Equal Opportunities

The following editorial contains views that are the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of Allakhazam.com

FREE SWAG!? If anyone’s been keeping an eye on Blizzard’s changes within World of Warcraft, they would have noted that there has been a consistent push towards getting casual players more gear. In particular, arena rating has become easier to achieve, and therefore arena gear has been easier to acquire. Now, the moment cool gear becomes easier to get, you don’t need to be bulimic to predict the myriad of responses that would come. Bad Zoolander references aside, should Blizzard have done this?

World of Warcraft PVP has often been considered one of the few places where rewards do not correlate directly with the amount of time one has to spare (except in the era of the Grand Marshall and High Warlord). Rather, when an individual is seen sporting full Season 5 Deadly Gladiator gear, the general populace assumes that this is a player who really knows how to play the game. The general disagreement with easier arena ratings can be summed up in one colloquial phrase: “baddies getting free gear.” Straw man arguments aside, the quarrel stems from the belief that skill and dedication are pre-requisites when it comes to rewarding individuals.

Even in the context of video games and enjoyment, there still remains the belief that “if you’re bad, you should not prosper.” If you’ve got no legs, nobody will pick you for their dodge ball team – this is the nature of competition and competitive people. World of Warcraft arena is really the exact same thing: it’s competition. When people get competitive, they don’t take particularly kind to someone receiving the same rewards that they got, but with less work. It’s undeniable to say that World of Warcraft is an MMORPG first and a competitive video game second. In an RPG, progression is gained through all avenues. As well, an MMORPG is really a competition for progression; players compete to get the best gear first, and they compete for the rare gear so that they can be envied and admired for having it. In this way, in a competition for tangible things, if everyone gains access to everything, then the competitive aspect of World of Warcraft as an MMORPG fails. If Blizzard thinks that players shouldn’t care what kind of gear other players have, they’re absolutely wrong. People always enjoy working hard and achieving things that normal individuals do not have: if someone worked hard all their life for five million dollars, and then someone else, who sat around drunk for the entire time, inherits eight million dollars, who would you respect more? Moreover, do you think that the hard worker would be OK with someone gaining the same rewards, but for less work? At the moment, there are very few noticeable items that players can only get by skill and dedication alone: things like the traveling mammoth are really only a matter of time, thanks to daily quests. In short, competition is what makes things fun; the problem is that in an MMORPG, the score is kept in gear and progression, and Blizzard appears to be making it far too easy to get points.WILL PLAY HARDER

 The biggest counter-argument to the above is the idea that if it is easier to get gear, then this, in turn, will lead to more competition. Blizzard has not been subtle about their desire to transform World of Warcraft into a viable e-sport, potentially even the biggest e-sport since Counter-Strike. If arena gear, and by extension arena participation, became more prevalent amongst the casual community, then this would add an incredibly fertile demographic to the backing of competitive WoW. Colloquially speaking, ‘baddies’ constitute a large number of World of Warcraft; from a business sense, getting them involved ends up benefiting everyone else. I believe that this was a smart effort by Blizzard to get a vaguely indifferent demographic interested in competitive World of Warcraft. Even top players should realize that without an audience to participate, there is simply no reason for them to try as hard as they do. If anything, Blizzard should implement more avenues by which casual players can participate in competitive WoW; allow players with 2200+ ratings the opportunity to ‘substitute’ in a team that has less than 1600 rating; that way they can bring in newer teams while still maintaining their own personal ratings.

In retrospect, however, the only real problem I have with making a lot of rare gear accessible (or easier to access) is that many dedicated players feel as though Blizzard is catering entirely to the casual player base; top players are losing out on the feeling of individuality and exclusiveness that they previously enjoyed. Feel free to throw a “cry more” into the debate, but players will work just as hard (if not harder) for things that allow them to feel unique, or allow them to separate themselves from the crowd, especially if these unique things are very difficult to obtain. Implementing more aesthetic (or only slight upgrade) opportunities, and offering them to the really dedicated player base will at least allow them to retain their ‘wow’ factor, even if it doesn’t come with the ‘why does his weapon do 2x the damage of my weapon’ feeling. Rare titles were a good start, but there needs to be more titles, more tabards, more mounts and more things that allow the really skilled and dedicated players to feel like they’re appreciated by Blizzard, and not simply a shrinking niche market. World of Warcraft may be aiming to become a competitive e-sport, but they cannot hope to keep both the MMORPG style of competition in tandem with the PVP form of competition; the two need to be kept separate. As well, there should be small, tangible little rewards for players who still want to play this game with as much dedication as they did a few years ago; even if it’s just a different coloured mount, or a neat looking hat (that shoots lasers!).

 

Christopher "Pwyff" Tom
Editor
Allakhazam.com

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WOW! No not w.o.w, just wow...
# Feb 10 2009 at 4:13 AM Rating: Decent
They must be desperate for filler to even post this as an article. PVP since the begining has been "gear based" so basically you are crying that someone who started later or leveled to 80 a month after you has just as good a chance of out playing you as someone who got their gear earlier. You are upset that you want to be " Zomg hai look at me I crit so big I am so Leet" without having to put any effort into learning how to actually play against a comparably equiped player of other classes...GG cry me a freaking river

Edited, Feb 10th 2009 7:14am by Mitchness
Casual players
# Feb 09 2009 at 9:00 PM Rating: Decent
I'd say blizzard made the top end gear almost impossible to attain in the beginning. Only people who raided every week in 25 man raids could be in epic gear, and it took a long long time because they were 25 man raids and a lot of competition for the gear. There were no ten man raids and no heroics and no arenas. Pvp gear meant a thousand Av's. You simply had to be hardcore to get any epics. With outlands came heroics, arenas and kara. Now it was possible to not only have an epic toon, you could have ten epic toons for less effort than one epic toon used to take. Obviously the game got a whole lot easier. With northrend the game got easier again - everyone got stronger proportional to the mobs. One example is the inscription buffs we all picked up. Warrior tanking became half as hard when sunder affects two targets for instance.
I think people have forgotten how hard this game used to be, how weak level sixty really was. A level sixty party in greens could easily wipe in BRD from one false move, and that was not even a raid. That was when it really was disaster if there was a noob in the party, and noobish people almost could not play the game. A lot of things had to be done exactly right. Healers died in about three seconds if the tank lost agro. It was a different game.
On the DK thing, it is fun to play a toon that is insanely overpowered. At level seventy one I killed a level seventy six mob and emerged with almost full life. I killed six mobs at once two levels higher than me. I topped the damage meter with a mage two levels higher than me in the party. But after about level 74, you just don't get anything else and everyone else catches up. There are no skills at all at level seventy six and seven. Even so it's nice to have a toon who can tank or DPS, and blizzard has made tanking gear really easy to get. Neither my warrior nor my paladin tank are really good for much else.
Just canceled.
# Feb 07 2009 at 11:02 PM Rating: Good
Ironic, this editorial. I just canceled my WoW account because I feel the game has lost its challenge. Without a challenge, there's no drive for me to play. I've already done everything I truly wanted to do in this game, and finishing the last "hard" thing on my list (the Wintersaber Trainers reputation grind) left me with nothing left to do. And for the record, I'm a casual player, not one of those so-called "no life losers" that are actually the backbone of this game. Without giving the hardcore players content to shoot for and without giving the casual players soloable "time sink" content with special rewards at the end, there's not a whole lot of reason for either group to keep playing, at least in my eyes.

Someone once said something interesting, and it really stuck in my mind. "No big MMO is ever going to be the WoW killer; WoW is ultimately going to kill itself." At least for me, that's certainly been the case.
you guys really dont get it
# Feb 06 2009 at 2:58 PM Rating: Decent
Blizzard is a company. This game constitutes alot of money. The CASUAL player still pays the same 15 dollars a month as you no life losers that play 24-7 (I am one of those so slow your role). Point is that people wont want to play and PAY for a game where they never get any of the good items or see even more than a third of the content. why should they. This isnt some xbox mindless first person shooter or dumb jock football game. You idiots have gotten so into the whole competition against each other you fail to see the big picture.

1 if i cant earn the rewards without having to be in a 40 man, 20 man or hell even 10 man raid why would i want to play that part of the game. Its hard enough putting together effective 5 man guilds and yes some of us are anti-social (no wonder we play 24-7). we are not asians with hundreds of buddies who all grew up understanding that working together gets us all ahead. We are dumb westerners that all want MINE NOW.

2 By not providing the CASUAL player with rewards that the low lifes get you force people who might like the game enough to keep shelling out money to buy gold from the black market and risk buying characters already decked out in order to be able to play the game and compete.

3. I see this game in 3 parts - part 1 is pvp if you dont have gear forget about pvp. they made pvp easier to deal with but still it aint fun to be one shotted by players showing off cause they are decked out in all purples. part 2 is pve this is where the casual player plays most of the time and rarely if ever gets a drop of an epic item. That player has a job a family and other things in his life but it is THAT player that pays the most money for the least gratification. if he stopped playing blizzard wouldnt be able to continue to support the habit of the rest of us. Part 3 is the raiding and dungeons. without groups to do these they are impossible for the casual player. and they make up ALOT of the game content.

So to sum up....

Blizzard making changes that allow the casual player to have cool stuff and compete with hard core idiots makes good business sense. If you dont like it get your competitive fix on some other game. RPG means roleplaying not bragging and calling people names. Grow up get some sense and show maturity for gods sake oh and be a better role-model for the kids (thats right i am talking to the 22+ year olds that play not the teens).

I enjoy the game. But I too am starting to feel that I shelled out alot of money for this game and have yet to see any of the cool stuff because i dont like PVP/Arena, i dont know 80 people to be able to raid and there is no way to get any of the cool items without one of those two categories. So sooner would be better for the changes or people like me will stop paying stop playing and the game will die.
you guys really dont get it
# Feb 08 2009 at 9:49 AM Rating: Decent
So your saying raiders need to be more mature yet all you do is insult them. Ok.........
Maybe you should see the world from a different location then under your bridge
Why are there no epic quests?
# Feb 06 2009 at 9:02 AM Rating: Good
18 posts
One of the things that I have always wondered is that while WoW appears as a RPG , there is no comparable gear given to dedicated RPG questers. Epic gear is awarded (if that is the word) to people who have made a dedication to Arena or PVP or willing to build raid groups to collect tokens/badges etc.

Why does Blizzard not have epic level quests? Epic gear could be made avail by extreme quest chains that would require collecting, as just a minimum list:

Multiple quest items that only drop from ultra rare spawns
Crafted items from multiple professions (at least 3+) that have multi day cooldowns
Multiple quest items from different instances
Items that can only be gathered deep in cross faction territory/cities.
Items that can only be purchased after faction rep grinds

This would require a similar dedication to the game as PVPers but would appeal to a RPG player. It would also require a player to experience all aspects of play, including PVP and instance runs, and interactivity with other players, but not with the repetition of building arena points or badge runs. It would also finally reward a players dedication to their chosen professions. (I have never understood why crafted items, even BoP ones, is not even close to the quality of at level instance blues) Scarcity of mats would make it as difficult to obtain as high numbers of points/badges.

In then end I think it comes down to the fact that it is easier to make us do 50 instance runs or have us build arena ratings, than it is for Blizzard to program quest NPCs, quest mobs and add quest items and content.

Just my 2cents, don't blast me too hard

Hm.
# Feb 05 2009 at 11:25 AM Rating: Default
"People always enjoy working hard and achieving things that normal individuals do not have: if someone worked hard all their life for five million dollars, and then someone else, who sat around drunk for the entire time, inherits eight million dollars, who would you respect more? Moreover, do you think that the hard worker would be OK with someone gaining the same rewards, but for less work?"


While this may be true and fair in an ideal and logical sense of the words, as a lot, but not all of us know life is not fair.

Also in response to the "guy with no legs dodge-ball" portion of this post, thats what makes wow a great place. It's make-believe. Finally that guy with no legs can play dodge-ball with everyone else.


And to, "Feel free to throw a “cry more” into the debate, but players will work just as hard (if not harder) for things that allow them to feel unique, or allow them to separate themselves from the crowd, especially if these unique things are very difficult to obtain." there are other avenues of approach to the solution for this problem. Such as unique customizable items. Super rare to get, naming of the items monitored to prevent any inappropriate naming. Stats boundaries, to limit the potential power of said weaponry / gear. Etc.

The point is, even if the above idea sucks, it took me 5 seconds to think of it. Probably 3 mins for another idea to pop out then 5 for the next.
Wallpaper please
# Feb 05 2009 at 11:14 AM Rating: Decent
Oh... my god. please make the church picture a full sized at least 1024x768 pic. i want the wallpaper.
This Is Just The Way It Is In Gear Based Games
# Feb 05 2009 at 8:40 AM Rating: Decent
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76 posts
This is always going to be an issue in any gear based game. How do you balance the game so that the casual players, who may not be the most skilled players and don't have much time to spend on the game, get a fair chance at acquiring the best gear, while not making it so easy to do so that the hardcore players, those that are the most skilled and do have a lot of time to play, feel like their accomplishments have been diminished.

Personally, I think if you choose to play a game that you know is more dependent on gear than skill then you just have to understand that there are most likely going to be far more casual players than hardcore players in that game and the devs are going to probably cater to their largest base more often than not. That means making it easier for casual players to acquire the best gear. The hardcore players will just have to suck it up and deal with it. If it's really that big of a deal to them then maybe WoW is the wrong game for them. Maybe they should switch to a game that's purely dependent on skill.
it's simple...
# Feb 05 2009 at 4:15 AM Rating: Good
not everyone likes pvp!! get it through your frakking heads ppl... I don't like pvp, I will NEVER do the freaking arenas... and I have been told time and time again by both other players and by blizz that if I want decent epic gear that I have to do the arenas and pvp... Get off the damn dime!! I play games like this for two things... one for the ppl I can interact with, and two to see what I do with how I like to play. Frakking pvp isn't the only thing that matters in games like these, what you accomplish does, who you group with regularly does... Learn it blizz!
#REDACTED, Posted: Feb 05 2009 at 12:25 AM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) I am a first character Wow guy right now - level 62 - so please don't lump me in with these elitest nerds that throw around catchy jargon like "baddies" and "cry more". They are nothing more than self-centered asses that think they are better than another person because of their ability to waste more time in front of a video game.
Get to the root!
# Feb 04 2009 at 10:21 PM Rating: Default
PVP is broken, if I have to tell you the 32 reason why, you haven't been paying attention. All else is meaningless, unless you fix the problems.
work?
# Feb 04 2009 at 10:14 PM Rating: Good
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363 posts
You've really got two complaints, one about the nature of teams and the other about the lack of challenges.

There are always going to be people at the bottom of the rankings, there will always be the worst member of the top ranked team, there will always be someone who was the last DPS in a raid. Just like real life, having friends who can help you out will do as much for you as your own skill. Maybe those people put in a lot of work in their relationships rather than on other things. Maybe you don't like that, or respect it, but it's a method that works.

Even as a casual player I see that there's room at the top for more challenges. There's room for more challenges at the casual level! Harder challenges should net greater rewards, but let's not get too melodramatic here. It's a simple problem, not a grand conspiracy. When has Blizzard ever not changed the game?
True true QQ
# Feb 04 2009 at 8:29 PM Rating: Default
I see what you're getting at, I really hate how I have to be interviewed before each heroic now because of the crap healadins, and all the DK's running around are either crap tanks or they are crap DPS. Now this isn't to say all DK's are horrible tanks or DPS, it's just with everyone who hits 55 making one they haven't even learned the later parts of the game to make much of a difference. I'll admit the number of crap tanks, crap dps, and crap healers are sky rocketing lately and they are being rewarded for being crappy and great players are being treated the same as these retards.

Blizzard has made most instances now just AoE pulls with no strategy and if there is any it's very minimal. We don't even need CC anymore, so Rogues, Mages, Shamans, and Ret pallies no longer need to worry about making sure Target C is off the tank and group while A and B are being tanked and downed. This makes instances faster yes, but gear isn't as worth it because the only strategy seems to be in the bosses now. (i.e. Loken) I know casual gamers are growing and Blizz wants to tap that market too it's good business sense, but they need to seriously remember that most of the hardcore players were the ones who paid for a good portion of their subscription fees. Should we start a petition to see some changes made to suit us hardcore, semi-hardcore players. It's not fair we have to share the spotlight with noobs decked out in t7 just because 9/10 or 24/25 of their raid, arena team, pvp team etc did 99% of the work and they just ran around doing maybe the bottom margin of DPS or heals, or couldn't take a hit as a tank.
True true QQ
# Feb 06 2009 at 9:47 AM Rating: Decent
Quote:
I know casual gamers are growing and Blizz wants to tap that market too it's good business sense, but they need to seriously remember that most of the hardcore players were the ones who paid for a good portion of their subscription fees.


What the HELL are you talking about! Casual gamers are gamers who do not devote 10 hours a day to playing a game. Not NOOBS. I have been playing since 2006. I consider myself a casual gamer, because I play less than 10 hours a week. I'm pretty sure I paid my share of subscription fees!!!

Get it straight!
True true QQ
# Feb 05 2009 at 7:24 AM Rating: Decent
<---DK main, played nothing but the class since late Beta. Always top 5 DPS in Heroic raids (except for occasionally on some single target bosses.) The number of horrible DKs kills me. I see so many with spellpower gear and/or DW as Unholy Blood spec and it makes me want to scratch my eyes out. I'm not elitist by far, but for god sakes visit the forums for your class just once every few months and you can learn everything that no one has told you.

Too many people choose DKs because they're super cool, with skeletons and runeblades and plate armor and stuff..... I can't wait for the next expansion to come out so all the kiddies can reroll the new hero class and stop taking my gear.
True true QQ
# Feb 05 2009 at 10:50 AM Rating: Decent
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327 posts
The problem that we have currently is the game is catered to the casual gamer. As several of you have said, there is no real challenge in this expansion. There are no requirements to run Heroics except be level 80. Any half *** in greens barely pushing 1000 DPS can get into Naxx and go from crap gear to tier 7 in a matter of hours. Ive been a raider since the MC days...ya all remember Molten Core don't ya? Back then your hardcore raiders were your PvP Kings. Why? Because they busted their *** to get the best gear and fought for four hours in Alterac Valley to prove which factions raiders were the best. Then Blizzard introduced resilience...the complete and utter fail for PvP. Now the same half-wit that plays his 10 games a week for a month has the same chances of getting an item equal to or better what a raider may not see ever...the only difference from the PvPers gear and the Raiders gear...Resilience. And while we're on the subject of resilience, and Im sure there's an number of raiders who will read this: Why does PvP gear drop from dungeons and raids? No, Im not talking about Vault in this expansion but in BC that kind of gear dropped in Black Temple and Sunwell Plateau.

Onto Death Knights, when I first heard about this class I was impressed with it. Now as a healer I completely loathe this class and the morons who claim they can "do-it-all". All my healing gear is from Heroic Naxx, and Im a pretty decent healer but when some unholy DK takes three hits and dies in a Heroic and starts screaming at me because they're trying to tank in level 74 greens without Frost Presence...yeah Ive had enough. Now I'm not claiming all Death Knights are retards, but as HOUZ said its the flavor of the week class and at the moment incredibly overpowered. Like Ret Paladins, Hunters, and Fury Warriors its just a matter of time before they end up with their own nerf....Bone Shield/Anti-Magic Shell forebearance anyone?
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True true QQ
# Feb 06 2009 at 3:39 PM Rating: Decent
Eh what? Hunters getting more nerfs!? Heresy...
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