The Escalation of Convenience
Blizzard has changed initial mount prices to a mere 5 gold and dropped the level requirements down to lvl 20.
That fits in with their continual changes to reduce the curve for new players & alts. but I don’t think the timing on the change is pure coincidence: Champions Online is launching soon with travel powers available at level 5, which in overall level scale is comparable to WoW’s lvl 20.
Each new MMORPG seems to pick at least one feature where they add convenience and wave it about like a flag. It’s a short-term boost at most, it’s so easy for the grandfather games to follow suit. WoW started the trend when they launched WoW with no exp loss / debt. WAR tried with the “bears, bears, bears” concept but kill collectors mostly missed the mark (pretty much sums up that game IMHO). Next convenience on the horizon? Instant travel.
I’m not so convinced this is a good thing. Yeah, it’s easy to pick on a grind element or two, but in games where grind is a lot of the game: They will either end up removing all of the game’s hurdles, or more likely, just add more. It’s a neverending arms race.
As usual, it’s more fun to read about this on Penny Arcade. =)
“Is changing” should be “has changed” — patch came out a week ago. :)
Really, they’re sort of doing both removing & adding of hurdles. Remove a hurdle? Drop the mount req level. Add a hurdle? Lvl cap 80. :)
Heck, you think that’s bad, ALL dungeons (regular lvl 80 heroics and all) drop badges of conquest, the uber-leet badges of last Monday. As an example, I had 20 badges of conquest last monday. Yesterday, I spent 58 on a new high level hat, and still have another 10 in my bag… and that’s peanuts compared to some of my guildmates. :)
I like it, though. It means much less having to run through Naxx AGAIN FOR THE SEVENTYBILLIONTH TIME to gear up guildmates so they can get into the fun instances, and more … well, fun instances. :D
Correction noted and changed in the article above. =)
I think Bliz believes that it can force itself to create newer, more fun gameplay by hewing to a content nerf schedule that routinely culls old (usually more grindy) content.
By and large, they’ve succeeded: the game is so much less grindy in every aspect of play than it was at launch. Of course, it leaves old-timers feeling less special for having done something when it was hard, but Blizz basically believes that kind of vanity shouldn’t be playing a role in their game design decisions.
Except, of course, when it does– raiding is still the top of the ziggurat for gear, save for PvP gear that is very difficult for non-arena jockeys to get.
But in general, it’s just more of Blizzard’s standard policy of pushing people toward their newest content.