For quite some time, World of Warcraft catered well to casual and hardcore players alike, as well as those who fit between those two categories. No matter a player’s play-style, they were bound to get their money’s-worth. Unfortunately, following the release of The Burning Crusade, Blizzard released an update which dramatically increased the speed at which players gained experience.
Since then, numerous changes have been made to the game that have made the journey from level 1 to maximum level easier than it was before. In fact, in the latest patch currently active on the test realm – patch 3.2, this is once again evident. This time, mounts are the “victim” by being made much easier to acquire at a far cheaper price in some cases.
While many bitter WoW veterans have thrown their hands in the air at the injustice, this is not the real issue. The issue is that older content is being made less important and new players are being encouraged to level up faster. The reason this is unfortunate is that it encourages players to rush through much of the early game content, which if played through properly still offers tons of enjoyment.
Something as simple as mounts being easier to acquire is indicative of this. Imagine all the time players will save whilst levelling up, what with not having to run on foot between quest-givers, quest locations et cetera.
Blizzard knows that the end-game is definitely where most of the most epic content is located. Therefore, in order to maintain their grip on their subscribers, Blizzard is making the journey from level 1 to 80 as quick and easy as possible.
What effect exactly does this have on the casual player, though? It’s quite simple really – the end-game for the most part is simply not casual-player friendly. Gone is the ability to simply log on, complete a quest or two, log off and feel like you are one step closer to getting somewhere worth getting. End-game WoW is centred around gearing up in preparation for raids that can take hours to simply find a group for.
The true casual player’s last hopes post-level-79 lies in achievements and casual forms of PvP. The former can be quite time-consuming in itself at times, making PvP ideal for those with busy lives outside of the game. Should a player not enjoy PvP, they are, quite frankly, better off taking their time playing through lower-level content while they still can, avoiding being left asking “now what?” when level 80 arrives.
Blizzard should sit up and take note while there is still time left. World of Warcraft lacks non-gimmicky end-game content, and this fact could result in dire consequences, especially when the inevitable day arrives when the game’s subscriber numbers begin decreasing.
Discuss Casual WoW in the forums
Loading ...
