It is with this statement that I disagree."Unfortunately, the game we all love seems to have taken a turn aimed at the casual gamer..." I recall that one of the bloggers from WoWhead.com complained recently that they had no time, even in the last six months to play (http://www.wowhead.com/?blog=144823 - MasterOfDisguise). Maybe that is only one example of WoWhead.com's Staff, but I was a hardcore Vanilla WoW Raider. "We're MC Raiders... We... Ain't... got... no lives..." (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y25XCwOBSUQ - Illegal Danish)Anyone who started with Wrath of the Lich King (or TBC) doesn't really know the pain of suffering through not just 5 wipes on a boss, but dozens of wipes over endless days/ weeks. Running all over Azeroth, just to get the key to Onyxia's lair, then having to kill her (and If you did, having enough skill to skin her). Then having the materials to make an Onyxia-hide cloak, so that you wouldn't get flambéed alive when Firemaw turned around (not to mention the insta-gib when Nefarian landed). Raid-wide buffs, Feasts, Group Health stones, Resistance Potion Cauldrons, Horde Paladins/ Alliance Shaman, dual-specs, alt-specs (that are actually useful), totem recall, summoning inside instances, are just to name a few of the good things to come from Blizzard's attempt to make raiding fun for everyone.In all honesty, I hope that if/ when Blizzard brings back some aspects of Vanilla WoW, they never go back to the archaic methods they used.
I did not start playing WoW because I wanted to work with a team to overcome epic challenges. I joined the game because it's the best maintained, most fun, most bang-for-your-buck game out there, with the best story, made by the best video game company out there (Blizzard).I got involved in raiding at some point after Onyxia was cutting edge, while Ragnaros still was. Yes, I have very positive feelings about overcoming an epic challenge with 39 other players after weeks and weeks of failed attempts. And it's true that now, the victories feel less epic, but that might just be because I'm a veteran who understands how the game works. Or it may be because the frustrating weeks of attempts have been removed. Or it may be because there is so much meta information available about how to kill bosses, which didn't exist back in the day. When was the last time any of us attempted to kill a boss without anyone in the raid having read a guide or watched a video about how to do it first?In any case, the story is still just as good. All my favorite heroes are still there, albeit with slightly worse voice actors. The game is still exceptionally fun to play. And that's why I joined. Not because I was looking for something difficult.It might feel a little different, mainly because everyone is walking around in epic gear, whereas before epics were few and far between. But the top tier of gear is still just as rare. Perhaps blizzard should introduce a new quality color, or demote the quality of old stuff to blue. Maybe that would serve to more clearly separate 'casuals' from 'hardcores'.But consider this: if you feel nostalgia about how the game used to be, there must be things that you like about it OTHER than the challenge, otherwise you would have just quit and not looked back.
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
A blog post sporting rose-tinted spectacles? Seriously?My stance is simple: The casual turn is a superb choice for Blizzard to have taken the game. Hardcore raiders still have hard modes, which are bloody difficult -- they do require weeks and months for all but the very top 0.1% who plough through all but the Algalons of Ulduar and ICC with minimal effort.The people who complain about the game being too easy, and blame that on Blizzard making it "Casual-friendly" are, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, casuals themselves -- the only difference is, they have either a Vanilla complex or a superiority complex. Or both. They like to think they're a lot more hardcore than they are, and one of their ways of attempting to ingratiate themselves into what they perceive as the top 0.1% is to complain about things that, actually, the hardcores don't give a crap about. Does Ensidia care if, three months after they're in full iLvl258 Tier 9 gear, Emblems of Triumph are given to Heroics and thus people are capable with minimal effort to get items a full 26 item-levels below what they have? No -- because they've got better, and have had better for ages.You know what else we had in Vanilla? Bosses that were bugged to hell, and developers who dismissed complaints about the bugs as just guilds not being good enough to defeat them -- rather than fixing the bugs. We had Spirit on Warrior plate and Rogue leather. We had AVs that lasted for days. We had people raiding in greens just because it had "Of Fire Resistance" on it. We had a game in which it was such a damn grind to get to the top that, by the time anyone was ready for Naxxramas even to be released, TBC was just around the corner.The argument is somewhat trite, but it's relevant: You want a challenge, and you don't believe WotLK has given it to you. So, show us your LK10HM and LK25HM achievements. Show us your icebrood drakes. Show us your Tribute to Immortality and Tribute to Dedicated Insanity. Hell, just show us this.What, you mean you haven't tried them? Gee, who would've thought that if you don't try the hard stuff the game is easy? In your latest blog post on The Dalaran Inn, you go as far as to say that you haven't even given the new content a chance, because you've jumped to the (false) conclusion that it isn't challenging. How can you, personally, know that it isn't challenging if you have no interest even in trying it?
I always read articles like this and the only word I can summarize everything with is: UNFAIR.I started playing WoW like one year ago, and I have never been part of an old guild, or had any experience about how things were in the past. I understand that some players want things difficult enough to be sitting on their computers for weeks trying to down a boss, but that is a very small percentage compared to people like me, who log-in to the game to accomplish stuff but that also have important things to do besides the game.I like the game it is right now. It is difficult enough to keep me hanging and wanting to complete achievements and progress the story, but simple and light enough so that I can log out and enjoy a coffee with my real-life friends. Heavy games that require me to spend a looooot of time on them are simply not fun. If all of a sudden they changed the game to "ok, now we want you to spend 4 months trying to get the only one correct strategy to kill this boss to get to the next one", I'm quitting.
To me this is the thing that just makes the most sense. I play this game with my two boys, and I pay for all three of us to play this game. Why is it that you are more entitled to certain content then I am? We all pay the exact same $15 dollars or whatever the Euro amount is, but you're lobbying that I shouldn't be allowed into your "special" content unless I enter your "Country Club" to enable me seeing content that I pay for just like you.I think Blizzard has finally gotten smart about this. Why spend the money they spend to develop content for only 1% of the players who play the game.Basically what this comes down to is that Blizzard is actually catering to the majority of their customers, and not the minority. If the game has gotten to easy for you, maybe its time you cancel your subscription and move on to bigger and better things.As for me personally, I already have one full time job and I refuse to pay $15 dollars a month for the right to have a second full time job because whiney elitest players are upset that their country club is being taken over by those they have long attempted to keep out.,/applause Blizzard.
Ruthvenn, you speak the truth, and those whom dissagree with you just don't know how much those times meant.True accomplishment is indeed going away.To do things that take hours, just to get the reward, now everything is suppose to be fun, get 20 raid dungeons, get bored? switch.We didn't have that luxury back then, and in some ways, it made you progress and have more fun!
Oh my, i can feel much hate in the comments... I started to play in Vanilla, but never got high - i were just an ordinary noobie being happy to do some quests and dungeons. I started serious raiding in TBC... and i loved it. Loved the mechanic of the game, the hardness, the fun from good progress. It wasn't to hard nor to easy, just perfect. Required a little bit more than "don't stand in the green &*!@ and nuke" tactics, more brain than gear. I was doing HCs until WotLK came, because they still were fun and challenging. And this is the thing i'm the most upset about - HCs are walk through now. All of them! Anyone remember Auchenai Crypts? Or The Shattered Halls? That was hard, but enjoyable as it is. And remember crowd controlling? A little tactics in the play, a little thinking. The reason for all the QQ is that everything changed. To very easy. Not even casual easy, just monkey kind of easy, when you push 3 buttons, loot and forget about the case, no emotions, tears after downing a boss you tried to kill for a month, no nothing. Push, loot, forget. Are you all really satisfied with that?
What Skosiris said.As someone who has raided content from MC all the way up to ICC, I can say the game has turned for the better. I feel like encounters have generally become more interesting and more challenging, while being more accessible. If you wanted to see Ragnaros in Vanilla, you had to get into a somewhat competent raiding guild. To do that, you had to go through a recruitment process that usually involved knowing the right people and lots of butt kissing. Also, you had to have passable gear, which meant you had suffered through Strath / Scholo / BRS dozens of times to get that one drop that was actually decent. (I killed Gandling 20+ times, lost the roll on the Wildheart helm 4 times, before finally giving up. I got nothing else of value out of the instance.) And mind you, finding a group back then was much harder than it is now.When you finally got into the raiding guild, you had to commit to the raiding schedule, and try to arrive on time for raids several times a week. Much of the time would be wasted trying to get everyone in the instance, buffed up, ready, etc. Oh how much fun it was to get 39 hyper players to shut up and listen. Don't overaggro! Don't use expose armor! &*!@ someone pulled a Fire Giant! Wipe, spend the next 20 minutes getting everyone ready again. Loot the hounds! If you kill a boss, you get to spend another 20 minutes sitting around while the guild leaders work out who gets loot, carefully calculating DKP.Sorry, but World of HRCraft was not fun. I like that now I can log in, queue for three heroics, get some badges, and upgrade an item, with only an hour of time investment on my part. I like that I get the chance to see the inside of every raid instance without needing to be in a raiding guild. If I want a sense of achievement, I can try some achievements (how obvious!) with my guild mates. Last night I helped some guildies finish out Glory to the Hero. Again, while playing on my own schedule, without needing to make real life sacrifices.And here's a final point: If you're unhappy because there is no "true accomplishment" anymore, then get a fcking reality check. It's just a damn game. If the game is the only thing that makes you feel accomplished in life, then get the hell off your behind and go out there and do something worthwhile.