Recently, in the MMORPG World of Warcraft , things have been turbulent. The community is upset about a multitude of issues. During a Q&A session, the responsible parties clarified some points.
The mood in World of Warcraft has been rather negative since the beginning of 2015. There are many little things that annoy players. After many jumped back into the adventure with Warlords of Draenor in November, perhaps completing the best leveling phase in the history of WoW, not much followed except for problems. The concepts showed weaknesses, and long-term motivation evaporated from WoW.
Lead developer Ion Hazzikostas now answered fans’ questions. We summarize the most important points for you, referring to a transcript by mmo-champion.
Twitter, 6.1, and the selfie camera
Some players were upset about the 6.1 update: They felt too little “content” had come. Selfie cameras or Twitter integration did not fit WoW.
Hazzikostas said:
- After the expansion, a holiday phase began at Blizzard; they wanted to add some little things beforehand, but they should have preferred to call the 6.1 patch 6.05.
- Both Twitter and the S.E.L.F.I.E. camera were small projects handled by a few developers who managed this alongside their regular tasks, which did not prevent other game content from being developed.
Garrisons a problem in Warlords of Warcraft
Garrisons indeed pose a problem because much that used to happen in the outside world of World of Warcraft now functions in the garrison. It was actually intended as game content to fill small sessions of a few minutes. However, players spend a lot of time in the garrison because it is the path of least resistance.
Especially gathering professions have suffered because players no longer venture out into the world but find everything in the garrison. Through the garrison, one does not feel like a craftsman, but like a collector of daily items. Additionally, players being able to acquire gear from raids also turned out to be a problem. When players arrived at the raid, they often already had the gear.
With the next patch 6.2, they aim to enhance the outside world again.
The issue with flying…
Flying in Draenor was also a hotly debated topic internally. They were relatively balanced until the end, but the majority advocated for a flying ban. After the fans’ reaction, it became clear that a compromise would be sought.
This should now also serve as a model for future expansions: Those who thoroughly explore the world on foot will also be able to take to the skies.
The relevant ability will not come immediately with patch 6.2, but that is just a technical issue; they do not want to delay it unnecessarily, but rather bring it as early as possible.
Dailies, instances, and reputation in Warlords of Draenor
Hazzikostas also admits difficulties with the reputation factions, instances, and daily quests.
The reputation factions were introduced as one of the last things. They really didn’t want them; in the end, they turned out to be pure mob grinds with weak rewards. The new reputation factions in 6.2 are supposed to be significantly better.
A similar problem existed with daily quests in 6.0. They wanted to move away from the overdose in Mists of Pandaria and create more freedom. They shifted from story quests to a model where one had to ensure order in an “area”. But this also removed the “story” behind the daily quests, making them seem arbitrary, and players had no connection to them.
Additionally, the rewards through the Apexis vendors were too weak and too expensive. With patch 6.2, the daily quests are expected to improve.
The instances in Warlords of Draenor were great, but they did not offer players a reason to visit them repeatedly.
And this is how we see it…
Mein MMO believes: Hazzikostas sees the problems just as clearly and sharply, if not even more so than the players.
Especially dailies, reputation factions, crafting, and instances were the backbone of the “everyday WoW” outside of raids. Each of these points has drastically changed with Warlords of Draenor, such that it no longer creates a “long-term connection”.
However, the statement regarding patch 6.1 does seem a bit strange. Apparently, Blizzard still does not have the schedules completely under control. If they would have preferred to call patch 6.1 patch 6.05, then we would still be 7 months later without the first major patch for WoW. However: It feels exactly like that. And that cannot have been the plan for World of Warcraft and Blizzard.
While everything is “running”, and the second raid appeared on time and as planned, it is still strange that they found no opportunity to adjust for problems over 7 months.
The problems that Hazzikostas analyzes have not just been present since yesterday; they have been relevant for many months. Reducing or strengthening the Apexis crystal rewards or creating incentives for instances are not things that necessarily needed to be part of a major patch. This could have been done as early as February or March.
In any case, the fault analysis is solid; Blizzard has some solutions ready with 6.2. We’ll see how they play out in practice.
