Hardcore vs Casual: there’s trouble in World of Warcraft
Originally planned as a follow-up to Warcraft III, World of Warcraft saw Blizzard take a bold step into the unknown. It wasn’t the first game in the MMO genre yet brought in millions of players, taking the world by storm in 2004.To get more news about
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With World of Warcraft: Shadowlands having recently launched, casual and hardcore players are at odds with what they want Blizzard to bring to the table.
Casual players are somewhat of an untapped market for Blizzard, resulting in nerfing high-level gear in the name of accessibility. Whilst there’s an argument to be made for an MMO opening its doors to a more extensive subscriber base, hardcore players have grafted for similar items just months previously.
We’re investigating the current problems World of Warcraft faces in the wake of its eight expansion. We partied up with Amber Stott and Samuel Minett-Monro to get both a hardcore and casual player viewpoint.It makes sense for players to work/grind for high ranking gear by running endgame content. For MMOs such as WoW, however, new players need a taste of what’s to come. Boss fights in the latest expansion have a lower “soak” count, making for a more manageable challenge. New players also have access to quest storylines and friendly neighbourhood guilds, which sounds quite accessible in itself.
TSA: Is this a case of Blizzard giving too much to players? Or is it more a case of hardcore players being sore about working so hard for now readily available loot?
Amber: No matter what Blizzard does, someone will be unhappy. Blizzard gives too much to the casual player because they are panicking due to the long wait for new content since Shadowlands initial release. Instead of giving us new content, they have just nerfed certain aspects of the game and given us Valor points.
Samuel: Comparing February 2005 to now, Blizzard is giving away too much to casual players. Fortunately, the game’s balance is not solely dependent on loot any more as it was back in the day.
The skill requirement for WoW’s endgame is praised highly in the MMO community regardless of your allegiance. Skill caps ensure that even if a more casual player gets very lucky and comes across perfect gear unless they are as skilled as the endgame players, they will not compete. That goes for raiding, Mythic+ or PvP.
You also have to consider many cosmetic rewards in-game that a casual player will not acquire unless they reach the same level as those hardcore players. Currently, the balance is excellent for new players to experience some endgame content whilst ensuring hardcore players have plenty of in-game rewards for their extensive-time played.Regardless, it’s clear that hardcore players are feeling the failure of Blizzards balancing act. It’s no secret that Blizzard have bowed down to the majority vote of fan demand, which isn’t always in the game’s best interest. With this in mind, overall revenue is down 61%, with users down by 41% from November to January, according to Superdata.
Amber: Subscription drops after an expansion release are entirely average for any expansion release that I’ve known since I began playing in Wrath of the Lich King, so I guess this is expected. I’ve found this expansion is like marmite; you either love it or hate it. I love Shadowlands. As for the subscription, the switch has been received poorly by the entire WoW community, and I feel that Blizzard are trying to rinse people of more money.
Samuel: The overall revenue drop is an expected trend that matches the previous few expansions. The fall looks higher than average due to a much bigger launch of this expansion than the previous few. In many ways, the last year has shown that Blizzard has started to listen more to their players.
A few heavily disliked prior expansion systems have been removed, the RNG-heavy Titanforging and Warforging being two. In the run-up to Shadowlands, they extended the game wide experience boost during lockdown to all level up our alts easier. The many limitations they planned to put in the new Shadowlands feature “Torghast” on the run-up to launch were fiercely rejected amongst the community, and Blizzard yet again listened. It was a nice change compared to the silence received during the last expansion. The shift in bi-monthly subscription only is an unfortunate one.
