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The Soapbox: Old content should stay relevant
The archetypal themepark MMO model, as popularised by World of Warcraft, is a race to the level cap in order to unlock the best content on offer. New content is tacked onto the endgame regularly, accompanied by improved gear and perhaps a higher level cap. It's a system that's designed to keep people playing by keeping them on a progression climb that's constantly getting steeper. As a consequence, endgame activities render older content obsolete since these outdated activities carry little real benefit for fully leveled characters. Exploring old content for the sake of experiencing it is not enough of a motivator for many players since this content simply cannot present the same challenge as it once did. Although you can technically go back and play through old dungeons, they will never be as fulfilling when tactics become optional and you can solo once-formidable opponents. In this week's Soapbox, I will mourn the loss of fantastic older content that was rendered obsolete through vertical progression, using WoW as a key example. I'll go on to suggest a solution that I think might allow for both old and new content to exist together in relevancy without significantly compromising the themepark MMO's existing progression mechanics.
110% guarantee soloing old raids will not be harder post squish
Technical Game Designer Chadd Nervig, aka Celestalon on Twitter, has answered a tweeter's question about item squishing with the following tidbit: .@ToppTheDwarf The item squish *will not* make soloing old raids harder. We promise, and 110% guarantee it. - Celestalon (@Celestalon) February 9, 2014 I read this, and my ears perked up. I really enjoy running around killing things indiscriminately in old raids, and I've wondered as to whether or not that would continue to be possible after the item squish. It's good to hear that Blizzard has no intention of letting older content stay as it is while our characters' ability to pump out damage is drastically reduced. Of course, this leads to the obvious question -- what approach is Blizzard going to take for keeping older raids and dungeons' mobs and bosses abilities proportional? The obvious answer is that all of it will be squished along with our characters' gear and abilities. I suppose that will include items dropped of of old bosses too. It will be interesting to see the approach that Blizzards' designers take with the new expansion to make this change go as smoothly as possible.
More reassurance on post-squish soloing
Lead Encounter Designer Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas has taken to the forums to reassure players on post-squish soloing. Despite Blizzard's repeated assertions that the squish will do nothing to affect soloing, the message is going unheard by many, so Ion has provided some clarity on just how the downscaling will work for old raids and the like. Watcher Quote: That's great! But I could have sworn solo raiding was frowned upon by Blizzard. Not sure they'll be too worried about keeping it a possibility. Hopefully though. There's nothing at all wrong with going back and doing legacy raids and other content. The achievement system, cosmetic rewards and titles, and most recently transmogrification all serve to reward that playstyle. There's also a lot to be said for just being able to revisit old locations, for the sake of nostalgia or getting to experience them for the first time, without needing to find a like-minded group. As Rygarius noted, we're committed to making sure that we don't disrupt players' ability to engage in that gameplay. Without getting into the math, our goal is to make sure that if Kael'thas's Pyroblast does damage equal to 10% of your maximum health today, it will take off no more than 10% of your health post-squish. And if you kill Onyxia in 30 seconds today, you'll be able to kill Onyxia in 30 seconds post-squish. source
The Daily Grind: Should old content be made easier or relevant?
There's probably no one in the world who really wants go back through the Cataclysm raids in World of Warcraft. It's something you do because you like the looks of items and want to walk around looking pretty, not because you just can't get enough of that content. Since this content generally can't be just powered through alone, you have to get several like-minded people willing to revisit old content in the hopes that you might get some vanity items... which is easier said than done, and it's not all that easily said. Pretty much any game has a backlog of old content that's no longer relevant. An obvious solution is to just make this something that players can explore alone and easily; if no one's going back here as a challenge, wouldn't it make sense to just let everyone cruise on through as a tourist? But there's also the option of making it relevant in some fashion again, some way to make you feel you're not just pounding your head against content that provides a non-trivial but irrelevant challenge. So what do you think? Should old content be made easier for newer players or characters? Should it be made more relevant in some way? Or is it just fine to let it lie and let the people who missed out just keep on missing out? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Potential new WoW feature caught on video
We're hedging pretty hard on this one, ladies and gentlemen, partly because I'm trying to rein in my excitement that this could actually be a real video of a new feature. Somehow, Aipok managed to leave what looks like an instance of Temple of the Jade Serpent and zone into Stratholme, taking the option to "Teleport to Instance" while still in an instance himself. Not that weird, right? Well this is when things start getting a bit odd. Because this has been doing the rounds, I was ready for what was coming. Aipok's health suddenly drops to 11.1k. He wades into the skeletons, as you would, with the confidence of a level 90 in a level 40-ish dungeon, and he dies. Only then, looking through his combat log, does he realize that something is awry. On ressing, his health is even lower, at 5.9k. He opens up his character pane, and all his gear has been downscaled to ilvl 43. His character attributes appear to have been downscaled, too. Now, this has Aipok in a strange position. Has he just happened upon a very specific and weird bug? Is this an accidental hop into an unrevealed new feature for 6.0? Could players entering old content be downscaled to match it? Or, could this all be an elaborate hoax? Personally, I want to believe, so I'm going to choose to. What's more, Blizzard devs have talked before about this tech being completed. As long as this was optional, and perhaps even if it wasn't, I'd love this. It'd refresh old content and make it a challenge again. And, if you could earn upscaled XP while downscaled, a fun way to reuse old content to level. But again, remember, this is not an official announcement, or an endorsement, or anything from Blizzard. It's one video of one weird dungeon. It could be a hoax, it could be a bug, it could be nothing at all. I'm excited, though. Are you? And what could it reward?
The Daily Grind: What do you do when you're out of content for a game?
I've subscribed to Star Wars: The Old Republic since launch, but right at this moment I'm running a little low on things to do. I've got almost every class story completed; my high-level characters have explored all the content I care about. There are still a few more things here and there, but the newest patch can't come soon enough. And that raises the question of what you do when you just don't have as much to do any longer. Some people switch to exclusively roleplaying. Some people farm. Some people log in to chat with guildmates, and some just don't log in any more at all. What about you? What do you do when you're out of content for a game? Do you want to explore all the content first, or do you just explore the bits that interest you and then decide you've seen enough? And when that happens, does it mean it's time for a break or time for you to leave? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
What if all raids were end game raids?
Sometimes the forums come up with some interesting discussions. Poster Locomonkey over on the EU forums posted this doozy of an idea, which Taepsilum then responded to in detail. They both have me thinking about the idea as well -- what if every raid, from the original 60 raids to the Cataclysm level 85 raids, was updated to level 90? What if, when the next expansion came out, all the Mists of Pandaria raids as well as all those previous raids were in some fashion made current with level 95, or 100, or whatever current endgame happens to be? What are the pros and cons of this idea? I'm not going to dredge over every point already made, you can go read Locomonkey's original post, and Taepsilum's well reasoned list of what the pitfalls to avoid in such a system would be. Instead, I'm going to speculate on how you could address those pitfalls. How do you make a system with so many potential raids tuned and balanced, deal with all the updated loot from those instances, and keep from drowning raid groups in choices? My suggestions are as follows:
The balance between new and old content
In some ways, the development team on World of Warcraft has to constantly pay for their own successes. Nostalgia is a potent force, and players often look back fondly on their favorite experiences and want to experience them again. The recent patch 5.1 changes allowing max level players to enter and solo older raid content is a testament to how much goodwill there is towards these older experiences. In both Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria, older dungeons were revamped and raised to the then-level cap as heroics, and two older raids (Zul'Gurub and Zul'Aman) were brought into Cataclysm as five man dungeons to tie into a further storyline. Today, while reading the forums I came across a post by Nethaera that really sums up the difficulty in this kind of balance between player nostalgia and new experiences. One of the things I think Cataclysm showed us was that there are limits to how much time players will accept spent on revamping old content and that Blizzard really has to focus on what's new in order to keep the game moving forward. As much as we all love a good soak in nostalgia, it's never as good to actually eat the leftovers as we convinced ourselves it was.
The Daily Grind: How do you feel about recycling content?
When World of Warcraft announced that it was bringing back two older dungeons as new content, people cried foul for many reasons. Some were upset that Blizzard seemed to be trying to steal the thunder of RIFT's launch, but others were unhappy that the "new" content was the same as pre-existing content with a slight twist. Of course, one could argue the boss fights are new, the rewards are new, and the overall mechanics are new, meaning the only real points of similarity are the maps and the boss names. Depending on the individual, it's either a shameless re-use of older assets or a nice trip down memory lane. Some players are happy to see recycled content -- it's a chance for players who missed the original to experience a part of the game's history, and veterans get to go back to an area they're already familiar with. Other players are angry to see the old content turned obsolete in the first place, or they just don't like that the "new" material is just a retuning of something they've already done and moved past. What do you think? Do you like seeing recycled and remade content, or do you want your new material to be all-fresh? Or do you want to see a mixture of both in the update queue? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Community timing
Welcome to this week's installment of A Mild-Mannered Reporter, where we will not be talking about Going Rogue. Well, OK, that's a lie -- but we're not going to be doing our big analysis and in-depth look at the entire expansion. As of the time I'm writing these words, I've not actually even played the game. (This will have changed by the time you are reading the article, but that's the wonderful part about writing ahead. I'm sending messages to the future from the past!) So while there are going to be several community threads for City of Heroes in this column, there will not be any of the biting commentary you might have hoped to see. You can at least check out my first impressions of the expansion, if you'd like -- which also isn't written as of the time that I'm writing this, but will be by the time you read it. (Editor's note: Eliot's first impressions of Going Rogue launched Tuesday.) You know what, just jump past the break already -- I'm giving myself a Lost headache thinking about all the time travel.
The Daily Grind: Do you run old raid content?
One of the things that we heard about people doing over the recent holiday weekend was tackling legacy content. Why? Well, what we heard was mostly about how with people traveling, lots of raid schedules were changed. This meant "whoever can show up" groupings seemed to occur, with many of them heading for old raids (like the above Molten Core raid in World of Warcraft) for fun. Of course, this got us to thinking.... Does anyone just run old content for the fun of it -- at least, beyond the occasional raid-schedule disruption? Are you more focused on progressing in your game of choice? If you do like to check out old-school content, what is it about it that draws you? Did you never do it before? Did you prefer the mechanics? Or maybe you just like the storylines better. Let us know!
Bornakk hints that Tier 3 might be removed from the game
With solid confirmation that Naxx will be "floating" off to Northrend (and not exist in two places at once) also comes a strong hint by Bornakk that they will be removing the ability to get Tier-3 armor pieces along with the rest of the current Naxx loot. Bornakk says that "For players who want the look and the stats of tier 3 armor at level 80, hopefully they are already farming the dungeon for them." This is a very strong indication that post WotLK, the current Tier 3 gear will be no longer available.Before today it has been pure speculation that this removal of loot would or would not happen. The only time that the WoW Insider staff can think of this happening before (save for the holiday and special events) is with a few old mount models getting changed. And that is nothing compared to entire loot tables being removed from the game. Note that the changes in patch 2.3 to old world loot were just that – changes, not removal.In many ways this removal does make since, given that the armor models will be reused in Wrath of the Lich King's version of Naxx. While there is similar looking and colored gear floating around WoW, none of it is really twenty levels apart and powerful each in their own right.However with that said, the removal of items from the game like this stirs a mixed reaction in me.
AQ gates opened for players on transfer servers
Blizzard has just recently opened a new server over in the EU realms called Molten Core, and not only are they already seeing queues on there (due to all the migration), but Blizzard is thinking about opening the gates of AQ for them.Which strikes us as a little sad. Admittedly, the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj is a huge undertaking, and it would likely take a long time for the players on the new realm to get the War Effort over and done with (and surely Blizzard wouldn't want that competing for attention with any World Events planned for the next expansion). And even after the gates open, players can still complete that giant quest to get the Scepter anyway (just as they can right now on any other live realm). And as Blizzard says, most of these incoming players are coming from realms where the gates are open already anyway.But it's still a little sad that Blizzard is stepping in to open the gates automatically rather than leaving the task up to the players. Just like all of the old world instances, Blizzard seems more than happy to leave all their old content and hard work behind, and instead focus players on what's coming out in the future.
