If you’ve been playing World of Warcraft at all consistently over the last two years, you’ve probably noticed a drift toward more casual play. By this, I mean that there are interesting and fun things for players of all levels to do, without the need to spend many hours or days to achieve anything. The idea behind this drift seems to be to add more casual players to the game, people who can’t or won’t put in the amount of time and energy a hard-core player will. Given the number of players in the game, this strategy has clearly worked to get people involved. But some people are wondering if having lots of casual players is good for the game itself, as well as for the hard-core players. Here’s a breakdown of the situation.

The Positive Side of Casual Style Play

Probably the best thing about the more casual style of play is that it causes Blizzard to make sure to add lots of fun things to the game that might otherwise be left out. Achievements, lower level requirements for mounts, less XP to get to the higher level content, along with the large number of events held throughout the year all add a great deal of depth to the WoW universe and for hardcore players who end up playing through the same area over and over trying to get a new epic shield, pair of spaulder, all this extra stuff makes a great change of pace and adds some depth to your gaming days. After all, life isn’t one dimensional. Why should your game be?

The Cons of Casual Style Play

The biggest drawback to the more casual play style springs directly from the positive. Since Blizzard is putting a lot of energy into Achievement and the like, they have fewer resources to apply to things like raiding content for the hard-core players. Surprisingly, the highest level raid for Level 80 players is significantly easier than the top raids for Level 70. Raid sizes are now 10 and 25 men as well. Players who reached Level 80 in the first few days of the expansion have been reduced to waiting around for the higher end raids that are eventually coming. In the meantime, these players are stuck grinding Achievement or spending all their time in PvP while they wait..

What Casual Play Means for You

While there are drawbacks as well as benefits, I think attracting casual gamers to WoW benefits us all in the end. Remember that Blizzard needs profits to stay in business, and more players means more income. With increased income Blizzard also has the resources to keep developing new content for all levels of player. If you are one of the hard-core faithful, you might at times feel shortchanged, but it is the price we have to pay to give the company the resources to develop new content in the future that might not otherwise get the go ahead.

Are you interested in staying up with the current trends in WoW, whether toward casual gaming or anything else? If so, you will be interested in the Warcraft Formula, a continuously updated guide to all things WoW. This Warcraft Formula review gives you all the details.