Talents, prerequisites, and thinking like a player

It has been quite some time since the event that inspired me to write this post occurred--almost two weeks, to be exact--but the issue I want to discuss doesn't derive its relevance from any recent development; it is a point that is, I think, worth discussing at any time. About two weeks ago, Ghostcrawler (WoW's lead systems designer) posted a comment in a forum topic about senseless prerequisites within talent trees (like when a PvP ability is a prerequisite for a class's core PvE ability; Dragon’s Breath being required for Living Bomb was given as an example). In response to players asking for their removal, Ghostcrawler had this to say:

This is the kind of feedback I categorize as thinking like a player not like a designer. As a player, removing prereqs in talent trees removes restrictions. Rather than having to make a hard choice, you can take what you want. Under that logic, it makes sense to you for the developer to remove the prereqs. But you could make a similar argument about the talent tree tiers as a whole. If I didn't have to spend those 5 talent points in tier 2, then I could get that extra talent point somewhere else! Wouldn't that give me as a player more freedom, and doesn't more freedom always lead to a better game?

I can see where his thinking is coming from, and like many of Ghostcrawler's posts, I can sympathize with the point he is trying to make, but I think he missed one key point in this discussion: what about the developers thinking like players? Because from the other comments he made in the thread, it doesn't seem like there's a lot of that going on.

Ghostcrawler's main point seemed to be that the reason these seemingly senseless prerequisites exist is to force the player to make actual choices about whether it's worth it to take those less useful talents in order to take the more useful ones. This I can understand, but I find his method misguided for several reasons. For one thing, when the prerequisites are for talents that players need to take, because those talents are part of their main DPS arsenal (the original post lists many examples), it really isn't a matter of choice. When players are forced to take talents they'll never use in order to get their necessary talents, all the designers are doing is inconveniencing those classes. Now, this can be justified by the idea that it's up to the players to find creative ways to take advantage of these situational talents, but there are some cases where that just isn't possible. When will a frost death knight DPSing in a raid use Hungering Cold? And won't an arms warrior who's DPSing in a raid lose damage if he going out of range to charge?

And here's the thing: yes, these paths force us to make choices about how we spend our talents points, as Ghostcrawler himself said.

A lot of the game is about making choices. If the choice is hard, that means both options are compelling. If the choice is easy then the game has less depth because instead of picking left vs. right you are picking right vs. wrong.

I completely agree with him on this, but being forced to choose between taking a lack-luster talent in order to take a good one and not taking either isn't a compelling choice if no player in their right mind would take the second option. When that's the case, the developers only succeed in making the player resent the game for reducing his choice by forcing him to spend extra talent points that could be spent elsewhere.

I can think of another reason Blizzard might want these abilities to be behind less useful talents, but that one doesn't hold up, either, even from a developer's standpoint. That reason is that, perhaps those abilities are behind prerequisites because they give the player too much power after spending only one talent point. Maybe the developers are just trying to increase the cost of the more useful abilities without flat-out increasing the number of talent points it takes to unlock them. If that's the case, there are other alternatives to putting them behind barely useful/useless prerequisites that only make the player resent receiving a useless talent when he reaches his odd level. They could always nerf the talent so it isn't as important of a part of the player's rotation, thus making it feasible the talent would be worth just one talent point. The other option, though, is a much better one when you think like a player: make the other talents in the tree more appealing.

To go with the old saying about trying to keep kids on the farm when they've seen the city, don't make it harder to get to the city; instead, improve the farm. Do you want players to actually consider whether or not they should take the talents you want them to put thought into taking? Then give them some viable alternatives. This is especially important in an era when we are only getting a talent point every two levels, so each talent needs to feel significant. If they really want the choice to be difficult, the solution is to improve the less attractive options, not to make the more attractive options more difficult to get. As players, this would be a much better alternative than direction Blizzard seems to be taking now. I know I'd rather antagonize between two excellent choices than two mediocre ones, and this would still create the same kind of difficult choice between two compelling options that Ghostcrawler is so focused on.

What really irks me is that it seems like Ghostcrawler, and possibly Blizzard in general, hasn't considered this option. This possibility shines through especially in this response by GC:

Let's take your argument to the next level. What if there is nothing in the first tier that appeals to me? Why can I just skip over tier 1 and spend points in tier 2 directly? For that matter, why do I have to spend down a talent tree at all. If I would use both Earthquake and Feral Spirit, shouldn't I be able to get both of those? Is it a better game that I am denied that option?

While I agree with him about his larger point, that talent tree mechanics exist the way they do now to prevent players from cherry-picking talents, I can't agree with where he's coming from about skipping the first tier of talents if nothing there appeals to you. I can't agree with him, because in that case, the problem isn't a player trying to maximize his potential power within the system; the problem is the system itself. If there is really nothing within the first tier that appeals to players, but Blizzard still plans on making players spend talent points in that first tier, how can they call that talent tree successfully designed? See, though the current talent tree system exists as it does so player can't cherry pick talents, that doesn't mean that players are supposed to feel as if they would like to cherry pick talents. The fact that players can feel the restraint of those restrictions shows that the talents in the tree just aren't that appealing, which is the fault of the designers, not the players. In an ideal world (of warcraft), players wouldn't notice those restrictions because the talents would be so awesome that players would wish for more talent points to spend. The fact that players can feel those restraints shows that the choices just aren't as appealing as they should be, and when those choices aren't appealing, the talent tree is just not well-designed.

All of the conclusions I came to in this post would be abundantly clear to Ghostcrawler and team if they would try thinking like players. We players are fine with making difficult decisions when it comes to our talents if both options are viable and both are appealing. If Blizzard can make that happen, then there will probably be less complaining about the talent trees. Sure, players will probably just complain about how the talent trees are too good and they need more talent points or fewer talents, but at least it would be easier for Blizzard to defend their design against that kind of criticism. After all, it's easier to defend there being too much of a good thing than there not being enough.

Why you should not rush to the level cap

This is an issue that is close to my heart. When I first started playing, I rarely did quests since I didn't want to move around from area to area until I had leveled past the area I was in. Thus I did a lot of grinding, since vanilla WoW was not made for efficient leveling. Grinding gets boring when you do it that much, so I found leveling to be a chore. That was until I bought a leveling guide that showed me how to level quickly by moving between areas and always doing quests, and leveling became fun again, since the levels were coming in faster than they ever had before. I realize now, however, that I was really misguided in trying to level quickly, because once I got to 70, I had one of those horrible "What do I do now?" moments. I realize now it would have been more enjoyable if I had tried to see more while I was leveling, rather than rushing to the top.

Though Ghostcrawler (the lead system designer for WoW) has gone on the record as saying that the level cap is where it's at, I disagree. I have nothing against high end content per se, but I feel it's wrong to assume that end-game is better than leveling and that one should get there as fast as he can. There is a lot of joy to be found in leveling, and since it is a necessity anyways, you may as well savor it rather than viewing it as a necessary evil.

There are a few things in my mind that stand out as making leveling enjoyable. One is simply learning new moves and adjusting your playing habits to incorporate them into your gameplay. Though some of the abilities you will learn are somewhat useless, most of them add a unique facet to your combat, and this makes learning each new ability a unique joy.

More important, though, is the sheer amount of content to be found during the leveling process, especially in vanilla WoW. Once you reach the level cap, there are some more quests that you can do in Icecrown and Storm Peak, but everything after that is just running instances and raids while doing the same daily quests over and over and over again and waiting for Blizzard to add more content. While you are leveling, however, the content is already there for you, and there is plenty of it. Some of my best memories of leveling are quests I did in my trek from 1 to 60, including the Nesingwary series of quests in Stranglethorn.

Some of you may view questing just a way to speed up the leveling process, helping you gain more experience points and thus making leveling easier, but it is so much more than than. When you start the game, the intro cinematic gives you your general motivation. For me as a Night Elf, it was to defend Teldrassil. However, once you leave your starting zone, that initial motivation no longer applies. The question is, then, why do you fight? The answer can be found in your quests. From helping random civilians to doing a job for the King of Ironforge, quests keep you motivated to continue fighting, and thus continue playing.

More importantly, quests also provide a lot of back story for the game. If you never complete the Defias Brotherhood quest series, you'll never know what your motivation is for entering the Deadmines and killing Van Cleef, or why he rebelled against Stormwind in the first place. If you don't complete the quest that starts at the end of Uldaman, you'll never learn the origin of the Dwarves. And if you don't complete Big Game Hunter and the quests that lead up to it, you won't get the reference when you do their equivalent quests in Outland and Northrend.

What I'm trying to say is that questing is fun, and it's one of the main reasons to play that game. Once you reach end-game, you get one or two zones of level 80 quests, and then you are limited to the repeatable daily quests. The same ones. Over and over again. And while killing ten Defias thugs for one quest isn't that different from killing ten scourge zombies for another quest, doing it over and over again on the same enemies gets repetitive.

So when you do reach end-game, you have three choices of things to do: solo-ing, PvP, and raiding. Because Wrath of the Lich King homogenized the process of reputation gains and making money through dailies (more on this in another post; edit: this post can be found here), solo-ing in Wrath is pretty boring. Gone is the variety found in Vanilla and BC. All of your recipes for professions come from one or two sources; all of your reputations are increases through dailies and/or instance runs; all of your income comes from dailies now, since farming isn't as lucrative as it used to be. Along with their other forms of homogenization, Blizzard reduced the number of items used by high-level characters by a great deal, meaning there isn't much of a fortune to be made in farming. After all, with few items to farm, more people are farming the same items. High supply = low price.

Contrast end-game solo-ing with leveling and the choice of which is better is pretty clear. While leveling, you rarely do the same quest twice, and never over and over again, which keeps them interesting. And since not a lot of people are leveling characters these days, you'll find items which people still need, for leveling their professions and such, that aren't in constant supply. Admittedly, the demand isn't consistent either, but that's what keeps it interesting. You also always have a reason to fight, whereas solo-ers who reach end-game will finish their quests and have little reason left to keep fighting.

As for PvP, there is nothing to prevent you from PvP'ing as a low level character. You may not be in fair level brackets, but like I said, that's what keeps it interesting. Besides, those unfair deaths at level 21 fuel the anger which lets you kill lowbies at level 28. Good times, eh? I'll admit that I don't know much about PvP, but I know a lot of PvP'ers who says that resilience ruined PvP. Well, guess what? Up to level 60, you will find no resilience on your gear. There is arena, which you can't really do unless you are at the maximum level, but if you play WoW mainly for arena, you are better off rolling a character on an arena realm anyways.

The only remaining facet of end-game content that I have not touched upon is raiding. I will admit, this is the only case where end-game has leveling beat. Instances up to end-game (at least the ones worth doing) are limited to five people. If you seek more of a challenge and more of a social experience than that, then end-game is your only option. If you also raid in order to overcome the challenges of it, then you won't find much satisfaction in low level instances. "Progression" no longer exists anywhere other than level 80, so if you enjoy the progressively difficulty of raids, you will find little satisfaction is the dungeons of yore.

If, however, you run raids just for the phat loot, then I can't tell you that you will have more fun at 80 than on the way there. Instances are the best source of loot from PvE no matter what your level, and though you may use the argument "Oh, you'll just outgrow any instance gear you get while leveling," the same can be applied to the gear you get at level 80. Even if you deck yourself out in best-in-slot gear, another raid instance will be released a few months later, and your gear will become obsolete again. It's the same cycle either way:

run instances -> get good gear -> new content is released/becomse available -> gear becomes obsolete -> run new instances -> repeat ad infinitum

So what makes that cycle more enjoyable during leveling than raiding? Nothing really; it's just less work. You may think that you'll get less satisfaction out of your phat loot if it's easier to get, but really, how much satisfaction do you actually get out of your purples? In the end, gear itself is a bad reason to run instances. At least while you are leveling, you can use the excuse that it makes your leveling easier. Conversely, any gear you get while raiding only go towards making raiding easier; you are basically raiding so that you can raid more. The only excuse to do this is if you enjoy raids for themselves, and if you do, then gear is really a non-issue.

Thus concludes my thoughts on leveling. When you role your first character, take it slow, breath it all it, try some instances, and keep questing! That's how you keep the game interesting. If you already have a level 80 character and you steam-rolled your way there, try rolling an alt to see all the content you missed; there's a lot of it in this game, and it would be a shame to not see it; it was designed for you, after all.