alt="" />

Do you think you have a firm grasp on the idea
behind the soon to be introduced Brawler's Guild? Think again.
Blizzard has broken the unspoken first rule of the Brawler's Guild
over the last few days and released information that has shaken
everything most players (myself included) have thought about the
Brawler's Guild to the core.

If you've read my previous coverage of
the Brawler's Guild you would see that I, like many others, believed
that the Brawler's Guild was a major feature being added in Patch 5.1
that would be able to be enjoyed by the grand majority of World of
Warcraft players. I couldn't wait to try out this brand new feature
and show off my mad PvE skills in front of all of my friends.
However, it seems that this will not come to pass.

Joining the Brawler's Guild in Patch
5.1

While it stood to reason that there
would be some initiation process to join the Brawler's Guild, I
personally thought it would be something simple, something easily
completed by almost every World of Warcraft player. If only I had
known how wrong about this I was. It turns out that getting invited
to this guild may be out of reach for the grand majority of us.

According to a recent blue post by
Blizzard, invites to the Brawler's Guild in Mists of Pandaria Patch
5.1 will be by exclusive invite only. How do you get one of these
invites you ask? Brawler's Guild invitations can be purchased for the
hefty sum of 10,000 gold on the Black Market Auction House. You heard
me right, 10,000 smackers, an amount that many World of Warcraft
players will find almost impossible to obtain. No invite means we
cannot participate in this new addition nor do we even have the
option to spectate. When the Brawler's Guild released on live servers
most of us who are not swimming in piles of gold will likely find
ourselves left out in the cold.

alt="Brawlers Guild Invite" />

Controlling Queue Times

Wondering why Blizzard would allow such
an wildly anticipated addition to the game to be made so exclusive?
You and me both. The reasoning given for making the Brawler's Guild
invite only is to cut down on queue times. To be fair, the queues for
the Brawler's Guild were a little lengthy on the public test realms
and promised to be longer once it was released to live servers,
however, I can't help but feel that exclusive invites sold on the
Black Market Auction House are simply not the answer.

Instancing, phasing, more rings, or a
variety of other options seem more palatable than opening up the
Brawler's Guild only to the rich. Content being by invite only seems
wrong somehow. Imagine if every time you wanted to queue up for a
5-man you had to bid for an invitation. Not what most of us would
call fun, or fair.

Problem Unsolved

What really ruffles a lot of feathers
concerning this invite only system is that it likely will not cut
down on the queue times. Sure, at first things will go at a slow and
steady pace with only 10 invitations available on the Black Market
House per day. However, those 10 invitations will allow the owners to
invite 10 more players each and those 10 players can then invite 10
more players and so on and so forth down the line. It stands to
reason that within a short amount of time queues will easily fill
back up and before long queue times will be largely out of control.

Not to mention that making these
invitations so exclusive creates another bigger problem; players
holding invitations ransom. Think about it, access is already limited
by gold, so less wealthy players will only be able to gain access by
saving the gold or befriending a wealthy player who will give them an
invitation. With rumblings of cartels set out to control the flow of
invitations already beginning, this situation could quickly get out
of hand.

alt="" />

Conclusion

In my opinion the Brawler's Guild is
way to fantastic of a feature to be denied to the grand majority of
the World of Warcraft populace. With all the progress World of
Warcraft has made in enabling all players to experience content, this
invite only system is more than a bit surprising. I do have faith in
Blizzard though and am certain that if this method really does
produce any major problems it will be quickly remedied. For now
though, we will just have to wait and see.

How do you feel about the latest reveal
regarding the Brawler's Guild in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria
Patch 5.1? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!


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

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

About The Author

Amunet, also fondly known as Memtron, is an organic life form best known for its ongoing obsession with Blizzard Entertainment's numerous properties. To that end, Amu has authored hundreds (thousands?) of the most popular World of Warcraft guides, editorials, and Top 10 lists on the planet. When not gaming and writing, Amu is busy chasing after her three children in a perpetual loop of ongoing disaster.

Comments