The major question regarding account-wide reputation seems to be finally clarified. In World of Warcraft, this has seemingly been decided.
In recent years, the community of World of Warcraft has become increasingly vocal. Many barriers in the game are regarded as annoying, and some long-time fans hardly dare to start a new character because they would have to give up a lot of what they’ve worked hard for.
Over the years, the developers have made more and more features and unlocks account-wide. However, one barrier still remains, but it will likely fall soon: account-wide reputation seems to be a done deal.
Who said that? The game director of World of Warcraft, Ion Hazzikostas, was interviewed by “MrGM”. Even though the interview primarily focused on the next Patch 10.1 Glut von Neltharion, most of the questions were directed at the future of WoW.
What was said about account-wide reputation? MrGM explained in the interview that he always has an internal barrier to play a new character seriously. Many of these barriers have been broken down over the years, but the reputation factions still exist. You do not like to leave behind a character that has farmed more than 100 reputation factions to exalted.
[If you want to play a new character], that means you have to leave things behind that you worked hard for and are tied to old characters. We know that it doesn’t feel good. Fundamentally, the direction we are moving as a team is to break down these barriers between characters and to allow your achievements as a player to stand on their own.
This is one of the remaining barriers and one that I want to address, but it is not a short-term priority.
In other words: Reputation will be account-wide sooner or later, even if it likely won’t happen with Dragonflight.
Which reputation factions would then be affected? That is still not quite clear. Even though they talked about both current and old reputation factions, for MrGM, the “legacy reputation factions” were especially problematic.
Those would be reputation factions that are not part of the current expansion. That also sounds like the logical step. After all, you do not want second characters to immediately buy strong equipment from new reputation vendors, but only to transfer the old cosmetic rewards and the feeling of being “done” with the respective faction.
When it will come, however, is still up in the air.
For the current factions, Blizzard has already activated a rather solid system for second characters. When the main character reaches a high reputation level (or in this case “glory”), second characters can earn reputation 100% or even 200% faster, making the grind significantly less. Second characters often reach the maximum reputation “on the side”, where the main character had to farm for a long time.
What do you think about it? Do you want account-wide reputation for all characters? And should this only affect “old” reputation or also current variants?
