04-23-2006, 04:38 AM
Part of the problem, I think, is that Blizzard isn't just trying to serve two sides. There are at least six categories of player, and it's impossible to please them all.
1) True Casuals. For these people, a game's just a game. They don't really have a drive to achieve in the game - they just want something to waste a few hours on for fun. They log on every now and then and play a little and they're fine with it. When they reach 60, they either roll an alt or quit. True casuals don't care that other people have super epic lootz, and they don't care about seeing every last bit of content.
Most people don't hear from true casuals, because they're way too casual to log on to a forum and talk about a game. Blizzard doesn't devote a lot of content to them, either, since nothing is likely to materially change when they choose to quit the game; they'll leave when they're tired of playing. In my experience, there are some, but relatively few, true casuals in WoW.
2) Hardcore Raiders. These are people who are serious about playing and serious about achieving. They can and will do whatever's needed to get the best, beat the best, and be the best. The most driven of them relentlessly push through whatever timesink is added in order to score server firsts and contend for world firsts. It's not even a question for these people whether they'll get to content - they're throwing themselves into its teeth from the get-go, no matter what it is: 5-man, 20-man, 40-man.
People hear from hardcore raiders a lot. Just like with other kinds of hardcore players, hardcore raiders don't just play the game, they talk about it. On forums, they discuss, run complex mathematical analyses, and dissect every working of the game. Blizzard designs 40-man instances for this group: past MC, 40 mans are complex encounters requiring complex strategy and good execution. Hardcore raiders eat it up: they love the feeling of achievement and the rewards of achieving. And this is exactly what they want: extremely challenging and extremely rewarding 40-man content. BWL and AQ40 are directed at this group. There are more hardcore raiders in WoW than most think, but they still represent a small minority of the playing population.
3) Hardcore Non-Raiders. These are people who are just as serious about the game as hardcore raiders - perhaps even more so. What differentiates them is that for their own individual reasons, these players don't want to raid. Sometimes after actually raiding, people who think they're non-raiders find out it's not so bad after all, but for the most part, these are people for whom the entire dynamic of raiding just doesn't work. Hardcore non-raiders are the people most apt to talk lovingly of 5-man groups and decry the "zerg"-ness of raiding.
Non-raiders they might be, but they are also hardcore players, and so they are often seen on forums as well. In fact, the most acrimonious forum arguments are between hardcore raiders and non-raiders, if only because they're both very serious about the game and both totally incapable of really understanding the other's position; raiders just don't get why people can't raid, and non-raiders can't see how anyone could possibly bring themselves to do it. Hardcore non-raiders want more 5-man dungeons, what they consider to be the apex of group play. Dire Maul was a release for hardcore non-raiders: to a certain point, the Dungeon 2 set content is, as well. Hardcore non-raiders are emphatically not interested in anything that takes more than ten people. Like hardcore raiders, there are relatively few of these players.
4) Hardcore Limited - Time. These players are hardcore. Or would be, at any rate: they want to do great things and at least have something like the achievement drive of raiders. Their problem is that they rarely have more than an hour straight to sit at a computer. If they had the time, they'd raid. Or 20-man. Or 5-man. They'd do more than they are doing, but they just can't.
You don't hear a lot from these guys on the forums (they don't have much time for those, either). In general, they just want something they can work at in bits and pieces in the short snatches of time they have. Even five-man instances often consume more time than these people have available; they want something you can work on for an hour here, an hour there, which ends up in something worth achieving. The Cenarion Circle Field Duty quests are aimed squarely at this group - a lot of tedious questing, but you can slowly grind progress toward it without having to sit for three hours in one session. These players prefer solo content because of the time it takes to make groups, but don't necessarily mind grouping as long as it's quick. This kind of player is just not interested in additional group/instanced content at all - what they want is soloability and minimal demands on time and all the characteristics that were part of leveling up to 60. A lot of players fall into this category.
5) Hardcore Limited - Numbers. These players are also hardcore. Their problem isn't time, or that they don't want to raid. Their problem is that they can't hit that magic 40-man number and for any number of reasons, aren't going to take steps to get there. It might be a group of RL friends, for example, who aren't going to expand their group by recruiting people over the Internet who they don't know. They want to raid, but no way, no how are they getting to 40 people.
These people talk a lot, too, and are often confused with hardcore non-raiders because they, likewise, could not care less about 40-mans. However, numbers-limited hardcore players quite happily go to ZG and AQ20. To them, this is "accessible" raid content; 20 people tends to be just about right for these kinds of players. These are the people Blizzard has aimed 20-man instances at: sure, hardcore raiders run them too, but that's because hardcore raiders do *everything*. The point of ZG and AQ20 is to assist these groups of number-limited hardcores into something more challenging and more rewarding, and for the most part it succeeds. These people are happy with more 5, 10, and 20 man instances. I would say a large chunk of the playing population falls into this category.
6) Hardcore PvPers. These players turn their noses up at any challenge that isn't another player, however easy or hard that might be. By definition they're hardcore. Their concerns are primarily around the broken honor system - which everyone has already concluded is a terrible thing that needs to go. The reason I'm mentioning them, however, is because despite the fact that PvP is their game, PvE affects them, through better gear and spell ranks and so forth. These players thus have a vested interest in making sure new gear doesn't help that much in PvP. Any solution which may satisfy any of the above groups is going to annoy the PvPers.
Those are just the six I've seen. There are probably more: my point, however, is that it's never been just hardcore and casual.
1) True Casuals. For these people, a game's just a game. They don't really have a drive to achieve in the game - they just want something to waste a few hours on for fun. They log on every now and then and play a little and they're fine with it. When they reach 60, they either roll an alt or quit. True casuals don't care that other people have super epic lootz, and they don't care about seeing every last bit of content.
Most people don't hear from true casuals, because they're way too casual to log on to a forum and talk about a game. Blizzard doesn't devote a lot of content to them, either, since nothing is likely to materially change when they choose to quit the game; they'll leave when they're tired of playing. In my experience, there are some, but relatively few, true casuals in WoW.
2) Hardcore Raiders. These are people who are serious about playing and serious about achieving. They can and will do whatever's needed to get the best, beat the best, and be the best. The most driven of them relentlessly push through whatever timesink is added in order to score server firsts and contend for world firsts. It's not even a question for these people whether they'll get to content - they're throwing themselves into its teeth from the get-go, no matter what it is: 5-man, 20-man, 40-man.
People hear from hardcore raiders a lot. Just like with other kinds of hardcore players, hardcore raiders don't just play the game, they talk about it. On forums, they discuss, run complex mathematical analyses, and dissect every working of the game. Blizzard designs 40-man instances for this group: past MC, 40 mans are complex encounters requiring complex strategy and good execution. Hardcore raiders eat it up: they love the feeling of achievement and the rewards of achieving. And this is exactly what they want: extremely challenging and extremely rewarding 40-man content. BWL and AQ40 are directed at this group. There are more hardcore raiders in WoW than most think, but they still represent a small minority of the playing population.
3) Hardcore Non-Raiders. These are people who are just as serious about the game as hardcore raiders - perhaps even more so. What differentiates them is that for their own individual reasons, these players don't want to raid. Sometimes after actually raiding, people who think they're non-raiders find out it's not so bad after all, but for the most part, these are people for whom the entire dynamic of raiding just doesn't work. Hardcore non-raiders are the people most apt to talk lovingly of 5-man groups and decry the "zerg"-ness of raiding.
Non-raiders they might be, but they are also hardcore players, and so they are often seen on forums as well. In fact, the most acrimonious forum arguments are between hardcore raiders and non-raiders, if only because they're both very serious about the game and both totally incapable of really understanding the other's position; raiders just don't get why people can't raid, and non-raiders can't see how anyone could possibly bring themselves to do it. Hardcore non-raiders want more 5-man dungeons, what they consider to be the apex of group play. Dire Maul was a release for hardcore non-raiders: to a certain point, the Dungeon 2 set content is, as well. Hardcore non-raiders are emphatically not interested in anything that takes more than ten people. Like hardcore raiders, there are relatively few of these players.
4) Hardcore Limited - Time. These players are hardcore. Or would be, at any rate: they want to do great things and at least have something like the achievement drive of raiders. Their problem is that they rarely have more than an hour straight to sit at a computer. If they had the time, they'd raid. Or 20-man. Or 5-man. They'd do more than they are doing, but they just can't.
You don't hear a lot from these guys on the forums (they don't have much time for those, either). In general, they just want something they can work at in bits and pieces in the short snatches of time they have. Even five-man instances often consume more time than these people have available; they want something you can work on for an hour here, an hour there, which ends up in something worth achieving. The Cenarion Circle Field Duty quests are aimed squarely at this group - a lot of tedious questing, but you can slowly grind progress toward it without having to sit for three hours in one session. These players prefer solo content because of the time it takes to make groups, but don't necessarily mind grouping as long as it's quick. This kind of player is just not interested in additional group/instanced content at all - what they want is soloability and minimal demands on time and all the characteristics that were part of leveling up to 60. A lot of players fall into this category.
5) Hardcore Limited - Numbers. These players are also hardcore. Their problem isn't time, or that they don't want to raid. Their problem is that they can't hit that magic 40-man number and for any number of reasons, aren't going to take steps to get there. It might be a group of RL friends, for example, who aren't going to expand their group by recruiting people over the Internet who they don't know. They want to raid, but no way, no how are they getting to 40 people.
These people talk a lot, too, and are often confused with hardcore non-raiders because they, likewise, could not care less about 40-mans. However, numbers-limited hardcore players quite happily go to ZG and AQ20. To them, this is "accessible" raid content; 20 people tends to be just about right for these kinds of players. These are the people Blizzard has aimed 20-man instances at: sure, hardcore raiders run them too, but that's because hardcore raiders do *everything*. The point of ZG and AQ20 is to assist these groups of number-limited hardcores into something more challenging and more rewarding, and for the most part it succeeds. These people are happy with more 5, 10, and 20 man instances. I would say a large chunk of the playing population falls into this category.
6) Hardcore PvPers. These players turn their noses up at any challenge that isn't another player, however easy or hard that might be. By definition they're hardcore. Their concerns are primarily around the broken honor system - which everyone has already concluded is a terrible thing that needs to go. The reason I'm mentioning them, however, is because despite the fact that PvP is their game, PvE affects them, through better gear and spell ranks and so forth. These players thus have a vested interest in making sure new gear doesn't help that much in PvP. Any solution which may satisfy any of the above groups is going to annoy the PvPers.
Those are just the six I've seen. There are probably more: my point, however, is that it's never been just hardcore and casual.