Hello,
I am very disappointed in the direction the anniversary servers have taken, especially when it comes to megaservers and layering, as well as dual spec.
This is an attempt at enlightening most people as to the core game design pillars and implications, those on which the original World of Warcraft was built on. The desire and now addition of dual spec might not be such a small and innocent feat as most of you may originally think. And this goes for the Classic team devs as well. Please bear with me.
So up until now, there was a high barrier to entry in place, which prevented people from respeccing. So people didnât do it, unless they actively farmed gold to be able to do so. It required effort, obligations and choices: hence creating gameplay loops. Which in turn:
- Pushed people to move and be active throughout the world, look for farming spots, explore, do dungeons or craft to earn money.
- It was a significant gold sink, the game already didnât have many, except for the epic mount for example, etc.
That said being, how else is it negative, at a deeper level:
- Loss of identity and meaning of specializations and classes
- Erosion of social foundations: a player is no longer known by his specialization (tank, healer or dps), but only as his class, which was the foundation for community-building, friendship, renown on the server, etc.
- So loss of identification to your character because less unique, lower long-term involvement in the game
- Fewer reasons to reroll, therefore fewer reasons to play in the long term
- Encourages players to roll/need on all types of items, because after all, they have two specializations
- Which will then lead to an ostracization of certain hybrid classes (refusal or not wanting to play with them for fear of them needing all the items)
- The confusion and misunderstandings between players that will result of that
- Before you had to choose, be a pvp spec player, excel in one but not the other, well no now you can excel in all areas without consequences or price to pay
- Tanks and healers have fewer reasons to join groups in these roles, because they now have permanent access to dps spec
- Raid leaders will ask people to change spec before each boss or mob pack as needed, and/or force people who donât want to play or maintain two specializations to do it anyway, under penalty of being lynched or refused future entry.
- Even for a simple group or dungeon, when a Druid will say that he is not a healer, he will be flamed because âhe has two specs how come he refuses to healâ, etc.
- Not to mention the fact that it will make raids and dungeons easier overall, because players now have access to another set of abilities
- The game is supposed to be an RPG (role-playing game), if everyone can do everything, thereâs less need for outside help, less need to group with other players; it erodes the basic foundations of what an mmorpg is supposed to be
So yes, the ramifications on player psyche, meta and long-term involvement are much deeper and more serious than a simple quality of life change. All I have seen so far from people in favor of dual spec is just :
- ââitâs not 2005/2019 anymore people have less timeââ
- ââ dual spec addition doesnât change anything"
- ââgo play ERAââ
- ââno one forces you to use dual specââ
- ââit literally makes no differenceââ
All those are not argument, but just blind and unreflected responses that donât consider deeper implications. While I understand the desire for some classes to be able to have access to another specialization easily, you may not have anticipated that this change may backfire, and actually not favor the classes that you would think could benefit from it the most at first glance.
Every proper game designer knows that players will always choose the path of least resistance when given the chance. Be it bugs, exploits, shortcuts, speedrun, talents, skills, classes, items, you name it. It is the game designerâs duty to limit and restrict players, even if unpopular at face value. Endless QoL and simplification doesnât make for a better game. Barriers to entry, systems and friction are a core mandatory part of these types of games. In this case, itâs what made Vanilla so successful.
I love the original game, and Classic, and I can accept some small changes, they can be nice. Small changes such as instant mail to alts, higher raid difficulty, gdkp ban or what not, etc.
But massive changes such as R14 grind being made accessible to all, megaservers and layering eroding social fabric, dual spec and chronoboon⊠These change the game at a fundamental level, for the worse.
Please revert the change to dual spec. And if not, then please just release one unchanged original vanilla server for those of us wishing to play there. Just make it the RP-PvP server.
The fans that have been supporting Blizzard since 1995-2000, and want to play Vanilla WoW without sprinkles and flavors, deserve so.
.
ps: if someone has the capacity to post this on the U.S forums, please do so asap
