World Of Warcraft To Get Level Squish In Shadowlands Expansion

Jopsy Pendragon

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In the level squish “announcement” (a blurb in the press kit), they specified that they want levels to feel “meaningful” again. Halving the levels does that by removing the filler levels that don’t add new spells or talents.
That's like switching from KM to miles. The distance is the same, but the number is smaller. Big whoop. There's still going to be a lot of levels that don't offer anything "meaningful", and there's no a hint of shortening the number of hours it takes to reach max level. So, all that's different is not hearing a 'ding' as often.

They might as well have just said: "The clock tower will no longer ring on the half-hour because we want hours to be more meaningful."

But whatever. They clearly have no concept of how to fix their franchise anymore, now that pretty much everyone that made it fun has bailed after Activision bought them out.

At least I can sort-of enjoy the cinematics without having to pay or play.
 

Ashiri

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The cinematic was quite nicely done but I have a horrible feeling I know how the story is going to turn out. "Green Jesus" was nothing by comparison.

The only thing I'm hanging around for are the foxy little Vulpera.
 
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Salome

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World of Warcraft: Shadowlands will smooth out the leveling experience and better prepare new adventurers for what’s to come. Players will level up to 50 before heading to the Shadowlands (new level cap: 60).

We’ve adjusted the experience curve to make it faster than ever to prepare for the newest challenges, and each level along the way will provide more meaningful increases in progress and power. All expansion zones are getting more flexible, too; they’ll be able* to scale to you and your friends while you level to 50, so it’s easy to try a zone you’ve never played.

*You can still outlevel dungeons and crush them for transmogs or fulfillment.*
i hope leaving out the word raid on their little footnote was just an oversight. Cheesing old content for transmog and mounts during my holiday resub period is the only thing that keeps me returning occasionally.
 
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Brenda Archer

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I’m unsubscribed at the moment, I just don’t have the energy. But I might try this out later.
 

Noodles

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Eh, I still don't really have ny interest in coming back. I guess the end boss was that Blood Slug thing, since that's the last raid I did.
 
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Bartholomew Gallacher

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I can see an emerging pattern here:

WoW: Legion - Item Squith.
Battle for Azeroth - Item Squish.
Shadowlands: Level Squish.

What's next, maybe a new cataclysm and destruction of one of the two outlands?!? I mean they are reducing the levels, so most of the older areas will become obsolete and can get shelved.
 

Brenda Archer

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I can see an emerging pattern here:

WoW: Legion - Item Squith.
Battle for Azeroth - Item Squish.
Shadowlands: Level Squish.

What's next, maybe a new cataclysm and destruction of one of the two outlands?!? I mean they are reducing the levels, so most of the older areas will become obsolete and can get shelved.
I hope not. They keep retconning the lore, but they’re running Classic at the same time, which might as well be in a different timeline if they change enough.

The new lore is pretty annoying IMO. But not seeing the old lore will confuse newbies even more. Once suspension of disbelief is gone, and no reason to care about the story, that’s another reason for people to get bored and leave the game.
 

Ashiri

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What's next, maybe a new cataclysm and destruction of one of the two outlands?!? I mean they are reducing the levels, so most of the older areas will become obsolete and can get shelved.
Un-Cataclysm the old world would be nice. In the Caverns of Time there are some "holo-crystals" set up with each expansion's trailer. It's been quite interesting to view them.

ETA: I have already posted my unease about the way the Shadowlands story may go, so it's very likely I won't even buy the expansion on release.
 
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Bartholomew Gallacher

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Un-Cataclysm the old world would be nice. In the Caverns of Time there are some "holo-crystals" set up with each expansion's trailer. It's been quite interesting to view them.
That's why Classic is now there I guess. For many the decline began with WOLTK, but at least with Cataclysm.
 
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Brenda Archer

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That's why Classic is now there I guess. For many the decline began with WOLTK, but at least with Cataclysm.
WotLK was really the climax of the original story. I think of everything after that as a different game. And since I leveled my first toon during WotLK, I feel like Classic is something I’ve already done.

Definitely everything after the retcon of the lore in the Chronicles books is a different game. I feel the nelf lore got butchered by making their fear of arcane look silly, and the Forsaken lore got butchered by making Sylvanas into a butcher (instead of a morally gray undead.)
 

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So, maybe I am misreading, but it sounds like you do a new starter zone from 1-10, then jump into your choice of Xpac for 10-50. So an xpac that used to be 10 levels will now be 40?
 

Brenda Archer

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So, maybe I am misreading, but it sounds like you do a new starter zone from 1-10, then jump into your choice of Xpac for 10-50. So an xpac that used to be 10 levels will now be 40?
Something like that I think. I also heard leveling would take about 70% of what it used to. I have some alts I might someday level this way.
 

Salome

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So, maybe I am misreading, but it sounds like you do a new starter zone from 1-10, then jump into your choice of Xpac for 10-50. So an xpac that used to be 10 levels will now be 40?
The way I’ve seen it explained is that all new players are in a starter zone from 1-10 that includes a mini-dungeon before you choose what zone (xpac) to level in from 10-50. That experience is all handled in a “journey through the past” style. Then you rejoin “current” time at 50 in the newest zone.

So you’re kind of instanced from 1-50 with the zones scaling to fit whatever level you are. But once you’re 50+ you‘ll outscale all those old zones like max levels do now and be forced into current content.
 
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Bartholomew Gallacher

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WotLK was really the climax of the original story. I think of everything after that as a different game. And since I leveled my first toon during WotLK, I feel like Classic is something I’ve already done.
WotLK introduced the dungeon finder, easier game play and flying mounts at large; Cataclysm the LFR. All stuff many hard core players are making responsible for the decline in difficulty/long time engagement in the game.

When Cataclysm started, Blizzard try to stear around and made the dungeons harder compared to WotLK; people disliked it, so they changed it later.
 

Brenda Archer

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WotLK introduced the dungeon finder, easier game play and flying mounts at large; Cataclysm the LFR. All stuff many hard core players are making responsible for the decline in difficulty/long time engagement in the game.

When Cataclysm started, Blizzard try to stear around and made the dungeons harder compared to WotLK; people disliked it, so they changed it later.
I know many of the competitive pve guilds on my original server shut down during Cata, and I heard the same thing from people I knew who were on other servers. The only server I was on that retained a decent pve scene was Proudmoore-US, and they exist as a social scene with a large LGBTO contingent.

But the other thing that was happening to all these people was adulthood. The people who don’t want hardcore play aren’t being lazy or entitled, they’re adults who just don’t have the many hours it takes to be competitive. They don’t complain, they just leave.

Blizzard put in an easy mode to keep from losing time-limited players, not because of entitlement. I’m not sure “entitlement” is a concept that makes sense anyway in a game that has to make money. Adults have money, but not time.

So this makes hardcore players something of a minority in their own game. I don’t know what the answer to this is, but Blizzard is always going to follow the money.

Meanwhile competent casuals subscribe long enough to consume a new expansion, then they go do something else. It’s possible the current business model is not sustainable. The hardcore players do put time and money into the game, but they can’t be most of the potential adult players. People consumed the new Classic quickly not because it’s “easy” but because all these old players have already mastered it.