In with the Newb, Out with the Old: The Future of WoW

[AdamSavage]

Seen this post on wow.com, some interesting reading that's for sure.

It was an interesting week for outside sources, with an interview featuring Tom Chilton on IGN and a very in-depth examination of WoW's subscriber woes at Gamasutra.

The catch? Both of them deal with the future of Azeroth in different ways. Gamasutra analyzed the shortcomings of Cataclysm, interviewing players and even Blizzard employees to figure out what's in store. IGN took a more basic approach, going directly to the source with both Tom Chilton and WoW's art director explaining everything in their own words without leaving room for speculation.
IGN With Tom Chilton on 4.3
Chilton didn't waste any time getting to the point in IGN's interview. He immediately started dropping juicy tidbits about the Deathwing encounter, saying: "The fight takes place in multiple different environments, you'll actually potentially get loot at different points in the encounter so it's broken up into larger scale overall. Players will start at Wyrmrest Temple and then eventually it progresses to players fighting on [Deathwing's] back flying towards the Maelstrom, trying to wrestle him to the ground, basically."

He explained further, turning to the three 5-man instances that have been on many players' minds. "They tie in from story standpoint," said Chilton. "Really the five man instances are all about building up to the Deathwing fight in a lot the same way that the five-man instances in Icecrown were building up to the king, so all of them are very tied together story-wise."

untitled-5.jpg The interview then switched onward to transmogrification, where art director Chris Robinson gave his two cents. He said part of transmogrification's inspiration came from how he found TBC's armor, even going as far as to call them "clown suits."

Robinson also explained the importance of class identity in WoW. "We do have to be careful about iconic class looks bleeding into other classes,"he said. "That's one reason we have that restriction with transmogrification that you wouldn't be able to take a class-specific item and apply it to something for an item with a different class. I think that's important to protect [class] integrity. When you see those demon wings you know 'Okay that's a warlock,' you know you can apply that to his tier twenty-one armor but it's still a warlock." Personally, I think anymore restrictions on transmogrification besides tier and class intended armor type (i.e. cloth for casters), and you have a feature that is too narrow and restrictive for players to truly enjoy. Why not let a Paladin wear a DPS warrior's offset pieces if they want to? What does the game lose by offering that?

Shortly after, Tom Chilton returned and explained void storage, dismissed Mists of Pandaria, and talked very candidly of World of Warcraft's decline. "If you look at, if you look at the way the population breaks down, we're at a point in our history where there are more people that played World of Warcraft but no longer play World of Warcraft than currently play World of Warcraft," Chilton admitted, before wrapping the interview up by focusing on future ways to help player retention and the growth of WoW.
Gamasutra on WoW's Decline
Staying on the same topic but switching both gears and participants, Gamasutra posted a very in-depth piece after talking to dozens of prolific World of Warcraft developers, researchers, and players about the decline of World of Warcraft. The end result shines a lot of light into Blizzard's subscriber numbers, Cataclysm's changes, and the playerbase's ever-growing divide between "hardcore" and "casual" players.

untitled-5.jpg The article in particular touches on a prevailing problem for World of Warcraft: Most people dislike Cataclysm. Even more problematically, most people can't explain why exactly--they just dislike it. Some players throw out difficulties as a reason, others blame the 10 and 25-man divide, and even talk about Titan taking away all of Blizzard's talent.

But what's the real source to blame? And can we fix it?

The game's age is the real issue is what Gamasutra ultimately concludes. Cataclysm had some failures that made the balance out of tune, but we're all in the same boat whether we're casual or not: the game is in decline because it's starting to reach a stale point. It needs new features and explorations at rates Blizzard can't keep up with. It's also hard to predict the future as World of Warcraft is sailing into uncharted territory--a place where no MMORPG has been so successful for so long in and one that ultimately is hard to maintain.

As for the second question, no one knows the answer. Gamasutra fittingly asks: "If WoW's mechanics are at a saturation point where adding variety doesn't add new complexity, and its charms as a social network are waning in comparison to other platforms, is this the beginning of the end?"

Of course, no one's willing to throw the towel in so soon. But it is an interesting thought to expand on. At what point does World of Warcraft end up like the iconic EverQuest did--do all virtual worlds inevitably have to die? Will it still be here in ten years? Fifteen? At what point does World of Warcraft retire to let another MMORPG into the limelight?

And what will really kill World of Warcraft in the end?

http://www.wowheadnews.com/blog=194570/ ... f-warcraft

[Worba]

I suspect some of the "blah" feeling is more about fantasy MMOs, and MMOs in general, becoming more "old hat" to the gamer base.

It's not much of a stretch really.

Back in the day, people were into D&D - then EQ came along, and people were all like "ZOMG I CAN HAZ 3D AVATAR AND 24/7 GM?????"

Then that wore off and people started looking at things like non-instanced dungeons and so forth, and... along came WoW which was basically the bigger better EQ with all kinds of improvements that players had wanted from EQ but were denied.

So that lasted a while, but once again - new car smell has faded.

And people can't say why exactly because most if not all the big issues have been ground down into smaller / hazier ones, so it's hard now to say with real conviction "OBVIOUSLY IF WE HAD X EVERYTHING WOULD BE BETTER" like you could back when RPG meant paper and dice.

I think Blizzard had the right (general) idea when they redid levels 1-60, the problem though was that while that content is better, most of it is STILL face rollingly easy - and unfortunately Blizzard has come out and said that's by design, too.

So in my view, the 1-60 revamp could have given the game something of a Renaissance, if only they'd included a reason for players to sit up and pay attention to all the pretty new content rather than just snoozing their way through it, at best feeling maybe a vague sense of satisfaction at seeing some "new stuff" like tourists clicking their cameras as they drive past the Grand Canyon...

But all that being said I don't at all hold to the notion that WoW is doomed, or that it must inevitably go down "someday" - EQ is still around after all, along with all the others...

[Chimera]

I dont forsee WoW ever truly dying for many years to come, there will still be players like myself playing it because we dont want to switch to another MMO or because we like this MMO for playstyle, looks, lore, content whatever. :3 till its inevitable but far away doomsday i shall be a WoW player and proud of it. Just as i am with a 11, coming up 12 year old game that doesnt even use internet connection. (Heroes 3 Complete rooooocks! My computer wont let me install the disc tho qq..).

[Ana]

Being one of them who played everquest 1 from the beginning, i must admit that i see WoW going down the same path. I LOOOOVED everquest, and i loved WoW. Eventhough i many times have returned to play them both, atm it feelslike grinding in the same old mill over and over again.

Wow has changed alot since Ive started playing it. Faster leveling, earlier mounts, more focus on the end play then on the way getting to the end etc. It took me less then 7 days to lvl my new hunter to lvl 80.... IMo, that cannot be the point of the game... I enjoy a lore which hangs together, and i feel WoW somewhat lost that.

I am still without a MMORPG to play; so hopefully there will soon emerge something which can take the place of WoW. A part of me hope for Everquest Next, but a whole "new" game, which combines the best of all MMORPGS would be awesome too.


oh and the note of EQ still being around..
That game has changed even more then WoW and now has like 14 expansions

[Lisaara]

I do agree with ^ about the loss of lore. Seems very little and many npcs that were fantastic never got much of a backstory if any(Ex: The Leaper in Icecrown).

[Sigrah]

The main reason WoW is starting to die off is pretty straight forward: People eventually get tired of playing in the same game world. For some, it’s only a few months. For others, it happens after several years. But sooner or later, people playing the game look at it and say “I’m done”. Why is that? Primarily, I would say it’s because people just get tired of the same old game world, with the same old lore / back stories, and jumping through the same kinds of hoops to level up and get better and better gear, only to see it become obsolete and having to start the process all over again. No matter how “fresh” they try to make things, the inescapable fact is that people feel it’s the same old things with the same basic mechanics.

But, regardless of individual reasons, people eventually reach the point where simply move on and seek out a new game world to live in for a while. They want a new place with new lore and story lines, and hopefully a new way of doing things. This doesn’t mean WoW will die tomorrow or next week. Hell, Everquest launched in March of 1999 and started its dying off process around 2004 to 2005, but they’re still around and developing expansions despite dropping off from being #1. Still, WoW is heading in the same direction, and it’ll eventually be dethroned by something else that captures the hearts of gamers.

[Worba]

Yeah lore fatigue is certainly an inevitable limiter for any MMO.

And gear obsolescence... yeah. I can see why they do it - to a point. After all they want to give an incentive for people to buy their xpacs.

But, I think they could have made some accommodation for veteran players who have bought the xpac and played through it on at least one toon, e.g. Reach max lvl and complete a certain number of xpac quests / dungeons, and your alts will receive a gear adjustment that makes the item level of pre-xpac gear automatically raise up to those used in the xpac. That way, all those lvl 50-60 Azeroth dungeons or faction grinds? They become meaningful again at least for your alts. Same thing would apply to TBC, wotlk and so on - once you make 70 you really need to head over to wotlk, but at least if you want to go to say 71-72 on TBC lvl 70 dungeons before heading to Northrend, you could do so (and have reasonably decent gear to show for it).

So for example for those who recall vanilla / TBC (man I'm dating myself here); remember those blue hunter leggings you could buy from the argent dawn quartermaster, that were really nice lvl 60 blues... until TBC came along and suddenly you had lvl 58 green leggings from Outland that were better? Well if my suggestion were applied to that scenario, once you've gotten your first character to lvl 70 and done the requisite number of outlands quests / dungeons, those argent dawn leggings' item level (and corresponding stats) would now be "Outland quality" - not so great for your first character ofc, but handy if you'd rather spend more time back in Azeroth on your 2nd toon. If that makes sense.

But, Blizzard just doesn't take the lower levels very seriously - while the 1-60 overhaul for all the new content was pretty, most of it was unchallenging, e.g. it was really more a matter of aesthetics than anything else, like power washing the house or giving it a new coat of paint. Sure players will yell the loudest for endgame content - and Blizzard listens. But then they burn out and try other games anyway, and just as described in the article - they can't usually explain exactly why. They generally don't consciously think too much about the earlier levels, but that's just because it's hard to switch back to lower items when you're used to the high end purples - but in most cases, once you do make that switch, you get over the gear bandaid-rip pretty quickly as long as there's interesting fights, lore and so forth to immerse yourself in. Bottom line - keeping all the challenge and serious design efforts focused on the final 5% of the game can only get you so far. You need to get mileage out of all the other stuff, and as something more than just a long boring exp grind.

My opinion anyway.

[Makoes]

I enjoy the whole leveling experience of wow, the lore, the quests and the dungeons. I find that once I get a character to lv 85, it becomes a grinding experience. Having multiple lv 85's just amplefy it. It might not be so bad if there were more then the same dungeons over and over again. If they make lv 85 dungeons of every dungeon they have, i would probably love being lv 85 so much more because it wouldnt be the same thing over and over again (lv 85 RFK, RFD, BFD, BRS etc). As it is, I pretty much only have 2 out of 5 toons that I am actually trying to keep geared up. My Hunter on my main realm, and my DK on the rp realm.

I find myself with a plethora of alts to play around with, and so long as I dont hit character cap, i should be good for awhile.

I do wish that I could raid, but right now, theres only a small window during the day that i could raid, and then the unlimited time late at night. But people dont generally do raids from like 2-6pm or after 10pm... I just feel with the big push to get to the end, that now that I have characters there, most of the content is beyond my reach.

I really think that by focusing on endgame as much as blizzard has done, they've neglected the biggest portion of the game, leveling content and the general fun of "just playing" a game. Its promoted the whole elitest jerk movement, and general bad attitude of players just in it for a quick run to get VP or what not, rather then the actual enjoyment of playing a game.

[pengupuff]

It was an interesting read to be sure, albeit a little melodramatic.
Yeah, eventually WoW will fizzle out... but I think it still has many years left before Blizzard completely loses interest. As someone else fittingly pointed out, Everquest still has a pretty active community, and is still updated on a regular basis, despite its comparatively low subscription rate. And WoW is currently sitting pretty at upwards of 11 million subscribers.

I think I can point out the biggest reasons why a lot of people disliked Cataclysm:
-It was considerably more difficult than Wrath in terms of end-game content. No more easy epics from getting carried through a 10-minute Heroic AZN. Not to mention some of the complex mechanics that Firelands bosses boast. I definitely think that Cataclysm needed to be harder than Wrath, but the jump was still a little jarring.
-A lot of the heroics just AREN'T FUN regardless of the increased difficulty. Quick, think of the last time you looked forward to queuing up for a ZA/ZG. Yeah, no.
-Since so much focus was on rehashing old zones (which was very much needed), there was less end-game content as compared to previous expansions. This is understandable, but still upsetting to the people who hate leveling and live to raid.
-What new content we did receive felt a little too familiar on an aesthetic level. Too much fire, too much lava. It's Molten Core all over again.

I personally really like Cata overall, and I tend to agree that the biggest reason people are bitching about the expansion is because WoW has just gotten stale to some. It's nothing that can be fixed outside of personal preference.

[Torachi]

To be completely frank, I hate Cataclysm for one main reason; the elitist attitudes. Like a few have already pointed out, this whole concentration on end game and whatnot, has turned much of the player base into plain jerks. I remember back in Vanilla, and BC... and even in Wrath still, that people were a LOT more mellow, and all-around fun to run instances with. They didn't mind getting completely wiped multiple times. The way they saw it was basically, "Raid until we wipe, then raid some more! Let's just have fun!".

Another thing I've noticed... now, I'm not sure how many will agree with me on this... >.> (Don't bash me for this, it's just something I've noticed on my server... <.<) The whole PvP/PvE gear issue. I see SO many people getting bashed in ridiculous ways just because they find it easier to PvP for their gear, but at the same time, want to at least TRY to raid here and there... And at the same time, vice versa. There are some who find it easier to raid, but still want to experience at least some PvP. Again, there are some like myself, who tend to be very casual, enjoying a little of both worlds, not just strictly one or the other, and not constantly. Yet all I see is "LFG [FL trash/random heroic] MUST have ilevel suchandsuch, MUST have full raid gear, and know all fights otherwise don't bother!" I can understand the item level bit to an extent. I can understand some wanting their group to know the fights at least somewhat. But what in the bloody hell ever happened to giving people who need to learn, and get the gear, a chance? This focus on perfection in this expansion is... absurd. It's a game. If I want to fight to gain perfection in something, I'd much rather apply it to something that directly affects my life, like my skills in my chosen career. Leave the game as something to simply have fun on and relax with after a hard day. XD

Anyways, all seriousness aside, I too agree that WoW isn't going to die anytime soon. Darn game is like a roach. No matter how many times it gets swatted away, it comes crawling right back!

[Lisaara]

To be completely frank, I hate Cataclysm for one main reason; the elitist attitudes. Like a few have already pointed out, this whole concentration on end game and whatnot, has turned much of the player base into plain jerks. I remember back in Vanilla, and BC... and even in Wrath still, that people were a LOT more mellow, and all-around fun to run instances with. They didn't mind getting completely wiped multiple times. The way they saw it was basically, "Raid until we wipe, then raid some more! Let's just have fun!".

Another thing I've noticed... now, I'm not sure how many will agree with me on this... >.> (Don't bash me for this, it's just something I've noticed on my server... <.<) The whole PvP/PvE gear issue. I see SO many people getting bashed in ridiculous ways just because they find it easier to PvP for their gear, but at the same time, want to at least TRY to raid here and there... And at the same time, vice versa. There are some who find it easier to raid, but still want to experience at least some PvP. Again, there are some like myself, who tend to be very casual, enjoying a little of both worlds, not just strictly one or the other, and not constantly. Yet all I see is "LFG [FL trash/random heroic] MUST have ilevel suchandsuch, MUST have full raid gear, and know all fights otherwise don't bother!" I can understand the item level bit to an extent. I can understand some wanting their group to know the fights at least somewhat. But what in the bloody hell ever happened to giving people who need to learn, and get the gear, a chance? This focus on perfection in this expansion is... absurd. It's a game. If I want to fight to gain perfection in something, I'd much rather apply it to something that directly affects my life, like my skills in my chosen career. Leave the game as something to simply have fun on and relax with after a hard day. XD

Anyways, all seriousness aside, I too agree that WoW isn't going to die anytime soon. Darn game is like a roach. No matter how many times it gets swatted away, it comes crawling right back!

I agree except with the pvp standpoint. Pvp gear gives less hit rating than PvE gear. Less hit rating means more misses.....missing hits means LESS dps. PvP and PvE are separate. There is no pvp raiding. Raiding is a PvE thing. If you want to raid, you grind the gear like every other pver has to. Most people using pvp gear are trollish lazy bastards(Least on my server and my server is the largest rp server) that usually hinder the group.

Also it's been known even since BC that if you wanna PvP, you have PvP gear. If you wanna PvE, you have separate gear for PvE(aka normal PvE gear). So thats not a cata thing. Thats something thats been around for a long time. People are just getting more strict about it cause they've noticed a difference.

[Kalliope]

Actually, you can PvP to PvE; just exchange your honor for PvE badge gear instead. There are no excuses anymore, really.

[Lisaara]

Actually, you can PvP to PvE; just exchange your honor for PvE badge gear instead. There are no excuses anymore, really.

This too. Just most people dont. They buy pvp gear and expect to get into heroic firelands.

[Kalliope]

Actually, you can PvP to PvE; just exchange your honor for PvE badge gear instead. There are no excuses anymore, really.

This too. Just most people dont. They buy pvp gear and expect to get into heroic firelands.

These are the same clowns who wouldn't be doing well in said raids regardless, heh.

[Ponderance]

Then that wore off and people started looking at things like non-instanced dungeons and so forth, and... along came WoW which was basically the bigger better EQ with all kinds of improvements that players had wanted from EQ but were denied.

I just want to say - Rift ==> their system for seeing your target ==> not long after that FINALLY wow put in the target shown on the minimap (along with some other target / focus type things)

AOE LOOTING? HELLO BLIZZARD?

[Lisaara]

Then that wore off and people started looking at things like non-instanced dungeons and so forth, and... along came WoW which was basically the bigger better EQ with all kinds of improvements that players had wanted from EQ but were denied.

I just want to say - Rift ==> their system for seeing your target ==> not long after that FINALLY wow put in the target shown on the minimap (along with some other target / focus type things)

AOE LOOTING? HELLO BLIZZARD?

Holy crap! Hi Pondy! XD You stalkin me here? *kidding*

@Kalli - Never fails. Like if someone has one piece of pvp gear, I'm not gonna get too mad about it but if you're in full pvp gear and expect to raid.....yeah go farm those honor points and get PvE gear like the rest of us.

[Torachi]

I agree except with the pvp standpoint. Pvp gear gives less hit rating than PvE gear. Less hit rating means more misses.....missing hits means LESS dps. PvP and PvE are separate. There is no pvp raiding. Raiding is a PvE thing. If you want to raid, you grind the gear like every other pver has to. Most people using pvp gear are trollish lazy bastards(Least on my server and my server is the largest rp server) that usually hinder the group.

Also it's been known even since BC that if you wanna PvP, you have PvP gear. If you wanna PvE, you have separate gear for PvE(aka normal PvE gear). So thats not a cata thing. Thats something thats been around for a long time. People are just getting more strict about it cause they've noticed a difference.

Oh, I agree, don't get me wrong, and I know it was like this since BC. I wasn't mentioning the PvP bit to QQ about how hard or easy it is to get the appropriate gear, etc. I was merely mentioning it because I, like I said, have noticed just how rude people get on my own server over it. >< It's not something to get rude about; just a simple 'yes you can join the raid' or 'no you can't join the raid' would suffice, not 'OMG u suxxorz sooooo bad l2p huntard' just because someone is in the process of getting themselves geared up for what they want to do. -.- All I was saying is that it's slowly been getting worse since BC, because people have had to learn to focus more and more on end game, and not on the 'having fun' part. XD

[Lisaara]

I agree except with the pvp standpoint. Pvp gear gives less hit rating than PvE gear. Less hit rating means more misses.....missing hits means LESS dps. PvP and PvE are separate. There is no pvp raiding. Raiding is a PvE thing. If you want to raid, you grind the gear like every other pver has to. Most people using pvp gear are trollish lazy bastards(Least on my server and my server is the largest rp server) that usually hinder the group.

Also it's been known even since BC that if you wanna PvP, you have PvP gear. If you wanna PvE, you have separate gear for PvE(aka normal PvE gear). So thats not a cata thing. Thats something thats been around for a long time. People are just getting more strict about it cause they've noticed a difference.

Oh, I agree, don't get me wrong, and I know it was like this since BC. I wasn't mentioning the PvP bit to QQ about how hard or easy it is to get the appropriate gear, etc. I was merely mentioning it because I, like I said, have noticed just how rude people get on my own server over it. >< It's not something to get rude about; just a simple 'yes you can join the raid' or 'no you can't join the raid' would suffice, not 'OMG u suxxorz sooooo bad l2p huntard' just because someone is in the process of getting themselves geared up for what they want to do. -.- All I was saying is that it's slowly been getting worse since BC, because people have had to learn to focus more and more on end game, and not on the 'having fun' part. XD

Oooooh! Okay I gotcha now. I agree. Don't gotta be an asshat to tell someone they need to get PvE gear if they wanna raid. Kindness goes a long way.