I'm really glad he started writing on his own site again. I still love reading the articles he writes.
I haven't played WoW in a year (?), but I'd be curious to hear what other people who are playing or have played think about this.
http://www.brokentoys.org/2006/01/30/casual-friday/
Scott Jennings Still has it...
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noel
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Scott Jennings Still has it...
Oh, my God; I care so little, I almost passed out.
wow, blizzard really must be bleeding the remaining talent they have if such a worthless hack is the lead developer now. this guy was barely qualified to update his guild's geocties EQ website. oh well I can't think of any better candidate to drive the worlds biggest MMORPG (some may say the michael bay movie of MMORPG's) into the ground.
He basically talks about how World of Warcraft has a weak end game. He makes it sound like the problem is casuals can't get raid gear, and if they could the world would be a better place. The "brick wall" he speaks of in character advancement is the problem. Casuals who can't raid just happen to hit it a hell of a lot faster, so it seems like that's the problem. The brick wall exists for raiders as well though. Currently, I have the best gear possible from raiding. There is absolutely nothing for me to do online World of Warcraft. Obviously every game suffers from this issue to some extent, but in Warcraft, players are getting to that point far too quickly.
An easy comparison would be to Everquest. In Everquest, I always had something to do when I logged on. If I wasn't busy with raiding, I would go out and gain AA exp, or go out and farm for items to sell (since Everquest had an actual economy, unlike the non-existant one of WoW), etc. Basically in Everquest, I never once felt like I had run out of things I could do with my time online. Everquest also had a fairly short time between expansions, which added even more things to do.
In Warcraft, I raid about 3 hours a day 5 days a week, just because I'm helping guildmates, not because it helps my current character in any form. Aside from that, I spend my online time standing around Ironforge chatting. What can I do? I have well over 2,000 gold with nothing to buy. I don't like PvP much, and even if I did, nothing in the honor system rewards is an upgrade. My tradeskills are maxed and I have every recipe. I already have 5 level 60 alts and the idea of making more sickens me. What can I do in Warcraft with my time online?
Because I've gone through and "beaten" the raiding game, it took me longer then most people to get to this "brick wall" stage. For casual players, after they hit level 60 and run UBRS 20 times, they are at the same position, much sooner. What would fix this? Well more actual content, such as new zones at a rate greater then one per 5 months would be a start. Some form of AA system like EQ's would at least give players some meaning to logging on once they have obtained the best items. The economy of Warcraft is so far gone I don't think it's possible to save without a complete rebuild, but giving gold a value outside of twinking an alt would be nice.
Anyhow, in summary, the article is right. Warcraft has no endgame.
An easy comparison would be to Everquest. In Everquest, I always had something to do when I logged on. If I wasn't busy with raiding, I would go out and gain AA exp, or go out and farm for items to sell (since Everquest had an actual economy, unlike the non-existant one of WoW), etc. Basically in Everquest, I never once felt like I had run out of things I could do with my time online. Everquest also had a fairly short time between expansions, which added even more things to do.
In Warcraft, I raid about 3 hours a day 5 days a week, just because I'm helping guildmates, not because it helps my current character in any form. Aside from that, I spend my online time standing around Ironforge chatting. What can I do? I have well over 2,000 gold with nothing to buy. I don't like PvP much, and even if I did, nothing in the honor system rewards is an upgrade. My tradeskills are maxed and I have every recipe. I already have 5 level 60 alts and the idea of making more sickens me. What can I do in Warcraft with my time online?
Because I've gone through and "beaten" the raiding game, it took me longer then most people to get to this "brick wall" stage. For casual players, after they hit level 60 and run UBRS 20 times, they are at the same position, much sooner. What would fix this? Well more actual content, such as new zones at a rate greater then one per 5 months would be a start. Some form of AA system like EQ's would at least give players some meaning to logging on once they have obtained the best items. The economy of Warcraft is so far gone I don't think it's possible to save without a complete rebuild, but giving gold a value outside of twinking an alt would be nice.
Anyhow, in summary, the article is right. Warcraft has no endgame.
I don't really see how AA's could be considered endgame content. AA's are just as much for a casual gamer as for a hardcore raider, the only difference being in how many you can accumulate. Despite the fact that there were quite a few nice upgrades to be gotten through AA's I thought it was one of the worst ideas ever put into a game. Everyone complains about timesinks like the AQ war effort in WoW, but AA's were the ultimate timesink since there was always something more to get with the end being what, 900+ AA's?
I much prefer the endgame in WoW where I can log on a couple days a week, do all the raid instances that are up and than not feel like I have to be on the other five days of the week grinding out more experience or fighting for one more boss mob to progress just a tiny bit more. I can see the argument that there should be the possibility out there for people that want to play 24/7 to improve their character even more but I can't agree with the argument that WoW has no endgame just because it doesn't have timesinks like AA's.
Also, maybe its been too long since I played but how exactly did EQ have a good economy. I remember having over a hundred thousand plat by the time I quit and dropped most of it on that casino thing since there was nothing worthwhile to spend it on. In fact wasn't the casino put in the game to combat the ridiculous amount of money in circulation since there was nothing like repair costs in WoW to counter the money mobs dropped.
I much prefer the endgame in WoW where I can log on a couple days a week, do all the raid instances that are up and than not feel like I have to be on the other five days of the week grinding out more experience or fighting for one more boss mob to progress just a tiny bit more. I can see the argument that there should be the possibility out there for people that want to play 24/7 to improve their character even more but I can't agree with the argument that WoW has no endgame just because it doesn't have timesinks like AA's.
Also, maybe its been too long since I played but how exactly did EQ have a good economy. I remember having over a hundred thousand plat by the time I quit and dropped most of it on that casino thing since there was nothing worthwhile to spend it on. In fact wasn't the casino put in the game to combat the ridiculous amount of money in circulation since there was nothing like repair costs in WoW to counter the money mobs dropped.
Forest Stalker - EQ Retired