World of Warcraft is a very fun game, but one of the problems it has now is that there is too little fresh blood, and the number of casual players is rising when hardcore gamers are old enough to support their families! So in a recent interview with Warcraft designers in Windows Central, the designers said that they would make changes for casual gamers!
In an interview with Windows Central, Maria Hamilton and Warcraft lead Holly Longdale discussed the new content coming to World of Warcraft's Battle for the Center of the Earth, which is primarily aimed at solo and casual players, including the introduction of dungeon gameplay and plans to revamp the fight club.
Keep your content down
Realizing that Blizzard isn't doing enough to serve casual players, the Dungeon is a new form of world content that replaces the PvP gear subsistence in the Great Mysteries Vault, and aims to provide players with a way to obtain final gear in addition to the Grand Mysteries, team quests, or PvP content, which can be completed by any character in a short amount of time, solo or in a team (up to five players).
In an interview with Windows Central, Holly Longale said, "We're trying to serve all types of players. Through our research and surveys, we learned that there is a large group of players who don't want to spend too much time thinking and just want to feel like they're making progress in 15-20 minutes," Holly explained.
"We wanted to create these small, easy-to-enjoy experiences that allow players to remain relevant in the game without disproportionate rewards to the effort. As you embark on a more complex or challenging dungeon adventure, the difficulty increases and the rewards increase. ”
Lessons learned
After drawing on some of the single-player gameplay of previous expansions, such as scenes from Toghast, Island Exploration, and Pandaria.
We've decided to challenge players with 11 levels of difficulty for the dungeon, but it's unclear exactly where the target will be. Previous versions all promised a similar experience, but inevitably there was a rapid decay in the number of players, a lack of sufficient challenge or variety, resulting in a lack of true replayability with each gaming experience.
The Dungeon intends to prevent this by capping the rewards at +7 to +8 so that the final floors can be used as optional challenges, and there are also plans to introduce a "secret" single-room boss battle that will provide the ultimate challenge.
Retain casual players
In an interview with Windows Central, Holly Lawndale said, "We've noticed that after an expansion is released, casual players complete upgrade missions, and then they are like, 'Okay, I've had enough,' you know, and then they'll stop playing until we have a new big questline."
So we realized that we really weren't doing enough to serve casual players because they weren't getting enough content and didn't have as much replayability as the core players. We looked at what features would help them. A lot of people with families and partners just want to do some solo or duo tasks with children, but also meaningful enough to be worth doing.
There's also a challenge section that appeals to a wider audience, possibly a mid-core player. Part of our team's new philosophy is that we should serve all player groups equally. We want all to be involved in Azeroth. ”
Archaeology & Fight Club
While the archaeology major will remain in the past, Blizzard is committed to reintroducing Fight Club in the form of a resident mode after the launch of Battle for the Center of the Earth.
In an interview with Windows Central, Maria Hamilton said:
Regarding archaeology, we do not intend to reintroduce it in its previous form or as a profession. Personally, I am very fond of archaeology and the fantasy elements in it and intend to look for new opportunities. We did some experiments with the Azeroth Archives in our recent 'Seeds of Revival' content.
As for Fight Club, it's something we do want to reintroduce in a permanent format, but not immediately when Battle Center goes live. ”