Profile of Gavalinb
Personal Profile:
| Screen Name: | Gavalinb |
| Name: | Wes Platt |
| Age: | 42 |
| Gender: | M |
| Location: | North Carolina |
| Country: | US |
Professional Profile:
| Occupation: | MMORPG game writer |
| Company / Organization: | Icarus Studios |
| Gavalinb's Projects: |
Fallen Earth OtherSpace Chiaroscuro Necromundus MU*Wiki Earthen Ring Wiki OtherVerse Wiki Text-Based Comic |
Contact Info:
The contact information for Gavalinb is private
Bio:
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Developer of text-based games at www.jointhesaga.com. Now employed by Icarus Studios as a writer on the new Fallen Earth post-apocalyptic graphical MMORPG in development. Shepherd of the MU*Wiki at http://mu.wikia.com Author of the Text-Based Comic at http://www.jointhesaga.com/tbc/ |
Gavalinb's Friendships
Gavalinb's Most Recent Journal Entry
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Title: The 20 percent rule Posted: August 07, 2007 at 10:15 AM Author: Gavalinb I was feeling: Energetic I was listening to: Talking Heads - "Wild, Wild Life" This can be seen by: Everyone This can be commented by: Everyone | |
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When I worked at Disney World at couple of decades ago, I heard rumors of a "20 percent rule." Basically, this was a philosophy applied to ticket prices for the Magic Kingdom. The theory: Raise ticket prices every year until 20 percent of the families that drive down from Minnesota in their Winnebagos full of screaming kids get to the main gate, see the price, and decide to turn around and go home (risking the wrath of the family) rather than spending the money on a trip to Disney World. Of course, no one really ever turns around. They pay the money and go ride Space Mountain with their kids. I'm wondering if World of Warcraft is going to be so lucky. Oh, no, Blizzard's not upping the monthly fee to play. But I think they're on the road to doing something similar: They're upping the effort to advance in WoW and marginalizing past (and current) advancement efforts, which could lead some longtime players to turn their virtual Winnebagos around and head back for home. Last week at BlizzCon, the MMORPG developer announced the next big expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. The level cap goes up to 80. This news comes just months after people started playing Burning Crusade, the first expansion, which took characters to Level 70. Don't get me wrong. I've enjoyed much of the new content in Burning Crusade. However, it was a little disappointing to see my hard-earned Level 60 purple gear suddenly get outshone by Level 61 *green* gear. And don't even get me started on all the Burning Crusade content I'll never see because it's out of reach to all except the most dedicated raiding guilds - guilds that are driven to bankruptcy by the cost of repairs and potions. Before Burning Crusade, we didn't know exactly what to expect from a Blizz expansion. Now we do: Lots of new stuff to do, but all the gear you worked so hard for? It's crap. So, now, before many people have mastered all that's to be done in Burning Crusade, Blizz announces the NEXT expansion. If Wrath of the Lich King comes out next year (and there's no reason to expect it won't, because Blizz has indicated it wants to release a new expansion each year), that means the best stuff that I won't be able to get in Burning Crusade won't be worth diddly by the time I get to the second expansion, which will make obsolete that old unreachable purple gear with new green gear. It's enough to make a dedicated Burning Crusade player ask the awful question: "Why bother?" Burning Crusade made the original game content obsolete. No one goes to Stratholme much anymore. Molten Core? Forget it. No one goes except as a lark. What do you think's going to happen when Wrath of the Lich King comes out? Hellfire Ramparts? LFG all you want - no one's going. Mechanar? Old Hillsbrad? Kharazan? Whatever. And here lies the crux of the problem for Blizzard, I think: Before Burning Crusade, we saw places like Molten Core and Blackwing Lair as the ultimate challenge for WoW players. Players spent days and days in giant groups of 40, grinding through those dungeons over and over again, engaging in epic bouts of guild drama until they got their full sets of Might and Wrath. Those places were the be all and end all for about three years. Players had time to master the content, earn their gear, and then saw all that time and effort effectively nullified the first time they stepped through the Dark Portal and completed a rather simple solo mission for a piece of green armor that immediately replaced their old-school purple. Assuming Wrath of the Lich King comes out in early 2008, that gives us just six months or so to get as far as we can in Burning Crusade before all that content becomes obsolete. We can *see* the end of Burning Crusade. If we don't get to see the end-game content there before Lich King comes out, we'll never see it. And the thing is: After the release of Lich King, we can probably expect a third expansion in 2009. And then another in 2010. WoW is becoming a giant treadmill, and every piece of purple gear you get now in Burning Crusade will be worthless in the low levels of Lich King, and everything you get in Lich King will be useless in Expansion 3, and everything you get in Expansion 3 will be rendered obsolete by Expansion 4. And they'll keep doing it, maybe until 20 percent of 8-million-plus subscribers come to the bitter realization that they're just bailing water on a virtual Titanic. | ||
Gavalinb's Forum
| Posted | Topic | Comments | Views |
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| 06/16/07 12:46 PM |
Support your local MU* at the MU*Wiki!
[ From member: Gavalinb ] Latest Comment Posted: 06/17/07 11:12 AM by Gavalinb | 1 comment | 1470 views |
Gavalinb's Bookmarks
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MU*Wiki Games for people who can read! And another free advertising outlet for MUDs. ( Posted by: Gavalinb on 06/08/07 ) |