14 DAY TRIAL // After the release of the World of Warcraft MMO expansion Cataclysm, a lot of gamers that have taken on the bosses included in the content have complained, sometimes on the official Blizzard forums and sometime quite vocally, that the battles are too tough for players and demand a very finely balanced party.
Greg Street, who is a lead systems designer working at Blizzard, jumped in with an official blog post, with some added hints and tips, to chide players that have been complaining about difficulty spikes and show off some of the aims that the team aims to achieve with Cataclysm.
Street has made it clear that Blizzard is working hard to create actual tough battles for those who are high level, stating, “We don’t want you to stumble your way to victory. We don’t want you to be able to overwhelm bosses without noticing or caring what they’re doing. We don’t want healers to be able to make up for all of the mistakes on the part of the other players. While at the end of the day, dungeons may just be gussied up loot vending machines, we want you to do more than push a button to get the loot.”
The developers also created content that demands good organization from those who attempt certain feats, with Street adding, “Ultimately, we don’t want to give undergeared or unorganized groups a near guaranteed chance of success, because then the content will feel absolutely trivial for players in appropriate gear who communicate, cooperate, and strategize.”
The outcry about tough battles and the challenge level comes after a lot of veterans of World of Warcraft have been complaining pre launch about the fact that the game was becoming too easy as Blizzard tried to accommodate new gamers by streamlining early game progress.
Cataclysm has managed to become the fastest selling PC title ever and moved more than 5 million units before the end of 2010.