Who am I:
Guild Leader. Retail PVE casual raiding and M+ guild with 980+ toons.
Member and leader of several cross-faction, cross-server communities
Played since 2005.
What is this:
I’m giving my input on Plunderstorm, as asked for, by Blizzard. You are welcome to add your own thoughts and comments.
Execution:
Making a secret, minor, content patch was a fun idea. However, having no actual content for the retail game, makes it a bad idea from the perspective of your subscribers. You did not manage expectations properly, and when the patch mainly carters to PVP, this leads to a disengagement from the PVE audience.
If you want to do something like this in the future, make sure to manage expectations better or make sure you have something for PVP and PVE.
Implementation:
I find the implementation of Plunderstorm good. Overall it is a fairly easy, fast paced and engaging.
Let me elaborate:
- Looting chests and spells is fun.
- Getting levels is fun.
- Kill mobs is fun, both the normal, elite and boss mobs.
- Having a limited time, and being confined by the encroaching storm is fun.
- Making it stand-alone is a good idea for something so markedly different. This also allows players from all different types of WoW to participate.
- Making the UI very simple is a good idea.
Pros (These are the features/experiences that I enjoyed):
- Having a simplified UI with just 5 abilities makes it easy to start. That lowers the barrier of entry.
- Killing mobs, gathering loot and abilities made for a positive and rewarding experience.
- Getting levels and upgrading abilities added to this.
- Being on a timer in terms of a slowly shrinking area gave a sense of urgency that enforced the engagement and fast pacing (You can’t AFK for 15 mins or tab out to watch a video).
- No support for addons.
- A match is fairly quickly over, due to the encroaching storm.
Cons (These are the features/experiences that I did not enjoy):
- The event is heavily aimed at PVP. This is excluding to the part of your customers that don’t like PVP. The discrepancy between standard PVP/PVE and the forced PVP in Plunderstorm have drawn out some animosity between your PVP and PVE audience. I doubt you want to nurture that in the community.
- The game is fast paced, which is excluding to the part of your audience that have either physical or mental disabilities.
- You added rewards for a subset of the WoW franchice locked behind a considerable grinding effort in a limited time event. As the community has already displayed, this is triggering a significant amount of FOMO and resentment.
- The randomness of starting situation - land in a good spot, don’t land with a bunch of others, don’t get ganked right of the bat, getting sensible offensive/utility abilities - can turn the experience sour. Especially if you have bad luck several times in a row.
- The event is heavily excluding for groups of friends, guilds and communities. At best you can play with one friend at a time. Plunderstorm doesn’t support playing together as a community, nor does it let you communicate with your guild/community as you play.
- While gaining levels for your avatar was fun, the discrepancy in strength is exceptionally punishing for players with bad luck.
Suggestions:
If you want to make a BR (Battle Royal) client based on World of Warcraft, I would suggest the following:
- Give people access to an optional tutorial in all aspects (Abilities. Combat. Steering vehicles etc.) Make this a solo instance with no time limits and some targets / mobs to interact with and practice on. That allows players to either learn about the game and customize settings to their preferences or jump right in and play it ‘raw’.
- Design aspects of the game to include/allow for players with disabilities.
- Design the game to allow players to opt out of PVE / PVP completely. Someone suggested letting PVE players work in a supporting role for PVP players. That is something I think you should consider.
- Don’t add rewards for the other WoW experiences (Retail, SoD, Classic, Hardcore) behind an extensive grind.
- Listen closely to the PVP community for their input on the PVP experience. I’ve come across several comments and posts calling the PVP experience poor and lackluster.
- Do not fall into any traps of punishing ways of playing that doesn’t align with your vision. Instead consider how to encourage the type of play you wish to see.
Edits
- Corrected typos.