I think it’s unfair to call it a flop. I don’t think it is. But I do think they missed the mark.
On the spectrum of unrestrained fun of MoP remix to Restrained Retail. It feels closer to the retail paradigm. As a previous poster mentioned, it feels more like I’m leveling an alt than in a different game mode.
There are definitely some good points here:
- I think heroic world tier is a great idea, granted it needs some kinks worked out, but conceptually it’s a win.
- Moving the remix abilities away from the clunky gemming system an into the artifact tree is good.
- The daily infinite research is a good idea to keep rewards ticking in and encourage varied gameplay, but they over indexed on this too much and it feels more like a chore than a mechanism to shepherd players.
But they missed what made mop remix fun. Some of points that jump out to me are:
- I don’t understand Infinite Knowledge from a game design perspective. I doesn’t add anything for players. It just feels like a mechanic introduced to lock player power behind achievements to extend the game time.
- Locking player power behind achievements was not a good move. Locking cosmetics would be fine, but not player power. Every player will want the power trip in remix, but not every player will be interested in doing all content.
- The RNG nature of motes is hugely frustrating. fishing for iLevel upgrades only to get one that has Arcane Aegis on it which turns me into a snail if I try and walk backwards…
- Limits Unbounded is badly named, it’s very much bounded. It scales too slowly and should have included more than Versatility, it should be all secondary stats.
Overall it’s not a flop, but not as fun as I wanted it to be (totally subjective of course). It feels more like a work fun event: We can have fun, but within the tight parameters of work.
I hope they make some changes. If not then I’ll just do enough to finally get the Antoran Charhound and then I’ll find something else to play until Midnight is out.