Hello Ladies and Gentlemen
(Promotion available for South Africa)
Over the last few months we have witnessed the fall of World of Warcraft from its once high up pedestal, King of MMO, to what can now be described as well, a free fall. The question however for me, how does Blizzard go about saving the game? Will the recent changes to make the game "less rude or triggering" be the change it needs? The answer here is pretty much, NO! These changes are distractions at the very least, instead to save WoW, I believe, Blizzard will need to go back to the drawing board, take a 1000ft look as it were of their entire game. So lets do it here in broad strokes. If I tried to go into everything WoW would need to solve itself this post would become so long that most would just go TLDR so here is a start also remember to Join the Discussion to WIN a Gaming Laptop
New Player Experience:
Take the story from the very first moment of Classic World of Warcraft, expansion by expansion and write a storyline that guides new players through the entire history of everything that makes WoW what it is today. Show them the glory of Ulduar, the Fall of the Lich King, the Rise of Deathwing and the tranquillity of Pandaria. When a new player hits max level they should know exactly what the game is all about, where the story started and how we got to where we are. They should understand why the Horde and Alliance hate each other and why they chose their side. Most importantly, they must know WHY THEY ARE THE CHAMPION!
Class Design:
Back the drawing board here, classes will need to be viewed as a living breathing extension of the game. This is a persistent world but also a competitive one, so the secret must be to design classes that can be balanced but that is also fun. I am not going to suggest any specific changes here as most people have their own opinions based on the bias of the class they play but overall, I would like to see a return to fun rather than the Esports mentality Blizzard have adopted over the last few expansions. Its simple really, the last time most people felt like their classes were absolutely amazing was in Mists of Pandaria, when really almost every class could do almost everything, people loved it because their class was never going to be left out of a raid of dungeon because their class didn't have the necessary toolkit to actually get something done. Its almost as if players do not want to regret their choice of character because of some arbitrary, OH YOU CANNOT INTERRUPT!
Addons and Instances:
The biggest issue for me within World of Warcraft today is Dungeons and Raids that require 3rd party addons to even enter into a raid, this is not how a game is suppose to be played. Moreover and perhaps the biggest reason I believe addons should be REMOVED, especially addons like Boss Mods, is that they often lead to very toxic design choices, like bosses having silly RNG mechanics where if you get the wrong ability at the wrong time, you are done, it is a wipe and nothing you do can change that. It leads to frustration but even more so, it simply excludes the average player from even wanting to try. I am not saying that Mythic raids should be easy, or that raiding should be for everyone but when you have stupid arbitrary barriers that prevents people from even entering the content then perhaps those barriers should be brought down.
Overall:
Go back to a FUN FIRST mentality. Stop designing the game with systems that keep the player logged in or systems that increase FOMO. Great example of this is the vault. The Vault makes it feel like you are always racing against the clock, you must get everything done to ensure you get the optimal rewards from your vault. Gaming is meant to be fun, systems in games should exist purely cause they are fun. They should not leave you feeling like a must or have to do something but rather that you WANT to do it. If a system at any point puts pressure on the player to actually log in, out of FOMO, then perhaps said system is TOXIC and should be removed.
Conclusion:
Overall I think World of Warcraft still has loads of potential, I believe the game can still be amazing and it would not even be that hard to accomplish it but it requires developers who start putting their players first and the shareholders second. Lose the BS engagement metrics and switch to fun metrics instead, if its fun, people will engage, I promise you that.
I would love to get your thoughts on how you think World of Warcraft can be made better? Join the Discussion to WIN a Gaming Laptop
(Promotion available for South Africa)
Over the last few months we have witnessed the fall of World of Warcraft from its once high up pedestal, King of MMO, to what can now be described as well, a free fall. The question however for me, how does Blizzard go about saving the game? Will the recent changes to make the game "less rude or triggering" be the change it needs? The answer here is pretty much, NO! These changes are distractions at the very least, instead to save WoW, I believe, Blizzard will need to go back to the drawing board, take a 1000ft look as it were of their entire game. So lets do it here in broad strokes. If I tried to go into everything WoW would need to solve itself this post would become so long that most would just go TLDR so here is a start also remember to Join the Discussion to WIN a Gaming Laptop
New Player Experience:
Take the story from the very first moment of Classic World of Warcraft, expansion by expansion and write a storyline that guides new players through the entire history of everything that makes WoW what it is today. Show them the glory of Ulduar, the Fall of the Lich King, the Rise of Deathwing and the tranquillity of Pandaria. When a new player hits max level they should know exactly what the game is all about, where the story started and how we got to where we are. They should understand why the Horde and Alliance hate each other and why they chose their side. Most importantly, they must know WHY THEY ARE THE CHAMPION!
Class Design:
Back the drawing board here, classes will need to be viewed as a living breathing extension of the game. This is a persistent world but also a competitive one, so the secret must be to design classes that can be balanced but that is also fun. I am not going to suggest any specific changes here as most people have their own opinions based on the bias of the class they play but overall, I would like to see a return to fun rather than the Esports mentality Blizzard have adopted over the last few expansions. Its simple really, the last time most people felt like their classes were absolutely amazing was in Mists of Pandaria, when really almost every class could do almost everything, people loved it because their class was never going to be left out of a raid of dungeon because their class didn't have the necessary toolkit to actually get something done. Its almost as if players do not want to regret their choice of character because of some arbitrary, OH YOU CANNOT INTERRUPT!
Addons and Instances:
The biggest issue for me within World of Warcraft today is Dungeons and Raids that require 3rd party addons to even enter into a raid, this is not how a game is suppose to be played. Moreover and perhaps the biggest reason I believe addons should be REMOVED, especially addons like Boss Mods, is that they often lead to very toxic design choices, like bosses having silly RNG mechanics where if you get the wrong ability at the wrong time, you are done, it is a wipe and nothing you do can change that. It leads to frustration but even more so, it simply excludes the average player from even wanting to try. I am not saying that Mythic raids should be easy, or that raiding should be for everyone but when you have stupid arbitrary barriers that prevents people from even entering the content then perhaps those barriers should be brought down.
Overall:
Go back to a FUN FIRST mentality. Stop designing the game with systems that keep the player logged in or systems that increase FOMO. Great example of this is the vault. The Vault makes it feel like you are always racing against the clock, you must get everything done to ensure you get the optimal rewards from your vault. Gaming is meant to be fun, systems in games should exist purely cause they are fun. They should not leave you feeling like a must or have to do something but rather that you WANT to do it. If a system at any point puts pressure on the player to actually log in, out of FOMO, then perhaps said system is TOXIC and should be removed.
Conclusion:
Overall I think World of Warcraft still has loads of potential, I believe the game can still be amazing and it would not even be that hard to accomplish it but it requires developers who start putting their players first and the shareholders second. Lose the BS engagement metrics and switch to fun metrics instead, if its fun, people will engage, I promise you that.
I would love to get your thoughts on how you think World of Warcraft can be made better? Join the Discussion to WIN a Gaming Laptop
Last edited by Accolonn; 13-10-21 at 13:43.
