Constructive Feedback for server first titles
Constructive Feedback for server first titles
Amongst all the posts I’ve read through, I really can’t find a whole lot that is constructive, so here’s a few reasons why these server first titles are a bad idea.
I was approached by a family member who also played the game that were very excited. The title for both their race and class being first to 80 were a big thing to them. They loved the titles, and I asked them if they realized what would be involved in getting them, and that unless they played an unhealthy amount, they wouldn’t be getting them. They said that didn’t matter, and that they would probably do it, forgetting school, work, and all else in order to achieve these titles. (after some time talking, I told them it wouldn’t be worth it, and I believe I convinced them.
When I heard about the titles at first, I myself was considering taking unhealthy amounts of time off school and work just to get the Arch Druid title, but then told myself better.
I play on an RP server, where many people like these titles for the in character implications. Many friends were also psyched about the titles, and while some know better than to spend unhealthy amounts of time on a unique in game title that they may or may not get. I’m not sure whether or not some of them are smart enough to not skip school/work to attain said title.
So here’s the lowdown. These titles are going to encourage various things, and none of them are good.
1. Skipping school, work, and real life in general. It may only take a week or two, but anyone with a serious commitment in any aspect of their life can know how hard it is to catch back up. Not only are some people going to be willing to go to lengths as drastic as skipping real life, some will – to get the extra edge – skip even sleeping, which is more unhealthy than either of the two above mentioned. These titles encourage this behavior.
2. Leveling services. This probably won’t be widely used, but I can still see it happening. Paying a service to speedily level your character for the title. It’s not impossible, and I know Blizzard discourages this kind of thing as well.
3. Account sharing. What’s even easier than skipping school, work, and sleep? Convincing a friend to level your character for you in rotations. Having been around MMO’s and WoW a long time, I know how much this is discouraged, yet these titles again are encouraging this type of behavior.
The titles are a neat idea, but in their current form the implementation is poor. The titles denote a degree of power and respect (for anyone that is concerned with Lore) and in all actuality, these titles may or may not denote such a thing. Many people may even look upon them and jeer, knowing how some of the people undertook attaining the titles. They will simply mean whoever invested the most time at the release of the expansion.
Keep the achievements in. Server first to 80, server first <Race> to 80, Server first <Class> to 80, leave those all in so that they can be inspected on feats of strength.
Make it so that the Supreme title is awarded for all who attain such feats, regardless of class or race server first. Make it so that server firsts still hold some ability to show off their achievements, but make it so that they don’t carry such character defining titles as Prophet or Champion of Elune.
Award <Class> and <Race> titles to people who reach level 80 within a certain deadline. Make these titles special, so that one person can realistically only achieve 1, maybe 2 level 80s per account in the time period if they really push hard. Say getting to 80 two weeks after the release of the expansion. Make them somewhat unique to obtain so that they’ll still be special. A big thing is that the Race and Class titles are special titles that go with a lot of characters on RP realms.
Filed under: World of Warcraft