Balancing Challenge and Fun

It’s a well known maxim that in life the harder something is to achieve the bigger the sense of accomplishment you get when you achieve it. To go along with this once you achieve large difficult goals, tasks or projects, most people feel the need to do something even bigger or harder the next time. Once faced with and having accomplished difficult tasks most people are not content with going back to ordinary or mundane tasks.

The above can also be applied in games. Remember your favourite board games as kids: Candy land, Operation, Sorry? Do you still play them? Likely not. But what’s the reason behind this? The reason is very simple, you have moved beyond them in your need for challenge. What is the purpose of playing a game that you can very easily beat, or one that comes down to luck to determine who the winner will be.

At the other end of the scale are games either so complex or complicated that they are either above your current skill level, or simply made to be too difficult. Imagine how it would feel to try to start learning games by learning chess at age 4. Most kids can not understand the game at this age and therefore will get frustrated and not play.

How hard should a game be to be fun? This question comes up every once in a while in games. You can hear complaints in any game of “This is too hard” or “This is too easy”. What I feel most of us look for is a balanced, difficult game that provides a challenge just above our current ability.

How hard is Warcraft and does it balance fun and challenge?

This is an interesting question and one that can not be given a simple answer. The problem is that WoW like any other MMO is a vastly different game than almost any other form of game out there. It incorporates so many different aspects to it that no two players have the exact same experience. To further complicate this the aspects of the game also bring in different aspects of challenge, difficulty and / or fun all on their own.

In a traditional game there is a beginning, middle and end. In an MMO there is really no end. Compare it to an RPG video game where you start with a character and play through to a set goal and ending of the game. In WoW there is no end. There is an end to the advancement of your character (currently level 60) but there are many quests past that level, Raids, and equipment that can be collected. Even if you did all of that, many players would still logon to the character just to play with friends.

The main aspects that I see as challenges in the World of Warcraft are the solo game, grouping, raiding, PvP, organization and the social aspect.

What are the aspects and how does WoW balance them?

All of the aspects of WoW appeal to different people for different reasons. This is a look at the aspects and how I perceive them to be balanced for fun and difficulty in WoW.

Solo – For many players this is how they play WoW. Despite it being an MMO lots of players are on infrequently or at odd hours and can not get a regular group going so choose to play the game solo. The main aim of playing a character solo is getting to level 60, in essence winning the game by reaching maximum level.

WoW is incredibly balanced and fun to play as a solo game if for no other reasons than the number of options available to you. There are always many different zones and quests to choose from and almost all of the time you can select quests that match the difficulty that you would like.

Many players complain that the game is too easy to solo and too easy to reach level 60. I have mixed feelings about that as I like the pace of the game to level 60 and find that Blizzard has given enough choices that you can pick your of challenge and fun level. Over all though they are right, you are going to reach 60 eventually.

Grouping – This is the aspect of playing your character as well as possible to benefit a small group, usually of no more than 5 players. Grouping is another area that is well done in the game and offers many options and levels of difficulty for most of the game. There is a real sense of accomplishment when you beat an instance or quest when it is still a hard difficulty in relation to your level.

The one area where this falls flat is in the late or end game. There are very few group encounters or instances in the game for the amount of players and time you spend at the high level. The average player reached level 60 in less than 20 days of play time. Then the rest of their play time with that character falls into either grouping, raiding or pvp. None of these options has enough content at this time to survive on its own, in my opinion.

Raids – This is the aspect of the game tests your ability to work together as a large group. While there is some skill involved in the character play at this level, more of the skill in raiding well comes from communication and social skills.

This aspect of the game does not appear until late in the game and is considered some of the most difficult content of the game. Which it is, the first time. The problem is that there are only 3 active raid instances active in the game right now, two 40 man and a 20 man. There is another 20 and 40 man raid instance coming online soon. There are several short raid combats as well, such as Onyxia and the world dragons. However this is still relatively few given the number of level 60 characters.

Also the difficulty and fun with these encounters and instances is in figuring out the tactics needed to defeat them. Once you have figured out how to defeat Molten Core and Ragnaros it becomes repetitive and boring. I

PvP Rank – PvP was introduced to the game and has been very popular. This is a great way to test your skill against other players in the game. The problem however is that it is best suited to a few classes. Some classes can do amazing in PvP with little effort or skill, while other require amazing skill on concentration to do half as well. I have found that even with a poor class for PvP though it is insanely fun and highly addictive. It is like a FPS with melee weapons and magic.

As a brief break from other aspects of the game it is very well implemented and lots of fun. However the PvP rank system has so far not been well received. The way that honor is given out and how it is lost over time means that getting top rank has only a passing resemblance to how well you PvP. It has far more to do with the amount of time you are willing to dedicate to PvPing in the battle grounds.

Organization – This is an aspect that can be challenging and rewarding too many players. The easiest way to find someone who gets enjoyment from this is to find a large guilds GM or officer, or someone who constantly leads groups, raids or PvP battlegrounds.

WoW offers less in the way of challenge than most MMOs in this aspect as there are fewer groups and raids than many MMOs. Many other MMOs offer the ability to purchase property, setup guild houses, do guild reputation quests and much more. In this aspect I see WoW as a beginner’s level game for organization ability. I am not saying it is easy (you try organizing 40 people in a group and soothing egos, but that’s more social), just less complicated than many other games.

Social – The social aspect of the game is how well you work with people and deal with people in the game. This can be a very challenging aspect of the game, but is not by itself. It ties in with almost every aspect of the game, and how well you do at this piece can often determine how well you do at other areas. If you can not work socially well with others then you are likely to not be able to group or raid well.

This is an aspect that is critical in many MMOs but is not as prevalent in WoW. This could be why many players have a hard time raiding or refuse to raid, as I read in an interesting article a few weeks ago. The article looked at how many WoW players will not raid and despise raids. The author said that this is likely due to WoWs ability to be played solo, and players never having to work as small groups and learning the social aspects of the game. In many MMOs you are forced to work as a group from very low levels, where as in WoW you can solo to level 60 very easily.

This is an aspect that has mixed reviews. Many players would never have gotten into an MMO unless it was like WoW where you could log on for an hour at a time and quest without looking for groups. Others feel that the lack of group effort makes WoW more of an RPG that an MMO. I believe you can get to either level in WoW and be successful. Getting others to play socially may sometimes be a challenge but once you have a good group or guild to play with the game becomes infinitely more fun.

What about the amount of time people play?

The final complication in balancing an MMO for fun and difficulty is that there are distinctly different play styles by amount. There are casual players that only log on for a few hours a week and the hard core players that log on for several hours a night and many times play the games for over 40 hours a week!

For the casual player the number of quests and areas available means that they can almost always pick and choose quests that they can complete in an hour or two. It also gives them the ability to play as little or as much as they want at a time and always be able to find something to do.

For the hardcore player there are lots of options if you are flexible on what you would like to do. If you are willing to raid, group and PvP then you can be busy as much as you want. If you are a hardcore player, but are only into one aspect of the game then your options are still slightly limited.

How is WoW overall for Fun and Challenge?

The only places that WoW falls off what I see as the perfect blend of Fun and challenge is the poor PvP ranking system and the lack of high end content in solo, group and raid aspects. After a few months at level 60 many people can not face another MC or BWL raid, or yet another trip to UBRS. Hopefully Blizzard addressed the PvP ranking system some time in the future. It does appear that Blizzard is working to address the lack of high end content though as more and more high end content is appearing and the expansion pack is coming out later this year.

If you look at any one aspect of WoW you can find limitations. However when you look at all the different things that you can do in the game, then you come to where WoW really shines. As you can see from the points above, I believe that WoW covers enough different items with enough depth that almost everyone can find something that they find fun and challenging. You can find something fun and challenging to do in 30 minutes (a small quest) or a challenging way to kill a weekend (a Molten Core raid).

To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our World of Warcraft Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

Featured