Yesterday I introduced the Theory of Trade of Fun which says that the value add of the same content being an MMO and not single player game depends only on the freedom of the market of fun between players. WoW lost lot of its appeal over the years and I think it can explained by this theory and fix it.
It's crucial to state that the theory do not address the content of the game. The problem with WoW isn't that it's too hard or too easy or too dancy or too grindy. There are different contents aimed at different people and all of them are valid as long as there are people who like that kind of content. The problem is that the current WoW isn't much different from an imaginary WoW which you play on a server where only you and your guild plays and your guildmates are all your clones: same gaming skill and time schedule. Adding more players to your imaginary clone-guild would not make any difference in your leveling, instance, scenario and raiding experience. Your clone-guildmates are just fillers for group content, you don't give or receive anything from them, they just do their job and pick their own loot.
Trade of Fun allows players of different skill, time and money to play together and enhance each others experience by mutually beneficial trade. In WoW such trade is near-impossible, everything relevant is bind on pickup, it must be farmed by yourself. If an item is grindable (for example a Klaxxi exalted one), you must spend countless hours to have it. No matter how rich or skillful you are, you won't have it. If an item must be taken from an extremely dancy boss, you must learn and perform the dance, you can't get it by putting in more time or money. Generally having more IRL money doesn't help you at all in WoW, even if you use illegal RMT as gold can't buy you anything worthy.
Don't mistake Trade of Fun for simple pay-to-win microtransactions where the developer sells you The One Ring. Here all items are acquired by players either by skillful play or by grinding a lot and they sell their item willingly. If you have 1 out of the 10 axe of ubernesses in the game and you choose to keep it, you'll still have 1 out of the 10 axe of ubernesses if the other 9 owners sell theirs.
To fix WoW no content needs to be changed just all items turned into bind on equip and new "coins" must be introduced: coin of honor, of justice, of Klaxxi rep, of everything. A coin of honor costs 1.5X honor points, can be sold and the buyer can activate it gaining 1X honor. The rep coins needs you to be exalted (the after-exalted cap should be elevated from 999) so you can't upfeed with alts. Weekly caps should be removed. If grinding time needs to be limited to fight RMT-ers, bots or the bad press of idiot kids dying after 50 hours of non-stop farming, account weekly playtime should be limited and not any form of income.
Finally the EVE-like PLEX should be introduced: time cards that are purchased in the Blizzard store and sellable on the AH for gold. To have balanced markets maybe the AHs of the battlegroups should be linked (or servers merged) to have enough players using them. I consider the Diablo III real money trade overshoot as it allows professional game-farming. The time-card trade of EVE is perfect because you can't get out of anything from your gaming than ability to play the game for free or access merchandize.
With the Trade all three kind of players (time-rich grinders, skillful players, rich players) could access game items, so the mindless welfare epic shower can be toned down. The welfare shower became necessary to allow the average players access items. The average player doesn't have the skill to kill HM bosses or the time to grind out all reps exalted and valor capped every week. But with the trade the average player, having average time, skill and money could find "productive" aspects of his gameplay and trade his proceedings for items, gaining everything he wants.
PS: while I leave WoW as soon as my subscription runs out at the end of December, I still play when my girlfriend drags me in and I have to accept that Silvershard Mines is very well-made strategic map (strategic means that the enemy has 2x more kills and still loses with 3x less points).
It's crucial to state that the theory do not address the content of the game. The problem with WoW isn't that it's too hard or too easy or too dancy or too grindy. There are different contents aimed at different people and all of them are valid as long as there are people who like that kind of content. The problem is that the current WoW isn't much different from an imaginary WoW which you play on a server where only you and your guild plays and your guildmates are all your clones: same gaming skill and time schedule. Adding more players to your imaginary clone-guild would not make any difference in your leveling, instance, scenario and raiding experience. Your clone-guildmates are just fillers for group content, you don't give or receive anything from them, they just do their job and pick their own loot.
Trade of Fun allows players of different skill, time and money to play together and enhance each others experience by mutually beneficial trade. In WoW such trade is near-impossible, everything relevant is bind on pickup, it must be farmed by yourself. If an item is grindable (for example a Klaxxi exalted one), you must spend countless hours to have it. No matter how rich or skillful you are, you won't have it. If an item must be taken from an extremely dancy boss, you must learn and perform the dance, you can't get it by putting in more time or money. Generally having more IRL money doesn't help you at all in WoW, even if you use illegal RMT as gold can't buy you anything worthy.
Don't mistake Trade of Fun for simple pay-to-win microtransactions where the developer sells you The One Ring. Here all items are acquired by players either by skillful play or by grinding a lot and they sell their item willingly. If you have 1 out of the 10 axe of ubernesses in the game and you choose to keep it, you'll still have 1 out of the 10 axe of ubernesses if the other 9 owners sell theirs.
To fix WoW no content needs to be changed just all items turned into bind on equip and new "coins" must be introduced: coin of honor, of justice, of Klaxxi rep, of everything. A coin of honor costs 1.5X honor points, can be sold and the buyer can activate it gaining 1X honor. The rep coins needs you to be exalted (the after-exalted cap should be elevated from 999) so you can't upfeed with alts. Weekly caps should be removed. If grinding time needs to be limited to fight RMT-ers, bots or the bad press of idiot kids dying after 50 hours of non-stop farming, account weekly playtime should be limited and not any form of income.
Finally the EVE-like PLEX should be introduced: time cards that are purchased in the Blizzard store and sellable on the AH for gold. To have balanced markets maybe the AHs of the battlegroups should be linked (or servers merged) to have enough players using them. I consider the Diablo III real money trade overshoot as it allows professional game-farming. The time-card trade of EVE is perfect because you can't get out of anything from your gaming than ability to play the game for free or access merchandize.
With the Trade all three kind of players (time-rich grinders, skillful players, rich players) could access game items, so the mindless welfare epic shower can be toned down. The welfare shower became necessary to allow the average players access items. The average player doesn't have the skill to kill HM bosses or the time to grind out all reps exalted and valor capped every week. But with the trade the average player, having average time, skill and money could find "productive" aspects of his gameplay and trade his proceedings for items, gaining everything he wants.
PS: while I leave WoW as soon as my subscription runs out at the end of December, I still play when my girlfriend drags me in and I have to accept that Silvershard Mines is very well-made strategic map (strategic means that the enemy has 2x more kills and still loses with 3x less points).
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