Breakfast Topic: Should Blizzard take away earned titles and rewards?
by Aiden James Kosciesza 
Feb 10th 2011 at 8:00AM
When patch 4.0.6 hit, I logged into the game excited and eager to see all of the new changes. The first thing that I noticed was that I was no longer The Exalted, a title I'd worked hard to achieve, but had somehow been demoted to Chef. Strange. Maybe Blizzard just reset everyone's titles. I went through my title collection, intending to turn The Exalted back on, and saw that it had been removed entirely. I checked my achievements. I still had 40 exalted reputations, but it no longer conferred a title; nor did 45 exalted reputations, which I don't have yet. The Exalted was my favorite title and the one I wore at all times. What had Blizzard done with it?
Turns out that unlike other achievements and rewards, which stay with you once you've earned them, Blizzard has made the decision to move this title, taking it away from those who had earned it previously. As I understand it, you can get your title back once you've hit 50 exalted reputations, which seems to be the new standard, but it sounds like Blizzard plans to take the title away again every time it adds a new batch of reputations.
Personally, I think that's a terrible idea. Other rewards aren't rescinded when something new comes along. Stinker, the reward for collecting 50 companion pets, was not magically unlearned when the 75 pet achievement was released. Ulduar drakes did not vanish into smoke when ICC drakes came around. Yes, it's true that Blizzard picked the perfect title for The Exalted, and anything else would be inferior. That doesn't diminish the efforts of the people who already worked for it.
What do you think? Was removing the title (and changing it to the 50 reputations achievement) the right thing to do? Or did Blizzard drop the ball on this one?
| Yes, the decision was appropriate. | |
|---|---|
| No, players who earned the title should have kept it and another title should have been chosen for a new achievement. |
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 10)
Jay Feb 10th 2011 8:05AM
I think if they added a new title, it would be like "the Super Exalted", or w/e cool name they come up with, which would be weird cause then every 10-15 reps there will be a new "exalted" title.
At the same time, i feel for ppl losing somehting they rightfully earned in wrath.
Lose-lose situation.
Ullaana Feb 10th 2011 9:35AM
More Exalted, Most Exalted, Highly Exalted, Exhausted Exalted... Should I go on.
C'mon Blizzard, be as creative in this title as you are in the rest of the Game.
Chmmr Feb 10th 2011 10:26AM
Being exalted with old groups that barely have any current relevance, means you are no longer exalted by the groups that now matter.
Losing your title should be how it works. Next xpac, the current "Exalted" will lose their titles again, and have to rep-up to get them back.
This is how being "exalted" by groups of people in the real world works.. big fish, small pond.. pond got bigger..
Donhorn Feb 10th 2011 10:31AM
Honestly I think they should do the same thing they did with "The Explorer". They updated the meta but if you already had the title you still kept it. But if you didn't earn it before the update you had to do the extra work. They also did the same thing for "Loremaster" if I recall.
dyrtbagg Feb 10th 2011 10:38AM
Exalted, Exalteder, Exaltedest. Look it up
god, i'm going to hillbilly hell for that
Majikthyz Feb 10th 2011 10:38AM
You got to be "The Exalted" when you had sufficient reps of those available but when many more become available you need to re-earn the title. Don't be sad little whingers that want evrything grandfathered to you because you have been playing for sooooo long.
WoWie Zowie Feb 10th 2011 10:39AM
yes, i believe you should keep the title you have, and even transforming the title to something else, but not make it poof completely.
here's a case in point:
my "loremaster" title got completely undermined when 4.0.1 dropped. it was so much more incredibly difficult to achieve loremaster pre cata.
then, after the sundering, all quests were changed and new zone achievements were added, making it so much more trackable and easier. yet the title stayed the same.
so like this OP, i firmly believe that pre-cata loremasters should have gotten an alteration to their loremaster titles. a feat of strength or maybe change the name to "executive loremaster" (haha) or "loremaster prime" or whatever. those are all silly examples for sure, but my point is there now is absolutely ZERO reward for having done it the hard way. something that the great blizzard gods seem to botch up constantly. like how there was zero reward for doing ICC without the 30% buff. this undermines their own game and also my efforts that i pour into it.
no retroactive credit was given for zone achievements for current loremasters. no distinction was made for vanilla loremasters vs cata loremasters. so hence there is no incentive to do these things until it can all be cheesed in a later patch. again, undermining the game.
inb4 "the reward is being able to display your title for months before others".
apparently those in that school of thought don't know what makes an achievement whore tick. cutting out the distinction of earning it the hard way also cuts out enjoyability of the game. and ultimately makes it worth less to play.
anyway, sorry that i went off on a tangent about loremaster when this topic is about "the exalted" but the resentment is of the same thread. you can't go around stripping achievements already earned, i would very much recommend altering the title or achievement instead.
it's not that Feb 10th 2011 11:03AM
@WoWie,
"but my point is there now is absolutely ZERO reward for having done it the hard way"??
Honestly, if the ONLY reason you play the game is to get a title to flex your epeen, you need some help.
I understand that it's cool to accomplish stuff in a game. I honestly do. But "ZERO" implies that's you're only reason. If you haven't guessed by now, Blizzard's MO is to make things easier as time goes by. You're reward for being uber, is to get things first/faster and/or feel like your "achievement" actually was an achievement. There are exceptions, but stop expecting Blizzard to reward you indefinitely for something you did ___ months/years ago.
Tribunal Feb 10th 2011 11:06AM
I understand their desire to keep the difficulty and not have to have an adjective title (read: understand, not nec agree).
BUT I shouldn't be in fear for my other rewards. It was bad enough losing points when Cataclysm came out and so many things were made into FoSs.
In my opinion: If I earn it, it's mine. The 'becoming easier with time' is inherent in rep achievements. Have tiered rewards, like the pet and mount achievements, or just deal with it.
But stop making some achievements 'safe' and others 'not safe' and even worse, the vast majority of them up in the air depending on what they decide 'feels right'.
Noyou Feb 10th 2011 12:25PM
It sucks. I don't get the logic because the 5 reps they have added you can get tabards for and it shouldn't be that bad getting them back. The harderst part is getting to 40 and taking at away from those who hit it already is just a slap in the face. Something that if they keep up they will be asking themselves "where did all those subscriptions go?"
Skarn Feb 10th 2011 1:01PM
I voted "no," but there really should have been a third option. "No, I think people should have kept it, but new people would need 50 reps." It's fair because pre-Cata, 40 reps was very hard to get. Just as hard as 50 reps is to get now. The title represents a lot of hard work, no matter when you earned it, so long as it's updated with each expansion.
I agree with Donhorn, let people keep the title, but update a meta or something. On the other hand, I disagree with Ullaana. I don't want to see 15 different "the [adjective] Exalted" titles. It's already silly enough with the professions. What's next, "Superb Awesome Wonderful Spectacular Illustrious Grand Master? That's just ridiculous. Don't do that to the Exalted, it's too cool.
By the way, I'll never get that many reps. I've never had enough for the title, I never will, but I absolutely think that people that earned it should keep it.
Aris Feb 10th 2011 1:02PM
Guess I'm definitely in the minority here, then. I don't really mind this change.
I earned "the Exalted" in Wrath and don't yet have my 50 (currently at 47). I've been wearing my exalted title since I earned it because I think it's an awesome title as well as I'm proud of the amount of work I put in to get it. I also have the old school Explorer and Loremaster titles and I'm ok with those not having a special flag saying so. I know when I earned them and if anyone wants to compare notes, feel free to look at my date stamps.
I think the difference between this and other achievements which were grandfathered in, is that the reps can still be earned and the amount available factions is ever increasing. I like that there is a title (and it's just one, admittedly cool, title) that you have to work to not only achieve, but keep. It continues to make it mean something and keeps it relevant.
eyeball2452 Feb 10th 2011 1:53PM
Yeah, silly maneuver. I think rep grinding is a waste of time, but that's just my opinion. I understand that some people take great pride in being exalted with all the factions and to take away the achievement for all that time spent was an awful design decision.
It also highlights a major problem with Blizzard over the last couple of years. They teach people to play and act a certain way and then don't seem to understand why people complain when they're forced to change. I understand that there's some turnover in the design team, but I fell like Blizzard lacks focus and the ability to provide that "polish" that they once put on everything.
Now, I expect recycled and broken from them. I think they would have been better off maintaining WoW as their cash cow and moving up the release date of their other games in order to maintain a brand that's been tarnished heavily over the last few years.
woshiernog Feb 10th 2011 2:27PM
The way I see it, you can't be ranked #1 in something and expect to keep it without doing that something for a year. Also there is less motivation to get keep playing (key words) and get more exalted reputations if you already have the title. The whole point of an MMO is that its always ongoing and always evolving. If you don't keep up, you'll get left behind.
Of course if this happen to me, I would also be upset.
Ronin Feb 10th 2011 3:10PM
A much smarter way to go, IMO, would have been something like this:
Those how already have the achievement, get to keep it. However, if they want to retain the title, they then have ________ months to get to the new exalted benchmark.
That way, they're not taking titles away from people who have already earned it, _and_ they can increase the number of factions you need to be exalted with for the title. If someone already has the title, and wants to keep it, they simply need to grind rep with the extra factions-- but in the meanwhile, they keep their title.
My guess is that most people would the reasoning behind that, and accept it.
Rhev Feb 10th 2011 8:08AM
I JUST hit 40 exalted reps last night too.
*Glare*
Firestyle Feb 10th 2011 8:09AM
If someone earned 40 exalted reputations prior to cata, the title should remain as the achievement was as difficult as intended to be.
If anything, there are only 5 easy reps to grind in cata, from the standard factions and the title could have been adjusted to 45 for them. However, the adjustment to 50, makes a player not just have to get the easy cata reps, but actually do more hard work, to pick up 5 more. That work is above and beyond what was originally required + easy cata rep and they've actually made the achievement harder.
Maybe they need need to ask themselves next time they give us one raid for 11 months, how many players are going to have a lot of free time to grind rep for achievements, and then maybe make a new raid to take up that time instead of having more players get more rep with more factions than they really want.
Aanye Feb 10th 2011 8:16AM
This, exactly. At first I was thinking, "Well that's BS." But as my wife pointed out, the period of time between Cata and 4.0.6 gave people plenty of opportunity to get extra exalted reps under their belt, without a lot of effort. Had they made the new achievements prior to Cata, they could easily have grandfathered in the old Exalteds. As it is though, better to keep the title meaningful.
Sleutel Feb 10th 2011 8:23AM
@Aanye:
You say "This, exactly" and then seem to completely disagree with it.
There's no reason that they couldn't have grandfathered in the old title and then boosted the requirements for "the Exalted" exactly like they did with "the Explorer" and "Loremaster." For crying out loud, they were doing the exact same thing with multiple other achievements for the xpac! That they skipped this one smacks of ignorance about their own game and/or laziness, and that they scrambled to "fix" it in such a completely stupid way with no warning suggests a rushed, poorly thought-out "solution."
Straz Feb 10th 2011 9:01AM
Just because people didn't get the achievement before 4.0 doesn't mean they didn't earn it. They should never strip away something that a player earns because that player worked for it. Even if it was "easier" for them because they got it after Cataclysm, that doesn't mean they worked any more or less for it. Grinding rep is grinding rep.
This sets a bad precedent, especially with the way all of their changes over the last patch contradict what they have been saying they want to do. So Loremaster is too easy with the zone-by-zone quest tracking? Better watch out if you haven't completed Cata Loremaster or you may lose your title! Did you get 3000 Quests before Cata? Seeker no more!
Now, in Blizzard's defense, 50 exalted is a good challenge, and "The Exalted" is a hard title to top. But at the same time, the game is very time-intensive now. Personally, between farming raid consumable mats, getting my daily VP run in, and prepping for and participating in raids, I don't really have time to go grind out the last of my Hydraxian rep or fly all the way out to Blade's Edge to stab myself in the eye sockets for Ogri'la. And a lot of other people don't, either.
I'm not upset so much by the loss of a title, but more by the precedent it sets.