Is Wrath too easy?
by Michael Gray 
Nov 19th 2008 at 6:00PM
Wrath of the Lich King has been out for a week. In that time, we've had the world's first level 80, the first complete and total clear of all raid encounters, and what seems like a billion "realm firsts." That didn't take long, did it? So, Tevri from Shandris dropped by the forums to question whether Wrath "is too easy."
Zarhym showed up, in his classic witty manner. He points out that the folks who're doing this immediate clearing are, in general, the same folks who've done every raid encounter in WoW for like . . . ever. In a sense, they're pretty high on the "pro" scale. (For the record, they are 25 people out of 11 million subscribers. Certainly, others have done the content by now, but it would take 110,000 people having completed the raid to say even 1% has "beat the game." ) Zarhym also cautions about relying on "truthiness" to judge the content -- which is to say, going with your intuition when the facts are still out.
It's certainly true that we keep hearing about how easy Wrath is, or how it's somehow been "dumbed down." I'm a firm believer that you can only brush aside so much smoke before you have to admit there's a fire somewhere. So, yeah, the game is probably easier than it used to be. But I think it's more fair to say that end-game content is more accessible than simply "easy." We've seen the desire for accesibility repeated in phrases like Ghostcrawler's "Bring the player, not the class." It's repeated when Blizzard considered moving away from class forums into role forums.
I think the issue, here, is one of pacing and intent. Is Blizzard creating a game meant for someone who constantly strives to be a total completionist? How much weight do they place on the race-to-completion when they build content? What portion of players actually "raid competitively?" We know Karazhan was among the most visited instances in the game, even if it eventually became simple farming material for many. What conclusions has Blizzard drawn from that instance's success?
These are the questions that make debating the topic of Wrath's "easy mode" so difficult. We don't have a firm knowledgebase to be able to advance ideas. Is Wrath easy because it's meant to be an entry level for everyone, or is it easy simply because we haven't seen Ulduar yet? It's impossible to have a real answer, but Zarhym does promise that Blizzard is watching the situation.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Expansions, Forums
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 10)
offday Nov 19th 2008 6:08PM
Here we go. Here come the "Blizzard is targeting the casual crowd and screwing everyone else other" comments.
joerendous Nov 19th 2008 6:22PM
isn't "everyone else" the casual crowd?
pudds Nov 19th 2008 7:04PM
Joe wins.
It's not "casuals and everyone else", it's "hardcore and everyone else".
The vast, VAST majority of players in this game are casual. A quick walk around any major city Pre-3.0 would have shown you a multitude of non-70s, 70s geared in blues and kara epics, and full honor pvp gear. These are the people that don't raid 5 days a week, and perhaps don't even play 5 days a week.
These are the majority of the playerbase, and this time around, the focus is on them.
Urza Nov 19th 2008 9:16PM
I'd rather they target the casual crowd. More people fall into the "I don't run an instance 10 times to get all the loot" category then not. These are the people that don't have all the gear from Kara.
If Wrath is "too easy" it's likely because the people that ran Kara 50 times are overbuffed compared to your average player. Run Heroic without being an 80 and tell me it's too easy. :P
bleh Nov 19th 2008 11:53PM
blizzard isn't catering to the casuals, they are catering to the entitled casuals who feel they deserve every epic piece of gear from every raid without putting in any real effort/work.
The fact that all the raid content has been cleared by people in lvl 70 gear, with many not even at the level cap yet tells me that blizz turned down the meter too far and made this game a joke. I will reserve my "real" rant for a couple months when every drooling idiot is 10manning the 25man naxx and there is no 'game' left but just a glorified chat room.
Even casuals should be bothered by the fact that blizzard is catering to the lowest common denominator. People who want something for nothing, people that cry and moan and complain that they cant get warglaives since they only play 2hours a week and "that isnt fair" or "they arent no-lifers" and bla bla. These are the people that will cause the downfall of WoW, because they are the majority in this game, and they are paying customers.
Just watch, in a few months when everyone realizes that this content is a joke - and there is no challenge left in the game, and the only thing left is a bunch of babies crying for nerfs and free gear and easy content and you will see WoW start to die. And maybe, just maybe, will you casuals begin to understand why us hardcore gamers despise the entitled brats of our world.
realmreaver Nov 20th 2008 12:03AM
Sorry to say this but again Blizzard dropped the ball.
Casuals deserves nice lookin blues and DKs prove you can have blue gear and still look pretty good. Hardcore deserves epics and they deserve content that makes those weapons epic to obtain. 3 steps would resolve ALOT.
1. Separate 5 mans into 'reg' and 'heroic' these drops blues and purples relative to level (so a level 79 purple is still a full 'tier' under naxx 25 man stuff)
2. Separate PvP into 'casual and 'hardcore' Casual being blues and under and hardcore being Purples plus.
3. Separate Raids into 10 and 25 mans which drops blues and purples in that order.
Casuals and yes I am one of them does not NEED epics. What both Casuals and Hardcore DOES need? Balance and Blizzard cannot seem to do it right outside RTSs
Irony Nov 20th 2008 2:15AM
Ah, more "us hardcore" vs "you casuals" rant.
Kind of amusing how the hardcore crowd bandy around words like "entitled brats"... when they are the ones doing the qq. Childish, much?
Casuals just keep doing what they enjoy best - playing.
Cyanea Nov 20th 2008 4:16AM
I'd...like to point out that Wrath has been out for a WEEK. Sunwell Plateau, admittedly the hardest raid in all of WoW before Wrath's release was opened three months after Burning Crusade's launch.
I'm sure Blizzard has plenty, plenty, PLENTY more surprises up their sleeves for the coming months.
Defoe Nov 20th 2008 5:47AM
Bleh - that you have used the phrase "effort/work" shows you do not have the perspective to understand why the changes have been made, and who they were made for.
Thankfully people like you are in the minority.
Raven Nov 20th 2008 7:36AM
"Sunwell Plateau, admittedly the hardest raid in all of WoW before Wrath's release was opened three months after Burning Crusade's launch."
Uhh... what?
Burning Crusade: January 16, 2007
Patch 2.4.0: 25 March, 2008
You mean a year and three months... right?
DanH Nov 20th 2008 8:21AM
In response to the person above who suggested that "hardcore" players "deserved" epics in return for all their effort.
Isn't that kind of backward logic?
Epics, having better stats than lesser gear, make your character more powerful, which means they effectively make the game *easier*. Once you run out of new raids to run through, each new piece of kit you acquire will just make the game less challenging, and the challenge is, allegedly, what the "hardcores" are all about.
I mean, you wouldn't suggest that, because he's the greatest chess player in the world, Kasparov should get to use more pieces than everybody else.
Raaj Nov 20th 2008 9:49AM
"Casuals and yes I am one of them does not NEED epics. What both Casuals and Hardcore DOES need? Balance and Blizzard cannot seem to do it right outside RTSs"
It's a damn good thing that you aren't on the design team then. As per your own suggestion, I'd like you to try balancing things around 1 group of people being perpetually stuck in blues and the other having access to the best of the best epic gear. How exactly would you go about balancing that?
Ryan Nov 20th 2008 12:45PM
You're right, the casual vs. hardcore argument in incredibly inane.
The raid content that shipped with Wrath is tuned to be beatable by just about anyone ... by design. This is not a bad thing as it is the entry level content. There will be less experienced guilds that struggle, but it will not be a monumental task to complete the content like the opening raids of TBC were.
There will be challenges to come, but for now gear up and get ready.
bleh Nov 20th 2008 2:55PM
Ok, I just want to clear one thing up. I am not hating casuals, nor am I in the whole hardcore vs. casual mindset. I dislike people who feel ENTITLED to something they didn't work for or earn.
In other words, I am against people complaining that the game isn't fair because someone who puts in more time and effort gets something that they cant either because they suck, or they dont have the time.
If your a casual, thats great - go be a casual and run your 5mans, but dont complain because people who have the time or put in the effort get more than you - that is fundamentally NOT FAIR. QQ
Judging by my previous comments rating, I suspect that WoWInsiders majority consist of the "I want everything while doing no real work" mindset so it will not surprise me to watch this get voted down.
TL;DR = casuals are cool, entitled people suck, and wow is EZ.
Kaelendra Nov 24th 2008 5:39AM
I'd be willing to bet part of the whole 'easier' bit is due to the fact that as they get higher up in levels the problem is what about when people decide they really want to roll a healer and don't have one or a newb starts to play? All of a sudden they need to work from 1-80 and they probably prefer people to feel less intimidated by the idea of doing so.
People starting new chars spreads out the numbers of where people are on the servers plus it keeps your player base sticking around for more. The longer they stick round the more money the company makes plus the more likely they are to encourage friends to join and play.... once again more money for the company.
JPN Nov 19th 2008 6:09PM
It's hard to get it perfect so at least this time it's on the side of easy instead of hard...
Kyle Nov 19th 2008 6:10PM
IDK but the 5-mans seem insanely easy, even though the bosses have much better and more interesting mechanics.
Clevins Nov 19th 2008 6:42PM
This. In T4/badge gear at 72 I've cleared the first 5 instances, mostly with people in similar gear and at similar levels. This includes Ahn'kahet and Drak, which are mid-70s. In 9 runs I've died twice. We've never used CC.
Yes, it's easy. Might be harder for new 70s coming straight from Outland with a mix of blues and greens of course. And that's the problem - Anyone who started playing around TBC ship or before has probbably been 70 for a long time and has a ton of gear. It's hard to balance encounters for us and for newly minted 68s or 70s who never got Kara or badge gear much less the higher level stuff.
Relk Nov 20th 2008 8:52AM
I disagree with the 5mans are easier than ever logic. Having just leveled a Death Knight to 70, I am in quest blues and greens (and no, not just the dk starting set). In a group with a few like geared people (including a DK tank and a season 2+ geared warrior), we did have some trouble in the Nexus.
Say what you want about me being a noob and such, but I chose to play the death knight over my epicly geared pally, hunter or shaman because I wanted to see Northrend from the questing straight through prospective. So far, I would say it picks up from TBC nicely.
Think of it this way, if you were a level 39 twink, SM Cath wouldn't be hard either. ;)
Southrncomfortjm Nov 20th 2008 10:26AM
That's because you've played for the last 2-4 years and have learned how to deal with certain mechanics of bosses. You run out of the fire; you stack on a boss that charges; you don't stand anywhere near the front of any boss because 95% of them cleave; on and on.
Take any of these instances, for the most part, and put them at the beginning of TBC in our progression and they would be hard. They would be hard because we didn't get much of that Pre-TBC in plain vanilla Wow that all the hardcore people miss so damn much. Yeah, back when only 2% of players ever saw the inside of MC.
Yes, that version of the game was *soooo* much better.