Are you on the path?

One factor that keeps MMORPGs running is the desire for progression. Every player who sets foot in any subscription-based game can eventually see the will of the developers creating systems that will make you dedicated time and energy to their game.

Yet, the one thing that no one seems to take notice of is the way we get sucked into keep playing. Sometimes isn't not about the difficulty of the challenge itself, but the path it takes to get to there. Everyone sees the physical difficulty of doing a raid, and everyone knows that the developers make it difficult to complete a raid so you keep playing longer, but very few can see the will of the developers resonating in the path it takes to get to the challenge.

Rohan at Blessing of Kings, however, locked onto that path in his latest post, entitled "Being on the Path".

Rohan asserts that the new rating requirement systems implemented in World of Warcraft's arena gears is pushing people "off of the path" of attaining these difficult pieces of armor. These requirements center around having a personal rating in the arena of 1550 or higher, which makes these pieces almost unattainable for any casual PvPer.

While Rohan also asserts that arena gear was too easily obtained before, he believes that this new addition is pushing too many players away. The problem lies in how ratings are calculated. You may try your hardest to get those armor pieces, but you just may never be good enough to get them. You may just not either be skilled enough, or more often than not in WoW, geared well enough to begin with. Even if you battle someone with a lower arena ranking, they may just have better than gear than you and will completely destroy you no matter what you do.

This can also tie into another problem -- the imbalance of World of Warcraft's endgame, which obviously favors those with better gear than those who may be more skilled. Either way, no matter the cause, the problem still remains, a personal rating of 1550 just may be asking too much for players. When you ask for too much from a player, then they're more likely to just give up and do something else than attempt to stick it out and shoot for the moon.