Musings on the changes to raids coming in Cataclysm

To say that Blizzard dropped a bombshell when they announced the changes being made to raiding in Cataclysm would be a gross understatement. I will assume that if you read my blog, you are relatively well informed about current WoW events, so I won't patronize you by summing up what was announced; you can read the announcement itself if you need to get up to speed. Naturally, the community erupted into debate upon hearing these changes, with reactions that were as varied as they were passionate. Before I delve into this issue myself, I just want to say for the record that because of my limited raid experience, I won't be focusing on the specifics of how these changes will affect raiding. Though I will consider those specifics, I will also look at the potential consequences of these changes and examine those.

The worst possible outcome of this new system would be 25-man raiding dying entirely, and it's something that could conceivably happen if the rewards for running 25-mans aren't much better than the rewards for running 10-mans. I say this is the worst outcome because there are people who actually enjoy running 25-man content more than 10-man content. It's more epic, the challenge is greater, and thus the satisfaction is greater as well. The trouble with the tangible rewards for the two modes being the same (but in different quantities) is that the satisfaction of organizing more people to accomplish the same goal may not be enough to motivate people to meet that challenge. This makes me wonder, though; if 25-man raiding risks dying because the objective rewards for doing it won't be as good, are the people who run it now running it for the right reasons? Might they be like the people who did arena content in Burning Crusade just for the gear, and then dropped arena once Wrath hit? Far be it from me to decide what is the right and wrong reason to play the game a certain way, but it's something to think about.

So, what if 25-man modes go away? If something is lost because the community loses interest, is it really that big of a loss? I think so. Some say that the better gear is the only thing that keeps people running 25-mans, but if it really were all about the gear, I don't think that 25-mans would be around. After all, 10-mans and 25-mans theoretically run along the same difficulty path, and gear is only about getting further along that path, and that path is more easily traversed with ten people than twenty five. Some combination of increased scale, greater socialization, and a greater organizational challenge keeps people coming together in groups of 25. Theoretically, that should be enough to let 25-man raiding survive through the changes being made in Cataclysm, but it may not be.

The real question is, does Blizzard owe it to 25-man raiders to give them a motivation to run 25-mans other than the increased personal rewards? As I said in my musings on micro-transactions, people expect the rewards for completing a challenge to scale with the difficulty of doing so. Thus far, 25-man content has been more difficult both in terms of the gear required and the organization required. Blizzard can take one of the factors that make 25-mans more difficult (gear), but 25-mans will always be more difficult to organize than 10-mans. Unless Blizzard can somehow change that fact (which is doubtful), then 25-mans will always be more difficult than 10-mans. The only thing they could do about that fact would be to lower the objective difficulty to compensate for the increased organizational difficulty, but that would only exacerbate the problem, since 25-man raiders would feel cheated of the "true WoW experience" and would probably drop down to 10-mans in response, which is the exact opposite of what Blizzard seems to want to happen.

Will giving more gold, badges, and gear be enough to compensate for that increased organizational difficulty? I wish I could say that I think it will, but I have a feeling that there will be a sense among the 25-man community that they are working harder for the same rewards, regardless of the increase in quantity. This increase in quantity also risks making 25-man guilds burn out faster than 10-man guilds. If they get gear faster, what with getting more badges and drops, they'll gear up faster than 10-man raiders and burn through the content faster. I wouldn't be surprised if this makes 25-man raiders drop down to 10-mans as a final straw that breaks the camel's back. We may be hearing complaints like "We burned through tier 11 so fast that I never go to savor it; we're not making the same mistake with tier 12."

Of course, this is all speculation, and it's difficult to talk about "should"s without knowing any "will"s. What we do know is that some people enjoy running 25-man content more than running 10-man content. 25-man content is a more difficult de facto challenge than running 10-man content, and no de jure changes Blizzard makes can change that fact. When players work harder, they expect a greater reward. The increased personal reward of running a 25-man would be sufficient if the increased challenges of running a 25-man were also just personal, but they are also organizational. It takes extra effort on the part of guild leaders to make 25-man raids happen, and they deserve extra reward for it.

Luckily for us, Cataclysm will give us just the way to reward guilds for the extra effort they spend putting those 25 people together: guild experience and currency. If Blizzard wants 25-mans to live, an easy way to make it happen is for them to make 25-man raids give more guild experience and currency than 10-mans. That would allow them to directly reward the people who suffer the most to make 25-man runs happen: the guild leadership. Since running 25-mans is a team effort, it makes sense to reward that effort in a way that benefits the team, and guild experience and currency will do just that. Though balancing the exact ratio of experience and currency granted by 10-mans and 25-mans may take some time, it's worth it to reward people for the extra effort they put forward to play the game they love, and it won't compromise any of Blizzard's goals that they wish to accomplish with the changes coming to raids.