Comments on: WoW will eat itself

By: Time to Cap | Kill Ten Rats

Time to Cap | Kill Ten Rats — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:57:12 +0000

[...] Commenter Alucian states: unlike other MMOs, Blizzard actually scales xp needed to level and gained from quests with the current number of levels to max. They ensure it takes the same amount of time to get from 1-endgame whatever the max level may be. [...]

By: Bri

Bri — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:52:46 +0000

I suspect the mount changes announced for patch 3.2, designed to make levelling that much easier, are in fact the tip of the iceberg, and we’ll see more easy-levelling changes before 3.2 hits the production servers.
These changes will serve the dual purposes of enlivening the mid-level zones, as well as giving incentive to endgame characters to keep playing (and, of course, paying) by making it easier to keep busy levelling an alt or two.

By: Julian

Julian — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:51:29 +0000

But “being lonely” isn’t Blizzard’s fault (much). When content is “done” – and apply your own definition of “done” there – people naturally move on, and while it’s fine and very common for people to go back as alts or to help someone, even that has a limit; yes it’s nice to go see movies with friends, but after a guy has seen it twenty times and you haven’t, we can’t blame him for not wanting to go with you.

You’re coming in years later to the party and I honestly don’t know how much blame we can rest at Blizzard’s feet (or any dev’s feet for that matter) because their design doesn’t contemplate giving year 5 players the same populated experience as the year 1 players had.

Mind you, I’m not saying it’s your fault. It isn’t even a fault per se, but the fact of the matter is that when you come in on the tail end, after most people have done most content, you will feel lonely and that’s the nature of the beast.

I don’t think the solution is to revamp old content to make it somewhat attractive again to high levels either. Or rather, it’s not a complete solution. Whatever you revamp will be consumed again, this time probably faster, and at the end of the cycle you’re back where you started with players not wanting to go back because there’s no reason in God’s green earth to do so (yet again).

A younger server might have helped with things, but it’s no guarantee either. Much of the population might have transfered and might have done the content already in another server, and while it might make sense for those characters to do it again, it might make zero sense for the players.

This is all kinda academic anyway. Everybody knows what type of game WoW is, everybody knows by now that the push and flow is to get people to the end game asap, it’s been like that since day one. We shouldn’t be asking the apple tree for pears. If I were you (and mind that this is coming from a soloist, so that’s the bias I fully admit) and if I was interested in leveling up, I’d go for the path of least resistance and stick to it until done. You forgo seeing some content, that is absolutely true, but we all know in many cases -save for whatever xp you might need and get from kills and quests – it is completely irrelevant content anyway. So what’s the point of getting a little ticked about not finding groups for content that doesn’t matter anyway. I’d be pissed if I was unable to access group content which is completely crucial to continue, but since you can perfectly go ahead and do 1-80 by yourself, I don’t really see a show stopper here.

But that’s me, and this is just opinion.

By: Ravious

Ravious — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:52:59 +0000

@Alucian and jmet: Smoothing the leveling curve is a poor band-aid at best. At the end of the day a player still needs X more experience to get to the new max level.

@jmet: If by “a lot” you mean quicken the pace for people to get through the lower levels. I agree. That still does not affect the problem I had of it still requiring a lot of “work-time” to get to the “fun” and being lonely nearly all the way.

@Platypus: that is a good point. I chose Kirin Tor because it is where an open guild I wanted to be part of hung out. New players should be easily directed to new servers. The experience may have been more fruitful.

By: Platypus

Platypus — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:47:50 +0000

Checking back a few posts, it looks like you’re playing on Kirin Tor, which is three-and-a-half years old.

I wonder if younger servers might have more new players in them?

By: jmet

jmet — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:44:47 +0000

Blizzard has done allot over the last couple of years to smooth out leveling… too much in most minds. Saying that they have not compared to another game like LOTRO which I also play is completely incorrect.

By: Alucian

Alucian — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:01:58 +0000

You say that every expansion and extra 10 levels it becomes that much harder to catch up with your friends at max level. However unlike other MMOs, Blizzard actually scales xp needed to level and gained from quests with the current number of levels to max. They ensure it takes the same amount of time to get from 1-endgame whatever the max level may be.
Next patch theyre also changing mounts so you can ride them from 20, and fly through all of Outlands to make it even faster.

By: Julian

Julian — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:37:05 +0000

A zen thought: If the content has become irrelevant, does it matter if you can’t get a group for it?

By: BitterCupOJoe

BitterCupOJoe — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:19:39 +0000

Interestingly, there’s a very good chance that the old world is where the next expansion is going to be. The two main contenders are the Maelstrom (a sea-based expansion) or the Emerald Dream. In either case, the devs have dropped hints that players will be spending a lot more time in the old world when the next boxed expansion drops.

By: We Fly Spitfires

We Fly Spitfires — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:00:21 +0000

I’d like Blizzard to revamp a lot of the earlier gaming experiences in WoW. I know they can do it – Dustwallow Marsh is a fantastic zone with very smooth quest leveling. Unfortunately they haven’t seemed to have touched much of the rest of the game and it’s a pretty lonely experience. Plus they really need to add more quests and even out the leveling some more – I get fed up gaining a level in a zone then not being able to do any more quests for another 4 levels.