One other perspective to float out here:


Given that this expansion is guild focused (e.g. achievements / guild leveling / gear & goodies), it is possible that Blizzard

simply sees the heroics as the place where people are both expected (see 4/5 in group to acquire achieve) as well as incented to be part of a guild.


This could be (a) Blizz's (new) planned path of character advancement via guild advancement and (b) maybe "train" players to become part of guilds with the further focus for Blizz's subscription numbers by also (c) training players in basic "raid" playing so they can end up raid content (which in Blizz's view is their game.)

 

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Agreed.


I would bet money that's their intention with the changes to heroic. Unfortunately, yes, it's again guild up or die . . . but, at least only for the heroic level.


Again, time will tell if it stays that way, but as long as casuals can complete the 'normal' dungeons to see the content, I'm happy.

 

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Depends entirely (once again) on what messages Blizzard thinks it's getting from its customer base:


e.g. "I'm only playing because my guild plays". Or not.


Btw, I think (all the personal attacks aside), this is one hell of a good discussion going, and represents a good (albeit small) cross-section of the diverse playstyles in WoW.


Second guessing the dev (who hasn't made the intent clear, or is waiting to see what happens <rolleyes>, only leads to everyone deciding on their own what the real intent is and of course, they are going to be forming their opinion based on their own filtered playstyle.


Until Blizz makes a definitive statement, which I highly doubt they will do, we will have to wait and see what changes/nerfs they may or may/not make down the road.


And THAT will have to wait on their gathered data from subscription rates in the months ahead.

 

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Arc! ARC! *Hysterical yelling*

Arc! Auen is coming to yet another thread with common sense, no detectable arrogance what so ever and a general "good will towards men" attitude. This is ...blasphemy... its.. madness!

Can't you do something about this!?

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Back to the topic at hand, I do apologize if my post seemed like it was opinion based and/or up for debate. It was more of a public service announcement, and 100% fact.

Appropriate responses include such things as:

"Thank you Syrus"

"I understand Syrus"

"Wise as ever Syrus"

"ou're right again Syrus"

"our unparalleled display of wisdom continues to humble me Syrus"

 

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So, following the logic that heroics are for the "better players".

Lets shift the gears to a different platform for a second. Something like...Windows.

Suppose Microsoft rolled out an OS that crashed/rebooted your machine every time you made a typing mistake? That would be huge hit ehh? Of course, the people who NEVER make typing mistakes, even though they are the extreme minority, would see no problem with it whatsoever. To the average user, however, it would just cause aggravation, loss of time, and ultimately they would move to a different product.


Of course, they could just "L2Type"...and Microsoft could just say that they are "encouraging better typing skills from their users"...but that is not their job. Their job is to provide an OS that is user friendly, reliable, and that works... in order to maximize sales and profit.


Blizzards job is not to turn all of its players into twitch freaks like the Koreans that play Starcraft, or cause their users aggravation and or loss of time. Their job is to entertain 12 million subscribers. PERIOD.

I personally am able to adjust to the changes, as are many that post on this board. But as stated many times, the users that post on these forums are generally 4 or 5 steps ahead of the "average" crowd, which is of course 4 or 5 steps ahead of the "mouth-breathers" crowd and the 6 year olds plying big brothers account.

When I see so many posters here being disgruntled with Cata, we can only assume that many many more are disgruntled as well.


So, in a nutshell, Blizzard went from a very happy playerbase during Wrath, to what we have now, which is a lot of disgruntled players.

I don't care who you are, or how you play, but this is bad business for Blizzard, and they WILL have to do something to make these players happy again.. or the entire release of the expansion will wind up being counter-productive, and actually cost them subscriptions.

Time will tell.

 

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It would take a lot more evidence than I've seen anyone provide to persuade me that the situation is any different now to what it has been for years: millions of subscribers, most of them quietly enjoying themselves, a few of them noisily chucking temper tantrums on the forums.

 

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These words spawned an idea.

What if Blizzard made actual heroics easier, and added "hard heroics" even harder than the actual ones. Hard heroics would of course give double the reputation and double the loot, along with some unique loot to reward people who take the challenge.

Guess what? You'd have the same "casuals" still whining because they can't do them.



Of course that's reality. The "forum background noise" has always been high on whining. Everyone seems to use their personal experience and their close in game friends as reference for some kind of majority, as usual. Makes one feel better to think he's not a lone whiner in a corner.

 

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As long as the content and the loot table is the same (just reduced drop rate) - then I think a lot of players would be happy with that. They don't care about bragging rights... if it takes them 5 times as long to gear up, the majority probably won't mind as long as it's fun and within their reach.

That's not true even now. The content is basically the same with normal dungeons and heroic ones. But, because of the loot and achievements, and we have this situation.


Someone will complain.


And I don't believe even for a second that the player base is unhappy with World of Warcraft right now. I've seen a player base unhappy with an MMO (i.e. Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, A.P.B., Star Trek Online, etc.) and it's not there.


Not even close.

 

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You guys are missing the point. I would also agree that the player base is generally happy with World of Warcraft? Does that mean it can't be improved upon? Or shouldn't?


If some adjustments were made to the difficulty of the heroic dungeons would their be an increase in happy players? Would some players who are content be happier?


Maybe even the players who are completing the current content would find it more enjoyable if some adjustments were made.


Saying the population is generally happy means nothing. Is the game perfect? Far from? Could class balanancing use some work? Yes. Could the PvP system be improved upon? Yes.


Just because subscribers arn't unscubbing en masse doesn't mean that there are not any problems with the current system in place.

 

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