WoW's endgame content is being released faster than ever before. Are casual raiders being left behind?

A few months back, I wrote an editorial about Blizzard's new "post-Lich King" trend of releasing new content quicker than ever before. Despite the controversy and various player issues resulting from the company's new release standard, I believe it ultimately offers the community more good than bad. However, I recently came across the post, "Does new content outdate too fast?" at Tobold's MMORPG Blog, which gave me pause. Tobold received a letter from a casual World of Warcraft player who feels left in the dust; the speed of new endgame content—specifically dungeons like Ulduar, Trial of the Grand Crusader and now the new Onyxia raid—is just too fast for some players.

Most hardcore raiders would contend that, in this case, the good outweighs the bad. Even many casual raiders, including me, agree that new content is a good thing; regardless of how overwhelming it can be for people without the time to "just put their head down and do it." But there are other factors to consider, too. For example, what about casual raiders who can't find players willing to run through the 10-player, let alone the 25-player, versions of these dungeons because they don't have anything to gain? Even if an older raid dungeon still houses one or two pieces of gear that offers an upgrade, why not run the newest raid instead, which offers better odds of getting stronger gear?

Classic WoW and its first expansion, The Burning Crusade, offered casual raiders much more time to complete endgame content before the next patch rolled out a new raid. It wasn't uncommon for players to have six months or more between updates, giving even the slowest-progressing players time to catch up before the next big raid came along. On the other hand, hardcore raiders were often left "twiddling their thumbs" during most of those months, having cleared the content just weeks after its initial launch.

Today, we've seen Blizzard change to an unprecedented release schedule, with new content patches and endgame raids released within as little as two or three months of each other. In the old days, it might have been a full year before Wrath of the Lich King's endgame content, Naxxramas, was succeeded by the next-highest raid patch (Ulduar, in this case). Even though the gap between Naxxramas and Ulduar was about six months, the gap between subsequent endgame raids since then has narrowed.

Consider WoW patch 3.2, which introduced the new Trial of the Crusader/Grand Crusader raid in early August, about three months after players first stepped foot in Ulduar. Just a little more than one month later, patch 3.2.2 introduced the revamped Onyxia raid. Next comes the grand finale of the Lich King era; Icecrown Citadel in patch 3.3, which will probably be released before the end of the year (possibly as soon as November, as some have rumored).

If you belong to a hardcore raiding guild, chances are you don't feel nearly as much pressure; two months/eight runs is a decent amount of time to clear the new content with a respectable amount of spoils. Semi-regular raiding guilds might not be able to clear content as often, but gearing up in time for whatever's next usually isn't a problem; your collective gear level will most likely be high enough to at least start running the next dungeon.

But what about casual raiders, or players who fall behind a whole patch or more? These days, taking a break from WoW for a month or two leaves a bigger void than it did before Wrath of the Lich King. It's even more difficult when you can't find other players or guildmates willing to help you catch up; why waste the time on old content when they could be running new stuff?

As hard as it might be for some of the more dedicated players to believe, I know raiders on my server who haven't even cleared Naxx yet; they either joined Wrath of the Lich King late or took a short break from the game at the wrong time; right before Ulduar came out. The release speed of post-Ulduar raid content increased, making it even harder for them to find people willing to help them finish up Naxx, learn Ulduar and move on to Trial of the Champions.

I've experienced this phenomenon first-hand; ironically, having a job writing about WoW and other MMOs can drastically cut into your play time. As ashamed as I am to admit it, I haven't cleared Ulduar yet. Sure, most of my friends and guildies have, but I fell behind on our weekly raiding schedule and before I knew it, patch 3.2 came out and not many people were interested in running Ulduar anymore. At the rate I'm progressing—even as I try kicking it into higher gear to catch back up—my friends and guildmates will probably be running Icecrown Citadel by the time I'm ready to finally start Trial of the Grand Champion.

Organizing and actually running a 10-player raid—let alone 25-player one—is a difficult thing to do, unless you belong to dedicated raiding guild. There's also so much to do in WoW these days (achievements, new PvP, faction rep grinding) that it's harder to find a couple of dozen people willing to devote their time doing the same thing, at the same time.

Plus, hardcore raiders who are already on top of the latest endgame content have a harder time placing themselves in the shoes of the casual player, often dismissing them as noobs who don't know how to play. It's difficult for the hardcore raider to fathom how this person could be so far behind, unless they just plain suck at raiding. Sometimes it's the same with casual players, wondering how the hardcore player has the time to advance so far, and so quickly; they both come from different worlds of playing, so they have a tough time understanding each other's gameplay.

Blizzard is, and has been, making progress in addressing this problem, though. The "emblem system" introduced in Burning Crusade gives a little extra incentive for players to re-run dungeons, and they provide casual players an easier way to advance by gearing up, regardless of unlucky loot rolls. Blizzard even took the emblem system a step further in patch 3.2, offering more valuable emblems from easier dungeons and raids.

The new-and-improved "looking for group" system makes it easier for players with similar goals to seek each other out. Also, as Tobold mentions in his blog post, we've heard rumors that Blizzard might be introducing a new LFG system in the future, one that rewards players for organizing successful groups via the system. We might not see this new LFG system in all its glory until the upcoming Cataclysm expansion, but it's a step in the right direction, at least.

During BlizzCon 2009, the developers also announced they've been toying around with the idea of cross-server dungeons, which would probably help solve this problem more than anything else. A cross-server dungeon system would essentially be the same as the existing "Battlegroup" mechanic, currently used for PvP Battlegrounds. It would allow players from two or more servers to "queue up" for a specific dungeon until a match is found, at which point all players would be pulled together to participate together. Blizzard said they would probably start off by testing this new mechanic on the smaller 5-player dungeons, but the real value of cross-server instancing would ultimately make it much easier to form 10- and 25-player raid groups.

Lastly, Blizzard has introduced additional, smaller fixes throughout the past few months that tackle some of the more annoying aspects of raiding, like loosening the grip on soul-bound loot, giving players more time to clear large raids and not locking single players out if they weren't there when the group took a boss down. Little things like these indirectly help the problem by removing some of the more rigid aspects of raiding, offering a more-flexible experience, conducive to repeated runs.

So, do I think Blizzard should slow down the new endgame content, making it easier for players like me to catch up? No way. Even though I'm annoyed that most of my friends and guildies are ahead of me, content-wise, I still believe new material is more important for the game, when you consider the bigger picture. If Blizzard wasn't lifting a finger to make it easier for players to catch up, it might be a different story. But as long as the developers recognize the issue and continue making an effort to allow players like me the opportunity to experience new content, I'm okay with putting the blame on myself…for the time-being, at least.