Metaplanar Babel

Scott over at Broken Toys wrote an interesting article about the age-old conflict between so-called casual gamers and hardcore gamers. Basically, he talks about how casual players often are disappointed when they reach 60 in WoW and discover that the WoW end-game is as raid heavy as any other MMO. I think he may have hit the nail on the head towards the end of the article, when he talks about what the casual players are looking for:

this means getting more “world-ly” and less “game-y”. But games end, and worlds don’t. And players who are demanding that their character’s life cycle not end… are demanding more world. Not necessarily more content - but more ways to participate.

Basically, what Scott said there sums up what is always lacking for me in a game. WoW has done well with some of the recent events, making them both casual friendly and including a raid-type encounter for those who like to do more than collect new outfits. The most recent event, the Lunar Festival, has been a lot of fun for me, because it’s very doable for non-uber characters, it’s led me to revisit places I haven’t been in a while, and it inspires suicidal runs into enemy cities, just for fun. I really hope they’ll continue to do stuff like that; it makes the game far more fun and interesting for me than the prospect of another level or instance run.