Title Fight
October 28, 2009 :: Posted by - Plectical :: Category - Other
In the most recent episode of Rawrcast, Stomp and Haf brought up an interesting question;
Should titles come with additional awards?
As many of you know, I just completed the Loremaster achievement on my Warlock. What if, in addition to the title, my character gained a passive buff that allowed him to gain 10% more gold from quest rewards when I had the Loremaster title equipped?
Most players would probably agree that titles should grant some additional bonus in game. After all, most titles are extremely difficult to earn (i.e. the Undying and the Immortal) and in every other avenue of the game, players are rewarded for their effort in some tangible way (gear, XP or gold). Don’t players deserve to get a little extra something for their effort?
The answer to this question is: maybe. It all depends on the play style that Blizzard wants to encourage players to pursue. So far, Blizzard has removed many of the time and effort barriers in the game in order to make the content more appealing to casual players (just look at badge loot). Continuing their policy of casual appeasement, Blizzard could avoid giving players any meaningful buffs and simply award more cosmetic changes to titles (giving players with titles a special glow like shadow priests or allowing players to change the appearance of mounts and gear).
A more interesting and rewarding approach would be to follow the example initially laid out in this post. Blizzard should reward players who spend the most time in game. Obviously, game balancing issues would be a major concern (what if players with the Battlemaster title could do 5% more damage in arenas and battlegrounds?) but Blizzard has stepped up to the plate and slayed this beast in the past (cough Death Knights cough). Why not encourage players to spend more time in your game pursuing titles? It cuts down on the time they’d spend playing other games and increases the time investment they’ve made in WoW (thus making it harder to leave the game).
WoW thrives because of the healthy mix of casual and hardcore players. It’s about time for Blizzard to reward them both equally.
