Is Blizzard Dumbing Down WoW?

I think they really are dumbing down the game. Not only with the removal of the attunement proccesses, but also from the last patch the experiance gained for players now has been increased, and many of the elite mobs, like the dwarves in Dun Garok in Hillsbrad, have become just regular mobs. Not only do people not have to find a group for this, but this also takes away the socializing featured in WoW. I remember finding a group for that and there was this rogue that has only talked to me a couple times. Well, ever since then, we started questing together, and when we grouped up with someone else in an instance, the three of us leveled from around our 30's all the way to Outlands. So Blizzard is getting rid of the groups that are needed throughout the game, outside of dungeons. Also, another thing, with this whole experiance thing, it took me a few months over the summer to get to 70, and with the experiance gain, my friend was 70 in about 3 weeks. So now he's running all kinds of heroics like I am, but he had to work less for his gear. I, myself, think that the experiance gain is a little too much, and it makes the game boring. But, this is just another complaint from a huntard. ;)

Really who cares?? If you did it great! You get cookie. You still have braging rights. You pull your granson up on your knee and say "When I was boy I had to get atunement! You kids have it easy!"

In the end it really dose not matter its just a game aslong as you had fun doing who cares that other poeple have it easy now...You did have fun doing it right... If you not maybe you should re-think on ways of spending your free time. Stop worring about other poeple so much and just have fun with the game.

Let say you make an alt now do you really want to go though all that crap again?

I am still at LvL 43 I think I will kind of miss not getting do some of that stuff but o well I am sure Blizzard will have other fun stuff for me to do!

i agree i've been playing for about a year and it took me 6months to make it to Lvl30 they let out new patch make lving easier i lvl to 50 in a month

Llane-Ight 54balencedruid

They are fucking up the whole game because of casual nubs like yourself.

I think whats making players "dumb" is the fact that they're not doing the lower instances to lh2p instead they're begging higher lvl's to run them through...not in a way i can understand a higher lvl helping them to get gear but make sure they can play their toon first i mean i personally am getting tired of seeing lvl 70's with lvl 60 gear trying to do high end instances or having a grp where even one player cant play his/her char because they've had higher lvls taking them through instances to get to 60-70 and then they whine to blizz cuz stuffs too hard maybe if they'd take the time to l2p they might get somewhere.

Yep, its undeniable.

Everything in the game is getting easier, I agree with Maritas that I miss the excitement of gaining certain reps and getting keyed for certain instances. I never had time for some of them, but thats just something u have to deal with.

Rather than making lvling easier, getting rep/money/keys easier, i think they should allow botting, lol

Cut down on account/gold selling, give players with real lives the opportunity to keep up in lvls and honor.

70 SPriest/HPriest
70 RDruid
70 MSWarrior/ProtWarrior
70 Mage
70 Warlock

Dont be angry, everyone can use bots. Not everyone can sit on their asses and play 18 hours a day.

Anyways,

More challenges plz, more good quest lines.

And lets get some quality world PVP going plz?

I personally think they're dumbing it down. I understand that the game needs to appeal to the masses and for the most part, it does. But come on, give us some challenges - there was something cool about getting everyone keyed for Kara - the excitement of w000t, I'm now keyed and all the congrats that come along with it.

First they make it easy as Hell to level and now we will be able to buy instance quality gear - then why bother doing instances anymore?

I'm trying to hold on until the LK but I admit that my interest is starting to wan.
Maritas 70 Orc Warrior

I personaly feel that they are not doing their job as far as taking care of the spamers. with all the spammers that are in WOW now alot of people seem to have trouble with lag in the big Citys . As far as are they dunbing it down that is a good possibility. They seem to think that taking things away from classes is good when it really isn't.

Hi, i'd just like to throw my viewpoint in here. Been playing wow for 2yr.s now, have done kara and heroics a few times but thats it.

I agree that everyone should be able to enjoy the material that they pay for but i feel the more powerful the item/reward the rarer and more difficult it should be to obtain. In this perspective gear, tabards, companion pets, recipes, etc, are a mark of self descipline and achievement, and if nothing else trophy's. I still wear my tabard of the protector, but for a reason i'm getting to with my second point.

I got my main to 60 in oct. before BC and after the launch while in HC dungeons, and with the subsequent nerfings, i realized something: that it would take less "skills" to get to where i am now. I say skills in the broadest sense because it takes (took) more than buttonmashing to accomplish certain things in wow, mainly co-operation, self discipline and maturity.

With an alt not far behind i found, by the time i leveled him to 60ish, that i was lucky to so much as get five people together for longer than five minutes, nevermind finish an instance. All in all, i feel like the requisite group quests, attunements etc served as training, as practice working with others in a group to accomplish objectives, forcing players to play at their best or be left behind. I have since quit wow, ty for your time.

having played WOW since beta there is no question in my mind that the addage "follow the money' applies to blizzard. the game is aimed at the casual player becouse thati s where most players are (the most money). a good example is it used to take 40 players to do molten core last night we did it with 8 players.

i think the answer may be for blizzard to make a server which is as originally intended i.e. difficult,challanging,and has the need for planning and coordination. specifically impossible for a impromptue Pug. i also think this world should be totally pvp free for all. this would renew my interest which at the moment is focused either on warhammer or age of conan. frankly i am bored by the constant upgrade of armor which seems to be the entire focus of the game at the moment

In one way, hardcore players do have a valid argument, but in another they are missing the "big picture."

By removing the attunement process or necessary "trials" before one can enter into an instance, yeah it's a piss-off to all those who came before and had to do it. It is one of those things that shows, "if you're willing to try to succeed, you'll prove your worthiness to go after the loot." It takes a lot of time to set up raids, get everyone organized, plan your tactics and come out successful. And that's great if you have no "real" social life and will spend all your free time planning and running raids. But what about the "other guys" that like to play, enjoy the game, *have fun* but aren't able to raid?

Removing the often times complex, if not nearly insane, attunement process (do I really have to collect valuable Air Miles® flying all over Azeroth just to collect a couple trinkets and coat them in dragon blood to make an inventory item to allow me to enter a cave?) will allow the more casual players to experience everything that Blizzard has worked on. Also it will allow more of the less-than-elite guilds to form groups to make attempts at these dungeons and perhaps reap a few rewards for their efforts too.

When I first heard that attunements would be removed, my first thoughts were like many who've invested [too much time] into this game: "What? Why don't they just level us up to full, outfitt us with T6 and just let us roam around then?!" But I wasn't so informed about how the process was decided upon nor how far reaching the attunement scrapping would cover. Unless we work for Blizzard, we will never know 100% of the facts behind their decisions.

One good point made by more than a few players, and by many within my guild as well was this; it is a game we play to have fun. Also, another made the comment about if you climb a mountain for the challenge or just to look down upon everyone. I like that analogy. Sure, you could pay extra and take a helicopter to the top and look down on everyone, but where's the challenge in that? start from the bottom, work your way up, learn from other's mistakes before you and prove you can do it. Now, that's not to say you should only use the tools that were available to the first climbers, only pick-axes and boot cleats. Use the tools available to you today and prove to others you have the personal skills to make good on your attempt.

Same thing translates into WoW; so what if attunements get removed... mobs and bosses still remain, still tough-arse buggers. Just because you can walk into the instance don't mean you're walking out with upgrades, heck no! You still gotta beat them and get that lucky drop.

Removing attunements will be a good thing for both the company and for players; the more areas, dungeons and raids player groups can get into, the more variety there is to the game. With more to explore and attempt, players will have plenty to keep them interested and not get so easily bored with the game, leaving to other interests. Many players, once they max out, find no further interest in the game, and eventually leave altogether. Lower entrance requirements gives them a chance to attempt more instances and explore more areas, perhaps finding some overlooked upgrade, trinket, or just plain cool area design.

One thing I will always complain about, though, is the granting of "Fear Ward" to all Priests and nerfing it to 3min cooldown. Now there is no reason to play a Dwarven Priest. Why not make all the Priest abilities, based on race, available to all Priests? Make it either a talent you choose or a quested reward; I wouldn't mind having the Starshards ability, however that is still only available to you if you're a Night Elf. One more reason to prove Blizzard hates Priests, especially Dwarven ones.

Sincerely,

-Foddermike
70 Holy Priest
The Wrath of Lordaeron
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Staghelm&n=Foddermike

Its all about giving casual players access to content that they might not otherwise see. Ok I can see how that can annoy the people that got their gear from very hard raids, and congratulations to those people.
You have managed to complete those attunements and spent large amounts of time getting the gear know that you have achieved something, something that I'm not going to achieve.
Getting t6 equivalent gear for badges was always going to kick up a storm, but at least if you do it the hard way you can hold your head up and say that you did. Thats not something I'll be able to do.
When the expansion comes out all your "uber" gear will be replaced by greens anyway - if you don't like that then you are playing the wrong game - go start your own private server if you feel that way.

It boils down to simple player availability and presentation.

1) People pay to have a game they can play and at the moment, unless you are with a hard-core raid guild, you do not have realistic access to content players have paid for to play.

2) With settings as high to gain access to current areas the number of player is not making use if the game, that makes those area financially not usable for Blizzard to design. It takes lots of time to make these areas to play. What's the point of designers, for a vast majority of non-using players, to make content?

The game is NOT designed for hard-core players, it's designed for all of them, and altho hard-core are getting the big, hard first, Blizzard has to consider a larger group their players. People pay to play, if they don't get to play they stop paying. Under the current settings more are unable play than do. To make it worth having the area they have to make it more accessible.

Basic math and profit, and some common sense.

How about a heroic setting for all the dungeons now? My guild is just now starting SSC/TK, but I would still like to complete the raid instances, patch or no patch. If people can just zone in now, why not create a "heroic" setting that requires the quests to get in be done to use, and they drop more loot, badges, etc. We are not "hardcore" as the article states, but we don't raid because its simple and easy. We do it for fun.

Do you climb a mountain because you want to look down on people from the top, or do you do it for the challenge? Why begrudge people for taking the ski lift? If you gauge your happiness by comparing yourself to others, then you are giving away too much personal power.

All of this mean's nothing... Sooner or Later Xpack will come all of you will lvl to 80 and there will be new dungeons and loot to get and more to cry about so if you dont like it than dont play its pretty simple...

I dont like TBC I think they screwed over way to many guilds with 25 man raids and there not as "epic" to me as lvl 60 40 man raids were. So maybe this new xpack will acutally be fun... Oh yeah and maybe there will be a class beside a rogue that can beat a 450+ resil SL/SL Lock... GG <3 Blizzard

PS: We pay $15 a month to QQ...

you now what i agree with that i have been on wow since the damn game was on beta i remember busting my ass in mc and bwl and zg to get good gear spend at least 8 hour in freaking mc got tired took a 9 month vacation came back and all i see is free freaking epic everywhere and people with no skill,,, blizz is chaing stuff cause alot of these cryieng noobs go and cry about oh this is to hard if it is quit you jackasss yeah am mad i work my ass off for my gear and also the bg like wtf we cant even kick people out the raid or make are own raid we need enabler now and stuff ,,, alliance section has way more defense then horde ,,,anyways i think blizz is trying to plz these stupid noobs with free epic what about the peopel that show loyalty to the game huh... yeah i said it damn it i got more where that came from

You did make some points I agree on. But hot damn, use a comma or something. But yeah. Epic gear has become the new rare (blue) gear. Only thing to aspire to gearwise is orange :(

That is a great article, and a well-reasoned point of view. Thanks, Zyuu, for posting it. And /salute for the many great responses.

For all you idiots ranting about how "Durr YOU CAN USE ARENA GEAR TO DOWN ILLIDAN" When in GODS NAME have you EVER seen ANY guild using FULL VENGEFUL to down a BT boss. Never. Ever. You will never see any of them do so. Why? Because Tier gear gives more spell damage and crit than any caster Arena gear does. Take for instance the Voidheart Crown and the Vengeful Gladiator's Dreadweave Helm. The Voidheart gives +21 spell crit, and +40 spell damage. The vengeful's gives +42 spell damage and 0 to crit. So let's pose two questions: 1) How the hell is that better than T4? Let alone T5/T6? 2) There's NOT EVEN any spell hit rating on ANY piece of PvP equipment. You'd miss EVERY SHOT on illidan. GG try again stop farming primals for your epic mount gold fund and actually look at what you're wearing instead of saying to yourself:"my epix ar3 l3a7 and your blu3z sux all epix are uber n ilidan is a n00b."