Looking Ahead

It's usually about this time in the life of an expansion, not to mention we're a few months before Blizzcon, that many of us podcasters, bloggers and whatnot start playing the part of the WoW prophets and predict what we expect in the next expansion. Usually, that revolves around the setting, the big bad, and new races and classes. I'm not going that route, for the most part. I'm going to put on my game designer hat.  I'm not really predicting anything, just pointing out where I think Blizzard did a good job in Mists and were I think there is some low hanging fruit and easy wins for Blizzard when it comes to designing some parts of the next expansion.

If you've not seen WoWCrendor's video about what WoW would be like if the players designed it, watch it now.  While the video is funny, it's a pretty valid representation of how insane the game would be if every vocal minority got their way. While I understand that, I can't help but want to express the direction I would like to see the game head. Overall, I think I manage to do so with a pretty level head, but still, understand I'm not a game designer and there may be some fundamental aspects of designing a game that I simply don't know and therefore am out to lunch on some of my points.

Since this is probably going to be really long and wordy, lets jump right into it...

Leveling and Quests

Overall, I think the questing during the leveling process was well done.  The story of the new continent and the new race we've discovered was very well told, but there were a few that were disruptive or that I loathe repeating.  Chief among them is the quest where you play as an NPC that's telling what happened to them so far. It felt a bit like Rashomon, which was cool, but that's where the cool stops for me when I hit that quest.

One popular QQ topic is dailies. I think the lesson was learned on gating one set of dailies behind another like was done with Golden Lotus. In fact, they're removing that gate in 5.3. The dailies for 5.1, though, were extremely well done, pacing the story of the patch very well and not overly grindy (except that cave...damn that cave). The Isle of Thunder, contrary to popular belief, is a lot more than just dailies, so there's not much point diving into detail on how dailies have been handled since launch.

While the quests for leveling were probably the best I've seen in game, there needs to be more variety when it comes to dailies. I'm not sure if it's bad RNG, but some of the quests became really grindy over time while some of the more entertaining ones like Roll Club were rarely offered. Hopefully, this is something that can be 'fixed' in the next expansion.

Dungeons

Simply put, not adding dungeons to the game after Mists' launch was a mistake. Sure, there are new scenarios, new raids in the form of LFR, normal and heroic, as well as new areas added to explore and kill world bosses in. But this missed the mark with a lot of players.

Many players prefer 5 mans as their max level activity. For a game that leaned on these instances for so long, many of those players formed regular groups to run them with. Scenarios eliminate 2 from the group of friends. Besides that, what's the appeal of running the launch dungeons, now? If you're LFR geared (or better), you're not getting any upgrades.  Sure, you get valor, but that's too closely related to another topic, so we'll skip that part for now.

In terms of difficulty, the "level 90" dungeons are just too easy. I don't mean they're too easy now that we out gear them, I mean if you're fully equipped in 463 (the gear they drop) they're too easy. I know the folks who want more difficult content have challenge mode, but I still think "heroic" dungeons need to be more difficult, without being punishing. When content is too easy, it's not challenging. When content isn't challenging, it loses its fun.

I believe Blizz should plan from the beginning to add some 5 man content in the content patches. If that means we get a few less a launch - fine. And make them a little more difficult than they are now. All I'm saying is that they need to require more effort than we see now. Nothing like CC absolutely required, tanks and heals are gonna cry themselves to sleep difficult, but what we got were simply too face roll to be entertaining after a few times through.

Scenarios

Player opinion on these tends to run hot and cold. I'm pretty luke warm. I like them and can't wait to see what Blizz can pull off with this tech as it matures, but...I don't run them often. Sure it's basically an instant queue and a decent amount of Valor (again, another topic), but there is a problem with them.

The biggest problem with scenarios is that it alienates tanks and healers because they're not necessary (and in many cases a hindrance). I know Blizzard has the data on how players are playing and could probably say there is plenty of tank and healer representation in the scenarios, but I've seen people rage over a tank or healer being present. That's not very fun when you're the tank or the healer. Judging by the words expressed, it's apparently not fund for the DPS, either. Even though I tank, I despise playing melee DPS, so when I run a scenario on my DK I either have to go as a tank and run the risk of bringing down someone else's play time, or go as DPS and bring down my own...that's two fun options right there.

All in all I'm in favor of scenarios, though. I hope the plan isn't to replace 5 mans with them as part of the post-launch patch cycle. I know it's been said we'll get new 5 mans when we get the next expansion, but if the plan is to continue the trend that's developed in Mists, then I feel the need to repeat that I feel this is a mistake.

Raids

In my last blog, I expressed my frustration with the linear design of Throne of Thunder. There's not much need to go into detail since I already did, but I will reiterate that a linear raid with more than 8 bosses is not a design that is appealing to many players. If a tier is going to have more, break it up into multiple instances or make the raid design non-linear.

There needs to be something done to end the 10 vs 25 debate (so many other possible word choices for this). Kill one of them, or kill both and make it all 15, I don't care. It sucks to have to recruit, or cut, raiders but that didn't stop them from dropping from 40 man. It doesn't really matter since we're talking about in the next expansion.  Most raid teams experience roster churn around that time, anyway. Blizz needs to bight the bullet and make a change. sure, it will be painful and cause a lot of uproar in the short term, but in the long run the game will be better and the raiding community will benefit. The iron is hot, Blizz, strike now.

Another thing I'll add, though, that I specifically didn't address in my previous blog post is difficulty. For normal mode raiding (and if you listen to the show you know we've not yet started ToT normal), I think the 5.0 raids were pretty much on the money. There are a few fights that seemed out of place, though. For example, I think Stone Guard had insane mechanics for what was supposed to be the first raid boss in a tier. I'm not saying it's a bad fight, I'm saying the complexity of its mechanics was poorly placed in the line of progression.

To further highlight the difficulty curve we saw in 5.0 being askew, how is it a raid team can struggle against the final two bosses in Heart of Fear and then go one-shot the first two bosses in Terrace? Why is that?  You'd think that if we have to clear HoF in order to unlock ToES that it would be more difficult. Maybe there's some logic to that design, but not being a game designer I'm not sure what it is.

One last thing about difficulty. I think it would be a boon to non-LFR raiding if the difficulty was set somewhere between pre-nerf Dragon Soul pre-nerf T14. Not smack in the middle, probably closer to T14. On a scale of 1 to 10, if you consider 5.0 raids a 10, maybe make them a 9. This is less of a concern to me, really, but I do think it would encourage more people to raid normal modes as well as still be challenging enough for most normal mode raiders to not lose interest because it's too easy.

Reputation

There have been cries from players ranging from wanting tabards back to reputation being account-wide. I think both are a mistake. If we could get all of our rep with a tabard, we'd all just chain run dungeons until exalted, change tabards and do it again.  Once players are done with that, they'd be stomping their feet wanting new content because they're done.  I think the system allowing us to champion a faction is a perfect compromise and needs to stick around in the next expansion.

Nobody likes repeating a rep grind on an alt, but account-wide rep is way too easy mode. It's just an insta-win button for your alts. I think the bonus rep you can earn on alts once you bought the commendation was a very good 'fix' to the reputation grind. However, I have an idea to alleviate the reputation grind for alts, but I addressed it in the next section, which may seem out of place at first.

Currencies

Our top tier currencies (Valor and Conquest) seem fine, for the most part. They can be earned at a decent pace and the caps make sense.  If the caps weren't there, we'd be able to obtain the gear bought with them too quickly. The lower tier of the currencies become obsolete too early, though. Being a PvE player, I'm going to address Justice Points here, but my understanding of Honor is that it suffers a similar problem so some of the ideas may apply.

There are plenty of things players can do with Justice Points, like buying trade goods (even if it's an indirect route like buying Motes of Harmony, converting them to Spirits and then buying trade goods), but the way to do so is convoluted and overall, the value of this currency is so limited it's not worth having.

However, why not extend its lifespan by allowing players to spend Justice Points at a faction quartermaster on a BoA item that grants reputation from a that faction? Maybe something along the lines of needing to be exalted to buy and friendly to use and a limitation of using one per week. For example, once I've maxed reputation with Golden Lotus on my DK, I could spend 2500 Justice to buy this item and send it to my priest.  Once my priest has reached friendly with GL, he can use this item that grants him 1500 reputation. I could buy as many of these per week as I can earn Justice Points for, but my priest can only use one of them per week.

The specifics of my exmaple were pulled from thin air. Doing the math on this to balance out what reputation level would be required to buy and use the item, how much would be earned, as well as the cost is something I'm not sure how to approach, but Blizzard has some pretty crafty people and I'm sure they could figure this out. 

This seems like a good compromise.  Maybe because it's my idea, but it seems too good to me. The lower tier currency has a longer lifespan, the rep grind for alts get some relief and more players will be running 5 man content to earn Justice Points and none of it is in any way 'required'. There has to be a problem with it, but I'm not seeing it, to be honest.

New Race/class

There is a forum post, or several, almost every day revolving around what new race the poster is predicting, or what class, or they're asking for people to guess.  I don't think we need either, really, and I think we specifically need to not get a new class.

While we don't need a new race, if we get one there's nothing wrong with that.  I'd prefer our 'new race' be new models for our existing races, though. We've been waiting for it since before it was 'announced' at Blizzcon 2011 they were working on it and it's been mentioned a few times since.  I suspect these will be our 'new race'.

We don't need a new class, at all. I know some people probably just spat their drink on their monitor, but let me explain. Adding a 12th class will force further homogenization of the classes. Why? Because we already have 11 classes in a game where the most popular form of normal mode raiding only uses 10. Classes have had some of their unique abilities shared with others to help promote the 'bring the player, not the class' mindset, but it's pretty handy to have a timewarp/hero/lust available isn't it? If we add a 12th class, it will require more of those abilities/buffs to be shared and each class feel a little less unique. Now, if we were to see a change to all raiding being 15 man, this becomes less of a problem.

Talents

This is something that really makes me not envy the devs. Ghostcrawler has already said via twitter that the current talent system will be sticking around. Sure, some tweaks/changes will be made, but not an overhaul like we saw coming into Mists with "talents 2.0". I'll assume we get 5 levels in the next expansion, as we've seen in both Cataclysm and Mists. Does this mean we keep 6 tiers and don't start getting talents until we reach level 20, rather than 15? I hope not, for a few reasons.

For starters, that would mean even longer for a new character to start getting the really cool abilities. Secondly, not getting a new tier means we will have the same abilities. Who doesn't want a new can added to the case of whoop ass? This would also mean stagnation in terms of how we play our classes and would likely lead to player complaints of "nothing new" and "same old game". Ultimately, this would make game play feel pretty stale. We need another tier, and therefore an adjustment on which levels they're rewarded.

While I don't think the next expansion will take us to level 100, it would present some interesting options for talents if it did.  For starters, if we unlock a new talent tier every 15 levels like we do now, we'd get our first talent at level 10 (isn't that when we used to get them?) which makes the game a little more interesting to a new player just starting out. This assumes we get a new tier, which also makes the game a little more interesting for the max level character. Sounds like a win-win to me, but alas, I think we'll be stopping at 95 in the next expansion.

That's it. There are plenty of other points to talk about, for sure, but those are some of the topics that seem to be pretty constant or recurring over the past several months.  Like I said at the top, I think some of these are low hanging fruit that could help please some players.  I'm curious what other people think would be good changes from this point of view. More specifically, I'd love to see what holes people find in my currency/reputation idea.

Lig's view on raid design

This is something that's been stewing within me for a while and I had a mini rant in episode 120 when discussing a blue post (or tweet, don't really remember) regarding the size of the Orgrimmar raid being similar to the Throne of Thunder.

Seeing guilds like Vodka and Exodus merge only to call it quits 2 tiers later and to read the post of one of their members explaining how the 'hard core' raiders are a dying breed leads me to believe these large raids are less epic than people think. In fact, I think raids of more than, say, 8 bosses are bad for the game if they're linear in design.

Keep in mind, I'm not referring to the difficulty of the content, I'm referring to the way it's presented to the player. I think it's bad for the overall raiding community and only suitable for the players that lean toward the hard core (in terms of time commitment, mainly) or the players who are content with LFR being their end game (which is fine). The example I keep using (and admit I'm becoming a broken record with) is managing the raid lock.

I don't have any real numbers to base my claims on, but based on conversations with other raiders and what I've heard mentioned on other podcasts, I think it's safe to say that the bulk of raiders spend 6 or less hours per week raiding. Another assumption I'm using isn't mine, but a statement from Ghostcrawler: content is less fun once you stop getting rewards (via a tweet). For the most part, I agree with him, so I'm running with it.

Considering that, let's say a raid team is 5/12 in ToT, nobody needs anything from the first 3 bosses but the 4th and 5th drop upgrades. In the overall interest of progression, both in terms of the individual raiders and the team itself, they probably need to let their raid lock expire, drudge through the first three bosses and consume most, if not all, of a night of their schedule with no reward (and, therefore, no fun). This compounds the further they progress. At 9/12, that same raid team may have to spend an entire raid lock just killing off bosses to get to one where they can get an upgrade.

That's not conducive to keeping the attendance boss at bay. Nor is it 'epic' in terms of raid design. More importantly, it's not fun. Most people who have responsibilities like job, family etc simply don't have enough time to spend 6 hours of their busy life purposefully not having fun in a game, just so they can spend 6 hours next week playing to have fun. I know, some can make that argument for every aspect of an MMO (leveling, 5mans to get gear to raid, dailies for rep to unlock gear etc), but all of those aspects do have a reward and you're probably not repeating them every week or so expecting nothing in return.

If there were bosses that we could skip, this wouldn't be an issue. Look at Ulduar, which many revere. Your raid lock reset and don't need anything from Razorscale? SKIP IT! Sure the various paths you can take to the end converge at certain points, but there were tons of choices left to the players. It was epic in size and the design wasn't linear. This is why Ulduar was epic in design, not to mention the variable difficulty of the encounters.

The linear design of ToT, and my gut is telling me the Orgrimmar raid, kills the epic feel. We were told leading up to Mists that we were being given options on how to play, options on ways to progress our characters. Options empower you, options make things fun. Yet we get an 'epic' raid that's of linear design giving us only one choice - to run it or not.

Some people say LFR is there for people who "don't have time to raid". That may be true, but I do not want LFR to be my end game. If LFR is your end game, and you're ok with that, that's cool. It's your game time, if you're enjoying yourself, more power to you. Besides, the amount of time I have available to raid hasn't changed since I started raiding ICC, the game has. Also, when it comes to fun, I equate LFR to social events you're obligated to attend, but don't want to. You dislike every moment of it, but you do it anyway, because it's just what people do.

I know it's unlikely any of the devs will see this. I know that if they do see it, it's probably too late to change anything for the 5.4 raid. Besides, I wouldn't expect them to listen to me and say, "that podcast dude who's never designed a game is right, we totally screwed the pooch." I'm simply saying that WoW seems to be headed in a direction that doesn't fit me as a gamer, and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone. I don't want that to happen. I love this game, the story it tells, the people I've met through it.

Maybe this sounds like the ravings of an entitled casual to you. I'm not saying I want free boss kills or free gear. Hell, I disagreed with the folks who wanted tabards for reputation to come back. I was and am in favor of gear being locked behind reputation. I'm saying that the current trend in raid design presents me with two options that are not fun to me - accept LFR as my end game or play the raid lock reset game. In all honesty, I'd rather go have fun in another game. If wanting to have fun in my video games is the attitude of an entitled person, then I guess I am entitled.

Am I quitting? Nope, but I'd be lying if I said it hadn't crossed my mind. I'm here until at least the second raid tier of the next expansion, but if the direction then is the same as now...this priest might have to hang up the robes.

An open letter to WoW podcasters

I received and email today from a listener requesting that I read the following on our show.  Thinking that posting their message in a blog may be help share this persons concerns, I asked if it was ok with them for me to post their message here and they agreed.  

As a podcaster, and a listener to many other podcasts (WoW and non-WoW alike), I don't think I can agree more with the author.  

This is a direct copy/paste, so any grammar or spelling mistakes are their own (and they apologized for them in the header of the email), but the point is very clear.  I wanted to include the message as-is to avoid adding any emphasis of my own. Regardless, here's the email they sent...

Disclaimer: I would like to say that I do not personally know all of the facts behinds the scenes of this issue so what I am about to write only pertains to what I have garnered from listening to various shows and from twitter.

 Hello WoW Podcast Community,

 I am not a podcaster, but I am an avid listener of WoW podcasts.  It has been quite evident to most listeners that there are some tensions rising from the depths of the WoW podcasting community. This seems to be revolving around comments made from one particular podcast.  They have expressed an extreme frustration over several reports of scams that have hidden on the pretense of honorable charity causes.  They have also expressed frustration over what endeavors are worthy of soliciting funds from listeners.  I full heartily agree that scamming people under the disguise of an honorable charity is despicable and completely unacceptable. 

 It also appears that these individuals may have been personally hit by such a scam.  If this is the case I totally understand their extreme emotions towards this topic.  Anyone would feel cheated and victimized by such an event.  However, I disagree with how they are presenting this in their show.  There is always a right way and a wrong way to handle various situations.  Before leaping into an emotionally driven action take some time to settle down and think before you speak.  Generalizing and slandering all charity events that you are not personally familiar with is most definitely not the appropriate action in this case.  I know that this is just podcasting but you have an influence over your listeners and fans.  Therefore, you have a moral and ethical responsibility to accurately report things in an appropriate manner (This same issue is well know and the cause of much debated in recent years within main stream media and the news).  A more constructive use of your influence within the community would be to raise awareness of these scams and ways to prevent your listeners from becoming a victim of them.  Educate the community how to recognize the red flags of these scams.   Discuss appropriate methods of researching charity events in an attempt confirm their authenticity.  This would be the responsible and appropriate action to take.  Arm your audience with the knowledge to prevent such incidents in the future.

 This now said, things have already progressed passed this point.  It seems to me that pride, stubbornness, and a lack of accountability is just letting this situation spiral out of control.  Instead of defending a rage reaction to a personal incident just admit that you allowed your emotions to run a little wild and that perhaps you should have researched some of events you mentioned before you decided to slander and defame them.  Take some accountability for an honest mistake and apologize to those that deserve it, it is the honorable and decent thing to do.  Everyone makes mistakes and owning up to them leads to forgiveness and more importantly respect.

 As for whether it is appropriate to attempt to raise funds through your fans to go to BlizzCon, well that’s a separate issue.  I may or may not agree with this personally, however it is not my place to tell others how to spend their hard earned money.  To each their own in this situation, therefore its not even worth discussing on the air.

 Thanks for your time,

 Concerned Podcast Listener.

Thank you!

We're a little more than 24 hours after our marathon event ended and we've all mostly recovered.  One thing that I think is going to take more than a day or two to adjust to is the fact that we achieved our goal.  When we set the $1000 goal we thought we were being ambitious.  Honestly, we had some doubts about reaching half that amount so exceeding it just hasn't 'sunk in' yet.

This is the point where you come in.  We couldn't have raised a penny for Child's Play, let alone reach our goal, if it wasn't for the support from the community.  The support from you guys kept us going during the 24 hours.  Seeing the active chat room, seeing the dollar amount on the widget go up at the pace that it did, all of it.  We can't thank you enough, really.

And to the folks who stayed up the entire time with us - you are a special kind of crazy and we love you for it.

This was the first time we've done anything like this, but we're already talking about doing another.  We learned a bit from mistakes and oversights and we think we can have a better, more well thought out event by using what we learned here.  When will this event happen, you may ask?  We don't know.  When looking at the calendar and the events already coming (anybody hear about that  'Blizzcon' thing?), real life commitments and events...pencil us in for the same time next year.

Regardless, the only thing left to say right now is that the success we had this weekend is what makes this community special and makes us proud to be part of it.

Marathon Update

Just a quick update on a few things about our upcoming marathon.  Some email addresses have changed to make things easier for everybody.  I'll correct the links below as well, but wanted to put this here just to make things more clear.

We will not be accepting We've setup some google web forms to use for submission. Once we open registration (March 1), there will be a new tab along the top here called 'Epic Marathon'.  The link will not work until registration is open, but here's a direct link: http://epicpodcast.squarespace.com/epic-marathon/ Forms for both events will appear on the page. All you need to do is fill out the appropriate one (or both, if you're so inclined).

Also, to get the rules sent to you, you can still send to the old (longer, more difficult to pronounce) email addresses, but also sending to epicpodcast+hots@gmail.com and epicpodcast+pets@gmail.com will result in a copy of the tournament rules being sent in reply.

That's if for the update.  We look forward to seeing you all during the stream