08-17-2012, 02:55 PM
I'm a web designer, and an advertising nut. I understand what they are doing and why they are doing it. With a product like WoW, if you want it to be successful, you have to keep it relevant to the market, and to a demographic that will continue to buy it.
I knew that I was falling out of their target demographic when they started selling mounts for cash, and then pets for cash. I paid my fair share of cash in server xfers, and character remods. I can't say that I regret the decisions, but if I were to do it all again, at my current age, I wouldn't have done it. I would have moved my raiding character to lurkers, and let the rest rot while I started over. I would have restarted my DK on Terenas instead of moving it from Alexstrasza, to Kil'Jaeden, to Stormrage, to Terenas, and then faction changing.
And just like they are making more and more "fun stuff" that you can buy with real money, because they are going after a younger demographic that is more interested in those things, they are making content that they like to consume. Heroic Dungeons from TBC (at TBC difficulty) don't work in a model where you randomly group with people from all over, and there is less emphasis placed on communication. We saw that at the beginning of Cataclysm. The two models were not working together.
Likewise, we saw it with LFR. LFR difficulty is less than either 10m and 25m, because they realized that they couldn't expect 25 random people to achieve things that the others could.
I could focus on the positives for you for a moment. In MoP:
Scenarios - These look REALLY interesting. I hope that they give way to helping players improve as a player in a less stressful environment. They look great.
Challenge Modes - This gives the guild groups and others, that "Hard" Challenge that they enjoyed, without making the masses suffer through it, because of the randomness.
Shared Mounts - IF they would give up the Bullshit restriction on PvP mounts continuing to be character only, it would be just about perfect. Mind you, I've never achieved a Gladiator mount.
Account Wide Achieves Like I said before, this is a great feature. I just wish it would have made it in sooner (like.... from the start)
Account Wide Pets I don't care about the pet battles at all. They actually are a big detractor for me. But the Account Wide Pets is another great thing.
Shorter Dungeons Yes. Please. All Day. I have been an advocate of short dungeons for a while. I'm personally of the opinion that a short dungeon, can still be "hard". It doesn't need Mountains of Trash in between bosses. It doesn't have to be a puzzle of CC.
MOgging single greatest feature they released in cata. Hands down.
making pvp gear not good in pve, and vice versa + resilience as a stat Like I said. I don't care about PvP. I did, a long time ago in TBC, when I had a rogue, and was trying REALLY hard to be competitive in 2's in S2, and S3. I wholeheartedly approve of this change.
There are other things I like, I just can't think right now. BY all means, think of a feature, and ask me if you want, I will gladly give you my opinion. I will warn you though, It's probably not wise to ask me about Paladins. My fury at Blizzard for destroying my love of the class holds no bounds.
I knew that I was falling out of their target demographic when they started selling mounts for cash, and then pets for cash. I paid my fair share of cash in server xfers, and character remods. I can't say that I regret the decisions, but if I were to do it all again, at my current age, I wouldn't have done it. I would have moved my raiding character to lurkers, and let the rest rot while I started over. I would have restarted my DK on Terenas instead of moving it from Alexstrasza, to Kil'Jaeden, to Stormrage, to Terenas, and then faction changing.
And just like they are making more and more "fun stuff" that you can buy with real money, because they are going after a younger demographic that is more interested in those things, they are making content that they like to consume. Heroic Dungeons from TBC (at TBC difficulty) don't work in a model where you randomly group with people from all over, and there is less emphasis placed on communication. We saw that at the beginning of Cataclysm. The two models were not working together.
Likewise, we saw it with LFR. LFR difficulty is less than either 10m and 25m, because they realized that they couldn't expect 25 random people to achieve things that the others could.
I could focus on the positives for you for a moment. In MoP:
Scenarios - These look REALLY interesting. I hope that they give way to helping players improve as a player in a less stressful environment. They look great.
Challenge Modes - This gives the guild groups and others, that "Hard" Challenge that they enjoyed, without making the masses suffer through it, because of the randomness.
Shared Mounts - IF they would give up the Bullshit restriction on PvP mounts continuing to be character only, it would be just about perfect. Mind you, I've never achieved a Gladiator mount.
Account Wide Achieves Like I said before, this is a great feature. I just wish it would have made it in sooner (like.... from the start)
Account Wide Pets I don't care about the pet battles at all. They actually are a big detractor for me. But the Account Wide Pets is another great thing.
Shorter Dungeons Yes. Please. All Day. I have been an advocate of short dungeons for a while. I'm personally of the opinion that a short dungeon, can still be "hard". It doesn't need Mountains of Trash in between bosses. It doesn't have to be a puzzle of CC.
MOgging single greatest feature they released in cata. Hands down.
making pvp gear not good in pve, and vice versa + resilience as a stat Like I said. I don't care about PvP. I did, a long time ago in TBC, when I had a rogue, and was trying REALLY hard to be competitive in 2's in S2, and S3. I wholeheartedly approve of this change.
There are other things I like, I just can't think right now. BY all means, think of a feature, and ask me if you want, I will gladly give you my opinion. I will warn you though, It's probably not wise to ask me about Paladins. My fury at Blizzard for destroying my love of the class holds no bounds.
nobody ever slaughtered an entire school with a smart phone and a twitter account – they have, however, toppled governments. - Jim Wright