Hi,
This post is supposedly for constructive feedback on the LFR system. In no way do I intent to insult or put down other players, the game itself or Blizzard. I understand that a new expansion is on the horizon, being in the beta myself. I haven’t played through all of new content at all, but am aware of the biggest changes that are to come, taking them in consideration throughout this post.
This post isn’t meant for: “Vanilla was better.” “TBC was better.” “WotLK was better.”
Two side notes before getting into the subject itself:
₁. English isn’t my first language (I’m Dutch). Therefore it might be possible for me to make “sume speling errurs”, or grammatically for that matter.
₂. A quick overview of who I am (as a player). This might help other players to understand where I’m coming from and it might help Blizzard (assuming they might read this post) to see in what category of players I am:
- I am a 25-year-old man and in my “real life” I am a teacher. I see myself as a casual player, playing for a couple of hours a week, maxing out during the weekend. Since I’m a teacher I have quite a long summer break, which increases my hours of playing.
- This character is my main, an 85 Blood elf Hunter. I’ve played WoW since the beginning (2004), so I’ve seen all sides of the game throughout all expansions. My hunter is a BM and has been so ever since I created it. I don’t know anything about MM or SV.
- I only have one 85. (Am levelling up new characters though)
- I play on a RPPVP server.
- I see myself as an all-rounder, being both in PvE as in PvP (although PvE is a bit more)
I invite everyone who gives a response to this post, to also give a brief view of who you are as a player. Not to brag about your achievements, but to help us see what kind of player you are.
For everyone that doesn’t want to read the entire post, I will put a TL;DR version at the end.
Now then, let us get into the matter itself. The title of the post might be a bit misleading, for in fact it is a post for feedback about the entire progression of the game. I’m taking the LFR system as an example to try and make my arguments stronger. Do not get me wrong though, I’m not a conservative person and do not think that progression is at itself a bad thing. All I will try to show is that the progression also has downsides in the experience you will have ingame.
I also understand that some (or maybe) all of my concerns have already been spoken about by other players; I’m fine with taking the risk of repeating that what has been said before. Please note that this statement is entirely based on my experience and opinion of the game.
I will split up the arguments/concerns I have about the system in the following order:
1. Upsides of LFR
2. Purposes that don’t have a purpose
3. Difficulty
4. Accessibility
5. To conlude (TL;DR)
Upsides of LFR
Being a teacher, I feel like I also need to talk about the upsides of the LFR system, for there are a lot. In my view there a couple of reasons why Blizzard created the LFR system:
More people get to see the (endgame) content
Easier to find a group
An extra step between HC’s and 10/25 normal
For me as a casual player, the LFR system was a great improvement to see content I wouldn’t have seen otherwise, or at least not as easy to access as before. Before Cata, I never saw the endgame big boss myself. I never killed Illidan (during TBC) or the Lich King (during WotLK). Now I finally had the chance to face Deathwing myself and actually bring him to justice. So we could assume that the goal of “more people get to see the (endgame) content” is a legal one, which has been achieved. Blizzard has already shown us that by giving the numbers of people who killed DW compared to the others.
Purposes that don’t have a purpose
Right before the end of “the lich king”, blizzard introduced a way of powering up groups that would like to go into ICC. The buff increased over time as we came closer to the release of Cata. This buff is also active in the deathwing raid on live. When the buff arrived at first, it gave me a chance to go to ICC myself, for more randomly formed groups appeared. I didn’t make it all the way to Arthas, but I did get a good step inside ICC though.
There are two concerns that I have with the LFR system at this point. The first one being that now that I’ve killed Deathwing (as a casual), I don’t really feel the need or interest anymore to make an effort for the 10/25 man normal. I’ve been talking about this with other players as well. Why should I put a lot of time and effort in finding a group for the normal ones, now that I’ve already cleared the whole raid? Yes, It will give me better gear (with a different colour), but that’s about it. MoP is coming towards faster with the minute, so I won’t enjoy the new gear as much as I would’ve done before LFR. With LFR I don’t see a good reason why blizzard should still give us the buff on the normal, when they already gave us an extra step and way to get familiar with the new content. Clearly they needed an extra boost for us to go and do the normal ones as well.
The second concern is the community. With the development and progressing of the game, so did the community grow and develop. I felt like at the end of WotLK (at least at my realm), the community took the responsibility of creating groups with each other and helping out new 80’s to get inside ICC. Of course this might just be a way I’d like to remember the past as it was. However, we will never find out if that group process was developing the way I thought it was. LFR, in my opinion, took away the responsibility from the community and completely transferred it over to a tool. You don’t need any other players anymore to find a group or to see the content you want to see, you just click a button. Now I understand this also has upsides, but the community and grouping up, for me, was a good part of World of Warcraft. It feels like a loss to me that that responsibility was taken away from such great communities.
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