The Queue: Let’s talk about weapon drops

Hot to trot, make any toon’s eyes pop
It uses what it’s got to get whatever the mob don’t got
Druids drool like fools, but then again they’re only elven’
The stick was a hit because it’s damage was bookin’
Gold, pearls, rubies, crazy diamonds
Nothin’ we ever wore was even common

Let’s talk about weapons, Blizzard
Let’s talk about you and me
Let’s talk about all the good things
And the bad things that may be

Let’s talk about weapons.

Editor’s Note: You’re welcome.

Yuup!

I’ve QQ’d about it a fair amount on Twitter and in guild chat (I can’t remember if I nerd raged infront of Joe or not last week … I might have had myself muted when I didn’t a weapon after a day of heroics). That said, I think to step back and look at things from the 50,000 ft. level helps.

First, this is the first time in a couple years that we’ve had to worry at all about weapon drops. Weapons tend to have a huge impact on our enjoyment of the game. The better the weapon, the better the DPS in a big way, the faster things die, the more OP we feel. I would contend the amount of importance on the weapons in WoW is overall a bit too much. So now that we’re faced with having to farm for one and get them again to progress our character in a feel-good way, we’re stymied a bit from the loot system.

Or rather, we feel we’re impacted by the loot system when in reality it’s like farming for anyone other piece of loot that you need. This perception does not invalidate our feelings or the negativity around weapon drops right now (even though there’s been a couple of recent World Quests that have dropped them); in fact, it does the opposite. Our perception validates that the system doesn’t feel good to play in. And that means there’s “potential” room for improvement.

Secondly, we just got out of a system where our weapons very much defined the playstyle that we had. Now there’s a lot more variability and they become another piece of statistic for us, again, like they’ve always used to be. The sudden switch of the importance of them was more jarring than I thought it would be; both personally and from a community observer standpoint. Again, this gets to our perception of the issue vs what is reality; but in the end, it doesn’t really matter because perception is key to our enjoyment of the game. And yet again, there is “potential” room for improvement here.

Now, why am I putting quotes around the word potential? Because it doesn’t seem like the game system is broken, but instead that the perception is off. WoW‘s designers could be, and indeed it seems like they are, harshly adjusting our expectations around weapon drops and their overall importance. The potential exists here to shift their management of our expectations and what perceptions we have, but really that’s up to them. It’s not a situation where I think I’m ready to call it a failure yet though — that will be reserved for if/when weapons become the hardest thing to get ever and the game’s systems start to break because of it. I doubt we’ll get there though.

Vol’dun was like this, too. And I probably disagree with the original question posed in yesterday’s Queue. There were points when I did not realize I was off the main quest chain, even though I was running around killing 10 rats (as Liz put it). Other times it was pretty obvious (aka: ghost pirates), but some of the stuff involving saving the furry little people felt very much like it was intertwined with the main story.

And I’d add that I really enjoyed that aspect of it as well. Generally, I’ve been pretty pleased about the storytelling in the initial expansion. It seems comprehensive and leaves some clear directions for the next chapters. My one complaint is the gating behind rep; which I didn’t like in Legion either. I’d like for WoW to either go all in or all out with that, this in the middle thing drives me a bit nuts.

I will admit that there are a dozen or so quests that I haven’t gotten to yet which are just side things — but I’ve had some fair excuses (/cough kid-on-the-way). There’s something about getting pollinated that I just keep avoiding for some reason…

It’s probably just some cool detail that the world designers have left out there. I try not to read into that stuff because I’m usually disappointed. There’s a lot of things like that scattered around Azeroth, and they almost always come up with no significance.

Except the good old “Under Construction” sign from the Classic WoW days. I really hope that’s still there when the classic servers come up.

It’s something that’s come up now and again, but the mainstay of personal updates these days, along with what thoughts the writers are having, is happening on Twitter.

This does get me to think about having everyone’s Twitter feed on their author pages. That’d be a nice touch. One of the problems with putting our own thoughts directly on the site though is that they tend to veer into current events quite a bit … which isn’t always welcomed in this community (which I grok and don’t want to start an argument over).

Also on the subject of the redesign… I really hope to have it finished by the end of the month. Fingers crossed.