Another reason has surfaced that convinces me that Arenas are having a horrible effect on World of Warcarft. It seems that every month a new exploit is unveiled regarding Arenas, the latest being queue dodging, which allows teams to pick and choose whether or not to fight a match and in turn wasting their opponent's time. I have no doubt Blizzard will remedy the situation, but it doesn't matter.
Arenas, and the rewards gained from them, are destroying the game.
It is simple to understand why the Arenas are booming in popularity. The rewards are awesome, gained from one single activity, and for the most part fairly easy to attain (if you are willing to put in the time). The top-end rewards are now being restricted, but Personal and Team Ratings (along with Arena points) are just a few thousand gold pieces away these days.
I've crusaded my entire WoW career for balanced rewards in PvE and PvP. Some would say that is where Arena rewards currently stand, but that does not justify how exploitive the system has become where people are more likely to abuse or buy their way to the top rather than earn it themselves.
The question that comes to my mind is whether these exploits would exist if there was no rewards, aside from bragging rights, to be gained in Arenas. I'm sure some of them would exist, as people still hate to lose, but the widespread exploitation that we currently see would not. There simply wouldn't be the drive to exploit the system for essentially no gain.
Without the gear rewards, arenas would also be far less popular and end up pushing out a lot of the lower skilled teams as there would be fewer equally ranked teams to match them with.
Personally, I think that may be the way to go, as Blizzard preps Arenas for a more professional e-sport presentation which naturally pushes out the lower skilled teams. Blizzard has proven that PvE is their strong point and as a die hard PvPer, I can live with that.
Move the PvP focus back to battlegrounds and world objectives. Vary the rewards across each battleground and world PvP objective, instead of bottling all the great rewards into a single system (ala Arenas currently). Spread the PvP population out instead of forcing everyone into queues to line up for their next Professor Plum.
As a side note, as I leveled up through the Outlands, I couldn't help but feel disgusted at what a waste the world PvP objectives have become. I ignored pretty much every single one, as there was rarely an enemy to fight or challenge and I knew that the real rewards (Season 1 Arena gear) were at 70 and easily gained through the honor grind. Honestly Blizzard, why waste the development time on the world PvP objectives if their rewards are going to be made obsolete?
Oh and did I mention I'm debating quitting WoW again? Guess I did now :P
That's silly. Nobody quits WoW forever. You'll be standing in line to buy WotLK just like everyone else. Why does Blizzard care about pleasing you when they know you won't actually quit?
ReplyDeleteIt's the only MMO worth playing. Every other MMO is unmitigated crap. At least WoW has SOME good points to it.
I've proven to myself recently that I can cut the chord when I want to vote with my wallet, no matter how much it pains me to do so.
ReplyDeleteIf WoW keeps going the way they are, I guarantee I won't be in line for WotLK.
Mob exploits and the selling of raid slots have long been a part of WoW. So should Blizzard dump their dungeons and raids as well?
ReplyDeletePeople will always use exploits because they like to pretend their victories are just as important when they stack the odds in their favor. It happens in every online game. You just have to rely on the devs to fix it. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
I completely agree about the uselessness of the world PvP objectives. They are pretty lame. And from a recent Blizzrad comment about how they thought removing diminishing returns for killing players would make them more interesting, I can safely say that WoW wont ever have good world PvP.
I cut the cord to WoW nearly two years ago and while I came back twice the visit only lasted a month. WoW is old and only getting older. It is starting to sag under its own weight. Eventually WoW will start to flounder and become just another MMO that bit the dust.
ReplyDeleteI see you have removed me from your blogroll, thats not very nice you know, seeing as how I'm still active and my blog has not changed at all.
ReplyDeleteYes I must say it takes a large chunk of time to cut out all the exploits in raid dungeons and we can only expect it take longer with arenas since its something new to Blizzard.
ReplyDeleteAlso I expect the PvP reward system to continually evolve and probably look completely different after the expansion. Already we are seeing a universal gear currency starting to develop with badges of justice and tokens that can be turned in for PvE or PvP gear.
In the past raiding guilds were the source for buying gear because the 40 man raid size allowed some "newbie" spots which could be sold. Now with the smaller raid sizes making this practice harder we see the high ranking arena teams the primary source of bought gear. Nothing has really changed except the provider.
Cow Nose... you didn't post for like a month and I tend to drop links and add links. Since you commented, I'll add you back, but only because your name is cool.
ReplyDeleteThanks heartless! :) Yeah since my blog is diary-style if I'm not playing any MMOs then I have nothing to blog about, but chances are very slim I won't be playing some sort of MMO so that is usually not a problem. ^^
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I think during those times when my post frequency went down, it was not because I was playing less MMO, but rather was getting really into the hardcore grind of Lineage II which is generally in the same location, and so produced nothing interesting to blog about.
Gosh what an awful game.
cow nose:
ReplyDeleteI hear so many awful things about the grind and reward curve in Lineage 2. I hope you didn't spend too much time playing it unless you were actually having fun. Rumor says the 3rd one is actually being delayed because some ex-employees sold the source code.
Heartless:
Tsk Tsk. Now that I take a look you don't have me on your blogroll either. First Tipa and now you. If I promise not to make any more posts about liking WoW PvP will you list me. :-P
I don't thin I've ever had you :P I ask every once and a while and add anyone that wants.
ReplyDelete