Welcome back friends!
Today I want to backseat game developer. We recently heard from Cory Stockton, Lead Content Designer on World of Warcraft, that Hellfire Citadel will in fact be Warlords of Draenor's final raid tier. Given the fact that we are facing off against Archimonde and the raid takes place on Gul'dan's doorstep, I can't say I am that surprised. However, there has been quite a bit of negative feedback around the idea of only 2 major content patches. And one of those patches can hardly be considered "major". Patch 6.1 was largely underwhelming to a lot of players. I personally had no interest in the selfie camera or Twitter integration, and the changes to the garrison only fixed issues and didn't add any new game play.
Patch 6.2 has been enjoyable for me personally up until now. The zone itself is well designed with a decent layout. Hellfire Citadel is beautiful and really calls back to the original 5 man dungeon zone and The Black Temple. The daily quests are a little tedious but the areas are different enough and the rare spawns throughout the zone reward you for being there for a while. Unfortunately it's still more of the same quest design we got from the garrison daily quests where you kill things and pick up items until a blue bar is full and then you leave. This method isn't exactly engaging but if all you are looking to do is unlock flying in a few weeks then it shouldn't be difficult to get the reputation you need in no time. I already completed the necessary achievement this week without doing any farming or grinding outside of dailies.
With all of that being said, the disappointment from the player standpoint stems from the same repetitive issue. Players want a steady flow of content in order to maintain interest in the game. This isn't just a Warlords of Draenor issue. We were unhappy that Icecrown and Siege of Orgrimmar hung around for too long. So if what we want is new things to do at a reasonable pace, then how does Blizzard get into that rhythm? They have forever been the company famous for not releasing anything until it's finished. I think the place for them too look is right there on the Blizzard campus.
Hearthstone was officially released to the public on March 11, 2014 and the game was instantly a hit partly due to a prolonged beta that was available for players to stream and build a following. 4 months later Curse of Naxxramas was released and it brought with it a relatively small number of new cards and a new game mode that would keep players attention for a few weeks. 5 months later Goblins vs Gnomes launched as a true full expansion. The entire metagame changed for everyone, and players of every skill level got a chance to experiment with new cards and interactions. And like clockwork, 5 months later, Blackrock Mountain was released as Hearthstones second adventure. Since the games official launch, Hearthstone has received a steady pace of new content. I understand that developing a card game is on a whole other side of the gaming spectrum as an MMO, but the concept still applies. A lot of players, especially ones who play Hearthstone competitively, would prefer a much faster release schedule, but they have been able to count on new content every 4-5 months. World of Warcraft players have been forever asking for something similar. I think it is possible if things are spread out and planned to hold that schedule. I've got an example of how I think Warlords could have gone to keep players invested. Keep in mind, all of this is from the mind of a casual gamer with hindsight and no development limitations.
- 6.0 launches very similarly to how it actually did in November. The leveling experience was hit out of the park. We familiarize ourselves with Draenor as the story unfolds before us. The launch dungeons are really well done, and Highmaul was fine as a launch raid. The only change I would make, would be to have Highmaul be its own raid tier. There would need to be a couple of extra bosses to fill it out, but we didn't need pre-tier raid. The legendary quest line can begin the same way, but it leads us into a different 6.1
- 6.1 could drop in January only this time it has Khadgar sending us to the isle of Farahlon as part of the legendary quest. It was originally shown on the Draenor world map but was eventually cut before the beta. How about we head there first after gathering our stones from Highmaul. We have to empower them at an ancient ogre waygate on Farahlon that the ogres kept secret from the orcs and we only find out about it by defeating the Imperator. We could add a dungeon or two with art styles similar to the lush purple eco-domes in Netherstorm since those are supposed to be what the zone originally looked like before Draenor exploded. This patch could work just like 5.1 in Mists of Pandaria. We get a new daily quest hub (which would get us out of the garrison way sooner), that progressively tells the story the same way the garrison campaign does. This method gives the zone a longer life and draws the player in. Every step of the quest feels like a reward since the next part isn't automatically there for you to speed through. The garrison campaign can continue as normal so that the player doesn't lose sight of the threat of the Iron Horde.
- 6.2 could hit in March and bring Blackrock Foundry as a new tier. The raid itself was really well done in my opinion. Most of the fights were interesting, and the Foundry itself feels epic. The goal remains the same. We want to cut the Iron Horde off from their supply of weapons and artillery and put all the pressure on Grommash. They could make the same garrison updates as they did in our 6.1 and at this point we have basically the same game only we have an additional zone of content to jump back to to keep things fresh. The legendary quest line continues as normal only we don't have the Killrog cinematic yet. We save that for the next patch.
- 6.2 in June would unlock the western half of Tanaan Jungle. We attempt to take the fight to Grommash and are met with the same resistance we see now when we enter the zone. There are barricades, Iron Horde soldiers, and Gronn fighting us at the gate. We establish a foothold the same way. Only up until this point we still don't know what Gul'dan is up to. The garrison campaign quests give us some interaction with Grom, then they send us to infiltrate the Bleeding Hollow area where we hear about the discontent within the Iron Horde. We find out whats going on with Iskar and the Arrakoa possibly allying themselves with Gul'dan. The first part of the zone gives us hints of what he is working on an what is still to come. Then as we progress through the zone similar to how we handled our version of 6.1, we come to the cinematic we had at the end of Blackrock Foundry's chain of the legendary quest. Grommash is losing leadership over the Iron Horde and Killrog joins with Gul'dan to complete the coup.
- 6.3 opens the rest of Tanaan Jungle in August. We finally get to see what Gul'dan is up to as we work our way through the rest of the zone. We see find out exactly what deal he made with the Legion. Hellfire Citadel opens just as it has now culminating with Archimonde. There would be a few differences. Whether it's a quest or a moment in the raid itself, Grom gets a true redemption arc, not one where everyone just forgets all the terrible things he's done. And after we complete the legendary quest line, we get some amount of content that gives us a sign of whats coming next. It could be Khadgar telling us where he thinks Gul'dan went, or it could be us receiving an urgent message from home letting us know about a new threat. This could conveniently come as a mini-patch as Blizzard releases information about the next expansion at Blizzcon.
Obviously that is just a retrospective of how things could have gone, but I think it speaks to the kind of schedule players are looking for. Every patch doesn't need to be a whole new raid tier, questing zone, dungeon, and battleground all rolled into one. Two of those every 4-5 months would be more than enough for most players, and the ones who that isn't enough for already aren't getting the flow of content they are looking for. It would be a step in the right direction at the very least. Players want to be able to count on some kind of rhythm. We want to be able to know something is on it's way, and occasionally be able to a hint of it ahead of time in the content we already have. At this point Warlords doesn't feel like the completion of a story. It feels like quick answers to unsure questions and it's leaving a bad taste in players mouths. The above layout is a decent outline that I'm sure the folks at Blizzard can do much better than, and I'm hoping they pull it off in the near future.
Well that feels like a bit of a ramble so I'm going to end it there. Let me know what you think about that kind of a content release schedule. Thanks as always for reading.
Till next time,
Chris
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