Beside the fact that I still feel silly this distinction between two groups that Blizzard generated (and so is responsible about), I’m amused at the reactions of the development team that gleam through some of the posts.

Originally I thought that they were developing another “casual-player dungeon” but that it wouldn’t be ready in time for the next patch (1.10). Then the drama mounted and the players started to rage even more than before as Tigole announced that a brand new 40-man instanced zone with, ZOMG, 18 bosses was going to be released this spring.

Now we know that the huge raid zone was in fact planned to be released with the 1.10 patch:

With all due respect, we’re not going to put Naxxramas on hold longer than we did.

It was originally scheduled for 1.10.

It is not anymore because the players started to RAGE. It seems that the protests have forced Blizzard to delay that instance to avoid an open conflict beyond what they have already.

But, you see, that’s the trend. Tigole is …annoyed by all these swarms of players that demand to be taken into consideration. While the great majority of the resources are put to the happy EverQuest raiders that Tigole proudly leads:

The way the raiding game operates is different from the non-raiding game. We’re working on non-raider content as well, but again, Naxxramas has been in the works for months longer than this debate has been a hot topic.

The fact that they are taking in consideration non-raiding players is a flat out LIE. NOTHING AT ALL was being designed, nor even ROUGHLY PLANNED, till the drama exploded and their whole smart design plan spectacularly backfired on them.

Before the “debate has been a hot topic”, noone cared about the two distinct groups that Blizzard defined in the game.

“The way the raiding game operates is different from the non-raiding game.”

Can you see the distinction and difference of treatment? Elitists and mass. Included and excluded. Heroes and meatballs.

This “mass” of players that Blizzard gathered in their game is a …nuisance that wasn’t expected. The raiding game was supposed to be the “grand scheme” of things that would have brought the game to a new level.

18 April 2002. Four years ago. Tigole, catass leader and Blizzard freshmeat:

Blizzard’s desire to provide well designed high-end content will prove to be a breath of fresh air for the readers of this site. Unfortunately, I cannot go into much detail at this time but I can say that there are ideas being discussed for the hardcore, end-game player which are nothing short of groundbreaking. You guys, the fans of this site, know how discerning I am when it comes to “uber” content in a game. Trust me, you have much to look forward to.

The intention was already there.

Blizzard never, ever considered a distinction between two groups and never, ever planned the game to support anything but raid content (and broken PvP) at the endgame.

The attrition between the two groups that we have seen in the last months is just an …inconvenient. Something that took them totally unprepared. They had months and months of raid content planned and in the work. Then the drama explodes and Tigole is caught off guard. The “mass” of players pretends to be heard and treated with the same treatment.

Reminds me the French Revolution :) The nobles assaulted by the crowd who didn’t tolerate anymore an uncivil separation in “two groups”.

As in that case, the problem is NOT that there are two categories of people. The problem is that those two categories existed and that a distinction of “merit” was created.

This is again my view on the whole problem.

Blizzard didn’t expected this. They have no plans to solve the underlying problems and now they are caught in an unmanageable situation. They have no idea about how to resolve the attrition they generated.

The truth is that they have no clue about how to provide decent content for the casual players:

We’ve been making a number of improvements to item drop rates in Stratholme, Scholomance, Upper Black Rock Spire, Lower Black Rock Spire, and Black Rock Depths. In the next patch, the drop rate for many items will improve. In some situations, we will even be improving the quality of select items found in these dungeons.

Beyond this, we’re also adding several new items to existing bosses, and even to new bosses which will be available at various locations throughout these instances. Many of the new items will offer statistical improvement with certain classes in mind, such as rings which offer both spell and melee crit, ideal for the Paladin, Shaman and Druid.

A brand new eight piece dungeon set will also be scattered through the locations outlined above. This set, available only to the Warlock, Mage and Priest will offer a substantial amount of armor, hit points and intelligence, making it great for PvP.

There is no content for the casual players. After the “mass” started to rage they had to barricade themselves and think of something QUICK to bring back the situation under a manageable level.

The result is a shuffle to the itemization, some massive grinds added and a kick in the booty sending you to rerun the same instances for another million of times.

My opinion remains exactly the same and unaddressed: it’s not that the casual players don’t have alternatives, it’s that the alternatives available SUCK.

Enjoy your cut&paste casual-player content. Tigole has some serious work to do on those, ZOMG, 18 raid bosses.

For now my satisfying casual-player content is EQ2 :)

But he did the quests in Westfall! All of them!

Don’t get me wrong. Some of those ideas are very good and I’m going to write more about them. But the heart of the issue is that they have no idea about how heal the fracture they created between casual and hardcore players.

And that fracture is going to HURT.