigm.
Originally posted by Badaboom Has this subject been talked about yet? If you die, is the death punishing in terms of harsh death penalties or corpse retrieval? I'm interested in this game but fear that the devs will candy coat the death system like every other current MMO to date.
Of course there won't be a harsh death penalty. You think the same people that obliterated class roles and other players distinctions, as well as end game raiding, is really going to include a harsh death penalty. It runs completely contrary to their next gen WoWified paradigm.
Did you just accuse them of removing WoW like mechanics and call the program WoWified at the same time?
Originally posted by Badaboom Has this subject been talked about yet? If you die, is the death punishing in terms of harsh death penalties or corpse retrieval? I'm interested in this game but fear that the devs will candy coat the death system like every other current MMO to date.
Of course there won't be a harsh death penalty. You think the same people that obliterated class roles and other players distinctions, as well as end game raiding, is really going to include a harsh death penalty. It runs completely contrary to their next gen WoWified paradigm.
Did you just accuse them of removing WoW like mechanics and call the program WoWified at the same time?
Well done.
Look past the mechanics and see the spirit of the changes. They are all in the name of making the game all-inclusive, which is the same intent Blizzard had when trivializing every system and mechanic. They statedly don't want anyone to feel left out, so they removed any kind of class requirements for combat. They don't want players to have to grind levels to play with others, so they removed levels. They don't want players to be alienated if they are social retards, so they remove the entire sphere of gameplay that requires socializing - end game.
Originally posted by Badaboom Has this subject been talked about yet? If you die, is the death punishing in terms of harsh death penalties or corpse retrieval? I'm interested in this game but fear that the devs will candy coat the death system like every other current MMO to date.
Of course there won't be a harsh death penalty. You think the same people that obliterated class roles and other players distinctions, as well as end game raiding, is really going to include a harsh death penalty. It runs completely contrary to their next gen WoWified paradigm.
This game literally is nothing like WoW! You couldn't make two games from the same genre anymore different if you tried!
Originally posted by Dullahan
Look past the mechanics and see the spirit of the changes. They are all in the name of making the game all-inclusive, which is the same intent Blizzard had when trivializing every system and mechanic. They statedly don't want anyone to feel left out, so they removed any kind of class requirements for combat. They don't want players to have to grind levels to play with others, so they removed levels. They don't want players to be alienated if they are social retards, so they remove the entire sphere of gameplay that requires socializing - end game.
This game is trying to draw in a very specific audience, the sandbox audience. This is an MMO made for a niche market.
Originally posted by Badaboom Has this subject been talked about yet? If you die, is the death punishing in terms of harsh death penalties or corpse retrieval? I'm interested in this game but fear that the devs will candy coat the death system like every other current MMO to date.
Of course there won't be a harsh death penalty. You think the same people that obliterated class roles and other players distinctions, as well as end game raiding, is really going to include a harsh death penalty. It runs completely contrary to their next gen WoWified paradigm.
This game literally is nothing like WoW! You couldn't make two games from the same genre anymore different if you tried!
{ Mod Edit }
I did not say wow clone, I said wowified paradigm. I realize paradigm is probably beyond your vocabulary, but it describes the underlying philosophy that dictates how their game works. The choices they make regarding whether the game will be easy or hard, require class balance, the level players will have to work with others, and the amount of strategy and interpersonal relations and socializing the game requires.
SOE in an effort to cater to the lowest common denominators have simply done away with the systems that WoW spent the last decade making so easy. Its the same line of thinking, but different mechanics.
someone said they may have death penalty dependant on server.. this would be great. hopefully they have some sort of server like the start of Original EQ's was.. respawn naked, lose experience, have to rememorize spells..
i havent been cautious in a game since everquest 1... and FFXI, ive been running around like a retard not caring in every other game. i had the feeling of dread in EQ 1 more than any game ever.
worst experience: Power going out when raiding Plane of Fear when game was brand new. this was terrible, never got back on until next morning. needless to say i logged in and had the entire zone running at my face. of course the no toon left behind philosophy someone mentioned was always there. the entire guild mobilized to get my stuff back. just me. one person.
ah the good old days.. when you know all hope is lost and you do a /loc so you can locate yourself where you died..
Originally posted by Badaboom Has this subject been talked about yet? If you die, is the death punishing in terms of harsh death penalties or corpse retrieval? I'm interested in this game but fear that the devs will candy coat the death system like every other current MMO to date.
Of course there won't be a harsh death penalty. You think the same people that obliterated class roles and other players distinctions, as well as end game raiding, is really going to include a harsh death penalty. It runs completely contrary to their next gen WoWified paradigm.
This game literally is nothing like WoW! You couldn't make two games from the same genre anymore different if you tried!
{ Mod Edit }
I did not say wow clone, I said wowified paradigm. I realize paradigm is probably beyond your vocabulary, but it describes the underlying philosophy that dictates how their game works. The choices they make regarding whether the game will be easy or hard, require class balance, the level players will have to work with others, and the amount of strategy and interpersonal relations and socializing the game requires.
SOE in an effort to cater to the lowest common denominators have simply done away with the systems that WoW spent the last decade making so easy. Its the same line of thinking, but different mechanics.
{ Mod Edit }
Yes, I know what that means, but I question if you do. Paradigm is a framework containing the basic assumptions, ways of thinking, and methodology that are commonly accepted. The problem is you are only listing one element of WoW that you have an issue with, the difficulty. That is not the correct usage in this case.
Also, to say that it easy difficulty is synonymous with WoW is disingenuous at best.
Originally posted by Badaboom Has this subject been talked about yet? If you die, is the death punishing in terms of harsh death penalties or corpse retrieval? I'm interested in this game but fear that the devs will candy coat the death system like every other current MMO to date.
Of course there won't be a harsh death penalty. You think the same people that obliterated class roles and other players distinctions, as well as end game raiding, is really going to include a harsh death penalty. It runs completely contrary to their next gen WoWified paradigm.
This game literally is nothing like WoW! You couldn't make two games from the same genre anymore different if you tried!
{ Mod Edit }
I did not say wow clone, I said wowified paradigm. I realize paradigm is probably beyond your vocabulary, but it describes the underlying philosophy that dictates how their game works. The choices they make regarding whether the game will be easy or hard, require class balance, the level players will have to work with others, and the amount of strategy and interpersonal relations and socializing the game requires.
SOE in an effort to cater to the lowest common denominators have simply done away with the systems that WoW spent the last decade making so easy. Its the same line of thinking, but different mechanics.
{ Mod Edit }
Yes, I know what that means, but I question if you do. Paradigm is a framework containing the basic assumptions, ways of thinking, and methodology that are commonly accepted. The problem is you are only listing one element of WoW that you have an issue with, the difficulty. That is not the correct usage in this case.
Also, to say that it easy difficulty is synonymous with WoW is disingenuous at best.
The difficulty factor is the symptom, the problem is their way of thinking and how it affects the way games work as a whole.
Simply put, this line of thinking when creating MMOs today is how to make them accessible to as many players as possible, no matter what the cost.
If it means making 50 man raids 25 man raids, so be it. If it means making 25 man raids 10 man raids, so be it. If it means a system where you can queue up into a pick up raid at any time, so be it. If it means making the raids easy enough to accommodate a random group of 10 players where half of them are incompetent, no problem. Always accommodate the lowest common denominator. This is the mantra of the gaming industry in 2013.
Its the same line of thinking that causes them to remove levels, remove end game, remove required roles, remove static classes and remove any other mechanisms that may stand in the way of independent success.
So people actually wonder if there be harsh death penalties? As long as they maintain this philosophy, of course there wont be!
Comments
Not even close, as in one you will be sharing the world with people who will be able to kamikaze rush with no risk, while in the other you have people who share the same penalties as you.
Personally I am hoping even the softcore servers will have a noteable penalty, Its patethic that fps games have about the same if not more of penalty as mmos do these days.
I doubt it.
Even EQ 1 (today) doesn't have a harsh death penalty, since everyone has that cleric merc handy for the 96% ress and you don't leave your gear on your corpse anymore. You can even pay an npc a little money to summon your corpse right to you to be ressed in the guild lobby.
I hope it has a "harsh" death penalty...but without XP and Levels the only thing I can see is each death you lose a "Skill Point". By "Skill Point" I mean the points you somehow acquire (the devs haven't elaborated yet) that you "spend" in your class or class abilities to make them more powerful. It depends how hard it is to gain a "skill point" on whether this is considered "harsh" or not.
The only other thing that I can see happening is some form of loss of equipment or corpse runs...though I don't think the game will in any way support corpse runs. However, perhaps each death an item of yours goes poof...
Other than those things I'm just not sure how they could do any sort of "harsh" death penalty, which games today desperately need.
That's a fair point, thought of that way.
There's no real hard information to support this, but I consider it unlikely. I think we may well see a hardcore server, but I expect the standard death penalty to be reasonably light. Probably as in equipment damage or the like, and maybe some delay involved. No worse than that. Hardcore could be anything up to and including permadeath... but I think that extreme is unlikely too. We'll have to wait and see.
Ardwulf's Lair | Ardwulf's YouTube Channel | Ardwulf on Twitter
Are you crazy ?
This will be a game for casuals, there will be nothing harsh in it. Harsh things make casuals cry (and quit their account).
Even if that procedurally generated cavern did close up, what's to say that there won't be a system that checks for the presence of a player 's corpse within that area and triggers a timer that allows sufficient time for recovery? Or, upon the timer's expiration, that your corpse is "ported" to just outside that cavern or even somewhere that is indestructible (set by the devs) so you can recover it? To make a statement like, "There won't be corpse runs because...." and pass it off as fact, when this has yet to be officially announced, is quite premature. Especially when there are potential alternatives that would make it possible.
None taken. I'm keeping an open mind and am not married to any preconception of what their death system will be.
SOE already said the game won't be hardcore, however i believe they will implement some sort of time sink , why?
Cash shop.
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
It became a nuisance in EQ, we all have our alt cleric and way too many friends in the game to have to do a corpse run.
I'm not aware of another game with EQ's corpse runs, but if they did implement it in a game, they would need to prevent it from becoming a nuisance like in EQ, the larger your network of friends and guilds become, the more you can minimize the impact of corpse runs until it becomes meaningless.
Even in the early days of EQ, it was only in the beginning that everyone was doing corpse runs, later on when your friends network grew, you had people you could count on who where close by, or guildies that you could consent, the corpse run became more of a networking event than an actual punishment, we learned to mitigate the punishment.
Better yet, if the players goes in and runs around like an ass doing damage underground he may in fact occasionally lose the body in a cave in and have to suffer the consequences xp/gold loss, high repair costs. If the player uses common sense for example "I am deep underground maybe I should keep the damage away from to those load bearing structures over there." then there wont be a cave in and the reward upon death is a simple corpse run.
I would at least like a penalty for repeat deaths, yea sometimes this is an MMO and you die for something stupid, devs don't like that because then someone does an ASSIST or whatever and blames the server, but something needs to stop death as a way to explore or to annoy.
A lot of progression in this game, from what they have said, is going to be item based I think a durability system on items would be a good way to go about things, not more for plate and less for cloth but a flat "you died twice in ten minutes all your items just took a 10% permanent durability hit. It would be good for crafters as well, some people don't like loosing stuff...well don't die twice in ten minutes if you care that much, if they want to really have a valid crafting system some form of item decay is needed and this seems to be a nice way to put one in.
This issue, along with travel and leveling implementation, will determine whether or not I even try EQN. I played EQ1 like many of you when there were corpse runs. I saw guildmates almost quit the game because their corpse retrieval was so difficult. I'm not saying that I want it to be that harsh, but I am saying that it better darn well have a meaningful impact. EQ1 was a "leave no toon behind" philosophy. You better not piss off the cleric with insults or Chuck Norris jokes. There was strategy and community.
I think the death issue has a lot to do with the kind of community that will exist. Easy mode will generally attract less committed players and thus a less appealing community for seasoned gamers. If you make it TOO hardcore, you will have less players and possibly not enough players to have sustainable community. Where does the balance lie? I dunno. Maybe the server selection can fix this. Each community gets the game/community they want.
Same with travel. In oldschool EQ you had to ride a boat or buy a teleport. "So what" you ask. WELL this tends to keep the same players in an area for a greater period of time. If I can't afford to jump all over the place, then I'm going to hang out around Qeynos and be a part of the area, not jump over to Freeport at level 3 (which should take some time, not 10 minutes).
EVE online does this well. Every time you undock, you are taking a risk.
It's time for EverQuest to get it right, and if they can't deliver on this, woe to them. If it is a true sandbox, and not "half themepark" then they might have something.
What's even worse is when a game starts out with meaningful penalties just to relax them later. Yeah, death is rough now but one year later the consequences get relaxed. Yeah, travel is long now, but with this next expansion we will introduce "instaport beacons". Yeah, leveling is slow, but with this expansion we are introducing "unlimited xp potions."
It's gotten old now. Do it different already.
Playing EVE online currently. Started MMO's with EQ Velious, played EQ2, DAoC, CoH, AO, SWG (pre NGE), Planetside, DCUO. Played briefly cause I didn't like: WAR, WoW, VG, etc. etc.
Yea Travel is one of those aspects often overlooked in building a community, a community is by definition people in one place, it has been expanded to include people who share an idea but the root of the word is still the most relevant.
In GW2, travel is so easy, that not only are you never in one place for any amount of time, but when you get to the destination it is already full for that champion fight and then as soon as it is over boooom everyone is out
I think this has as much to do with the zerging in GW2 as anything, it probably explains why in Rifts, even though the same concept is applied I at least fill a bit more like "we" did something and less like "who the hell are these people?". Extreme fast travel pretty much moves the zerg from place to place as someone on global chat yells "Oak is up!".
Of course this means there has to be something to do "here" instead of always having it over there, the themepark is by definition a constant quest for going elsewhere and it fails when there is no elsewhere to go to.
Of course there won't be a harsh death penalty. You think the same people that obliterated class roles and other players distinctions, as well as end game raiding, is really going to include a harsh death penalty. It runs completely contrary to their next gen WoWified paradigm.
Did you just accuse them of removing WoW like mechanics and call the program WoWified at the same time?
Well done.
Look past the mechanics and see the spirit of the changes. They are all in the name of making the game all-inclusive, which is the same intent Blizzard had when trivializing every system and mechanic. They statedly don't want anyone to feel left out, so they removed any kind of class requirements for combat. They don't want players to have to grind levels to play with others, so they removed levels. They don't want players to be alienated if they are social retards, so they remove the entire sphere of gameplay that requires socializing - end game.
{ Mod Edit }
This game literally is nothing like WoW! You couldn't make two games from the same genre anymore different if you tried!
This game is trying to draw in a very specific audience, the sandbox audience. This is an MMO made for a niche market.
{ Mod Edit }
I did not say wow clone, I said wowified paradigm. I realize paradigm is probably beyond your vocabulary, but it describes the underlying philosophy that dictates how their game works. The choices they make regarding whether the game will be easy or hard, require class balance, the level players will have to work with others, and the amount of strategy and interpersonal relations and socializing the game requires.
SOE in an effort to cater to the lowest common denominators have simply done away with the systems that WoW spent the last decade making so easy. Its the same line of thinking, but different mechanics.
{ Mod Edit }
someone said they may have death penalty dependant on server.. this would be great. hopefully they have some sort of server like the start of Original EQ's was.. respawn naked, lose experience, have to rememorize spells..
i havent been cautious in a game since everquest 1... and FFXI, ive been running around like a retard not caring in every other game. i had the feeling of dread in EQ 1 more than any game ever.
worst experience: Power going out when raiding Plane of Fear when game was brand new. this was terrible, never got back on until next morning. needless to say i logged in and had the entire zone running at my face. of course the no toon left behind philosophy someone mentioned was always there. the entire guild mobilized to get my stuff back. just me. one person.
ah the good old days.. when you know all hope is lost and you do a /loc so you can locate yourself where you died..
Yes, I know what that means, but I question if you do. Paradigm is a framework containing the basic assumptions, ways of thinking, and methodology that are commonly accepted. The problem is you are only listing one element of WoW that you have an issue with, the difficulty. That is not the correct usage in this case.
Also, to say that it easy difficulty is synonymous with WoW is disingenuous at best.
The difficulty factor is the symptom, the problem is their way of thinking and how it affects the way games work as a whole.
Simply put, this line of thinking when creating MMOs today is how to make them accessible to as many players as possible, no matter what the cost.
If it means making 50 man raids 25 man raids, so be it. If it means making 25 man raids 10 man raids, so be it. If it means a system where you can queue up into a pick up raid at any time, so be it. If it means making the raids easy enough to accommodate a random group of 10 players where half of them are incompetent, no problem. Always accommodate the lowest common denominator. This is the mantra of the gaming industry in 2013.
Its the same line of thinking that causes them to remove levels, remove end game, remove required roles, remove static classes and remove any other mechanisms that may stand in the way of independent success.
So people actually wonder if there be harsh death penalties? As long as they maintain this philosophy, of course there wont be!