Saving the “letter” from the community managers to the players about the problem of raids Vs casual (accessible) content. Linked here.

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Tseric:

We have been watching, reading, discussing and compiling a great deal of information regarding the discussion of character advancement at level 60. To be sure, all of you have had a great deal to say and many have contributed to this broad discussion who may not have before, and we thank you for your dedication to being heard and making your personal views known on the subject. We have seen this discussed between players, ourselves and the development team. From this we would like to convey a few ideas which we feel the player base should bear in mind in this discussion.

First, we are certainly aware of how you, in general, feel about this topic. If you feel you are being ignored or disregarded, it is simply not the case. To individually acknowledge every submission to this debate is not nearly as possible as reading every submission. We opt for the latter rather than the former. In addition, not only are we aware of your concerns, the development team is aware of your concerns. We have engaged in more than one meeting where this has been a topic, if not the topic of discussion. They read these boards as well and are not out of ear-shot of your voice.

The development of the casual end-game is a continuing process with us. You may not be completely satisfied with what we have at this point in time, but we are not done with developing this game. What is currently being developed and which we plan to address (and we do mean before release of expansion) are elements and content which touch on the areas in which some players feel the game is lacking.

# Stat progression for players who refrain from large groups
We have some particular ideas and plans which will allow players who do not wish to raid to upgrade gear and see some statistical improvement. These particular elements should hold an “epic” feel while remaining targeted at the solo and small-group player.

# Questing at 60
We realize that at 60, strong incentive for questing evaporates. Obviously, this is due primarily to experience rewards or the lack thereof at 60.We are developing methods to alter, yet reinvigorate questing for players who have reached the level cap.

We feel confident we have provided a great richness and variety into the game that many can draw from and have fun experiences. However, we are not done yet. There are events, quests, dungeons, and other content which have been in the works for some time and are going to be available in the foreseeable future. The issue here is simply that generating content takes time and the content being developed for, let us say, patch 1.9 has been in development for more time than simply since the release of 1.8. Development time is substantial, and while it’s certainly understandable for you to desire immediate changes, such an occurrence is not realistically feasible with the content creation cycle. That isn’t to say we’re not changing the game based on your feedback; far from it. It merely takes time – months’ worth — for the suggestions being made today to become reality.

Along with that, much of what you are requesting is something we are still experimenting with and testing notions and ideas. Many have asked us to innovate new dungeons for smaller groups that have an epic feel. This is not out of our scope nor is it something we haven’t been working on. There are many ideas in the field of which you are requesting that we are developing. We will continue to work out viable paths to content that are appealing to smaller groups. Obviously, many of these ideas will be present in the expansion.

The key ingredient is time. We realize the expansion is in the future, but that does not prevent continued patches to occur before that. The important notion to bear in mind is that the things you wanted and requested months ago are closer to completion and implementation than the things you are requesting now.

In all honesty, we wanted the expansion to come out earlier than it likely will. As our first MMO, we were a little blind-sided by the incredible demand and popularity which this game received. This applied certain pressure and we did not secure some of the technology which is now allowing us to develop content at an improved rate. Through the nascent development of this game five years ago and through its turbulent release, our core design team has maintained a strong vision for this game which has obviously appealed to a great number of players. The selfsame core team, the veterans and original designers of this game, continue to make contributions today that are indicative of the quality entertainment this company has put forth time and again. We are still committed to making enjoyable games for as many as we can and our vision of that has not wavered, but matures over time. We have not lost sight of you or what you think is fun, we simply need to catch up to where we wanted to be previously. The raid content you see coming up is part of the complete picture we wanted to have for the game, but the complete picture is not based solely on raid content. Along with that, we are regarding the current debate and situation for some players as something that will not recur upon reaching the new level cap.

We do not consider this game any one play style’s right or governance. We cater to many tastes and work to provide content for all. While some of you may feel a lull in the action at this moment, we are in fact accelerating towards future releases and content. We are in a better position now to provide for you, the players, than we ever have before.