Games For Sail

If you’ve been playing WoW at all consistently over the last two years, you’ve seen the way the game has been moving toward a more casual play style. By this, I mean that there are interesting and fun things for players of all levels to do, without the need to spend many hours or days to achieve anything. The idea seems to be to attract and retain more casual players, people who can’t or won’t put in the amount of time and energy a hard-core player will. Given the number of players in the game, this strategy has clearly worked to get people involved. But some people are wondering if having lots of casual players is good for the game itself, as well as for the hard-core players. Here’s a breakdown of the situation.

The Pros of the Casual Trend

Casual style play adds a lot of fun things to the game.. Changes like Achievements, lower level requirements for mounts, less XP to gain access to the higher level content, along with the large number of special events scheduled year round, all add a great deal of depth and detail to the WoW universe. For hardcore players who end up playing through the same content over and over trying to get a new epic shield, pair of spaulder, it is a welcome distraction and a great way to add depth to their current play style. After all, life isn’t one dimensional. Why should your game be?

The Negative Side of Casual Style Play

The biggest problem with including so much stuff for casual gamers is resources. Since Blizzard is pumping so many resources into Achievement and the like, they have fewer resources to work on things like raiding content for the hard-core players. Raiding sizes have been reduced to 10 and 25 men and the highest level raid at Level 80 is considerably easier than anything atop the Level 70 ladder. The top-end Players who reached Level 80 days after the expansion came out have been reduced to waiting around for the higher end raids that are eventually coming. In the meantime, these players are stuck grinding Achievement or spending all their time in PvP while they wait..

What Casual Play Style Means for the Game

While there are drawbacks as well as benefits, I think attracting casual gamers to World of Warcraft is good for the players, the game, and Blizzard in the end. Remember that Blizzard needs to make money to stay in business, and more players means more income. With increased income Blizzard also has the resources to keep developing new content for all levels of player. It might seem like the faithful are getting shortchanged, but it is the price we have to pay to give the company the resources to develop new content in the future that might not otherwise get the go ahead.

Do you feel a need to stay with the current trends in World of Warcraft, whether toward casual gaming or anything else? If so, you will be interested in the Warcraft Formula, a continuously updated guide to all things WoW. This Warcraft Formula review gives you all the details.