No matter what you do, in World of Warcraft: Legion, everything is somehow relevant – and that for quite a while. Masterstroke or recycling?
Endless gameplay content thanks to random upgrades?
During the past GamesCom, Slootbag had the opportunity to conduct a quite lengthy interview with Ion Hazzikostas, one of the leading figures behind World of Warcraft. Besides the dungeon design and nerfing of interface addons, the topic of “relevant content” was also discussed. In Warlords of Draenor, for instance, instances offered no incentive after the first or second visit.
While the developers have created “pseudo-incentives” such as valor points and gold rewards, visiting an instance was still not really worthwhile. With the random item upgrade system, (almost) all game content will remain interesting in the long term and regularly provide players with upgrades for their characters. Whether through world quests, dungeons, LFR raids, PvP, or more professional raids, every gameplay aspect can consistently yield something meaningful.
But while players on one side are happy to have a large selection of content, others describe the system as “recycling” or claim that “casuals could now be better equipped by luck than professional raiders” – which is theoretically true.
What do you think of the new mechanics?
Mein-MMO says: We tend to be pessimistic when it comes to announcements of new content, and especially the myth of “long-relevant” content has been heard too many times (not only in World of Warcraft). However, our visits to the beta have shown that the system has potential. Especially with world quests and popular instances, it can be much more fun knowing that even on the 20th visit something nice can drop.
Whether this will work in the live version or whether it will be more of a thorn in the side for the majority of players, as now “everyone can achieve everything, even with pet battles” (somewhat exaggerated), remains to be seen.
You can find more about the upcoming expansion on our Legion overview page.
