Comments on: Sunday Soapbox: The Middle Ground: Creating a Casual-Hardcore MMO

By: Sean

Sean — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:31:26 +0000

Wow on a whole in my opinion is a pretty casual game. The leveling is not too difficult and you really dont need a party BUT if you wish to be a hardcore gamer then there are many things to do eg instances and raids which give the xp and the gear that make leveling even easier, Also if youve never hit the levelcap you really have no idea of the end game that awaits( especially for pve) but if you wish to proceed and get your T(what ever is the highest now) your really do need to be hardcore. (i quit wow about 8 months ago).

By: Leaf Runner

Leaf Runner — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:02:24 +0000

Recently, Blizzard changed the xp rate in WoW to 2x, so that definatley made the game more casual.

By: Chris Carter

Chris Carter — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:31:21 +0000

@Jess
Definitely! I was the pleasure(?) of playing FFXI for a few months, and good god, I would NOT recommend it for any gamer less than hardcore. You can look for a group for hours in that game. If you so much as mention the words “The Dunes” to any casual gamer that’s played it, they’ll quiver in fear.

WoW’s known as the “soloing” MMO. You can get all the way up to 80 just by questing and grinding by yourself. FFXI? Goodluck unless you’re beastmaster. Even then, you’re better off staying up until 6am and finding a Japanese party to roll with.

By: Jess Famularo

Jess Famularo — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:13:33 +0000

You’re right Chris, WoW does have a lot of things that keep end game coming back while keeping the newbies in mind. But the hardcore aspect of WoW definitely hasn’t reached the level of intensity (insanity, maybe?) found in FFXI. In XI, it takes the average player about 5 – 6 months to hit the level 75 cap the first time around, which is considerably longer than 10 days. haha It could easily take longer than this if you take time off to work on crafting, exploring and socializing (not to mention engaging in real life activities) I believe it took me about a year to hit level 75. Of course, this number might have decreased a bit with the previously mentioned expansion and the new level sync system.

I would really like to keep some of the challenges XI has, but I do want the new MMO to be more accessible, like Wow, especially since I no longer have hours to devote to an online game. Perhaps Square can solve this issue so many people had with Final Fantasy XI by maintaining the slow, gradual crawl to that last level while making the grind less of a chore and more interesting. This would mean more types of experience options – soloing, grouping, questing. But whereas a lot (but not all) of the fun that was to be had in XI was found in the end game content, I think it would be worth their while to explore some more challenging (and rewarding!) missions that would be accessible to lower and mid level players as well.

Oh, and Grahame, MMO’s are a lot of fun, but you definitely have to be disciplined enough to know when to stop. I don’t think I was as mature when I started playing FFXI in high school to tell myself to stop before it was too late and I was realllly addicted. Not good. Haha

By: Grahame

Grahame — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:35:45 +0000

I’d class myself as a hradcore gamer. Yet MMO’s terrify me, I have no desire to really get into one. I just don’t feel as if I could have the dedication that seems to be needed to get to a decent level.

I was gonna bite the bullet and try WoW but I may hold off until next year and go with FF14.

By: Chris Carter

Chris Carter — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:31:19 +0000

As I see it, WoW is making all the right moves. As of late, they’re dumbing down the requirements needed to receive mounts, and making the game easier all the time, all while increasing the amount of end-game raids. Also, 10 days game time is all that’s needed to get max level in WoW: which is daunting to casual players, true, but hopefully (at least Blizzard hopes), they’ll be sucked into the colorful world by then.

All they have to do is implement some sort of “easy level” system (which they will, when WoW starts to saturate) and they’re gravy. At the moment, they have a “create a free level 50 DeathKnight” if you have 1 other max level character. A free character! That’s fairly casual.