Blizzard dumbing down WoW?

[Folji]

Came across this article not long ago;
http://news.filefront.com/dont-worry-bl ... -warcraft/

Haven't read the whole thing yet, but it looks like it's worth reading through.
With the last few major patches, Blizzard has more or less made things easier on various parts; getting high-end gear has become easier, attunements have been lifted, prices for various things have been reduced, instances and encounters have been nerfed, the list goes on.

Is Blizzard dumbing down WoW? Not according to this article.

[Lilandris]

Heh, I think it's a good thing that they do this... He has a good point with giving the undergeared more casual players a chance to be a part of something epic...

[Lintissa]

What happens when a member of the top raiding guilds 'burns out' and quits wow? It has to be better for everyone that it is easier for other players to level and gear up to keep the top flight populated so all the raiding guilds can go onto the new content in patch 2.4.

[Nysard]

Blizzard have turned a fantastic PvE game with a nice side bit of PvP into a mix of PvE / PvP so much so I don't think they even know themselves anymore what their aim is.

WotLK has a lot to live up to in my eyes, couldn't care less about new raids / quests / gear, let's see some class balance first please.

As for dumbing it down? I seem to recall quite a lot of the high end raids being the brunt of the nerf bat to make them easier, funny enough, none of the hardcore raiders ever mention that.

[Seisence]

Im not so bothered about class balancing as that is effected by a meta game depending on what people do with their characters and will continue to evolve. I am worried though that they dont go back and fix what they have most of the time though.

[Romdjoll]

Hmmm....some of the recent(ish) patch stuff is irritating because it seems to almost walk ppl through the game, those yellow exclamation/question marks bug me...but then sometimes I'm glad of them (esp. when tired). I do think the game is dumbing down slightly though, speeding up levelling time and removing barriers to some end-game experiences mean that more people get to experience that content, but also that they have to work less to achieve it, which is a valid gripe.

[Bootle]

Well, to be honest. After say the 2nd or 3rd time you've leveled a character to 60+, you kinda get sick of how long it takes. Me'sa kinda glad of the quicker levelling now.

[Serendipity]

No. Attunements are an idiot check - if you can't do the attunement, you won't be able to do the instance... The bosses + trash are remaining unchanged, so a bunch of morons still won't get anywhere.

The 'free' items that whiney raiders constantly go on about... Well, you need at least some knowledge of your class to get them - heroics require that, and the raid instances even more so. And remember, you can't buy their oh so precious tier items so I'm not sure what they're blubbing about.

I don't really mind the addition of all those little question marks - they're kinda' useful.

[Arabella]

I stand by the fact that having the idiot check pre-me being locked to the instance would be nice... but meh.

Class balance done right would be nice, rather than making the strong ones stronger, but meh.

[Iso Victrix]

The way I see it, is Blizzard isn't making the game any easier or harder. They're trying to maintain a balance. For instance, Blizzard, in the race to maximum level, have changed the finishing line twice - from 60 to 70 and soon from 70 to 80, and they have only made a corresponding 'dumbing down' of the hurdles to get over on the race track. So the actually journey to maximum level, on the whole, remains at the same level of difficulty.

I also think that lowering of prices is directly related to the fight against Gold Buyers/Seller. 5000 for the best riding skills is one hell of a lot of gold and some players for whatever reason buy gold in large amounts. If prices are lowered in game, that means more gold in the pockets of the players and less gold bought from Farmers.

Like the article gets at, the opening up of previously exclusive endgame raiding is in no way a bad thing. Casual players should not be a second class citizen under a hardcore raider simply because, well I'll say it, a casual player has a real life and isn't prepared to religiously (or fanatically) play WoW for pixels.

Aren't vanguard raiders happy enough that they are the first to see it and then to kill it, to stand [AFK] outside the Ironforge, and now Shattrath, Banks on their bear mounts with items 99.9% of everyone who inspects them will never own, reading about how to get their next item and how their accomplishments are being 'devalued' because other people have an ever increasing equality of opportunity to do the same.

Are their accomplishments that shallow that they need to keep reminding everyone else just how superior they are to you?

Maybe raiding is supposed to be it's own reward? Oh wait, IT IS!