I’ll tell you what, it’s not for me. I haven’t ever gone on a raid in WoW and only completed a few instances…and only made it to level 48 before I got too bored to continue. Yeah, that’s all. Which brings me to this interview I saw on qt3:
The MMO Gamer: On the subject of raids, I obviously don’t know the exact numbers, but there are rumors floating around on the internet that only something like under two percent of players in WoW actually make use of the end-game raiding content. How do you respond to the notion that you are catering to a small, vocal minority, while ignoring the large majority of casual players?
Jeffrey Kaplan: I think that’s kind of a misconception that we’re only creating content for a small group of players. First of all, our statistics show that our most popular instance is Karazhan, that’s getting done by more players right now—each day we get statistics that show what our most popular instances are, and each day it comes back Karazhan, so a lot of people are doing that. We’re coming out with Zul’Aman in direct response to the popularity of Karazhan. (snipped)
So, MMO Gamer asks, how many people actually use the end game content you guys spend so many hours creating? It’s been suggested only about 2% of users. And Mr. Kaplan responds with, that’s silly, our numbers show Karazhan is a pretty popular raid.
Mr. Kaplan, that was a pretty lousy side step of the question. And Steve, Mr. MMO Gamer, why didn’t you press the issue?
Here’s what I want to know:
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- percentage of players that have leveled a character over 59th.
- percentage of players that have leveled a character to the max level
- percentage of players that have gone on at least one raid.
- percentage of players that have or do actively raid.
As a casual player (and no, I don’t believe most casual players have leveled at least one character to 60), I lean to the idea that the numbers just aren’t there for the majority of the player base. That the majority isn’t leveling all the way up and using the high end only content they are producing. It’s never been true in any other MMO, how could I believe that WoW has somehow crossed the line?
So, if that’s true, why isn’t Blizzard working on more content for those of that aren’t high levels, but would like to play some different stuff? I don’t know either. Can we possibly be that small of a percentage? Can Blizzard actually not know the number I asked for above? Can they really think that a majority, or even half that will unlock the Death Knights they talk about in the No Casual Content™ expansion?
I don’t get it.
What Would Matt Do: I’ll probably not play WoW again and almost definitely won’t be buying the next expansion. It has almost nothing in it for me. And don’t even get me started on their mistake of adding 10 more levels and invalidating everything BC does.
If, as you say, the majority of people haven’t leveled past 59, then there is plenty of content existing right now that they still haven’t experienced, so why should bliz make more for that type of player? Just by experiencing existing content you can effortlessly level to 70 with zero gringing or repetition.
Regardless, I think blizzard is learning that they need to skew instances to be more casual friendly and are taking steps in that direction, with the removal of tk and ssc attunements and a post karz level zone.
pete
Assuming I’m right that a majority of players haven’t made it past 59th, this makes me think they probably won’t. But, they did like the game well enough to play up to that point. So if you want those players to continue to subscribe, give them more of what they liked about the game. More races/classes, more lowbie content, fixing of lower level things like blacksmithing (so useless after 20th…all the way until 60th I hear).
WoW is a lot like Diablo 2. You hack and slash, you have skills and build your character in different ways. But when the Diablo 2 expansion was released, did it just cater to people with higher level characters? Or did it add classes and lands and let you start all the way over from the beginning? That’s what I feel the expansions to WoW are missing. And because of that, WoW will be missing me too. To be fair, I don’t think they will care much as they swim in their pool of money. But that won’t stop me from being grumpy about it! :)