A WoW.com breakfast topic get me thinking about mounts recently. The topic discussed how getting a mount used to be a major achievement, whereas now we get our first mount at level 20 and our epic land mounts at level 40, neither of which requires an exorbitantly large investment. The writer of that topic asked whether we should go back to the days when getting a mount (especially an epic mount) was a real achievement, rather than being treated as a necessity. While I did comment on that post, I want to give the topic some more attention here.
As much as we may miss the days when having and epic mount meant something special, times change. Sixty is no longer the level cap, and there are no longer two levels of riding skill. New challenges have been added (like buying artisan riding skill, a.k.a. epic flying), and new challenges will continue to be added (like being able to buy an upgrade for all of your epic flying mounts that makes them fly at 310% speed, one of the features coming with Cataclysm). Achieving these new achievements is often contingent on achieving those old achievements first; for example, you need to buy journeyman riding (epic riding) before you can buy expert riding (regular flying) and eventually artisan riding (epic flying). This is where things can get problematic.
If you have been playing since before Burning Crusade, and you were one of those who worked hard to save up money for your epic mount (regardless of whether or not you got it), then think about all of the effort you had to put forward to get it. Think of all the time spent saving up money, all those days watching your gold slowly grow, until it finally reached that magic number: 1,000. Remember how good it felt? It's memories like those that make us nostalgic for those days and that make you wish getting an epic mount were the achievement it used to be. Now think back again. Remember all of that effort that you put in to getting your mount? Let's imagine that nothing had changed, that epic land mounts were still as difficult to get as they used to be. However, epic land mounts aren't the final goal of riding skill any more. There are now two more levels of riding skill that can be purchased after getting epic riding, and they themselves are also difficult to acquire. Anyone who wished to have a flying mount, let alone an epic flier, would need to put forth the effort to get the epic land mount first, then put forth the effort to get their regular flier--which, unless you were a druid, was no joke in the olden days of Burning Crusade, when dailies were only available to those with flying mounts--then put forth the effort to get the epic flying mount (which really wasn't a joke). Had nothing changed, the sum of all the effort would border on the effort needed to obtain Insane in the Membrane, and the number of people with epic fliers would probably be in the double digits.
This would have been problematic, for Blizzard designs the game under the assumption that most dedicated players have epic flying, and that most high-level players have flying in some form (epic or not). That's why the mounts rewarded by the harder meta achievements and the rare-drop mounts are epic flying mounts; if epic riding were as difficult to get today as it was before, those achievement mounts would probably need to be land mounts. Having epic riding be as difficult to obtain as it used to be would also create the problem of Blizzard being hesitant to design content with flying in mind. After all, only those who have epic riding can purchase flying mounts, so that would be a fairly small portion of the WoW population. And considering how rare players with epic flying would be, think of what would have happened to Netherwing: either it wouldn't have rewarded awesome drakes, it would have been highly under-experienced by the player-base, or it just wouldn't have existed. (For the record, my Onyx Netherwing Drake is one of my favorite flying mounts, so Netherwing never existing would have made me a very sad panda.)
In short, WoW is not a static game; new content is released, as are new challenges, and when those new challenges require the completion of previous challenges before they can be tackled, those old challenges need to be demoted to allow more players to take a crack at the new challenges. That's why things that were once points of pride sometimes need to be demoted, so that players can experience the new content even if they don't have the same head start as those who got there first.
Showing posts with label mounts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mounts. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
My musings on micro-transactions
Considering what a hot-button issue this is, I knew I'd have to address it eventually. The Celestial Steed is now available in the Blizzard store, and it is the first mount available to those willing to shell out the cash for one. Since this is the first time Blizzard has added a mount to their store, a certain amount of backlash is to be expected, at the very least from the "they changed it, now it sucks" crowd. But how much of this backlash is warranted?
One of the most reasonable arguments against the selling of the Celestial Steed is that it allows people to save on gold by not needing to buy mounts for their alts. While this is true, it is also a necessity in order for the mount to be sold in the first place, unless Blizzard were to set up a system where you needed to have another mount of a certain riding level to use the Celestial Steed at the level. This issue partially solves itself in that if a player uses the Celestial Steed to save money on mounts, it will lose its coolness appeal, which was, after all, the original reason to buy it. While that doesn't negate the argument that people are still buying utility, I'd say it's a relatively fair trade.
Of course, the real question is, should people be able to buy cool looking mounts? They've been doing it through the trading card game for years; Blizzard just decided that they would like to get a bit of the profits. While the trading card mounts may not be very different functionally from the Celestial Steed, the trading card mounts were made to create an incentive for WoW players to get into the WoW trading card game, while the Blizzard store provides no such incentive for WoW players to try something new. For that reason, the two are not quite analogous, so the fact that the community finds one acceptable doesn't mean it should accept the other one.
As I said in my post on the Violet Proto-Drake, there is a distinct difference between aesthetic rewards and practical rewards, and it's difficult to compare the two. Many mounts are aesthetic rewards, in that they serve the same functionality as the gryphons/wind riders you can buy relatively cheaply from mount keepers, yet their looks are symbolic of the effort you have put forth to acquire them. It's generally agreed among players the harder something is to get, the cooler it should look. While it is a logical fallacy to assume that if that fact is true then the reverse must also be true, most players are the under the impression that the cooler something looks, the harder it should be to get. That is one of the reason why many are so indignant about this mount being sold in the store for anyone who can afford to fork over the cash for it: the ratio of effort to reward is simply minuscule. Players would probably be equally indignant if a 280%-speed version of the Ashes of Alar became available to anyone who killed Kael'thas Sunstrider in Magister's Terrace; though the original mount would still confer an objective advantage to those who own it, the coolness factor would be lost.
But is it reasonable for the community to always expect that the coolness of a reward be proportionate to the effort it takes to get it? Coolness is in the eye of the beholder (I, for example, think that the Sprite Darter Hatchling is the coolest pet in my collection, though I have many other pets that others would consider cooler), so if the community looks down upon an aesthetic reward because it doesn't take much effort to acquire, the coolness factor will be lost, which will help to keep things even. In that respect, the issue of the ratio of coolness to effort is a somewhat self-correcting issue. Of course, as the comments on the WoW.com posts considering the Celestial Steed have shown, many people who buy the Celestial Steed derive its coolness for themselves within themselves, rather than by the community's opinions, so they are not subject to this self-correcting.
It is here where I draw the line for further consideration of the issue. I am very much a "live and let live" kind of person, and to consider whether a person is justified in finding something cool (which is, after all, a subjective issue) is not something I am comfortable doing. Were this a factual or logical issue, I would consider it without hesitation, but considering the ground I would tread by philosophizing something as subjective as personal coolness, I'd rather just halt right here.
One of the most reasonable arguments against the selling of the Celestial Steed is that it allows people to save on gold by not needing to buy mounts for their alts. While this is true, it is also a necessity in order for the mount to be sold in the first place, unless Blizzard were to set up a system where you needed to have another mount of a certain riding level to use the Celestial Steed at the level. This issue partially solves itself in that if a player uses the Celestial Steed to save money on mounts, it will lose its coolness appeal, which was, after all, the original reason to buy it. While that doesn't negate the argument that people are still buying utility, I'd say it's a relatively fair trade.
Of course, the real question is, should people be able to buy cool looking mounts? They've been doing it through the trading card game for years; Blizzard just decided that they would like to get a bit of the profits. While the trading card mounts may not be very different functionally from the Celestial Steed, the trading card mounts were made to create an incentive for WoW players to get into the WoW trading card game, while the Blizzard store provides no such incentive for WoW players to try something new. For that reason, the two are not quite analogous, so the fact that the community finds one acceptable doesn't mean it should accept the other one.
As I said in my post on the Violet Proto-Drake, there is a distinct difference between aesthetic rewards and practical rewards, and it's difficult to compare the two. Many mounts are aesthetic rewards, in that they serve the same functionality as the gryphons/wind riders you can buy relatively cheaply from mount keepers, yet their looks are symbolic of the effort you have put forth to acquire them. It's generally agreed among players the harder something is to get, the cooler it should look. While it is a logical fallacy to assume that if that fact is true then the reverse must also be true, most players are the under the impression that the cooler something looks, the harder it should be to get. That is one of the reason why many are so indignant about this mount being sold in the store for anyone who can afford to fork over the cash for it: the ratio of effort to reward is simply minuscule. Players would probably be equally indignant if a 280%-speed version of the Ashes of Alar became available to anyone who killed Kael'thas Sunstrider in Magister's Terrace; though the original mount would still confer an objective advantage to those who own it, the coolness factor would be lost.
But is it reasonable for the community to always expect that the coolness of a reward be proportionate to the effort it takes to get it? Coolness is in the eye of the beholder (I, for example, think that the Sprite Darter Hatchling is the coolest pet in my collection, though I have many other pets that others would consider cooler), so if the community looks down upon an aesthetic reward because it doesn't take much effort to acquire, the coolness factor will be lost, which will help to keep things even. In that respect, the issue of the ratio of coolness to effort is a somewhat self-correcting issue. Of course, as the comments on the WoW.com posts considering the Celestial Steed have shown, many people who buy the Celestial Steed derive its coolness for themselves within themselves, rather than by the community's opinions, so they are not subject to this self-correcting.
It is here where I draw the line for further consideration of the issue. I am very much a "live and let live" kind of person, and to consider whether a person is justified in finding something cool (which is, after all, a subjective issue) is not something I am comfortable doing. Were this a factual or logical issue, I would consider it without hesitation, but considering the ground I would tread by philosophizing something as subjective as personal coolness, I'd rather just halt right here.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Does the difficulty of What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been justify the reward?
Oh Violet Proto-Drake. The debates I have seen you inspire in the WoW.com comments section have been nothing short of remarkable. And yet to think, had Blizzard simply made you just another 280%-speed mount, we would not have these disagreements. As I come to the end of my long, strange trip, I can't help but wonder, have I really deserved that 310%-speed mount? Of course, being philosophical by nature, I have no choice to but to ponder this question, so here we go.
Let's establish the basics: there are many rewards for your various exploits and adventures in World of Warcraft, but they all fall into two categories: practical and aesthetic. Aethetic rewards include mounts, pets, titles, and other such things that don't actually make gameplay easier or more enjoyable (other than by looking at them.) Practical rewards somehow enhance your gaming experience. Practical rewards are things like gear, which allows you access new content, and certain mounts, like the Traveler's Tundra Mammoth, the usefulness of which I can definitely vouch for. I bring this up because, in the end, practical rewards are the only ones worth getting worked up over. Yes, aesthetic rewards can represent certain achievements (like the title of "the Insane" representing your uncommon dedication to the game), but in the end, assuming the criteria for their acquisition doesn't change significantly, they aren't worth getting worked up over.
So, which category do 310%-speed mounts fall into? Though the difference of speed may seem negligible, the fact is that it is a difference, making them a practical reward for anyone who already has a regular epic flying mount. In fact, that difference of speed isn't as negligible as it seems. Let's say there is a trip that takes you five minutes to make on a 280% speed mount. That same trip will take you a bit over four and a half minutes on a 310% speed mount. What that means is that using a 310%-speed mount instead of a 280%-speed mount makes you around 10% faster, i.e. a significant amount. What all that math means is that 310%-speed mounts are very practical rewards, and definitely worth considering seriously.
So, now that we know it's worth it to consider whether completing What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been justifies owning a 310% speed mount, it's time to ask that question. Let's get one thing straight before we start: What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been is not as difficult to get as it used to be. I won't go over all of the changes that have been made to the holiday achievements in the interest of saving time, but I'll sum it up by saying that a lot less is based on chance these days, with most of the achievements being based on whether you have enough time to do them, and they don't really take that long to do, either. If other holidays go the way of Love Is in the Air, we won't be able to use the difficulty of the holiday achievements to justify What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been rewarding a 310%-speed mount.
But then again, it never was about the difficulty, was is? Considering that the only other way to get a 310%-speed mount is to be really good at raiding, really good at arena, or really lucky with raid drops, the Violet Proto-Drake was meant to be a way for people who can't raid really well or fight in the arena really well to get a 310% speed mount. So how did Blizzard justify giving such a reward for something that isn't that hard compared to all of the other sources? Dedication. What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been is possibly the only thing in WoW that is guaranteed to take about year to earn; there's just no way to get around that. That's why such a great reward can be rewarded for such simple actions.
But is dedication enough? After all, considering how little time the holidays take to complete these days, the only real dedication required is simply participating in the holidays when they come around. One can't deny that School of Hard Knocks is pretty difficult, and Sinister Calling takes quite a bit of luck, but Blizzard could up and change those on us the next time those holidays come around. I suppose the only objective way to determine whether the Violet Proto-Drake is a fair reward is to look at the other ways 310%-speed mounts can be obtained. The raiding mounts require you to fight boss battles in ways that make the battles exceedingly difficult, meaning you need to be really good at raiding and be part of a raid with good coordination. The arena drakes require you to be part of a really good arena team, meaning you need to be good at PvP and your teammates need to be good team players. The Onyxia drake requires you to get really really lucky with your loot and your roll and have the basic skills needed to down Onyxia (.2% drop chance divided by 25 players equal you'll never get it, i.e. .008% chance of getting the drake on any given kill). So, to get a 310%-speed mount, you need to be either really good at the game or really lucky. I suppose the solo-equivalent would be being really dedicated to WoW, so does working on holidays on and off for a year qualify as really dedicated?
Here's the thing about 310%-speed mounts: some people may not see them as a necessity, but they are without a doubt the next step up in mounts. They are as much of a non-necessity as epic flying mounts are a non-necessity: sure, you could get by without them, but your playing experience wouldn't be as enjoyable if you had to. That said, as the fastest mounts in the game, they should without a doubt be difficult to get, just as epic flying used to be difficult to get when 5,000 gold was big money. Still, you could grind a bit each day and get that 5,000 gold without spending too much time each day in game. It would take you a long time, but you'd get it eventually. The Violet Proto-Drake is the same way, except the real-world time you need to spend grinding for it is forcibly stretched out to almost a year. The only difference between how a casual player would go through the holidays and how a dedicated player would go through the holidays is that the dedicated player would get all of the achievements really quickly, while a casual player may need the whole duration of the holiday to earn them. Hell, the only reason I got Fool For Love in only two days was because my schedule was such that I really had nothing else to do, so I spent almost all of my waking hours working on the meta, and I found a really good spot for grinding Lovely Charms. I bring that up because the reason this is even an issue is that dedicated players go through the holidays really quickly and end up feeling cheated, as if Blizzard has made What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been easier just to cater to the casuals.
But here's the thing: What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been is supposed to cater to the casuals. As I have said, 310% speed mounts are the logical stepping-point after regular epic mounts, and the purpose of What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been is to allow casual players to get those mounts. The people who complain that the holidays are too easy are the ones that the raid and arena mounts are intended for. The Violet Proto-Drake is the 310%-speed mount for people who can't spend a lot of time in-game each day, which is why many of the changes that made dedicated players angry were made to the holiday achievements. Making someone spend a whole year on holidays, only to make them wait longer once they have done everything they need to do is decidedly non-casual friendly. Forcing people to run a boss every day in hopes of getting a mount to drop when they could very well be screwed over by RNG is decidedly non-casual friendly. Forcing players to log in every hour because the RNG keeps giving them the same candies is decidedly non-casual friendly.
Point is, the Violet Proto-Drake is supposed to be easy to acquire, which is why it takes so long to do so in real-world time. The various holidays should only take a dedicated player a few days to complete, because that means they would take a casual player longer. If you think about the amount of dedication someone who can only play for an hour a day or so would need to complete these holidays, it's probably similar to the amount of dedication needed to get the raiding drakes. Holidays are just a different game, one that is designed for the casual player; players who blast through the achievements and then complain the holiday is too easy are, to borrow terms from Halo, heroic or legendary players playing on normal mode.
Let's establish the basics: there are many rewards for your various exploits and adventures in World of Warcraft, but they all fall into two categories: practical and aesthetic. Aethetic rewards include mounts, pets, titles, and other such things that don't actually make gameplay easier or more enjoyable (other than by looking at them.) Practical rewards somehow enhance your gaming experience. Practical rewards are things like gear, which allows you access new content, and certain mounts, like the Traveler's Tundra Mammoth, the usefulness of which I can definitely vouch for. I bring this up because, in the end, practical rewards are the only ones worth getting worked up over. Yes, aesthetic rewards can represent certain achievements (like the title of "the Insane" representing your uncommon dedication to the game), but in the end, assuming the criteria for their acquisition doesn't change significantly, they aren't worth getting worked up over.
So, which category do 310%-speed mounts fall into? Though the difference of speed may seem negligible, the fact is that it is a difference, making them a practical reward for anyone who already has a regular epic flying mount. In fact, that difference of speed isn't as negligible as it seems. Let's say there is a trip that takes you five minutes to make on a 280% speed mount. That same trip will take you a bit over four and a half minutes on a 310% speed mount. What that means is that using a 310%-speed mount instead of a 280%-speed mount makes you around 10% faster, i.e. a significant amount. What all that math means is that 310%-speed mounts are very practical rewards, and definitely worth considering seriously.
So, now that we know it's worth it to consider whether completing What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been justifies owning a 310% speed mount, it's time to ask that question. Let's get one thing straight before we start: What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been is not as difficult to get as it used to be. I won't go over all of the changes that have been made to the holiday achievements in the interest of saving time, but I'll sum it up by saying that a lot less is based on chance these days, with most of the achievements being based on whether you have enough time to do them, and they don't really take that long to do, either. If other holidays go the way of Love Is in the Air, we won't be able to use the difficulty of the holiday achievements to justify What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been rewarding a 310%-speed mount.
But then again, it never was about the difficulty, was is? Considering that the only other way to get a 310%-speed mount is to be really good at raiding, really good at arena, or really lucky with raid drops, the Violet Proto-Drake was meant to be a way for people who can't raid really well or fight in the arena really well to get a 310% speed mount. So how did Blizzard justify giving such a reward for something that isn't that hard compared to all of the other sources? Dedication. What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been is possibly the only thing in WoW that is guaranteed to take about year to earn; there's just no way to get around that. That's why such a great reward can be rewarded for such simple actions.
But is dedication enough? After all, considering how little time the holidays take to complete these days, the only real dedication required is simply participating in the holidays when they come around. One can't deny that School of Hard Knocks is pretty difficult, and Sinister Calling takes quite a bit of luck, but Blizzard could up and change those on us the next time those holidays come around. I suppose the only objective way to determine whether the Violet Proto-Drake is a fair reward is to look at the other ways 310%-speed mounts can be obtained. The raiding mounts require you to fight boss battles in ways that make the battles exceedingly difficult, meaning you need to be really good at raiding and be part of a raid with good coordination. The arena drakes require you to be part of a really good arena team, meaning you need to be good at PvP and your teammates need to be good team players. The Onyxia drake requires you to get really really lucky with your loot and your roll and have the basic skills needed to down Onyxia (.2% drop chance divided by 25 players equal you'll never get it, i.e. .008% chance of getting the drake on any given kill). So, to get a 310%-speed mount, you need to be either really good at the game or really lucky. I suppose the solo-equivalent would be being really dedicated to WoW, so does working on holidays on and off for a year qualify as really dedicated?
Here's the thing about 310%-speed mounts: some people may not see them as a necessity, but they are without a doubt the next step up in mounts. They are as much of a non-necessity as epic flying mounts are a non-necessity: sure, you could get by without them, but your playing experience wouldn't be as enjoyable if you had to. That said, as the fastest mounts in the game, they should without a doubt be difficult to get, just as epic flying used to be difficult to get when 5,000 gold was big money. Still, you could grind a bit each day and get that 5,000 gold without spending too much time each day in game. It would take you a long time, but you'd get it eventually. The Violet Proto-Drake is the same way, except the real-world time you need to spend grinding for it is forcibly stretched out to almost a year. The only difference between how a casual player would go through the holidays and how a dedicated player would go through the holidays is that the dedicated player would get all of the achievements really quickly, while a casual player may need the whole duration of the holiday to earn them. Hell, the only reason I got Fool For Love in only two days was because my schedule was such that I really had nothing else to do, so I spent almost all of my waking hours working on the meta, and I found a really good spot for grinding Lovely Charms. I bring that up because the reason this is even an issue is that dedicated players go through the holidays really quickly and end up feeling cheated, as if Blizzard has made What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been easier just to cater to the casuals.
But here's the thing: What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been is supposed to cater to the casuals. As I have said, 310% speed mounts are the logical stepping-point after regular epic mounts, and the purpose of What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been is to allow casual players to get those mounts. The people who complain that the holidays are too easy are the ones that the raid and arena mounts are intended for. The Violet Proto-Drake is the 310%-speed mount for people who can't spend a lot of time in-game each day, which is why many of the changes that made dedicated players angry were made to the holiday achievements. Making someone spend a whole year on holidays, only to make them wait longer once they have done everything they need to do is decidedly non-casual friendly. Forcing people to run a boss every day in hopes of getting a mount to drop when they could very well be screwed over by RNG is decidedly non-casual friendly. Forcing players to log in every hour because the RNG keeps giving them the same candies is decidedly non-casual friendly.
Point is, the Violet Proto-Drake is supposed to be easy to acquire, which is why it takes so long to do so in real-world time. The various holidays should only take a dedicated player a few days to complete, because that means they would take a casual player longer. If you think about the amount of dedication someone who can only play for an hour a day or so would need to complete these holidays, it's probably similar to the amount of dedication needed to get the raiding drakes. Holidays are just a different game, one that is designed for the casual player; players who blast through the achievements and then complain the holiday is too easy are, to borrow terms from Halo, heroic or legendary players playing on normal mode.
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