(08-28-2015, 10:56 AM)Warren Castille Wrote: I never said there wasn't any new blood in WoW, I said it's a fair bet there's not much of it.
WoW being a single player game if you want it to be is part of the challenge presented here: Why play an MMO at all if you're not interested in the "MM" part of it?
I'm having trouble articulating what I mean exactly, but removing the obstacles to reaching X point feels like it removes part of the bond between players. Everyone from 2.0 launch has war stories from Titan HM. Most folks who care about the story came away from 2.55 with powerful emotions regarding the climax. Removing those things from the prerequisites satisfies in the short-term, in my opinion. It means the strangers I'm playing with might truly be strangers, and there would be fewer things that we experienced together-yet-separately to try and draw common ground.
This community can be stand-offish enough without there being less we all have in common. Then again, maybe I come at this with my own biases. I never understood the "I don't want to play the game" mentality. I didn't have a problem with Ishgard being locked behind content. I don't have a problem with lore cementing jobs in specific places. It just gives me something to strive towards, which to me is the entire point of gear-treadmill games.
I mean, I don't want to PLAY Pokemon, I just want all my favorites in the starter area. Not everyone plays to collect badges, and less than 3% have beaten the Elite Four. Why should I have to go to other cities to get what I want every time I play it?
EDIT: Because I forgot to address it, there are many reasons why someone might choose to have a single-player experience in an MMO. Maybe they like the game's mechanics or visuals, but don't want to talk to anyone. Maybe they want to be a Lone Wanderer and talk about all the things that they managed to achieve on their own. Maybe they like the story or the world, and don't care much for multiplayer aspects like dungeons and PvP. Maybe they just enjoy making and dressing a character and running around. Maybe they're just there to play with their two or three friends and no one else.
Some people purchased WoW because they wanted to see Warcraft continue its story. Some people played City of Heroes because they wanted Superheroes, not specifically a Superhero MMO. Lots of people bought ESO because the Elder Scrolls universe is crazy and they love it, and not because they wanted an MMO out of it (this was actually a big point of contention surrounding the game ever since its launch). In this very game, in fact, there are people that are only here because they like Final Fantasy, a series of single-player games, and want more of the storytelling, visual aesthetic, and themes that that series provides. Not because they want to socialize in an MMO.
People play video-games for fun. What is fun is subjective, and therefore one person's fun is no more Right or Wrong than someone else's fun. If someone who only played Arena shooters sat down and watched you play the campaign of Halo or Goldeneye or something, and asked, "why are you playing a shooter if you're not gonna play multiplayer? That's what it's for," it's going to sound a bit like an odd question. There are many reasons to enjoy shooters outside of multiplayer, just as there are many reasons to enjoy MMOs outside of interacting with people.
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I would actually argue that any such bond isn't universal at all. This thread, in fact, is part of the proof.
The extent of my connection to the gated content was "well I guess it was okay, but I really only did it so that I could do the Cool Stuff I actually wanted to do, like Roleplay and explore the new zones." If you asked me for a Titan HM war story, my best would be along the lines of "well we got knocked off the platform a lot, and it was honestly just kind of annoying, and the tank and healer had to solo the last 25% for an hour because we were all dead." It's not quite as romantic for me and many others as it might be for another fraction of the playerbase.
We're already much more splintered than it might seem, though in this case, it's not because we chose to play the game differently (because we're all supposed to do the same content to advance) but instead of the way that we think about the content. Just as people came away from the 2.5 ending going "wow, that was deep," there were people that came away saying "meh, predictable bullshit." Just as there are those that think, "I love the housing system, it feels more meaningful because there are a limited amount," there are those that think, "this is stupid, I want a house, my friends want a house, just instance them so we can all have houses." Just as there are people that think, "I love this game's story, and I'd play it over and over if I could," there are those that are thinking, "I guess it was okay. I dunno. I'd rather not play it twice. Whatever."
The only bond is that we all have the same experience, and even that isn't very strong, as I have stated. It splinters further when we talk about what we think of it. If there really was a bond as tight as you think it would be, we'd all either be dancing about how happy we are that gated content is ending, or collectively up in arms over the fact that our precious game is being edited.
We're both.