Get it Right, Blizz!

An open letter to my friends at Blizzard:

You are ruining the game. The desire of money has surpassed the desire to make games- if not money, maybe it’s just the popularity- the desire to add that next million players. As with most things, your success is becoming your downfall.

There are many different people playing World of Warcraft, for many different reasons. In trying to cater to the largest group (terrible players) and the loudest group (hardcore raiders), you have marginalized the middle group. The middle group, while not a huge demographic, is nonetheless vital to your continued success.

Who are we? We’re people that don’t want to spend 12 hours a week raiding and 20 more grinding to be decent at it. We’re the people that are decent enough to be in a big raiding guild, but don’t want to commit to a raiding schedule. We know how to play our class.

Why are we vital to your game? We are the link. We fill in for your ‘hardcore’ players when they need an extra. We’re the reason the game isn’t just an un-fun mess for the terrible players, who we drag through heroics and PUG raids. We fill your auction houses with goods to that keep the economy flowing. Without us, everyone is either ‘leet’ or a ‘trashbag’- and both sides NEED that buffer.

What do we want? We want you to quit defining ‘casual’ as ‘terrible but with unlimited time.’ We want the difficulty of a fight to come from the fight itself, and not the logistics. We want ‘Heroic’ to mean something in a 5-man. We CRAVE a challenge, but we detest when that challenge is being the only player in a group that has a clue of how to play effectively.

How do I think you should get there? Design quests and dungeons that teach people to play their class rather than designing things easier so that anyone can ‘raid.’ Return to making things difficult enough that ‘progression’ means more than just a boss kill checklist- you SHOULD need greens to get blues and blues to get epics. Put in epic quests that award class epics- but then, make the quests long, and difficult. Make trade skills useful as you level, and allow them to help level you. Raise the cost of starting a guild to 1000 Gold. Implement a player rating system, based on gear, experience, and player reviews.

Can’t you see that making things more ‘accessible’ is often (More 10-Mans is a great idea, as long as the bosses aren’t made of paper mache and filled with loot and candy) just lowering the standards? I know it’s easier to just put everyone on welfare rather than teaching them to do a job, but is it really a good idea? You have a great game- there isn’t an MMO out there that can top WoW from top to bottom, and I haven’t found one that’s even close to as much fun… Even so, that fun is being drowned in frustration.

For full disclosure, I need to state that any time I have used the term ‘we’ I meant ‘I’ even though I suspect there are a lot of ‘us.’

Posted in the suggestion forums: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=17631613538&postId=175637794650&sid=1#0

When a Choice Isn't Really a Choice

Republicans and Democrats. “Change” and “Conservatism.” Our two choices. Am I the only one that sees how hollow the system has become? It's like the beer companies that advertise one product against the other, knowing that you're gonna buy one or the other, regardless. So, does it really matter?

President Bush tarnished our country's image through poor statesmanship. President Clinton tarnished our country's image through poor decision making. In general, we've come to define a good president as one that simply doesn't screw things up too bad. Mr. Obama promised something different.

What has he given us so far? Ambassadorships are handed out to “bundlers”- people who handed him $100,000-plus in campaign money. Our deficit has grown as deep in the first 100 days as Bush dug us in his last three years together. We have the opportunity to appoint a new Supreme Court judge. I can't fault the President's nominee for her credentials, but it's an amazingly lucky break for Mr. Obama that the most qualified person for the post also happens to hit a couple minority categories that he needs to keep solid for re-election.

The Republicans are no better. Rather than offering a solid alternative vision, they are reduced to frivolous complaints and petty bickering. Implying a female Hispanic court nominee might be a racist? Calling out the President and First Lady for having a date night? This is what we're left with as the opposition party- they sure know how to get to the core of the problems America is facing.

I wonder how many actual statesmen have served in our federal government in the 28 years I've been alive? Are there any politicians left who are fighting for more than to stay in office? Do any of the esteemed gentlemen in either wing of Congress feel the burden of responsibility for our country as it slips into the darkness?

When will we demand a third choice?