World of Warcraft Needs "Casual-Centric Features" To Survive

[beez]

But yeah. Monks. Dey are fun, balanced? Eghhh... They're more balanced than the monkey fest that was the Death Knight Launch.

Well, since most fights begin with a bloodlust, getting 10 stacks of brew + a RoRo proc is often out of the question, therefore missing out on a lot of dps and being generally behind during fights. I think the only reason MoP was any fun for me tho, was how the monks were like rogues done right + retri paladins, in one package.. sorta?

 

[Diddy_Mao]

Been playing WoW since about a month after it was first released. I'm not what one would call a "hard core" player but I've been with it for some time. It's not a perfect game, I've played a lot of other MMOs over the years that had some features that WoW just wasn't built to do (Champions Online's sever jumping and account/character name ID, The Secret World's cinematic storytelling, DCU's Solo instances and decreased focus on "Holy Trinity" party makeup.) and I'll even admit that it's really starting to show it's age.

At the same time though, for a game that's almost a decade old it's holding up remarkably well.


On the subject of Wow "pandering to the casuals." One thing I've never understood about the community for this game is this weird idea that other people experiencing it in a way other than you are is somehow ruining it for you.

"Meh...WoW is dumb casual Pokemon now."

Well don't play the pet battles then.

"You get riding and flying too early, it makes the game too easy."

Well don't upgrade to flight and riding until you feel like it. (Fair point that later areas in WotLK and Cata require flight.)

LFG and LFR ruined the community aspect of the MMO.

How? I still have friends that I play and group with. I'll LFG/R if nobody happens to be on and I feel like dungeon running but the game isn't forcing me to use those tools. Plus it's a great way to get my raids in if, as has always been the case, not every member of the raid is able to make it that week.

"It's too easy to get into the end game content now."

So? What the hell do you care if some other schmuck is able to see the end game content too? How does that effect your experience in the game at all? Did it really mean that much to you that you were one of the few people with enough free time to jump through all the hoops BC had to get you into heroics and raids? Did it make you feel that special?

I get that there needs to be a sufficient balance between challenge and reward in order to feel like you accomplished something in the game but I personally don't miss having to treat WoW like a second job just to get to the end game.

 

[Nexxis]

As opposed to what, becoming a niche game that can still hold value with current and future players as it ages?

...Really, what's wrong with aiming for a smaller/more niche audience in a MMO? I've felt like I've said this too many times, but please, please developers, get rid of the mindset that the word "massive" in MMO is supposed to refer to the number of players that's supposed to be playing your game. Let it instead define the kind of experience the player may have, or the size of the world, the amount of social interaction, or god forbid the level of depth within the game!

Stop playing the "grab the most people" game, and as a result past MMO players might once again take the genre seriously enough to revisit it.

I think it's because they were riding high and getting a lot of money when they had more people. Being a small niche title probably doesn't sound appealing to them after being on top of the MMO world for so long.

I don't think them losing their place on the throne of MMO's would be a bad thing though. WoW really screwed with MMO development, with many sub-par WoW clones being released just to try and convert the audience and hope they succeed. While I'm impressed with its success, none can deny that almost everyone is just trying to be WoW, and that's not a good thing. If they finally lose their place and fall down the rankings, I call that an 100% positive result

I completely agree. I never said them being on top was a good thing. I just think they they probably don't want anything less than the top. That means less money. I just want WoW to be knocked down a few notches in the hope of having more new ideas popping up in the MMO genre. I'm tired of the WoW clones, too.