WoW: time restricted quests in patch 2.1.0, say it ain’t so

We had a feeling of deja vu while surfing the World of Warcraft forums today (and we thought something was getting changed in the Matrix). We found a number of players starting threads with nearly the same opening post (OP).

Actually, they have nearly exact OP save for: one from a player named Draena was griping over the Nether drake mount, the other was from Oddig and was about the Marshfang mount. The discussion was, as these kinds of discussions go, very anti-Blizzard. The players were complaining about the time restricted quests to get the said mounts (how many quests players can do per day and gaining reputation).

The question actually boils down to players thinking that Blizzard is making the World of Warcraft a time sink with every patch – reeling in casual players to play more than they can. They don’t want the time restricted quests to control how much they play and when they want to play. Drysc addressed the concern:

The ‘one-a-day’ quests and turn-ins obviously restrict the amount of times those quests can be completed, and this affords us a few things as far as the rewards we can then provide. These quests are specifically designed for those players that maybe have a few hours a day, or less, to log in and play. With that short amount of time we can guarantee them a solid reward, or solid increment toward a reward, without needing to compensate for the type of player that has a lot of time to devote to simply grinding on them. This is due to limiting the amount of times it can be completed, and thus gearing it towards a more casual playstyle.

So the content is actually geared toward the casual player. The explanation got split reactions from players as some actually preferred to have quests that are time-restricted. Plus the time investment will be both for the hardcore and the casual players. With time restrictions, a player can’t just grind all day and get the mount.

So what do you think? Would it be better to have no time restrictions at all? Or will the one-a-day quests take players one step closer to having a sort of equality between the hardcore and casual players?

We had a feeling of deja vu while surfing the World of Warcraft forums today (and we thought something was getting changed in the Matrix). We found a number of players starting threads with nearly the same opening post (OP).

Actually, they have nearly exact OP save for: one from a player named Draena was griping over the Nether drake mount, the other was from Oddig and was about the Marshfang mount. The discussion was, as these kinds of discussions go, very anti-Blizzard. The players were complaining about the time restricted quests to get the said mounts (how many quests players can do per day and gaining reputation).

The question actually boils down to players thinking that Blizzard is making the World of Warcraft a time sink with every patch – reeling in casual players to play more than they can. They don’t want the time restricted quests to control how much they play and when they want to play. Drysc addressed the concern:

The ‘one-a-day’ quests and turn-ins obviously restrict the amount of times those quests can be completed, and this affords us a few things as far as the rewards we can then provide. These quests are specifically designed for those players that maybe have a few hours a day, or less, to log in and play. With that short amount of time we can guarantee them a solid reward, or solid increment toward a reward, without needing to compensate for the type of player that has a lot of time to devote to simply grinding on them. This is due to limiting the amount of times it can be completed, and thus gearing it towards a more casual playstyle.

So the content is actually geared toward the casual player. The explanation got split reactions from players as some actually preferred to have quests that are time-restricted. Plus the time investment will be both for the hardcore and the casual players. With time restrictions, a player can’t just grind all day and get the mount.

So what do you think? Would it be better to have no time restrictions at all? Or will the one-a-day quests take players one step closer to having a sort of equality between the hardcore and casual players?