Why the nerf to deaths in Cataclysm might be harmful

We’re right in the middle of another heated debate about the death penalties in MMOs. Is it good as it is in for instance WoW or would we like to see something harsher, a death that really means something?

Psychochild blogged about it the other day, and there’s a very good, intelligent and civilized discussion going on in the commentary section. Regardless of on which side we are (I’ve previously written about why I think the death penalties are fine as they are), there’s a general agreement on that a game with a bigger risk factor never will gain a huge audience, but remain a niche. Or as Tesh puts it:

“If you *do* make a pure hardcore risk game, don’t be surprised if the mainstream doesn’t like it and shower you with money. ;)”

Well, I suppose Blizzard likes the idea to be showered with gold. (Which gives me a an opportunity to quote Tobold’s wonderful one-liner: “is World of Warcraft dying? Not unless it suffocates under a pile of money.”)

So it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that they’ve decided to pull this a bit further. They’re actually planning for a pretty huge nerf to the death penalty in Cataclysm, as long as you’re playing grouped up with your guildies. You can read about it in wow.com’s summary of the planned guild perks.

The new guild perks
Some of the features perks are “nice to have” but really not anything I bother that much about. Vendor discounts. Extra gold from fallen enemies. Who cares? I never notice what sums they drop in the first place.

But there are a few things that I think will affect raiding within the boundaries of a guild quite a bit:

“The Quick and the Dead: Increases health and mana gained when resurrected by a guild member by 50% and increases movement speed while dead by 100%. Does not function in combat or while in a Battleground or Arena.”

“Mass Resurrection: Brings all dead party and raid members back to life with 35 health and 35 mana. Cannot be cast when in combat. No cooldown.”

Wow. This is a nerf so huge that it more or less makes the Painful Corpse Run to a dark distant memory from the past.

I think we all have our pet peeves when it comes to those runs. In my case I have some special feelings for the path to Archimonde, which I did way too many times to be happy about it I’ve (even though we used to accompany it with Benny Hill music from time to time to cheer us up.) The way back to General Vezax is another non-favorite. The Decent to Insanity was totally cool the first time I saw it but it grew old quickly.

I bet that we’ll be we’ll be using anks, soulstones and bubbles in Cataclysm as much as we possibly can, in order to avoid corpse runs altogether. Mass resurrection, eat and mana up and you’re ready to go in an instant. If you can combine it with the 50 percent increase of mana and health when resurrected by a guild member, it will shorten the time loss after a wipe immensely.

And as if this wasn’t enough, they’re also adding “Reinforce”, which at Rank 2 means that your items will take 10 percent less durability loss when you die. This is just gold though. The nerf to the time sinks are way more important.

Warlock complaints
If you look at the reactions at WoW.com, most players seem to be jumping for joy. The only ones who are disgruntled are the warlocks, due to another guild perk:

“Have Group, Will Travel: Summons all raid or party members to the caster's current location. 2 hour cooldown.”

OK, I can understand that locks will feel less “unique” and “needed” just like mages did when they put up free portals in Shattrath and Dalaran. But honestly – exactly how much “fun” is it to make summoning portals before a raid? If that is the major point of bringing a warlock to the raid, I think the class is in deep trouble.

Effects on raiding guilds
However, that was a sidetrack, back to the issue about the death penalties. What will it mean to raiding guilds?

Well one thing is that there will definitely be room for more tries during progression raid nights when you expect a lot of wiping. We can expect more of a trial- and error-approach to new content, especially since the information we have so far is that they’re not planning to have a lot of limited attempts in Cataclysm, apart from in really rare cases, “Algalon-style”.

No wonder that this sounds tasty. We’ll spend more time doing the fun stuff, which means fighting the bosses, experiencing the fights. And less time travelling the world as a ghost or sitting on our asses drinking and eating. More fun, less boring. Could there possibly be anything bad about that?

I’m not sure. Maybe. Because while I don’t advocate harsher death penalties, I’m not so sure I want them less strict than they are either. Of course I’ll be happy about it initially. But is it good for the game in the long run? Players don’t always know what is a good design decision when they ask for features, as pointed out by Richard Bartle six years ago.

One effect to consider is that there will be a lot less at stake every time you try to down a raid boss. This will decrease the pressure on the individuals to perform, especially in the kind of fights where one mistake can wipe-it-all (for instance Teron Gorefiend, Blood Queen, Lich King). If you’re the one blows it, you’re not cause half as much trouble as you’re doing now. This can be nice and forgiving for a new player, but it might also affect our motivation to stay focused, alert, trying to bring our best gameplay and perform.

It will probably also decrease the excitement and the adrenaline rushes you experience in a raid. If you can squeeze in 40 tries instead of 20 in a wipe night, will you really put in your heart to every try as you do now?

However painful the corpse runs have been, I think they also give a common experience that works as a sort of glue for a stable raid group. There’s nothing that brings a group together as much as going through hardships. And of course it also increases the sweetness of the victory when you finally nail the encounter. Would our Archimonde kill have been quite as fantastic if we had endured 100 mass resurrections instead of 100 corpse runs?

To sum it up: as much as I’m looking forward to this as a raider, I’m a little bit worried that it might dilute the game experience.

Pugging less attractive
A final thought: I wonder how quickly we’ll get used to the new nifty guild treats, taking them for granted. Quite quickly I’d dare say. I think we’ll feel less than enthusiastic at the thought of pugging a raid, where you’re not only more likely to wipe, but also will have much worse consequences when you do so.

They may have trashed the talent system, but I think the planned guild perks definitely will be motivation enough to bring back the game to a state where most of the raiding is done within a guild and not in a PUG. Like it used to be back in time. Not that I complain though. I’m a guilded player myself and have no plans to change that.

But now time has come to put an end to the last post for this week and call for a toast. I’m going to attend a pop festival and no Ruby Sanctum in the world can complete with that. I hope you’ll get an enjoyable weekend too.

Cheers all!