Tuesday, November 18, 2008

WotLK cleared - Did the game get 'too' easy?

So while I am running around outland with my warlock trying to round up some loremaster things I run into this:

WotlK cleared

Well not physically in-game of course but I have a tendency to read some random things while making use of the various flightmasters.

Be that as it may it looks like it took the combined and obviously quite rushed forces of nihilum and SK gaming less than 3 days to wrap up whatever is available of Northrend before the 3.1 content patch.

I'd applaud their effort were it not for the fact that they literally ran out of content and get to sit around and wait / level up alts / QQ before new content comes out... which they will undoubtedly be able to deal with even quicker. So in reality this seems little more than a company sponsored outting to wrap up what little there is to see in WotLK instances before anyone else.

It's amazing what people will do for money isn't it? (make no mistake, those guys are getting paid for this)

Still, all this leads to the question if things all of a sudden didn't get a little too easy. Don't get me wrong, it's lovely to be making fast progress and being able to blast through instances without too much hassle.

But content needs to be proportionate to time invested. If people consume a game's content too quickly they will become bored and leave for other games, as a result it's in blizzard's best interest to scale difficulty according to when their content patches are released.

Of course you can't calculate in a bunch of 'hired goons' completing your content in less than 3 days but looking at the average player you need to at least be able to provide them with enough challenge/content to bridge the gap between now and the next expansion/ content patch.

If I really wanted to see it all and have it all 'NOW' I would download a wow emulator and have it all when I want it... but we all know that having everything in a game only leads to boredome and not to some glorified legendary position amongst our peers.

So despite the positive 'casual' atmosphere of the expansion the question begs to be asked if things didn't get a little 'too' easy.

6 comments:

Darraxus said...

I dont neccesarily think things got too easy. These are the two top guilds in the world, and they get paid for this kind of thing. Not to mention they cleared Naxxramas when it was the hardest instance in the game the first time around. They will just farm it for the gear and then blast the next raid instance within a day or two of it coming out probably.

Anonymous said...

Well like u said they now have the oppourtunity to sit around and lvl alts and qq about not having anything to do. But hey wut the hell its their job right. Others have Familyö, Friends and Work that keep them from logging on everyday all day, so those others get to take their time and maybe get more outta their 29 Euros? I dont think that the game hasnt gotten easier per se as maybe its just been distilled. I like the fact that there are no more UBRS that take a whole weekend of my time and the 10/25 man raid deal is just pure sugar. How hard is it to get 25 people u like to waste ur time with who are also somewhat geared and skilled all together at the same time??? For our Guild on Khadgar EU... pretty damn hard :D So, so far We are liking the 45 mins to an hour for a dungeon (can u say lunchbreak?) :D and the 10 man same content lesser gear thingy is gonna rock :D
Taryl Khadgar EU Familar to millions

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Anonymous said...

I think wow has in fact been made much easier than even 2.4x BC content.

Tank threat mechanics have been changed so that, in instances, every class with an aoe (and most seem to have one or more now) can just go to town on every pull, full-blast with nary a worry about pulling aggro or, even less, CC. It is just a free-for-all dps fest.

Also, elites (inside instances and out), while having more health, in some cases seem to have had their damage REDUCED from heroic bc levels. As far as outdoor elites in northrend, almost all, with very few exceptions, can be killed or even farmed, in the up-to-lvl75-content I have seen so far. Comments from others indicate that this is the same in Icecrown.

To sum it up -

CC in instances is gone as a necessity. Instances are now aoe-fests with almost no way to overtake any competent tank on threat. Instances no longer require carefully planned pulls (remember the summoners in Slabs before murmur?), or even much of any sort of thinking at all.

Elites hit for less than Heroic Blood Furnace grunts do, yet your gear is by now substantially better than ilvl 110 epic gear.

Challenge is a big part of the appeal of the raid/instance part of the game, and I think when it sinks in that the run-throughs never are hard, there will be some negative feedback from more players.

Anonymous said...

The normal instances, anyway, were terribly easy and very disappointing. I too have very fond memories of laborious marking and planning for pulls in SLabs and elsewhere, and that was on normal! There is a serious need for some sort of difficulty fix, here. Level 80 instances should be difficult even on normal. Setting instances to heroic shouldn't be a requirement to experience a challenge in the game.

Gold Guide for World of Warcraft said...

good post :)