I made the assertion in my previous entry that players resub because of PvP, Raids (or LFR), RP, or because they love their guild. Not because of dailies or scenarios or collection grinds. So that begs the question, what qualifies as compelling content? What is the content that sucks my credit card out of my wallet to resub?
From Blizzard’s perspective the idea is this; do they devote the time and resources on a few 5-mans or one single raid when they could devote those same resources and time to scenarios, dailies, or collection grinds and end up with 3 or 4 times the amount of “content”? In their mind having tons of things for the players to do means getting more resubs. The recent announcements of subscription number losses beg to differ though and so do I. By their logic with more things to do this expac than ever, they should see sub numbers at least climbing if not at an all-time high.
The development team is inexplicably picturing the average casual player (read: golden goose) excitedly typing in his/her password to log in for their couple hours of daily playtime. They can’t wait to spend that time on…..Dailies?! Scenarios?! Grinding bones on Isle of Giants?! Um……….probably not. The type of casual player they are hoping to keep is not spending his/her in-game time doing dailies/scenarios/collections. They are either in a random BG, or more likely, they are in LFR! You have 17 wings of LFR to do each week guys!!! (I’ve been known to exagerate) They don’t have time for much else. The hardcore player, on the other hand, is banging out dailies to get their precious Mogu Runes (the preciousssss <gollum voice>) and rep for mounts/tabards/shinies. Or knocking the collections out for the mounts/pets that a casual player could not care less about. Or doing scenarios to valor cap, something a casual player doesn’t worry about. The point is this. Blizzard is allocating resources to develop “content” that players are really only doing so they can do the OTHER content that they actually care about!! Why not just make MORE of the content that they CARE about?!!!! (lotsa exclamation points in this post. Less coffee next time I think)
Let me break down what I have found to be ‘Compelling’ content so far in this expac.
- Raids – The raid encounters in MoP have been some of my favorite ever! From the epic feel of fights like Elegon, the gameplay juxtaposition of fights like Tsulong, the altering Tank roles of Garalon…….with only a couple glaring exceptions (I’m looking at you Hide Mechanic on Lei Shi and Vehicle fight +Raid Wipe mechanics of Amber Shaper), this has been an amazing couple tiers of raiding! An absolute blast to work through.
- Challenge Modes – I have not spent a ton of time on these but the time I spent was definately a schoolgirl gigglingly good time. Wipe after wipe after wipe with basically NO reward to look forward to, somehow equaled REALLY compelling content for me. I’m a weirdo. What can I say?
- Heroic Scenarios – Now I know what you’ll say, “But Luvbacon, you devlishly handsome and debonaire scalawag, you just poopoo’d Scenarios for nigh three paragraphs”, to which I will reply “there’s no denying your keen powers of observation my good sir but you do have a bit of mustard on your shirt”. However, there is a world of difference between a regular scenario and a Heroic Scenario. Here’s a quick list of things I can do at the same time as a regular Scenario and still be successful; read a book, watch tv, have an intimate encounter with my wife, weed my garden, cook dinner, write a blog post 😉 Now!! Here’s a list of the things I can do at the same time as a Heroic Scenario and still be successful; Nothing!!! You’ll die if you don’t pay attention!1!!!1!!!! Somehow, just having a bit of challenge takes the bumpy-ride-with-hemeroid annoyance of regular scenarios and makes it something mildly enjoyable.
- Shieldwall Dailies Story Progression Quests – mind you, not the dailes themselves. God no!! I put a thumbtack in my forearm to remind me I’m still alive while I do those. Nah. I mean those one-off quests that move the story forward that would lead you to a different place to accomplish a task. I liked those! I felt like I was doing something significant.
- My First Time Questing through Jade Forest – Subsequent times I employed said thumbtack. But the first time was shear joy working my way through a wellcrafted story that progressed organically and made an actual impact, albeit a bad one, on the world I see.
- Thunder Isle One-Off Solo Scenarios – These were great!! I actually had a hand in changing the world around me and making new quest hubs available. Also, some of the mechanics were a little challenging. Nice!
Fatty Goatsteak!!!
So yeah! Everything else in this expac has not been compelling to me. Least of all dailies. Now I know what you’ll say; “Luvbacon, you dashing rapscallion with poet’s soul and cocksure swagger! I armoried you and you are exalted with all MoP factions. You did all the dailies!!”, to which I will reply “Stalker. Sure I did. I’m a pretty hardcore player. I’m gonna do whatever will give me an advantage or something to flex epeen over.” But that doesn’t mean constantly adding busywork like this into the game is going to do anything for it’s longevity and it’s ability to attract the ever-tantalizing casual market. Far from it!! In fact, those bits of content did nothing to keep me subbed and if anything, pushed me toward burnout. I did them because I love raiding. If they really want to keep me they should spend resources on more of the stuff I love, not the stuff I do because the carrot is just too darn good to pass up.
What has been compelling content for you in MoP so far?
>luvbacon<
Addendum 6/28: I recently played through Brawler’s Guild up to rank 8 so far and I have to add it to my list of compelling content. I ended up with a cool shirt that gives me a cosmetic buff (kinda like Precious Ribbon) and the title Brawler. So not really a lot of tangible reward, but it was somehow very satisfying to work through. Try it out!
Totem Ploppin' 