The Problem with World of Warcraft
I apologize for the missing posts. My best friend got married, and I decided to take a week off. I am back though! Now allow me to introduce a potential new format for my blog.
On Fridays I will feature an editorial-type essay about video games (or anything else that might interest me). I will not split up my essays again either. If I write five pages, you will just have to suffer through five pages. Or you can not read it at all. Jerk.
Tuesdays will feature a game or movie review. The tricky thing about my reviews is that they will be aimed at people who have already experienced the content I am discussing. You might still enjoy the read if you aren’t familiar with it, but I aim for discussion rather than simple review.
Now, on with the show. This week I am talking about everyone’s favorite (to hate?) MMORPG, World of Warcraft.
World of Warcraft is in trouble.
“Here we go,” you say to yourself. “Another whiner.” But before you wear out your ‘Q’ key telling me off, hear me out.
This is an issue that has been on my mind for a few weeks now, and most of my friends have heard my rant about it for at least a few minutes. I suppose I should just seal my thoughts on the deal and deliver you guys an essay. So here we go.
It all started with Octale & Hordak’s radio show, where they have (up until recently and quite infamously) been furiously ranting against Blizzard’s decision to implement 10-man versions of every 25-man raid in Wrath of the Lich King. They were vehemently against the decision, describing it as providing a “working mans tour” of end game content. At first, I disagreed completely, and I was annoyed by their portrayal of people who enjoy 10-man raids as “entitled casuals.”
I actually wrote in to the show, and part of what I discussed in my letter was that 10-man content is by no means “easy” content. I stand by it, and I still disagree with them on this point. There is nothing to say that 10-man Naxxramas will be any easier to complete than 25-man Naxxramas, aside from the challenge of finding another 15 bodies in your guild roster. That is certainly a challenge, but I much prefer a challenging fight in an MMORPG over a small business management simulator – which is what the aforementioned “added challenge” of 25-man’s amounts to. (And I will say no more on that specific topic other than to point out how arguably more challenging Karazhan is compared to Gruul’s Lair or (the re-tuned) Magtheridon’s Lair. Or how hard Zul’Aman is compared to… Well, everything but Sunwell, really.)
About a day after I sent the letter, Hordak wrote back to me and explained their perspective in more detail. I realized that they believed the 10-man versions would be easier, simplified, dumbed down versions of the 25-man raids, and to this, only time will tell. But Hordak made another good point to me in his reply, and it has haunted me to this day: “… it cheapens the experience if the 10 mans are simply easier clones of the 25 man version” (my emphasis).
Again, I disagree about “easier,” but note the overall point. In Wrath of the Lich King, 10-man raids will, at their best, be clones of 25-man content. If the problem is not obvious yet, let me make it clear. Blizzard is making 25-man raiding obsolete.Aside from the hardcore guilds who aim for server firsts – and not every server has one of these either – who in their right mind will suffer 25-man raiding when they can do the same content with only 10 people?
I guarantee the population of people who do 25-man raids in The Burning Crusade because they like it is a much smaller number than the people who do it because that’s where the content is. I personally do not foresee myself getting into 25-man raiding in Wrath. Why would I? It is much more entertaining to play with a close-knit group of people than to become a faceless grunt in an army. Not to mention the drama you inevitably encounter in bigger guilds. Who wants it? Who would even bother, if they can get the same content without the hassle?
I am not fundamentally opposed to an end game consisting of nothing but 10-man raids. It is entirely possible to create challenging 10-man content (read: Zul’Aman), and I might even argue that end game would be better off without 25- and 40-man raids. But that is not what Blizzard is doing. They are attempting to provide both big group content and smaller group content – only they are removing any motivation for people to actually experience big group content. Other than people with a misplaced nostalgia for the 40-man raiding days of World of Warcraft and/or the enormous raids of EverQuest, who really enjoys big group content like that? The problem for World of Warcraft is that the answer is going to be “not very damn many.”
There is another problem with World of Warcraft: Arena PvP.
World of Warcraft is an enormous game, perhaps one of the largest and most complex game ever to exist on hard drives. One of the major causes of that complexity is the existence of nine (soon to be ten) different player classes, all of which play differently. And Blizzard is determined to fit that gameplay into the e Sport space. To make matters worse, they are committed to balancing these complex classes in Arena while still maintaining their expansive PvE content – all with the same classes, skills, and talent trees.
This is an enormous problem, and I do not think many players realize how serious it is.
When World of Warcraft first began, PvP was – at best – a pointless mini game with no real rewards. This was not entirely intended, and Blizzard made that clear very early on. PvP would be developed, they promised, and developed it was. The battleground system that existed up until The Burning Crusade was endlessly amusing and had its own rewards, although the best PvP gear in the game was still dropped by raid bosses.
Some yearned for the days of world PvP, and I must admit it was much more exciting, but battlegrounds were not nearly as harmful as what came next: Arena
On the surface, Arena is a great idea: allow players to “group-duel.” If it had gone no further than that, everything would have been fine. But Blizzard did something very different, something that (to my knowledge) no MMORPG has ever done before. They drew a hard, fast line between PvE and PvP itemization. In other words, they made every piece of gear in the game worthwhile in either raids or Arena matches – but not both.
This essentially changed the way the game played, and end game players were presented a choice: raid or PvP. For all but the most dedicated, it became impossible to do both, because you had to spend your time working on gear for one or the other. This dichotomy, and the simple fact that PvP was growing more and more into its own “half” of the game, split the end game raiding population down the middle. And it continues to do so, and the ability to play both sides of the game becomes even more difficult – especially with the new, brutal requirements for Season 4 Arena gear.
Even more annoying is that Blizzard truly desires their new Arena mini game to be viable in e Sport competitions. This leads to infuriating class nerfs and puzzling design decisions that change how classes function in PvE - all for the sake of Arena balance. Warlocks missed the bullet when their Life tap was set to be nerfed in the 2.4 patch notes but removed before the patch went live, but they are one of the few that have. This happens all the time, and on principle, it drives me up the wall. I promise the world, here and now, that if Blizzard takes Titan’s Grip out of the game (or else nerfs it to be useless in PvE), in order not to make warriors too powerful in Arena, I will quit the game. Period.
Now couple this state of affairs – an Arena that grows ever more complex and requires more and more time to be successful at – with the fact that Blizzard is taking away the unique content of 25-man raids, and I ask you, is there anychance that people will step into a 25-man raid in Wrath of the Lich King?
Nope.
And this is the problem with World of Warcraft, because I think they are poised to kill their end game population completely. Here is one prediction for what Wrath will look like if things continue.
End game raiders, especially ones who enjoy big group content, will find it impossible to recruit members into their guilds. Furthermore, they will continue to find their capabilities changed and even removed as Blizzard balances the game for Arena e Sport competitions. A dearth of raiders and a mix of nerfs will drive many of them away. 25-man raids will not happen at all, and Blizzard will waste development time on content that no one will care to experience.
Meanwhile, PvPers will find that their end game continues to be unbalanced as Blizzard struggles to even out the power and potential between ten different classes. PvP will become even more difficult to break into as Arena matches become more and more stacked (the goal of which is to produce top e Sport competition teams). Games like Age of Conanand Warhammer Online, which provide more balanced and more in depth PvP, will draw away most of the end game PvPers.
World of Warcraft is trying to be everything for everyone, and if they continue to do so, they will fail at everything for everyone.
My suggestion? Drop Arena eSport PvP. Seriously. Get rid of it. Leave the queue system in there for people to play with, but otherwise, forget it. The people who take PvP seriously will eventually leave for games like WHO, no matter what, so you do them no favors by focusing on Arena. Second, make up your mind about raids. Either get rid of 25-man raids altogether, or actually make three unique 10-man raids and three unique 25-man raids.
Of course, this is all only my opinion, and it is not really a big deal. However, it would be a waste, because so far, I have had a lot of fun with Warcraft. It would be a true shame for Blizzard to collapse under the weight of its own success. Unfortunately, I fear that is exactly what will happen.
furrp said,
July 11, 2008 at 7:01 am
I have a few things I’d like to get straight concerning the new 10-man raids. I don’t see where the problem lies here. So they’re taking a 25-man raid and making it doable for 10-man. All it does is make it easier to put together a run. Sixty percent easier, to be exact. The effort put out by each person, I would argue, would likely be more in the 10-man version due to the lack of bodies and such. I don’t think it will cheapen anything.
The larger raiding guilds will still exist, and to an extent, it will be easier to please more guild members by opening up the options for running 2 or 3 dungeons per raid night, instead of sticking everyone in the same bucket, fighting for the same drops. The 25-man raids, as I see it, will still be useful to raiding guilds for stuff like initiating new members and getting them familiar with the dungeons. You surely wouldn’t want to do that in a 10-man version, I’m betting, since every person will likely need to have an intimate knowledge of the dungeon mechanics and will have to give 100% at every moment to get through. It’d be like someone’s first experience in Ramps being in the heroic version…sorta.
Then there are people like me. I doubt I’ll ever have the time to devote to a full-time raiding guild. I’d be lucky to find one that’d just let me come when I had the chance. Ten-man instances give people like me the opportunity to get together with a handful of friends on our own schedule and tackle end-game content previously unavailable. Plus, I’m sure it’d be a whole lot more fun doing raids with friends than it would be with a bunch of people I don’t care to know.
My ‘Q’ key will get a workout every time I hear someone complain about this subject. The whole situation reeks of the same vibe that was felt in FFXI when Summoners could do solo avatar battles at lv 20. All the high-level Summoners pissed and moaned about how they had to do it the hard way and that the avatars were now cheapened because of it. Nevermind the fact that the solo fights were 20 times harder than the cakewalk high-level avatar fights. There are other examples, but this one rings the loudest, imo. “Real Life” comics had a wonderful comic about it around the time of that patch.
I really don’t have anything to say about Arena, since I haven’t tried it and I don’t know how it works. The gear situation, however, does bother me. I totally agree with how annoying it is that PvP gear and PvE gear cannot coincide. *shakes fist angrily* However, I am of the belief that the majority of end-game players prefer raiding to PvP, or vice versa. They’re just two different worlds that attract two different kinds of players. One likes to be a team player and come together for a common goal; the other likes to pwn the hell out of all the n00bs. Even if one could do both raiding and PvP on a regular basis in their WoW life, I doubt many would.
Your argument against Blizzard’s class balancing being skewed towards PvP is a valid one. I tend to agree that Blizz cannot favor one over the other, lest they risk losing both. I think they could put “Arena nerfs” in play to better balance classes for PvP, but leave the classes diverse as they are for PvE. It’s not unheard of, really, and it wouldn’t alienate the PvE’ers.
That’s about all I have for now. Chew on that a while.
mikebbetts said,
July 11, 2008 at 9:51 am
I think you misunderstood me. I don’t have any problem raiding with 10 people instead of 25. I just think Blizzard is fooling themselves if they think anyone will run the 25 man version in Wrath.
Why does it cheapen the experience? Like O&H argued, making the content the SAME for both versions cheapens the experience. People running 25 man raids will no longer be running unique content. The only difference will be that they are using 15 more people than others. Sure, the loot will be better, but that isn’t enough. Blizzard is copping out. Instead of building a complete end game for both 10 man raiders and 25 man raiders, they are meshing the two together.
Like I said, I love 10 man raids. I would be in full support of them eliminating 25 man raids altogether. But that is not what Blizzard is doing.
The issue is that Blizzard is robbing ALL end game raiders of unique content. 10 man raiders will not be breaking new ground anymore (like with Zul’Aman), and 25 man raiders will not be experiencing unique content (like all 25 man raids now). The problem is NOT, I repeat, NOT that Blizzard is opening more content for 10 man raiders. The problem is they are making all the content the same.
I get the feeling you think I don’t want 10 man raids at all, or that completely opening up end game raiding to smaller guilds is making WoW easier or making the game cheap. That’s not it at all. Please reread this reply and my arguments if you still feel that way. I feel I made my complaint very clear.
furrp said,
July 14, 2008 at 6:43 am
No, I didn’t misunderstand you. I got what you were saying. Part of my reply was taking on O&H, and not directly aimed at you or your views.
I still disagree with the sentiment that 25-man raiding is cheapened by adding 10-man versions. As it stands now, 25-man raiders can easily break up into smaller groups and experience the 10-man content. What can the 10-man raiders do to experience the 25-man content? Not a damn thing, short of finding a couple other 10-man groups to join up with, and even then 5 people will be left out. I fail to see why allowing a 10-man group experience that same content cheapens anything. Why make them go to the trouble of finding 15 other people they likely don’t know or trust if they can just tackle it themselves?
I totally understand your argument. I just don’t understand how anyone can see it that way. You say Blizzard is “robbing all end game raiders of unique content.” How is that worse than what they do now, robbing the smaller-group raiders of the larger-group content? Where do you draw the line?
mikebbetts said,
July 14, 2008 at 2:15 pm
You’re saying that a 10 man team can’t experience the 25 man content, whereas the inverse can (25 can see 10). But they’re both seeing the same thing. They both see the same trash, the same boss, the same dungeon art. Neither has a unique experience. That cheapens the experience.
An analogy: imagine if heroic dungeons required 15 people instead of 5. Same bosses, same dungeons, different loot, and a lot more people. And imagine if these 15 man heroics was the extent of end game raiding. If you were an end game raider, wouldn’t that bother you? Wouldn’t you feel cheated out of content? Especially if the preceding expansion had unique raid content that ONLY raids saw.
Think about this from the perspective of someone interested in 25 man raiding, not someone interested in 10.
I am not saying Wrath’s raiding setup is worse. It’s not a question of better or worse. The way it is now is irrelevant. All I am interested in is the way, in my opinion, it SHOULD be.
furrp said,
July 15, 2008 at 7:21 am
Obviously we’re going to disagree to no end on this. I see nothing wrong with that which you are complaining about. I am unable to see it from the perspective of a 25-man raider, because I do not understand their perspective. All I can see is “more people = better loot” and I have no problem with that, except for the fact that “more people = less required output per player.” There’s nothing more to say, really. We’ve both given our opinions twice and there’s just no agreeing on this subject. You don’t like that 10-man and 25-man share content. I find nothing wrong with it. In fact, using my “inverse content” argument, I think it’s only fair that 10-man should be able to experience that 25-man content. Is it fair to deny a 10-man group the opportunity to delve into the Black Temple and take down Illidan? I dare say not. I’m sure you would disagree with that, and respectfully so. I say we just burn this bridge cause we won’t be able to meet in the middle. Sure wish I could hear other people’s opinions, but it seems like nobody else has anything to say (or they just don’t read).
fyrewind said,
September 4, 2008 at 10:56 pm
I have no comment on your bit about the 10 man vs 25 man raid thing. I never had any experience raiding per se. It all looks intimidating to me the way I see player’s expectations..but if it means not having to join a hardcore raiding guild full of drama to actually experience some the juiciest tidbits of World of Warcraft, then I think 10 man versions will do well. However I never raided..never got passed level 52 on my main character and I’m currently working on another character in a different server.
However I do agree on what you say concerning pvp. I always see complaints about how one class is overpowered. The way I see it, pvp players can get really arrogant and cocky and think they are Superman and when they lose, they use every excuse in the book and refuse to admit that the other player simply played better at the time or his game was off. Things like this cause game companies like Blizzard to “nerf” things to satisfy the whiny pvp idiots. Warcraft has and always was mostly a competitive game type so its not surprising Blizzard caters mostly to pvp. I honestly believe that stuff like that is the reason why stupid things like limiting potions effects and cooldowns were implemented. I hate that. In Neverwinter Nights, I loved being able to consume potions to raise my character’s strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom and charisma (1 potion for each) and it was not all at the same time. One after the other. In World of Warcraft, your limited to one “Battle” elixir and one “Guardian” elixir..and to me, I think that’s a joke. But that’s just my thought. I’m still playing the game though..it’s fun lol. =)
Titan’s grip better stay.