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I think Blizzard does this perfectly right. I may be the only one, but let me explain:
The best time I had in WoW was during classic WoW trying to achieve Rank 14.
The only way to get this done was to do BGs a lot and win a lot. So to get it done people on my server had organized themselves. But they were not enough. They needed more people - people like me.
They set up a queue system manually. You could ask them to be put on the queue and when somebody had to leave, they would invite the next one on the queue list.
You would tell them that you would be online from 16:00 on and they would consider that and you would be on top of the queue at 16:00. If you wanted to leave, you left. The next one was invited.
The mix of an organized core and random players, that were organized by the core players, worked great.
Everybody could play as long as he wanted and drop out as soon as he wanted. If you were willing to manage the list (and do it well) you would be prefered in the queue.
This system estabilished server identity! This system achieved what all MMOs should strive for: To make the hardcore organize for the casuals in a way both groups enjoy.
The only thing that can destroy the new rated BG system is too much focus on performance. Too much min-maxing. During classic the community was pretty hardcore, but not very elitist. Sure, some players were better than others, but in general it averaged out in the battlegrounds. The peer pressure of a closed server made the elitist behave and not kick the 'slackers'. But it also made the 'slackers' behave and work for their progress.
After WotLK, however, World of Warcraft is not the same and it remains to be seen wether good times will return or are truely gone.
By the way. I dropped out at rank 11. I considered myself harcore at that time. But not THAT hardcore :)
I think Blizzard does this perfectly right. I may be the only one, but let me explain:
The best time I had in WoW was during classic WoW trying to achieve Rank 14.
The only way to get this done was to do BGs a lot and win a lot. So to get it done people on my server had organized themselves. But they were not enough. They needed more people - people like me.
They set up a queue system manually. You could ask them to be put on the queue and when somebody had to leave, they would invite the next one on the queue list.
You would tell them that you would be online from 16:00 on and they would consider that and you would be on top of the queue at 16:00. If you wanted to leave, you left. The next one was invited.
The mix of an organized core and random players, that were organized by the core players, worked great.
Everybody could play as long as he wanted and drop out as soon as he wanted. If you were willing to manage the list (and do it well) you would be prefered in the queue.
This system estabilished server identity! This system achieved what all MMOs should strive for: To make the hardcore organize for the casuals in a way both groups enjoy.
The only thing that can destroy the new rated BG system is too much focus on performance. Too much min-maxing. During classic the community was pretty hardcore, but not very elitist. Sure, some players were better than others, but in general it averaged out in the battlegrounds. The peer pressure of a closed server made the elitist behave and not kick the 'slackers'. But it also made the 'slackers' behave and work for their progress.
After WotLK, however, World of Warcraft is not the same and it remains to be seen wether good times will return or are truely gone.
By the way. I dropped out at rank 11. I considered myself harcore at that time. But not THAT hardcore :)
I got my first toon to the level cap a month before the old ranking system was removed, but I managed to get to Blood Guard. I was in one of the PvP guilds you speak of, doing organized battlegrounds, jumping in and leaving when you wanted. It was great. I think the lfd tool does a good job of replicating this feeling for the pve side, but it's still considered bad form to leave mid-run, unlike in PvP.
ReplyDeleteAs for the gear, I remember the PvP gear being hard to get and regarded as the ugly step-child of raiding progression gear. At the same time, it was also a great source of pride to get these items. If you saw someone in the High Warlord gear, you knew they were dedicated to PvP. That pride isn't nearly the same nowadays.
I think the DF does a quite bad job here, as it is very anonymous. Otherwise the old player-organized systems were similar. They just weren't anonymous at all.
ReplyDeleteWhat I am thinking about for some time by now is to write a post about skill and time investment. Classic WoW was all about time investment - thus it was not very elitist. Modern WoW is very skill-oriented. You shall achieve anything if you are good enough - no matter how much time you invest.
This leads to a more 'fair' system. But it also becomes very elitist.
Difficult topic.
Nils writes:
ReplyDelete"This system estabilished server identity! This system achieved what all MMOs should strive for: To make the hardcore organize for the casuals in a way both groups enjoy. [...] The peer pressure of a closed server made the elitist behave and not kick the 'slackers'. But it also made the 'slackers' behave and work for their progress."
I have to wonder if the system you describe here was used because it was desirable or was the product of necessity. For the players you describe as casuals, it seems to work fairly well, but for the hardcore there was a lot of organizational work to be done in order to attract players that didn't quite fit the same hardcore mindset. My suspicion is that the new rated BGs will nudge hardcore players to group together. In this sense, BGs may become more like raids in the sense that players become somewhat segregated according to attitude or ability.
The introduction of rated BGs has the potential to put non-elite, non-noob (your term) players in the former position of the hardcore. That is, they will be expected to carry both the organizational burdens and the noob players in non-rated BGs.
It was a product of necessity. But that does not make it less enjoyable. At no point did I hear the hardcore complain about it.
ReplyDeleteToday, of course, they would complain, because, player segregation is expected.
Today the hardcore exspect to be able to only play together with hardcore and the casuals want to play together with casuals. The reason for this is the fact that WoW went from a time investment to require skill.
Something which was generally welcomed, but causes this problem.
About myself:
While I do enjoy some challenge every now and then, the thing I really want from an MMORPG is to offer me a fun and rewarding experience whenever I want. I do not want it to offer me the chance to become the most skillful gladiator or raid leader.
But I also do not want it to offer a distraction like heroics or PUG raids or 20-minutes BGs that are more like skirkmishes than like an epic battle.