New story but the same issues

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about Blizzard’s problematic approach of requiring players to reach a new level cap each time they release a new expansion.

On August 30th, the sixth World of Warcraft Expansion „Legion“ got released. Legion provides the players with a new story introducing new threats to the world of Azeroth as well as adds a new continent–“The Broken Isles“–that consists of 7 regions which also provide access to new dungeons as well as raid instances. In addition, a new game mechanic providing artefact weapons that become better as the player progresses through Legion were added to the game as well. Unfortunately, a player’s maximum level got increased again–it is now at 110–thus requiring players once more to reach the new level cap before they can tackle the endgame content of the sixth expansion.

Artefact weapons become better as the player progresses through Legion.

At the time of writing, I have reached level 109 and completed the story line of two and a half regions. As usual, the stories are told in form of quests a player has to solve in order to proceed to the next step of the narration. Some of the key quests even teleported me into a scenario instance which is a special region that is separated from the main world. In such a scenario, no other players are present and hence the gameplay is more immersive as no one can interfere with my personal progress through a scenario’s stages. In addition, those scenarios are enhanced with narrated elements providing further insights into the story of a particular region. Each region’s story line is concluded with a special quest that challenges the player to complete the dungeon which can be found in that particular region. All in all, experiencing the narration of a particular region was a very exciting as well as immersive experience.

Story telling in World of Warcraft.

Moreover, in contrast to previous expansions, the players are able to choose the region they want to complete at first. This has the huge advantage that all the players are spread out over the „Broken Isles“ thus reducing the problems that occur when all players need to defeat certain enemies at the same time. As a result of this, the gameplay felt very smooth and I experienced only a few moments where I had to wait for the respawn of a named enemy I had to defeat in order to complete a certain quest.

Despite the very entertaining gameplay of the first hours of Legion, the most annoying issue of a new World of Warcraft expansion is still present, unfortunately. Personnally, I find it very annoying to be required to reach a new level cap each time a new expansion gets released in order to be able to fully take advantage of all the new additions to the game. Hence, this initial phase of an expansion just feels like a chore and takes away most of the fun of solving quests as this is the most ideal way of getting the experience that is needed in order to advance to the new level cap. Instead of tackling quests in order to enjoy an exciting story, I have to solve them just for the purpose of finally reaching the level cap. Also, this approach causes the problem that as soon as the level cap is reached, most of the new quests are already solved and, as a result of this, only the repetitive gameplay elements are left to do.

It would be so much more fun if all the new features would be available right at the start of a new expansion without requiring players to go through a level phase at first. On the one hand, this would ensure that all the quests continue to feel meaningful all the time as they are completed in order to experience the story and not with the intention to gain some experience points bringing the player one step closer to the new level cap. On the other hand, it would make the whole gameplay more exciting as gameplay that feels like a chore is not really entertaining.

In sum, the new expansion provides great additions to the gameplay of World of Warcraft and once again tells an exciting and immersive story. Unfortunately, Blizzard continues to stick with their approach of forcing all the players through a level phase and, as a result of this, the initial phase of the new expansion starts to feel like a chore. If Blizzard really wants to develop a great expansion, they should allow the players to use all the new features right away without being hold back by a many hour-long initial phase.