Saturday, July 12, 2008

A Memo To Blizzard

As I write this my Tauren Druid sits a mere 60K from level 58 & the glory that is the outlands. While on one hand I feel a certain joy of reaching my accomplishment that I set out to do back in the beginning of June I also feel a certain malaise about returning back to the expansion zones that I fled @ the end of May. This feeling came over me around level 55 as I reached the dead zones.
What I mean by dead zones is the end game zones that are no longer populated by any players. Whether it's the Eastern Plaugelands, Western Plaugelands, Winterspring, Burning Steppes, or Silithus. Players go here just long enough to do their quest level their toon & jump through the Dark Portal. This also extends to the various old world end game dungeons that are never run anymore. And I put this blame squarely on Blizzard.
When the Burning Crusade was launched back in January 2007, Penny Arcade made a joke (and a funny t-shirt) that said "Green is the new purple." This gear reset was a flood that evened out the playing field and allowed WOW to continue to grow, gain market share, & keep it's player base. While some old school players bemoaned that their hard won gear from MC\ZG\AQ20\40 & Naxx was devalued, for many players who couldn't invest the time into the old world raids this was a boon of titanic proportions. I was amongst that crowd that felt the same. I came to Outland on Neren. Creamed my pants over the gear & never paid attn the the complaints of the old schoolers.
But now I can see their issues were valid. I've compared gear from level 56 old world drops & level 58 outland drops and they are more powerful by a factor of 3. Which if I was an old schooler who had put in hours & hours only to be swept aside by outland gear I'd be pissed to.
Therefore I have the following suggestions
1.) Create a gradual gear curve from 45-58 that doesn't cause the gear angst issue.
2.) Create new dungeon quests that link outland to the old dungeons (consortium rep, orcs looking for gear in UBRS etc.)
3.) Make going to outland an attunement. (we need brave souls to go forward) nothing impossible, but something that feels earned.
If you implement this as future expansions are released you will not have players leave due to gear resets
Regards
Neren\Greathoof

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