There is an interview with Jeff Kaplan, the WoW lead designer, in the New York Times. Much of it is about the Burning Crusade expansion, confirming the Draenei as new playable race for the Alliance. Some interesting quotes:
Q. What classes will be available to the Draenei?
A. Warrior, Priest, Paladin, Mage and Hunter. We might change that, however, maybe add or remove a class.
Compared to Blood Elves that can be Warriors, Warlocks, Mages and Priests, there seems to be a Paladin class too much in the Draenei list. Or Bloodelves should be able to be shamans to balance it out.
Q. Overall, what percentage of level 60 players do you think have killed Ragnaros?
A. I don’t have firm statistics, but my gut feeling is around 25 percent.
Q. And what about Nefarian?
A. From the gut, I’d say maybe 15 percent.
Yeah, if you don't have data, just make them up. 15% of level 60 players already having killed Nefarian? I don't think so. Even the 25 percent number on Ragnaros seems rather high.
Q. In terms of how Burning Crusade players will be able to handle older content, how many level 70 characters, for example, do you think it will take to kill Ragnaros?
A. I’m not sure because we’re actually about to start testing on that, but I would guess 10 to 15.
Please, please, don't use another made up data to justify lowering the cap for MC raids to 10 or 15 players. Because then you might as well delete the place, who would go there on an ultra-tough 10-man raid with level 70 characters to get level 60 gear?
But the one comment that will get Jeff the most angry comments is probably:
Q. Why not add any new low-level instances like Deadmines?
A. Stuff like the Deadmines and Wailing Caverns is extremely popular and gets a lot of use. But at the same time people skip over and pass that content extremely fast and they never go back. So there’s not a lot of bang for our buck in those dungeons. And Draenei and Blood Elves will be able to do those dungeons anyway. If we put the time into making another Deadmines, it would mean one less instance at level 60 or something when you need it to level up.
Casual players already have the impression that they don't get any more content added, like a new low level dungeon, because the developers are too busy making only high-end raid dungeons. The lead designers stating that this is totally true is *not* a good idea. What he says is that content that is extremely popular, but gets used a couple of times and then not any more with the same character, is going to be neglected in favor for end-game content which is less popular but the players going there will repeatedly grind it for a long time. Repetitive content gives more "bang for the buck". Does it? Well, if so then only for the minority of people that actually get to use it. Which even if you believe the outrageous estimate of Jeff means 15 percent of level 60 players being able to reach Naxxrimas, and 85 percent of level 60 players and all the players below 60 getting nothing. Again, we knew that before, but stating this as official policy in the New York Times is just going to fuel the casual vs. hardcore wars. Expect angry reactions from the WoW customer base, with some statement later promising more casual content from the developers.
No comments:
Post a Comment