Azaroth

I can’t honestly tell you that I play World of Warcraft anymore, and at this point I’m quite happy about that.

partially because, apparently, Blizzard has decided to hire some people who failed the online games course at the Phoenix Institute or wherever.

In an odd decision that clearly displayed a disconnection between developers and any players but the elite guilds they likely socialize with, they’ve decided to place personal ratings requirements on nearly all Season 4 items. Some of them so ridiculously high that only a tiny percentage of the most power classes and most powerful specs can ever hope to attain them. This in a game about as balanced as a drunken one-legged midget on ice.

The problem is that to ever be one of the top players, you must be totally geared in Season 3 by the time Season 4 rolls around. What this means is that the rich get richer, and the poor have next to no chance at the shiny new loot. The power disparity created by gear is widened and inherently insurmountable. New 70s, off specs, or just those people who simply aren’t good enough at PvP to compete with the top 5% of the WoW nerds in the world now have little or no reason to ever step into the Arena. Not only that, but as far as I hear, the Battlegrounds rewards will now inexplicably require Arena ratings as well.

This is a very curious decision made by a company that can’t seem to decide what they hell they’re actually doing. First, WoW was supposed to be casual. Then it was a hardcore raiding game. Then PvP came along, and it was a massive grind that nearly required catheterization. Then PvP was changed to be very casual, and anyone (with enough time to devote, albeit on their own terms) could get loot. Of course, the loot was so good that they completely trivialized all PvE content. Now they’re changing things again, allowing the most powerful PvP gear only to ever be obtained by those who are already the best geared players in the game.

Look, I don’t think this is stupid because I’m bad at PvP. Really far from it. But anyone who doesn’t have their entire life to devote (including about 6 months retroactively) is completely alienated by these changes. It’s just not intelligent, and I can’t understand it beyond developers at Blizzard getting a little too active in their newly created e-sport with their /created items.

Sorry guys. Mudflation and power gaps are Game Design 101. You don’t have to be a genius and fix those problems, but you have to be at least somewhat aware of them. And Blizzard has proven time and time again that they’re not.