Before World of Warcraft was developed, MMORPG’s were considered the black sheep of the PC gaming community. Early on, it was considered amazing to have 100,000 subscribers for one game. Now, just ten years later, WoW has blown all previous records out of the water, achieving subscriber levels that far exceed all previous games combined. WoW is everywhere, on TV, movies, and in a lot of our homes right now. But has this fame caused Blizzard to become too relaxed? In part one, I will be going over the mistakes Blizzard is making and has made. These mistakes are putting holes in Blizzards ship, and it’s only a matter of time before that ship sinks.

I have been playing MMORPG’s almost all of my life. I started playing Ultima Online and loved it. That experience led me to seek out and try all MMO’s I could get my hands on; I was addicted. I began working for a large MMO website and played everything from Lineage to World of Warcraft. I have been playing World of Warcraft off and on since its launch. Lately, the more I play, the more I notice how obsessed Blizzard is with new content. This leads me into their first mistake.

Old content is not bad content. Because of the Burning Crusade expansion, World of Warcraft’s level sixty content is like a ghost town. The zones are empty and the instances are just far off memories. What was so wrong with this content that would make Blizzard decide to toss it in the garbage? Nothing. While my developing background is very limited in comparison to Blizzard, I do know that it’s easier to build off a foundation than it is to start a new one. I think it would have been a smarter move to release some new content and build it into the older content. Updating and adding to the content would make it a new experience. The time spent building new content could have been spent adding more details to the game.

World of Warcraft has been successful for a few, well-known reasons. It is easy to play and the controls are not complicated. The controls mimic that of a PC first person shooter, and the interface is a blend of Diablo and Warcraft. The game only takes minutes, not hours, to pickup and learn. WoW floats along in a middle line between detailed and simplified. Blizzard is almost afraid to take a step in either direction. Is this watered down approach hurting World of Warcraft?

The short answer is, yes. Anyone can pickup World of Warcraft and get addicted to the ease of play. Grandparents are playing with their children and grandchildren; these people would have never touched a MMORPG ten years ago. When the casual gamer starts to want a game that’s more in-depth and requires more skill, Warcraft just doesn’t have enough to keep their interest. The crafting system has virtually no depth, with only a small taste of detail in the weaponsmith professions. The player vs. player system in the game is very lame compared to other games. PvP is just something you wander through, mindlessly, until you fulfill the time limit to gain the honor points to buy an item. Most of the fighting is done in the instanced, objected-based battlegrounds with evenly balanced teams. Again, Blizzard went the simple route and made attacking opposing faction owned cities and villages fun, but pointless. There is no interaction or reward from attacking the opposing cities and villages; it’s just something you do when you get bored.

Time should not equal rewards. In World of Warcraft, the more time you can play the more reward you get. Someone who can only play a few hours a day will not see the endgame raid content. And again, the more time spent in the instanced battlegrounds will net you more honor points to buy your gear sooner. Blizzard has made some small advances in this area by adding the arena and removing diminishing honor. In the arena, each season the top teams receive special rewards. To be a top contender, a player would have to devote multiple hours a day to playing arena. This is not something a casual player could ever achieve.

Leveling in World of Warcraft is almost torture. The best loot and content lies in the expansion and cannot be accessed until you reach level 58. The time in the game is spent marching through the hours of repetitive quests that have been ignored and tossed aside. A new player could take several months to go through these pointless levels before reaching level 58 and the Outlands. While Blizzard did increase the experience gained from quests and lowered the overall experience needed for leveling, it’s just not enough. With the upcoming expansion and level cap changes, that’s another ten levels added to the grind to reach the new cap.

Who is this expansion for? Level 60 to level 70 was a needed change. It refreshed the gear and the whole way the game was played. Now, almost a year later, Blizzard is ready to repeat the same process. For the average casual player, all of the level 70 gear will become trash. The players who spent the hours in raid content will start with a large advantage in the new content. It’s very obvious Blizzard is catering to the existing player. I like to call these "Everquest Expansions." A MMO will release expansions that only have new content and make it difficult for new players to catch up. Does Blizzard see their player base shrinking? I can’t think of any other reason a company would do this. Instead of the three to four months needed to reach level 70, it could take someone six months or longer to reach the new cap. The average new player would spend over 100 dollars before they can reach the same level in the game as an established player. This is unacceptable.

Deciding to keep World of Warcraft simple, has definitely come full circle and is now damaging the game. When players realize level 80 is the same grind as level 70 and that nothing has changed, they will start to wonder what is keeping them in the game. Also, when millions of these fresh MMO fans see new and exciting games, it will be that much easier for them to make the switch. Blizzard needs to stop now and rethink their strategy. It’s not too late to save their sinking ship. Or is this a strategy to sink the ship and swim to their next, unannounced, MMO? I will discuss all of this and give solutions to Blizzard’s mistakes in part two.