So, I never got around to writing up my thoughts on each leveling zone in WotLK, but I don’t know that many people would be interested in that anyway. Instead, I thought I’d share some of my issues with the game as it currently stands. My last post was mostly nothing but praise, riding the high that always occurs when a new expansion is released. Now that I’ve had more time with it, my opinion of the expansion has changed slightly.
Leveling up was fun. There’s no denying that. The quests were mostly the same things we’ve seen before, but the zones were interesting and there was the occasional innovative quest from time to time that kept things interesting. The issue for me is not with the leveling game, but the end game.
It may seem strange to say this, as from a game design perspective I am generally in favor of ensuring every player can experience content, but I think WotLK has indeed made things too accessible, too early. The result is players are burning through all the content Wrath has to offer in record time.
Take Heroics, for instance. In TBC, you actually had to gear up to be able to do them. I’m glad WotLK Heroics do not have a rep requirement, but they don’t have much of a gear requirement either. They’re an absolute joke, every one of them, for even semi-competent players. They feel about as difficult as normal level dungeons were in TBC. This results in players consuming the content at a much faster pace and moving on to the next challenge: raids. Raids that, unfortunately, suffer from the same problem.
I’d like to keep from throwing “it’s just too easy” out there, but it’s hard not to. A lot of players have been complaining about it, so I’m sure people are tired of hearing it, but it’s simply the truth. The expansion hasn’t even been out 2 months yet, and even most casual raiders have finished the content (barring multi-drake Sartharion, which I don’t even count).
Part of the appeal of MMOs is the sense of progression. I think this is a core design element. You desire a certain level of gear so that you can move on to a more difficult zone to acquire that gear so you can continue on. Making this as fun as possible is important, but I think the overall chain needs to remain intact. It gives you something to work towards, something to chase.
I don’t feel this from WotLK. I didn’t need good dungeon gear to do heroics, I just went with mostly quest gear and blew through them without a hitch. Jumping into Naxx still wearing a smattering of blues and greens was no problem at all for anyone in the raid.
Now I come to the issue of not really caring about the loot in Naxxramas either, because it feels like a “gearing up” zone, but there’s nothing to gear up for. Ulduar is some months away, and who knows how difficult it will be. If the current content is any indication, I’m probably already overgeared for it in my Tier 7/Heroic gear.
The crazy thing is that Blizzard was really great at handling this in the past. Badge loot, removing attunements after awhile, etc. There’s nothing wrong with letting casuals see the content, but when even they are blazing through it at lightning speed, you have a problem. I’m baffled at why they went so far in the other direction as to make things almost meaningless.
Speaking of Ulduar, it should have been in for release. I’m just going to say that. Naxxramas was a recycled dungeon, and while I realize they needed to retune all of the encounters for 10/25 man raids, the fact remains that it was mostly completed as far as what would normally be involved in creating a new dungeon. Eye of Eternity and Obsidian Sanctum are smaller raids. With 2 years of development time, would it have been so much to ask for raid content at least on par with TBC at launch? Naxx, Sarth, and Malygos feel about like Karazhan, Gruul and Magtheridon from TBC, only there’s no TK or SSC waiting for me. I’m waiting 6 months for Ulduar and probably another 6+ for Icecrown Citadel. I don’t see why there wasn’t time for more raid content at launch. Probably because they spent most of it designing vehicle quests.
Last minor rant: Achievements are great Blizzard, but you can’t use them as an excuse for lack of content. Many players don’t care if they earn all of the Naxxramas achievements, it’s not going to keep them going back time and time again after they’ve gotten the loot they want out of the place. 3-Drake Sartharion is not the way to answer your player’s complaints that the game seems too easy, that’s just one optional encounter that doesn’t matter much in the end anyway. Stick a legendary on the loot table next time and maybe you’ll have something. It needs to matter more than some cosmetic reward like a mount or a title.
To sum up what I’m trying to say: when you give everyone everything, it will very quickly mean nothing to anyone.
